Intro
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| Chigusa: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Chigusa and I'll be your host. My co-host today is the founder of InnovativeLanguage.com... Peter Galante! |
| Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here. |
| Chigusa: In this Inner Circle, we’re talking about… |
| Peter: How to Boost Your Output - Speaking and Writing in Your Target Language |
| Chigusa: You’ll Learn... |
| Peter: One - How I Reached My Goals and the Importance of Starting Easy |
| Chigusa: Two - How I’m Expanding My Language Learning in Month 2 |
| Peter: And Three - How to Add Language Output to Your Learning Routine |
| Chigusa: All so you can master your target language and reach your goals! |
| Body |
| Chigusa: Listeners, welcome back to the Inner Circle. |
| Peter: Last time, you learned all about language input... |
| Chigusa: ...how to set goals, routines... |
| Peter: And how I started doing language input for French with Alexa. |
| Peter: By the way, Listeners, just as a reminder on input and output. |
| Chigusa: Input is what you take in... |
| Peter: For example, listening, reading or watching video lessons. What you passively consume. |
| Chigusa: And output is what comes out. So, speaking and writing. |
| Peter: In other words, it's what you produce. |
| Chigusa: So, how did your goals go? |
| Peter: Let’s jump into the first part of this Inner Circle. |
| Chigusa: Part 1 - How Peter Reached His Goals and the Importance of Starting Easy |
| Peter: Last time, I promised to take 1 FrenchPod101 lesson a day with Alexa. And, also to reach 1 minute of conversation and learn 50 French words. |
| Chigusa: How’d it go? |
| Peter: I hit my goals..i reached 1 minute of conversation in French. With all of the language input I’ve been doing, I learned plenty of phrases and words for the conversation, and for my 50 word goal. |
| Chigusa: That’s good. So last month was all about input. You were listening to audio lessons. |
| Peter: Exactly. But to be honest, a 1 minute conversation isn’t that hard. |
| Chigusa: How so? I think it’d be hard for most beginners. I mean... what do you say after “Hello?” |
| Peter: Well, think about your own conversations. They tend to follow a pattern, right? |
| Chigusa: Yeah, like “Hello. How are you? How was your weekend?” |
| Peter: Exactly. So, if you prep these phrases ahead of time, it’s easy. |
| Chigusa: Yeah, that’s true. |
| Peter: And our lessons, like the Top 25 Questions Series, teach you all the common questions and phrases for conversation. |
| Chigusa: So if you know the most-commonly used phrases... |
| Peter: ...You can easily handle a 1-minute conversation, Chigusa. |
| Chigusa: Is that a good thing though? To make it too easy for yourself? |
| Peter: It is. Remember, language goals must be realistic enough to achieve. And for me personally, January was a busy month... |
| Chigusa: Right. You didn’t want to overwhelm yourself. |
| Peter: The second reason is... if something is easy to start... |
| Chigusa: ...it’s also easy to continue? |
| Peter: Exactly. That’s actually why most learners don’t continue. They set a hard goal, they fail, and lose confidence. And the third reason is Alexa. It just made it super easy for me to do the lessons at the dinner table. |
| Chigusa: I see. It sounds like your learning routine is locked in, Peter! |
| Peter: Actually that’s a great point. Listeners, you should also start with an easy goal.... |
| Chigusa: ...so that you can get your routine set in place. |
| Peter: In my case, because it was SO easy to do, I had no problem sticking with doing a lesson every day |
| Chigusa: Okay, what about next month? This month was all about input. |
| Peter: Let’s jump into the second part. |
| Chigusa: Part 2 - How Peter’s Expanding His Language Learning in Month 2 |
| Peter: This next month I want to start doing output. |
| Chigusa: Speaking and writing? |
| Peter: Right. Actually, I already started on my speaking goal last time... so I’m adding writing. |
| Chigusa: I think it makes sense. You were focused on input and it’s important to add output. For balance. |
| Peter: You’re right. As much as I want to read and understand French, I want to speak and write it too. |
| Chigusa: Do you have a routine set for writing? |
| Peter: I don’t have a finalized routine yet but my goal is to send 2 messages a week to my Premium PLUS teacher. Around 100 characters. I’m not setting a clear routine just yet because I want to see how it’ll fit into my schedule. |
| Chigusa: Got it. You have one successful in place... |
| Peter: ...and i don’t want to overload myself by forcing another in. |
| Chigusa: That makes sense. |
| Peter: Next, I’ll also add a bit input too. Reading. |
| Chigusa: Why reading? |
| Peter: Well, I like reading as a language learning tactic for two reasons. First, it’s the one skill you can practice all the time. |
| Chigusa: Yeah, you don’t really need a teacher for that. You can pull out a book and read anytime. |
| Peter: And second, a book forces you to fully focus. With Alexa and listening to lessons.. |
