3 helpful perspectives to improve your English for non-native speakers
“Why can’t I speak English fluently even though I learn it for a long time?”
This is a common and long-standing question among English learners for ages. Perhaps, it will last in the future, too. There are countless books, websites, podcasts, and the like regarding learning English everywhere. Then, they propose different methods and approaches. It indicates that there is no simple solution against this profound issue. Actually, I have been suffering from this problem as one of such English learners, and still do, to tell the truth.
An interesting point on the learning process is that the development of your English skill is not proportional to the amount of time you have spent or that of your knowledge. Even if you have already learned basic grammars, acquired enough vocabularies, and gained a lot of opportunities to talk with English native speakers, it does not necessarily lead you to become a sophisticated English speaker. I have already been studying English for almost 10 years including my compulsory education period, but my English ability didn’t grow up in spite of my endeavors. On the contrary, some people improve their English skill exponentially within a short term and master it enough to discuss complex topics effectively.
What makes the difference? What was wrong with me?
Now I would like to propose my opinions on this question. I have been struggling to master English for 10 months in Seattle, went through various trials and errors, and gradually see what can be the key decisive factors. I cannot assure that those are also effective to you, but hope that it would be valuable for you as tips. Below are the three takeaways in this article.
1) Don’t just accumulate vocabularies as knowledge, develop effective vocabularies as intimate tools
2) Go back and forth between two speaking modes, quick&simple and slow&complex
3) Have your own opinions regularly and organize them beforehand
Let me guide you to explain them one by one.
1) Effective vocabularies vs stocked vocabularies
One day, I realize that I tend to use a limited number of phrases in my daily life even though I am sure I accumulated a tremendous amount of vocabularies. Then, I think there are two types of vocabularies you have in your head; stocked vocabularies and effective vocabularies.

Stocked vocabularies are words, phrases or expressions in your memory which you learned and remember technically, but those you cannot withdraw quickly on the spot or it takes a little interval to speak out. We might describe them as they are inventories just stocked in a warehouse.
On the other hand, effective vocabularies mean those you can freely pull out in no time, make use of without any difficulties, and apply for different situations as if they are a weapon in your hand which is ready to fire at any time. The critical difference is whether those are ready to use at any moment, and in other words, your body will naturally generate them quickly. Some people are unaware of the huge gap between those; knowing and doing.
Basically, the former encompasses the latter as depicted below. In many cases, as you learn and practice a phrase more, every vocabulary should be put into effective vocabularies with continuous efforts.
Then, my opinion is that some English learners are really diligent to develop stocked vocabularies and do not make efforts to develop them to effective vocabularies. They underestimate the importance of the process of transforming stocked vocabularies into effective vocabularies. Then, if you find someone who can communicate fluently even though they do not look to have abundant vocabularies, it means that they have built up effective vocabularies.

To be frank with you, the transition is boring and it takes longer to go through. But I would like to emphasize the significance of this step, and it would pay off in the long run. As a lot of teachers say, learning languages are similar to the training of sports. Even though you learn the rules or theories once, you cannot move as you understand without practices. You need some training period to polish them up and prepare for the moment you use them.
Lesson 1: Don’t just accumulate vocabularies as knowledge or stocked-inventories, develop effective vocabularies as intimate tools
2) Detail-oriented vs Communication-oriented
“What kind of person do you imagine as an excellent English speaker?”
Although there is no right answer about this sort of questions, one ideal role model can be the person who can convey his/her thought to others fluently and smoothly as well as without any misunderstanding. About the quickness, you might say we do not have to make a response quickly, but in some cases such as discussions or business meetings, it seems to be required whether willing or not. If you cannot, you will miss a critical chance and lose the initiative. Moreover, the most important case which the quickness is needed can be daily conversations. You can easily imagine how important it is to make a right response at the right moment. A subtle delay can make a big difference, especially telling a joke like that. Then, we would come up with the next question. How can we reach closer to the ideal English speaker?
I would like to think of this problem with a matrix composed of two axes; quickness and resolution. Let me make sure that I use the term “resolution” here as the meaning of how precisely you tell others your original intention/idea in your mind through the second language. I list quickness on the horizontal axis and resolution on the vertical.

Then, it would be clear that beginners are at first in the lower left area while fluent speakers plotted in the upper right. The issue is how beginners can grow up to fluent speakers.

Some people, who do not look to be effective learners, seem to translate their thought and opinions into English sentences directly. It means they intend to deliver difficult content with as much original implication as possible (I could see a lot of Japanese learners trace this path). However, most of them fail to speed up their speaking once you become able to express their thought clearly. Actually, I also tried to take this approach at first and gave up it because I could not see any progress with trials for a few months.

