16 Learning Spoken English

now you would substitute other vocabulary words which would be in

the same lessons.

Making the application

I assume that you are a college student or a young professional and
that you are highly motivated to learn to speak English fluently.
You will do much better if you seek ways in which you can speak
English correctly from the very beginning. Strike a careful balance be-
tween free speech and forcing yourself to follow a pattern of correct
English use. Do everything in your power to use English correctly.
In the early weeks of English study, this may require that you spend
more time repeating recorded Spoken English Learned Quickly exer-
cises than in trying to engage in free speech. Later, however, you will
need to spend a great deal of time talking with others.
Nonetheless, every time you encounter new syntax in English, use
controlled language drills long enough so that your mind becomes thor-
oughly familiar with correct sentence structure and pronunciation. If
you are using the Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons, repeat the
exercises until you can say them quickly and accurately with perfect
pronunciation. As you progress in your English study, begin reading
English newspaper articles aloud. Look for examples of new vocabu-
lary and sentence format. Mark the sentences, verify the vocabulary,
and then read—and repeat from recall memory—the sentences aloud
until they become a part of your speech.
Chapter 3: Grammar and Writing in Spoken English

Chapter Summary: Any language is unintelligible without

grammar because grammar consists of the rules used to put
words together in ways which convey meaning. The issue is not
whether or not you need to know English grammar. The ques-
tion is, "How do you learn English grammar best?"

My personal experience
I had the great advantage of growing up in a home in which gram-
matically correct English was spoken. As I progressed through pri-
mary school and on into secondary school, my language ability ma-
tured as a result of my home and school environments.
In retrospect, I believe this is what happened: for the most part, I
used proper sentence structure and pronunciation because that is what
I heard in my home. However, when I went to school, I needed to
learn grammar. I—like probably most of my classmates—did not
learn to speak because I studied grammar. Rather, I was able to learn
how to do grammar exercises because I already knew how to speak.
Certainly, I learned many important things about English through
grammar study. But it was of importance to me only because I had
already achieved basic English fluency. I did not learn to speak Eng-
lish as a result of English grammar lessons.
I also took two years of Spanish in secondary school. We started
with basic grammar. We wrote exercises every day. But we almost
never heard spoken Spanish, much less spoke it ourselves. After sec-
ondary school graduation, I could neither speak Spanish, nor did I un-
derstand Spanish grammar.
Within 10 years of my secondary school graduation, I spent a year
in Paris studying French. I had the great fortune of enrolling in a
18 Learning Spoken English
French language school that emphasized spoken French to the complete
exclusion of written exercises. Not only did I learn French
grammar—meaning that I learned to use sentences that communicated
what I intended to say to a French listener—but because French and
Spanish verb construction is similar, I also began to understand the
Spanish grammar which made no sense to me in secondary school. Be-
cause I could read and write in English, I had no difficulty reading
French. It was a simple transfer of knowledge from reading in English
to reading in French.
Later, I studied an African language. Because school-based language
courses were almost non-existent in that country, all of my language
training was done by way of recorded language drills that I adapted
from local radio broadcasts. I also had a university student as my lan-
guage helper. Yet, I learned how to structure a sentence (which is ap-
plied grammar) and write in that language much more quickly than had
I been studying grammar and writing independently of the spoken
language.

Traditional English instruction

Traditional English instruction for non-English-speaking students
has reversed the process with poor results. Most English classes teach
grammar as a foundation for spoken English.
The quickest way to teach students to read English is to teach them
to speak it first. The fastest way to teach them sufficient grammar to
pass college entrance exams is to build a foundation by teaching them
to speak English fluently. Whenever the process is reversed, it takes a
needlessly long time to succeed in teaching grammar and writing skills,
much less fluent spoken English.
If you are in a school that is using the Spoken English Learned
Quickly lessons and the instructors are also trying to teach supplemen-
tary grammar lessons, your progress will be hindered. The fastest way
for you to learn excellent English grammar is to learn it while speaking.
Every sentence you speak in this Spoken English Learned Quickly
course will teach you grammar. When you have repeated the sentences
enough times so that they sound correct to you, you will have learned
English grammar. The Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons are
full of grammar. But the grammar is learned by speaking, not by
writing.
Grammar and Writing in Spoken English Study 19

Do not misunderstand what I am saying. You cannot speak any lan-

guage well without knowing its grammar because grammar consists of
the rules used to put words together into meaningful sentences. In Eng-
lish, we can use a given number of words to make a statement or ask a
question by the way in which we order the words and use inflection.
Simply stated, placing the words in the correct order is applied gram-
mar.
The issue is not whether or not you need to know English grammar.
English is unintelligible without it. The question is, "How will you
learn English grammar best?" I think you will learn English grammar
better and faster by learning it as a spoken language.

