If you think about translations and grammar during a real conversation,
you will quickly become lost. Instead of listening carefully to the other
person, you’ll be translating your own responses and trying to remember
grammar. Your speech will be hesitant. Often, the other person will become
frustrated by your lack of understanding. Of course, if you see the other
person is losing patience, you will usually become even more nervous. It’s a
terrible downward spiral that most English learners know too well.
There is a solution. There is a way to escape the hidden curriculum.
There is a road to English fluency and you can travel on it. You can speak
English powerfully. You can speak English clearly, naturally, and
effortlessly. This solution, however, will require you to completely change
your beliefs about education and completely change the way you learn
English.
I call the solution the Effortless English™ system and it has two parts:
the psychology and the method. Most schools, most teachers, and most
learners focus only on method. In other words, they are solely focused on
the pieces of the English language — vocabulary and grammar. As we
learned in the last chapter, schools primarily use the “grammar translation”
method, with some “communication activities” added.
While schools are focused just on method, they completely ignore the
first part of the Effortless English™ system — the psychology. Yet,
psychology is probably the most important element for success with
English speaking. When you think of your own English speaking, you’ll
realize that your nervousness, lack of confidence, and frustration are major
problems. How do you change these?
Without an effective psychological system, you will struggle to find
success with even the best language teaching method. Let’s use a story to
understand these two important parts of the Effortless English™ system.
Imagine that you are on a road. You are driving on the road to English
fluency.
What kind of car would you want? Let’s say all you have to drive is an
old slow car that often breaks down. In addition, you fill this old car with
