Why Acquire English?
With Acquire English, our aim is to gain the skill of speaking natural English. Our aim is not to understand every grammar rule in the book. Knowledge of English grammar is important, but being able to use it skillfully is most important. This is not a system to help you pass a test. This is a system to build a life skill. We want to build bigger English speaking "muscles", not bigger English "brains".
How to use our videos.
We make the videos so the learner can gain understanding through the situation and pictures. At first, very few people will understand everything that is said. Don’t worry. Acquiring language skills, especially speaking, takes much longer than learning grammar and vocabulary.
Part one: Just Sit Back Relax and Listen
Understand as much as you can. If you understand nothing, that’s fine. There is a lot of value in the video. If you understand everything perfectly, and can use it naturally in conversations, you should watch a different video.
Part Two: Listen and Repeat (no text)
Focus on the speakers’ pronunciation, intonation and rhythm. Do your best to match all three. If it is difficult, that’s good. There is no text for a good reason. The text is sometimes distracting.
Part Three: Listen and Repeat (with text)
This is the same as Part Two, but we will have text to make sure you know what is being. Again, focus on matching the speakers pronunciation, intonation and rhythm.
Part Four: Overlapping
Parts Two and Three are repeating after the speaker. Part Four is to speak along with the speaker. Try to match the speakers’ pronunciation, intonation and rhythm. It will be difficult. Don’t worry. This is not studying. This is training. Here we are building bigger English muscles, not bigger English brains. Repeat this many times and then repeat some more.
Part Five: Retrieval
Many people skip this section because it is difficult. However, this may be the most important part. There are no words spoken, or any text. You need to speak the conversation, by yourself. If it is too difficult, don’t feel bad. Go back and do Parts Two and Three again.
This may be a new idea for many people, but I promise you, if you stick with it, you will get better.
More ways to improve:
Dictation: 1) Go to Part Four.2) Without looking at the screen, play one sentence. pause the video and write down the sentence. Do this for the whole conversation.
Ask questions:Don’t be afraid to ask questions. “Can I say __, instead of ___?” “What’s this difference between ____ and __?”