The best time to study grammar

In Chapter 1, I said that effective spoken English instruction simulta-
neously trains all of your cognitive and sensory centers of speech.
When is the best time to learn that the sentence, "That is a book," is an
English statement, and the sentence, "Is that a book?" is an English
question? The best time is when you simultaneously learn to speak
these two sentences. That would take place while you are learning
many other similar sentences so that you will develop a cognitive sense
reinforced by motor skill and auditory feedback. You will learn that the
order and inflection of the one sentence is a question, while the other is
a statement. The sound of the sentence is as much an indicator of its
meaning as its written form. Right? Right!
There is also a relationship between good pronunciation and good
spelling. I am a poor speller. I understand that I misspell many words
because I probably mispronounce them. At some point, everyone who
expects to write English well must learn to spell. Yet, it will probably
be faster for you to learn good spelling after learning good pronuncia-
tion than it will be for you to learn good spelling without being able to
speak. In practice, you will learn the spelling of new English words as
they are added to the vocabulary of each new lesson.
I am not saying that grammar or spelling are unnecessary. Rather, I
am saying that grammar can be taught more effectively—and in less
time—by using audio language drills. Teaching grammar by means of
spoken language has the great advantage of reinforcing the cognitive
learning of grammar while using two additional functions found in nor-
mal speech—motor skill feedback and auditory feedback. Teaching
20 Learning Spoken English

grammar as a written exercise does develop cognitive learning, but it

reinforces it with visual feedback.
Though visual feedback has some merit, it is outside the context of
spoken English. The single reinforcement of visual feedback outside of
the spoken English context is far less effective than motor skill feed-
back and auditory feedback which are both inside the spoken language
context. The trade-off is costly and retards progress. Far more is gained
when you learn to identify correct grammar by the way a sentence
sounds, rather than by the way it looks. Though it would not typically
be explained this way, it is also important on a subconscious level that
you learn how correct grammar feels. As a function of the propriocep-
tive sense, a statement produces a certain sequence of sensory feedback
from the mouth, tongue, and air passages that feels different than a
question.
It would take considerably longer to teach a language student how to
write English grammar exercises, and then speak English correctly, than
it would to teach the same student to first speak English correctly, and
then introduce rules of grammar. This gain would be greatly aug-
mented, however, if the rules of grammar were incorporated into the
spoken language lessons themselves as they are in Spoken English
Learned Quickly.
If you study spoken English for a year, you will gain a great deal of
fluency. With that spoken English fluency, you will have a good under-
standing of English grammar. If you spend the same amount of time in
English grammar study, you will have limited English fluency and will
have little practical understanding of English grammar.
That is probably why you are reading this book. You have undoubt-
edly studied written English for a long time, but you still can't speak
English very well.
Chapter 4: Do You Need Beginning and Advanced Lessons?

Chapter Summary: Without first evaluating the unique qualities

of language, it is often assumed that English study must be di-
vided into beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.
However, a careful assessment of English indicates that it does
not use multiple levels of language complexity.
The kind of sentences which you use as a beginning student
are the same kind of sentences which you must master as an ad-
vanced student in order to gain English fluency. As a beginning
English student, you must learn English in the context of full sen-
tences. As an advanced student, you must use the same sentences
to perfect syntax and intonation.

Your perceived needs as you begin studying English will signifi-

cantly influence how you answer this chapter's title question. If you
decide that you need beginning English when you start your study, you
will spend much time looking for lessons with beginning sentences be-
cause English does not speak a beginning language. On the other hand,
if you decide that the English used in the daily newspaper is what you
want to learn, you can easily find that kind of English language.

Is there a need for beginning and advanced lessons in English?

I am really asking if beginning and advanced students can use the
same level of lessons to learn spoken English. Before you give an intui-
tive answer, I need to ask the question properly. The question is, "Does
English have multiple, specialized language divisions?"
The answer is, "No, it does not." There is no high English language
spoken by the gentry versus a low language spoken by commoners. His-
torically, many languages such as Greek and Chinese, have indeed used
two levels. Modern English does not even have a specialized construc-
tion for folklore. Many languages in which oral tradition has been
22 Learning Spoken English

preserved have a storytelling form of the language which is distinct

from the language used in everyday conversation. In these languages,
there are often specialists who recount folktales in public gatherings.
Common English has none of that.
In fact, English is so simple in this regard that we do not even have
two forms of address for people of differing social standing. French, for
instance, has strict conventions regarding the use of "tu" or "vous"
when addressing someone. A U.S. citizen, however, would address both
the President of the United States and a young child as "you."
English has many specialized vocabularies. Any student who has
taken courses in anatomy, law, physics, automotive technology, psy-
chology, engineering, geology, or anthropology has spent a great deal
of time learning specialized terminology. But the essential English syn-
tax which holds these words together in a sentence is still the language
of the street—or the language of the daily newspaper.
So, aside from specialized vocabularies, English has no divisions
representing varying levels of language complexity. Almost any indi-
vidual with at least a secondary school education would make essen-
tially the same evaluation of another speaker's ability to use good or
bad English.
The exception to the above paragraph would be found in technical
documents such as legal briefs and the like. However, this style of Eng-
lish is far from the language used in normal conversation.
There is only one kind of English which you need to learn. You do
not need two or more different course levels. This is not to say that
English is a simple language to learn. Far from it. However, the same
complexity is in all spoken English, not merely in some higher level.
Why have traditional language programs insisted that there must be
beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of English study? It is not
because there are beginning and advanced levels of spoken English. It
is because there are beginning, intermediate, and advanced explanations
for English grammar. This means that some rules of English grammar
are easy to explain. Some rules of grammar are more difficult to ex-
plain. And some are complex enough to require a highly technical ex-
planation. But spoken English is one subject of study, whereas the for-
mal rules of English grammar are quite another.
Now I can answer the question, "Do you need beginning and ad-
vanced English lessons to learn the language?" Of course not. There is
Do You Need Beginning and Advanced Lessons? 23