| Chigusa: Can you focus? |
| Peter: It’s hard to tell. You’re listening but you don’t really know if you’re 100% engaged.... |
| Chigusa: ...But with a book you have to pay attention. |
| Peter: Plus, we have new extensive reading books on FrenchPod101... |
| Chigusa: ...Ah yes, they should be up on all sites this year. |
| Peter: By the way listeners, extensive reading is a popular learning tactic for immersing yourself in language, reading more and boosting your vocabulary. |
| Chigusa: The goal is to read level appropriate books without stopping for every word you don’t know. |
| Peter: ...and without straining your brain over every word. So, it’s meant to be fun... |
| Chigusa: ...you should skip words, and continue reading as much as possible. |
| Peter: We have 9 Absolute Beginner level Extensive Reading books on FrenchPod101, so my goal is to finish 5 books by the end of February. |
| Chigusa: What about Alexa and the FrenchPod101 lessons? |
| Peter: Well it’s like they say, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. I will maintain that routine and listen to a lesson every day. |
| Chigusa: Alright, you’re expanding your routines, adding output... |
| Peter: ..and a little bit more input. |
| Chigusa: Right, so what can our listeners take away? What can they do this month? |
| Peter: Let’s jump into the final part. |
| Chigusa: Par 3 - How to Add Language Output to Your Learning Routine |
| Peter: So, last time listeners, you set your small, measurable monthly goal... |
| Chigusa: ...with a deadline. |
| Peter: You created a routine based on your goal. |
| Chigusa: And you started doing language input. So, you’re taking the language in.... |
| Peter: ...you’re consuming audio lessons, watching video, lessons, reading the extensive reading books or learning words with our vocab lists. |
| Chigusa: Now, your next step is to start doing output. |
| Peter: In other words, producing. Either by speaking the language or writing. |
| Chigusa: Here’s how you can start doing this with our learning program. |
| Peter: If you’re a Premium PLUS student, the first thing we ask you to do is write a self-introduction... |
| Chigusa: ...and send it to your Premium PLUS teacher. |
| Peter: Once you send it, they will review it, correct it and send you the feedback. |
| Chigusa: And now you have a perfect self-introduction which you can use any time. |
| Peter: You can also record yourself and send the audio to your teacher... |
| Chigusa: ...as a way to practice your speaking. |
| Peter: They’ll review your audio for mistakes and help you perfect your pronunciation. |
| Chigusa: See if you can send 2 or 3 recordings a week. |
| Peter: Next, you can write, in general, to your teacher and practice one on one. |
| Chigusa: For example, you can send a piece of writing to review.... |
| Peter: ...or you can just send a message and get a conversation going. Make it a goal to send 5 messages a week. |
| Chigusa: Premium PLUS members also get weekly assignments... |
| Peter: ...and this another way you can practice output. Make it a goal to complete 1 assignment every week. |
| Chigusa: If you’re a Premium user or a Premium PLUS user, shadow the lesson conversations as a way to practice speaking. |
| Peter: In other words, listen and repeat. |
| Chigusa: You can also record yourself with the Voice Recorder in the Dialog tool... |
| Peter:...to perfect pronunciation by comparing it with native speakers/ |
| Chigusa: For writing, you can leave a comment in our lessons and our teachers will get back to you. |
| Peter: Or, write out the lesson dialog by hand. |
| Chigusa: In fact, writing things out by hand helps you remember more because it fully engages your brain. |
| Peter: And you can even apply this to our study tools like Vocab Lists and the Word of the Day. |
| Chigusa: That’s right, just copy out the words by hand... |
| Peter: ...and you’ll be surprised how fast you’ll learn with this simple tactic. |
| Chigusa: Alright, Peter, so what about you? What’s your plan for next month? |
| Peter: You mean my goals? |
| Chigusa: Yes. |
| Peter: I’ll continue doing 1 FrenchPod101 lesson a day with Alexa. Next, I’ll send my introduction to my Premium PLUS teacher. Both, the writing and the recording. The goal is to send her 2 messages a week, 100 characters long. And, I want to finish 5 extensive reading books? |
| Chigusa: Listeners, what about you? |
| Peter: What’s your small, measurable monthly goal? And what’s the deadline? |
| Chigusa: Be sure to set a simple goal like... Finish 15 Audio Lessons, which is input... |
| Peter: ....or send 8 recordings this month to your Premium PLUS teacher. That’s output. |
| Chigusa: Let us know. |
| Peter: Email us at inner dot circle at innovative language dot com. |
| Chigusa: And stay tuned for the next Inner Circle. |
Outro
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| Chigusa: Well, that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson for this year! |
| Peter: Bye everyone! |
| Chigusa: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
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