Seven Rules - A.J. Hoge (Effortless English)

Always Study and Review Phrases, Not Individual Words
you must change the way you study English. Your first action is to stop studying English words. What? Stop studying English words. That's right, do not memorize words. Native speakers do not learn English by remembering single words. Native speakers learn phrases. Phrases are GROUPS of words that naturally go together.
Research by Dr. James Asher proves that learning with phrases is 4-5 times faster than studying individual words. Also, students who learn phrases have much better grammar.
Never study a single, individual word.
When you find a new word, always write down The Phrase it is in. When you review, always review all of the phrase,.. not the word. Collect phrases. Your speaking and grammar will improve 4-5 times faster. Never again study a single word. Never write a single word in your notebook, always write the complete phrase. Learn Phrases Only.

tiene sentido. el contexto suele ser lo que le da el significado a la palabra (por algo en el diccionario se suelen incluir ejemplos de uso)


Don't Study Grammar
Stop studying grammar. Right now. Stop. Put away your grammar books and textbooks. Grammar rules teach you to think about English, you want to speak automatically-- without thinking!

creo que la mayor parte del tiempo nos complicamos sin necesidad. la gramatica esta bien para ciertas cosas. los tecnicismos tienen su uso y su lugar. la gramatica es necesaria, lo innecesario es complicarnos la vida con ella. en teoria aprender gramatica (estructura del idioma -reglas) nos debiera garantizar un rapido dominio del idioma. creo que depende para que usos especificos queremos aprender otro idioma. por dar un ejemplo claro de la "relatividad practica de la gramatica" (:P) podriamos observar la forma en que usamos nuestro idioma natal sin necesidad de ser doctos en temas de gramatica. al dia de hoy no recuerdo los extraños tecnicismos para usos sencillos de nuestra lengua. admito que estos tecnicismos son necesarios en ciertos campos y especializaciones, mas implicito esta que son "casos especiales" y no la norma. el comun de los hispanoparlantes no maneja un alto dominio en estos temas, y en realidad no necesita tenerlo tampoco.


The Most Important Rule: Listen First
You must listen to UNDERSTANDABLE English. You must listen to English EVERYDAY. Don't read textbooks. Listen to English. Its simple. That is the key to your English success. Stop reading textbooks. Start listening everyday. Learn With Your Ears, Not Your Eyes. In most schools, you learn English with your eyes. You read textbooks. You study grammar rules. Spend most of your study time listening- that is the key to great speaking.

escuchar, escuchar, escuchar. acostumbrar el oido.


Slow, Deep Learning Is Best
The secret to speaking easily is to learn every word & phrase DEEPLY. Its not enough to know a definition. Its not enough to remember for a test. You must put the word deep into your brain.To speak English easily, you must repeat each lesson many times. How do you learn deeply? Easy- just repeat all lessons or listening many times. For example, if you have an audio book, listen to the first chapter 30 times before you go to the second chapter. You could listen to the first chapter 3 times each day, for 10 days.

tal vez esto vaya un tanto en contra de los "supermetodos" rapidos de aprendizaje de idiomas. no es que no se pueda aprender rapido. esto me recuerda a aquello que dice: "apresurate lentamente". se cuidadoso con los metodos que te prometen el dominio en corto tiempo. la mayoria de estos metodos son basura. es buscar obtener "algo por nada" y resultar obteniendo "nada por algo".


Use Point Of View Mini-Stories
"How can I learn English grammar if I don'tstudy English grammar rules?"
You must learn grammar by listening to real English. The best way is to listen to the same story... told in different times (points of view): Past, Perfect, Present, Future. How do you do this? Easy! Find a story or article in the present tense. Then ask your native speaker tutor to write it again in the Past, with Perfect tenses, and in the Future. Finally, ask him to read and record these stories for you. Then you can listen to stories with many different kinds of grammar. You don't need to know the grammar rules. Just listen to the Point of View stories and you will improve grammar automatically! You can also find Point of View lessons and use them to learn grammar automatically.

tan sencillo y logico que hasta pereza me da comentarlo.


Use Only Real English Lessons & Materials
Something is wrong with the schools you went to, and the textbooks you used. English textbooks and audio tapes are horrible. You never learned REAL English. You learned TEXTBOOK English. To learn real English, you must listen to English that native speakers listen to. You must watch what they watch. You must read what they read. How do you learn Real English? It's easy. Stop using textbooks. Instead, listen only to real English movies, TV shows, audio books, audio articles, stories, and talk radio shows. Use real English materials.

el unico problema que veo aqui es el no encontrar textos acordes a nuestro nivel. otro es el de encontrarnos de frente con jerga al mejor estilo de la musica rap... a pesar de los peros, estoy de acuerdo con aquello de diferenciar el idioma de la vida real al idioma de los libros de enseñanza del idioma. al final tendremos que enfrentarnos a la vida real, asi que es mejor ir preparandonos :P.


Listen and Answer, not Listen and Repeat
Most English CDs use "listen and repeat". The speaker says something in English, and you repeat exactly what they said. This method is a failure. "listen and repeat" is not enough-- when you repeat, you only copy the speaker. But when you hear a question and you ANSWER it-- you must think in English.

esto me recuerda un tanto al metodo pimsleur. supongo que recordamos mejor lo que "creamos".