If there is one “secret” to success in anything, including learning English, it is emotion!  Not methods. Not teachers. Not books. Emotion.

With powerful positive emotion, you can succeed at anything.

I talk a lot about learning methods here at Effortless English. And I believe we have the best English learning method in the world.  But even the best method is useless without emotion.

Simply put- if you are bored, tired, or sad you will not learn English well.  This is how our brains work.  Brains don’t learn quickly when your emotions are mostly negative.  Even if you use the very best learning methods and materials- you will get poor results if your emotions are weak or negative.

Tony Robbins, the famous peak performance coach, states that emotional mastery is the single biggest key to success, and I agree.  My best students– the ones who learn the fastest and get the best results– are always energetic, enthusiastic, and positive.

When they are learning English, they are smiling. They are laughing.  They are focused and they have energy.

If you want to improve quickly like them, you should imitate them.

How?  Put yourself into a strong positive emotional state every time before studying English.

First, sit quietly, close your eyes, and remember happy positive memories from your life.  Feel the way you felt at that time.  Remember times you succeeded. Remember times you were excited. Remember times you felt love.

Next, move your body.  Stand up.  Jump around.  Smile. Lift your arms into the air.  Get your blood moving!

Finally, put on some happy, energetic music.  Choose a favorite song that makes you feel happy and alive. Dance and move with the song.  Consciously smile a huge smile!

Now you are ready to study English!   Always do this before studying, so that you are always in a happy emotional state when you are learning English.

Do this and you will learn much faster. Your brain will remember much more. You will get much better results.

Master your emotions to master English!

You need casual English. You need the English that native speakers use with each other. You need to learn the English that Americans use with their friends, their families, and their co-workers.

This is the common, everyday English that we constantly use.

And yet, this kind of English cannot be found in English textbooks. Schools don’t teach it. Very few English learners know it. Which is why so many learners come to the United States and can’t understand regular conversations.

In San Francisco, I have met many students with high English test scores, and great grades in their English classes… and yet, when they sit at a bus stop they cannot understand what people are saying around them. They have absolutely no idea what normal Americans are saying.

They have been trained in formal, academic English– with a focus on grammar rules. I think this is totally backwards.

Common, casual conversation should be the first thing you learn. The first need, after all, is to communicate with other people. You want to chat with people on the bus. You want to make friends and understand what they are saying. You want to talk to your co-workers. You want to understand TV shows and movies.

Learn that first… then, and only then, focus on academic English.

To help you, we are currently working on a new collection of recorded, real, spontaneous conversations. These are real conversations with friends, family, and business partners. We aren’t censoring anything. You’ll learn the real English that we use every day with each other– including slang, idioms, swear words, sexual comments & jokes, cultural references, etc.

You’ll hear filler words (such as “ahh”, “uhhm”, “you know”, “like”). You’ll hear the natural rhythm of English.. the way we go back and forth, the ways we interrupt each other.

We’ll have all the conversations transcribed, and then we’ll make short notes to explain the slang, idioms, etc. that you can’t find in a dictionary. We’re doing this because I have realized that this is a huge need. In fact, this is probably the biggest need our members have.

We hope to build a big collection of these conversations, with text and explanations, for you. So when you come to the United States or another English speaking country, you’ll understand what everyone is saying.

In the meantime, do yourself a favor- use movies and TV shows to start learning casual English now.

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Ultimately, Worrick impressed me by understanding several difficult English words– especially “mojo” and “transcendent”.

He also did a very good job overall– and understood the meaning of what I was saying.

So congratulations to Worrick!

Our next contest will be a Video Success Story contest. You will make a video, using your web camera– telling your Effortless English Success Story (limited to 90 seconds).

I’ll announce more details about this contest in the future…..

Yahoo news (Business Section) has published a press release article about Effortless English.  It talks about how immigrants can now learn English online with our lessons.

Read it at: http://fe43.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20080716/bs_prweb/prweb1096534

The article is titled “Immigrants Can Now Learn English Naturally…”

The first paragraph of the article says, “Now immigrants can learn English like its their natural language with The Effortless English Club, a unique listen-first system designed to teach adults English with absolutely no grammar rules.”

[Note- The Yahoo News Feed Has Expired- but you can read the press release at:

http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2008/7/prweb1096534.htm ]

Error correction is a controversial topic. A lot of people have strong emotions about it.

Most English teachers believe that error correction is necessary. In fact, they think it’s vital. Many students, who have been trained by their schools and teachers, also believe that they need to have their speaking errors constantly corrected.

My students, therefore, are a little confused when I tell them, “I will never correct your spoken errors”.

