The key to learning English is to focus on input, not output. Input means putting in. English input is listening and reading: English going into your mind. The best way to learn English is to focus on input: listening and reading. Output will come later: speaking and writing.
At the school in Bangkok where Dr. J. Marvin Brown developed “Automatic Language Growth,” students only listen for the first 700 to 800 hours. The students who are the most successful are the ones who don’t try to speak. Students who begin to speak earlier are less successful.
What Dr. Brown discovered is that after 700 or 800 hours of listening, students begin to speak naturally. By that time, their understanding of the language is excellent. They already have some fluency. And after that the program continues to focus on listening and reading. Students only speak or write when they want to; the whole program includes 2000 hours of listening.
Automatic Language Growth, a.k.a. The Listening Method, teaches you fluent English without thinking about it. You are not “practicing” or even “studying” in the normal way. The language grows in your unconscious mind, not your thinking mind. You can analyze and think about English forever, and you still will not be able to speak or understand it. Stop thinking, stop analyzing.
And it’s not difficult or stressful like the usual methods of learning a second language. Traditional methods of learning a second language put the student through a lot of unnecessary anxiety and stress. Research has proven that learning is enhanced in a low-stress environment. The Listening Method is not difficult at all; in fact it is based on duplicating the natural, joyous process of a child learning their first language.
For many students, the most difficult part is just accepting this new way of learning. You think you have to try to speak and be corrected by a teacher and learn grammar rules and go to English classes and study in the normal way. But how many people really learn fluent English in the normal way? Almost none; most language students work hard for years and end up frustrated and bored, with zero fluency.
So it’s time to try something new. Don’t worry about speaking and writing until you are ready. Listen as much as you can to native speakers speaking English. Find an mp3 listening course to learn English. In this way, fluent English will grow in your mind quickly and easily, without even thinking about it. It’s not difficult, its fun, and it works!