Greenhouses - The Safe Place

Imagine the English words you meet when you first start learning are like plants or flowers.

In your first few weeks of classes, you learn lists of words and how to pronounce each one individually.

The teacher controls the language in class and everything is clear and controlled. We can compare the English here to plants in a greenhouse.

Greenhouses are a safe place for plants to grow, just like the scripted audios in your coursebooks are easy for learners to follow. Each word or phrase is separated, and there is no overlapping.

The speech is slow and clear, and each word is said exactly as the dictionary transcript says it should be.

Practical Tip: To grow like a plant in a greenhouse, practice with scripted audios and follow along with the transcript. It will help you understand the individual words, their meanings, and how they're pronounced.

Gardens - Gentle Contact

As you progress with your English, you feel more comfortable as the language gets more complicated.

Maybe you don’t understand everything, but the general meaning is clear.

Now you’ve moved from the greenhouse to the garden!

Gardens are places where plants have gentle contact with each other, overlapping but still maintaining order.

Scripted TV shows are like gardens for language learners. The language is still scripted, but it's closer to the natural rhythm of spoken English.

Practical Tip: To grow like a plant in a garden, watch scripted TV shows, and pay attention to the tone, intonation, and rhythm of the language. It will help you develop your listening skills and become more comfortable with the natural rhythms of spoken English.

At Watch and Learn, we are careful to choose TV that challenges you while giving you the support you need to enjoy everything.

The Jungle - Where the Magic Happens

The jungle is the final stage of the process, where language can get messy !

People speaking at very high and native levels often use lots of filler words like um, well, er.. this can be to take time to think, to make a statement weaker or stronger, or to include a listener in the conversation without ending their sentence. There may also be repetition, and non-standard pronunciation. This is where real-life spoken English happens, and it can be challenging for language learners.

Practical Tip: To navigate the jungle, try authentic materials such as movies, TV shows, podcasts, and interviews. Mix up the shows that you watch, reality TV and other types of unscripted show provide the most authentic (and difficult-to-understand) language.

Focus on the context of what's being said, and practise, practise, practise!

This is the time you need to throw yourself into living in English as much as you can and exploring the topics and types of media that interest you.

Bonus tip - Vox Pops

A Vox Pop is a short interview with the public on the street, and it's an excellent way to practice your jungle listening skills. Vox pops are informal, and people often use filler words and non-standard pronunciation.