only one level of spoken English. If you are a beginning student, you
must start by speaking normal English sentences. If you have studied
English for several years and consider yourself an advanced student,
you must continue until you are able to fluently pronounce the words in
those same normal English sentences.
There will be a great difference in the fluency between beginning
and advanced students. But there is no difference in the level of English
sentences they must study. They must use the same English sentences
both to initiate, and then to master, the process which will develop the
necessary cognitive, motor, and auditory skills used to speak fluent
English.

Complex English sentences

I need to add an explanation so that what I am saying is understand-
able. English grammar identifies simple sentences (sentences with one
main clause), compound sentences (sentences with two or more main
clauses), complex sentences (sentences with one main clause and at
least one subordinate clause), and compound-complex sentences
(sentences made up of two or more main clauses and at least one subor-
dinate clause). An example of a compound-complex sentence would
be, "The Saturday afternoon program was like a two-ring circus; while
one part of the TV screen carried the professional football game, the
other part showed scores from collegiate games." Of course, this is not
a sentence we would expect beginning English students to use. But the
complexity of the sentence is not in the language level of the sentence.
Its so-called complexity is only in the punctuation of the sentence
which makes it a complex sentence by grammatical definition. With
very little change, the sentence could become three simple sentences:
"The Saturday afternoon program was like a two-ring circus. One part
of the TV screen showed the professional football game. The other part
of the TV screen showed scores from collegiate games." Aside from
vocabulary, any one of these three sentences are beginning level sen-
tences.
Thus, when I say that there is no difference in the level of English
sentences a beginning and advanced student must study, I am not talk-
ing about a grammatical definition. I am saying that there is not one
language that would be used by commoners and another that would be
used by the gentry. Even though the example sentence about the TV's
split screen is not a sentence we would want to include in the first les-
son, it does not represent multiple, specialized language divisions.
24 Learning Spoken English

But it's too difficult to start with normal English

Not really. Once you understand the "hello"s and "goodby"s in Eng-
lish, you are ready to begin practicing with normal sentences. Aside
from sentences which contain specialized vocabulary, most English
sentences use common verbs and syntax construction. This is the Eng-
lish you want to speak. Use it from the very start of your language
study.
This is not as difficult as it seems. If you are using the Spoken Eng-
lish Learned Quickly course, you will discover that Lesson 1 uses nor-
mal English sentences, even though it uses only the present tense. Les-
son 2 uses complete sentences in past, present, and future tenses. The
sentences become slightly more complex as the lessons progress, but
every sentence in the entire course is one that you will need to master as
an "advanced" student. Your objective in using Spoken English
Learned Quickly is not merely to understand the sentence as though it
was part of a grammar exercise. Your objective is to be able to use
each sentence in fluent English speech.
The spoken language you want to learn is everyday English. It will
remove a great deal of stress if you realize that in the very first week of
English study, you are learning normal English. By and large, your
English study will never become any more difficult than it is when you
first begin because you will be studying normal spoken English from
the first lesson to the completion of your formal study.
This is how you will study English with Spoken English Learned
Quickly. It was designed for both beginning and advanced students
because our students want to learn spoken English, not written English
grammar.
Chapter 5: Selecting a Text

Chapter Summary: For spoken English study, you will need

both a written text and an audio recording of that text. It will be
easier to make an audio recording using a newspaper text than it
will be to transcribe a radio audio program as a written text.
The newspaper article becomes an excellent text for language
study.
If you are using Spoken English Learned Quickly, both the
text and the audio recordings have already been prepared for you.

In this chapter, I am using the term text to identify a written manu-

script. A newspaper in English is usually an excellent source for a
study text. Most newspapers use good syntax, relatively simple sen-
tences, and common expressions. In addition to general vocabulary,
newspapers will give you many common political, scientific, economic,
and technical words. Generally, newspapers are also a good source of
colloquial expressions.
As you begin language study, you will need both a manuscript and
an audio recording of the text for pronunciation practice. In your initial
selection of a study text, you will be faced with a choice between a
printed text from a newspaper or spoken language from a radio broad-
cast.
I will explain the use of a newspaper as an English text in this chap-
ter because it will help you to understand how the text would be used.
However, if you are using the Spoken English Learned Quickly les-
sons, the text and the audio recordings are complete and all of the fea-
tures in this chapter are already built into that course.
Fourteen of the 16 Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons begin
with a Lesson Text section. This material may be read aloud exactly
like a newspaper. If you are using the Lesson Text for your reading,