On the other hand, as far as I see some fluent speakers and ask them how to develop their English, they followed the way on the chart above. They started to focus on simple matters, learn anything from their experiences around them, and imitate their friends’/acquaintances’ phrases. In the early stages, what they can communicate is really simple, but their ways of talking are really responsive, concise and effective. I would name those people as communication-oriented learners. They put more value on interactions with others, and think highly of communication itself, try to be quick to make a response with simple expressions even if they put aside how much the words match their original notion.
Then, they will aim to be a fluent speaker by trying to gradually build up their vocabularies, replace their simple expression to more difficult ones which represent what they really intend to tell and deepen the content they talk about. Most of the fluent non-native speakers looked to go through this route.
Then, should everyone follow the latter approach, and then able to turn out to be in the upper right? Not really. No offense, but if you closely listen to good communicators you will notice that some of them are not necessarily sophisticated speakers in the aspect of the content. Though there should be so many kinds of reasons, it is partly because they fail to express their true feeling with enough resolution and bring about misconception. The approach via communication-oriented learners would be more effective than the other, but those learners also have to take into consideration how they would develop their content of conversation without any depreciation through a language filter if you would like to use that language as useful tools in academic fields or business fields.
How can we solve this complex problem of reaching out to excellent speakers? My personal answer is simple: Take turns both approaches within a short time.

Excellent speakers have both skill sets of detail-oriented learners and communication-oriented learners, and balance them subconsciously, in my opinion. Sophisticated speakers are able to be quickly responsive without losing a focus on communication while they structure meaningful contents in their mind and reproduce their thought with high resolution.
To arrive at the ground, we have to develop and coordinate both of them. However, it is a little bit difficult for non-native speakers to accomplish it because those two approaches seem to have some aspect of trade-offs and hard to train both variances at the same time.

Therefore, my suggestion is to try both of those approaches back and forth and to keep your brain mode closer to the sweetest spot. Take a look at the concept diagram above. It illustrates how each type leaner’s brain works and how effectively you can handle English at each state. In my experience, when I succeed to balance between the two modes, I can speak fruitful opinions the most fluently in a discussion. It’s hard to explain its mind state clearly, but it is like I stay conscious of the opponent’s talking and at the same time think of what I will talk about in the next seconds. I would like you to experience the same state.
Lesson 2: Go back and forth between two speaking modes, quick&simple and slow&complex
(*This idea is partly inspired by the concept of “structured chaos” by Hideshi Hamagushi, a leading business designer and a fellow of Ziba Design. Please check it up if you are interested.)
3) What do you want to deliver?
“What do you think?”
It’s so simple and common question we face in a discussion. Everyone can make a response to it in some ways, and in many cases, I could deal with them apparently. However, I often feel a certain, strong impression; some take more stable stance and build more eloquent arguments based on that than others. Conversely, other people, including me, start talking their opinions without any foundations and lead themselves to be lost on the way. I eventually realized that I did not have any opinion when I got a discussion topic in my classroom even though I thought I had in the beginning. Something like my opinions was really weak and tended to just share something I had known. There was no interesting perspective to activate the discussion.
This happens because you have no specific and personal opinions to deliver to others. As I have seen a lot of non-native English speakers who pull ahead in their own majors or business fields, each of them has abundant knowledge about their area and, based on that, propose their own unique opinions. No offense, but their English was not necessarily clear or brilliant. However, everyone listens to and think highly of them, because they understand those words can contribute to their discussions and add some values to their conversations.
We have to nurture our own fundamental knowledge and foster your own opinions before you are confronted with a relevant discussion. We, non-native speakers, have some handicap about your language operating skills, and it would be difficult to fabricate an interesting thought from scratch on the spot. In my opinion, language itself is like a function in mathematics. The function is to deliver your original thought in your mind, and the better it is the more valuable words others accept. My point is that some learners only focus on developing their function, an
First of all, excellent English cannot pop out without what you would like to convey to others seriously. Have a strong and interesting thought, and speak out it with your passion, people will listen to you even if your English is not well sophisticated. Polish up the content as well as develop your language operating skill.
Lesson 3: Have your own opinions regularly and organize them beforehand
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
This is just my opinions based on one sample, mine. The best solution must be different dependent on each talent, experience, or personality. Anyway, I would be glad if you gain anything helpful to deepen your understanding of learning English or apply it to your learning process. Let’s be an excellent English speaker together!