Some people get upset when I say this. Other English teachers get upset. They feel I am committing a sin– that I am committing English education heresy!

Some students even get upset. They beg me, “AJ, please correct my speaking errors”. I always say “no”.

Of course, traditional English classes love error correction. When a student speaks, the teacher will directly or indirectly focus on their mistakes. For example, a student stands up in class. She says, “Yesterday I had good time. I go to store and go shopping”.

At this moment, the student feels nervous because all of the class, and the teacher, are listening to her. But she also feels happy– she just spoke English. She just communicated information clearly in English.

But her happiness is soon destroyed by the teacher. If the teacher is nice, he will say, “OK. Yesterday you had A good time. You WENT to THE store and WENT shopping.”

If the teacher isn’t nice, he will say, “No. You need to say A good time… and you didn’t use the past tense. You’re talking about yesterday. What is the past tense of go“?

Either way, the student now feels foolish and stupid. She now thinks, “English is so difficult,… I’ll never be good at English”. Her motivation is destroyed.

But it’s even worse. Because error correction is TOTALLY ineffective. There have been many, many studies of spoken error correction. For example, they divide students into two groups. Group 1 has their mistakes corrected constantly, for 3 months, or 6 months, or 1 year. Group 2 never has their speaking errors corrected.

At the end of several months or years, they test each group. Surprisingly, there is still absolutely no difference in their speaking accuracy or errors. Each group still makes the same number and type of mistakes.

Correcting speaking errors is a waste of time… and it hurts the student. Error correction kills speaking speed and fluency. Every time a spoken error is corrected, the student stops, thinks, and analyzes English grammar.

Over time, their speech gets slower and slower. They think slowly and carefully about everything they say. They are paralyzed by the worry of making mistakes.

If you have a tutor, NEVER ask them to correct your spoken mistakes. Instead, focus on listening to correct English. The more you listen to correct English from native speakers, the more you automatically correct your own mistakes.

Your speech becomes more accurate AND faster– and it happens effortlessly and automatically.

So forget error correction. Don’t focus on the negative. Don’t focus on mistakes.

Focus on the positive. Focus on listening to a lot of real English from native speakers.

And when you speak… just relax and speak. Focus on communicating ideas, not on perfect grammar. With time, your grammar will improve automatically.

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What are the most common mistakes that English learners make? Which mistakes do most English learners need to correct, in order to learn English much faster?

Here are the top 5 English Learning Mistakes:

1. Focusing On Grammar

This is the biggest, most common, and worst mistake. Research shows that grammar study, in fact, actually hurts English speaking ability. Why? Because English grammar is simply too complex to memorize and use logically…. and real conversation is much too fast. You don’t have enough time to think, remember hundreds or thousands of grammar rules, choose the correct one, then use it.

Your logical left-brain cannot do it. You must learn grammar intuitively and unconsciously, like a child. You do this by hearing a lot of correct English grammar– and your brain gradually and automatically learns to use English grammar correctly.

2. Forcing Speech

Both English students and teachers try to force speech before the learner is ready. The result is that most students speak English very slowly– with no confidence and no fluency. Forcing speech is a huge mistake. Don’t force speech. Focus on listening and be patient. Speak only when you are ready to speak– when it happens easily and naturally. Until then, never force it.

3. Learning Only Formal Textbook English

Unfortunately, most English students learn only the formal English found in textbooks and schools. The problem is– native speakers don’t use that kind of English in most situations. When speaking to friends, family, or co-workers, native speakers use casual English that is full of idioms, phrasal verbs, and slang. To communicate with native speakers, you must not rely only on textbooks.. you must learn casual English.

4. Trying To Be Perfect

Students and teachers often focus on mistakes. They worry about mistakes. They correct mistakes. They feel nervous about mistakes. They try to speak perfectly. No one, however, is perfect. Native speakers make mistakes all the time. You will too. Instead of focusing on the negative– focus on communication. Your goal is not to speak “perfectly”, your goal is to communicate ideas, information, and feelings in a clear and understandable way. Focus on communication, focus on the positive. You will automatically improve your mistakes in time

5. Relying On English Schools

Most English learners rely totally on schools. They think the teacher and the school are responsible for their success. This is never true. You, the English learner, are always responsible. A good teacher can help, but ultimately you must be responsible for your own learning. You must find lessons and material that are effective. You must listen and read every day. You must manage your emotions and remain motivated and energetic. You must be positive and optimistic. No teacher can make you learn. Only you can do it!

While these mistakes are very common, the good news is that you can correct them. When you stop making these mistakes, you change the way you learn English. You learn faster. Your speaking improves. You enjoy learning English.

Good luck… you can do it!

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