All you need to do to become fluent in English is follow methods that have been proven to work since the beginning of time.

In today's video, you're going to find out why you are not fluent in English yet and how you can change that.

I've been helping people become fluent in English for many years now and I've clearly seen why some people succeed and why most people fail to learn English.

I encourage you to watch this video until the end because if you skip even one of these steps that I'm about to share with you, it will likely be the reason why you're unable to become fluent in English.

Now, the first step comes down to building a solid foundation.

Without a solid foundation, I promise that you will speak broken English for the rest of your entire life.

A solid foundation implies learning the most common vocabulary words, phrasal verbs, and expressions in English.

It also implies having a solid foundation of the grammatical differences between English and your native language.

Once, I was giving some advice to a student who expressed how much they would practice their listening and speaking skills in English.

However, even after years of practicing their listening and speaking, they were still unable to have conversations with native English speakers without having a very difficult time understanding them and vice versa.

This student was frustrated because he had the work ethic and the desire to learn English, but everything he tried did not produce results in real life.

I advised the student to take one very simple step that changed everything for him, and that was to reform his grammar.

Once the student reformed his grammar and developed a deeper understanding for the figure of speech and grammar in English as opposed to his native language, it put all the pieces of the puzzle together in his head and he was able to speak much more like a native speaker and he could understand me when I used idioms and expressions with him much better as well.

The moral of this story is not to skip this step when it comes to learning a new language like English.

You do not need to know advanced grammatical rules in English, but you should know the basics well and very well before you start practicing all of the other skills in the English language, like speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Starting with vocabulary and grammar is going to make practicing all of the other skills in English one million times easier.

This leads me to step number two, which is observation.

Now, observing how English speakers communicate might seem simple, but I guarantee that most of you watching this video right now are most likely making a very, very common mistake.

Once you have established a good foundation, it will be important for you to observe how native English speakers such as myself actually communicate.

However, oftentimes English learners forget that there are many different styles of communication, especially for native English speakers.

Observation implies listening and reading.

This is very simple to do as you can simply watch videos at your current level of English and use English subtitles.

However, the most common mistake that people make is not balancing the types of content that they consume in English.

For example, I've come across English students who only like to watch movies and TV shows with subtitles in English to practice their listening and their reading skills.

What they tend to forget is that TV shows and movies are oftentimes very scripted and dramatic.

TV shows and movies can also illustrate scenes that are very, very unrealistic.

When people like this encounter native English speakers like myself in real life, their entire vernacular can sound awkward because they have not been exposed to very many real-life conversations by fluent English speakers.

It's okay to use English TV shows and movies to practice your observation skills.

However, I highly recommend that you mix up the type of media that you're consuming.

Sometimes you should consume interviews, podcasts, or videos of people naturally speaking on social media about any topic that may interest you.

This is going to prepare you for real-life interactions much, much better.

Also, when you read comments on social media in English, you may notice that a lot of people use slang terminology as well as acronyms and abbreviations.

You do not have to use these terms when you eventually learn how to communicate in English, but I still recommend that you make an effort to at least understand what they mean for the sake of your listening and your reading skills in English.

Whether or not you like all of the words or the expressions in the English language, they still exist and they are going to continue to be used by English speakers in the world.

Observing the way that English speakers communicate leads to the next step, which is application.

All of the other skills that you have learned up until this point are practically useless if you can't apply them in a real-life conversation with someone who is fluent in English.

Unfortunately, most people fail to learn English at this very step in the process of application.

Of course, every English learner wants to know how to communicate in English as communicating is by far the most tangible skill in English that can clearly indicate if you're fluent or if you are not fluent in the English language.

Application implies both the ability to speak and the ability to write, type, or text.

These skills are simple to practice in theory, but a lot of people fail due to how uncomfortable it can be to make a lot of mistakes.

I can tell you right now that there is a 100% chance that you're going to make a ton of mistakes as you develop your ability to communicate through spoken and written English.

At some point in time, you will need to mentally accept this.

An easy way to get over this mentally is simply by asking yourself what the best-case scenario and what the worst-case scenario would be for you practicing speaking aloud or texting with other English speakers.

The best-case scenario is that you learn from all of the mistakes that you're bound to make and end up becoming more fluent in English than the other 80% of English learners who are too nervous or too anxious to take this step.

The worst-case scenario is that you embarrass yourself and occasionally get rejected by some English speakers who do not have the patience to speak with you.

When you frame things in a way where you basically have nothing to lose and everything to gain, you will make the right decision.

In addition, at the end of the day, it's important to remember that nobody actually cares about a lot of the embarrassing moments that you will inevitably have in your life.

If you fail to communicate with an English speaker in real life, they will continue to go on living their lives and you will continue to go on living your life.

At the end of the day, no one really cares in the grand scheme of things.

Now, once you take the step to actually practice applying your skills, the last step that is left for you to do is getting feedback.

Now, if you only receive feedback from non-native English speakers or other intermediate English speakers, it will be extremely difficult to understand what is actually considered to be normal and common in the English language and what is considered to be abnormal or uncommonly used in the English language.

But one way or another, feedback is really the last step that you need to take, ideally from native English speakers.

I say ideally from native English speakers because receiving feedback from native English speakers will simply validate everything that you've been learning.

Some English students make up excuses for why they can't get feedback.

Some of those common excuses that I've heard were, I can't progress in English because I don't have English immersion.

Or, I don't have access to any native English speakers who have the patience to practice with me.

However, what a lot of English learners fail to understand is that feedback can come in many different forms.

For example, you can validate your pronunciation by listening to a native English speaker like myself say something in a video like this one and comparing it to how you pronounce it when you record yourself You can also pay attention to which grammatical rules English speakers ignore when they speak casually and how they speak in formal situations.

In addition, in 2024, it has never been easier to get access to native English speakers as there are several free language exchange applications out there to help you test out your English skills 100% for free.

An example of a free application would be the application LanguaTalk.

The main lesson here is to be resourceful.

There's always a way to receive feedback from native English speakers directly or indirectly in 2024.

Now to recap, for step number one you need to build a solid foundation.

This means reviewing the most common vocabulary terms in English and understanding basic English grammar and how it differs from your native language.

Step number two is observation.

This simply implies working on your listening and your reading skills in English.

Step number three is application, which implies working on your speaking, writing, typing and texting skills.

And finally, step number four is receiving feedback, ideally from native English speakers.

These four simple steps are literally everything you need to become fully fluent in the English language.

It is especially easy to follow all four of these steps in the modern day because of all the resources out there that make it easier for you to execute all four of these steps.

If you made it to the end of the video, I have a free guide going into more detail on how to go through all four of these steps and roughly how long it will take you to become fully fluent in English.

If you want to check that out, I'll leave a link somewhere in the description and the pinned comment below.

If you'd like to find out how to go from the intermediate levels of English to the advanced levels of English, click the next video on the screen.