The NUMBER ONE Thing Every English Learner Needs To Succeed

There are many traits that help a person learn English successfully as a second  language. But there is one trait specifically that I believe is the most important one. This  trait is called awareness.

When I say awareness, I mean external awareness, meaning that  you are aware of the things around you, you are minding your surroundings, but  also, and perhaps more importantly, Awareness of yourself Self -awareness I believe  that the more aware and self -aware you become as a person, the higher your chances of becoming a  very good speaker of English, a very good learner of English, the higher your chances of achieving  high levels of fluency and proficiency in the language. And I speak from personal experience,  both as a learner and as a teacher. By now, I must have interacted with thousands  of students over the years in all kinds of settings, one -on -one settings,  online settings, face -to -face classes, group classes.

And in my experience, learners  who have this very strong sense of awareness are the ones who reach very nice high levels of  proficiency in English. So in today's episode, I want to break down this concept of  awareness with you. want to better explain what awareness is about and  how it directly relates to successful English learning.

You don't want to  miss this episode, so stick around, make yourself comfortable and let's get started.  Hey guys, how's it going? Thiago here and welcome to another episode of the podcast.

Before  I start explaining here about awareness, I would like to invite you to join my private  community. This is a community where you get to interact with me and other learners on a  regular basis by exchanging messages. You can ask questions about English learning there.

You  can share your wins with the community. You can share your struggles. And also by being a member  or becoming a member of my community, you unlock access to some exclusive content that is not  available here on my public channel.

For example, Thiago Alencar (02:25. 62) Every month, once a month, we meet on a Zoom call to hang out and  for you to ask me questions about English learning. By the way, our first live call  will happen at the end of this month.

Also, you unlock access to exclusive master classes  and mini courses that I'm always updating the platform with month after month. These  are just some benefits that you gain for becoming a member of my private community.  So if you are interested in learning more, The link is here in the description of  the video.

Also in the pinned comment below. If you are listening  on Spotify or Apple podcasts, go to the show notes of this episode and you  can find the link right there. Okay.

So I want to start by defining awareness. Awareness  is the state or quality of being conscious of something. It involves having knowledge or  perception of a situation, fact or feeling.

There are five main components to awareness. I  want to break down each one of these components now and give you some examples here  of how these components can be applied directly to successful English learning.  OK.

So the first key aspect or component of awareness is consciousness. When it comes to  consciousness, you can be conscious of something. We call it conscious awareness, but awareness  can also happen unconsciously.

Check it out. Awareness is often linked to consciousness,  but it can also include unconscious perception, like I just said. So let's talk about unconscious  perception or awareness first.

Sometimes learners absorb language patterns without explicit  awareness, leading to intuitive understanding. For instance, a learner may start  using correct articles, a, n, the, without fully grasping the rules. This is  often linked to extensive exposure to the language.

This is definitely one point. If you  gain a lot of exposure to English over time, you will naturally, intuitively,  and even unconsciously internalize Thiago Alencar (04:53. 368) some rules.

You will start producing language correctly, not because you have  necessarily learned about that piece of language, but just because you have heard that so many  times that you have intuitively internalized it. That's great. That happens to everybody.

But  there is the extra level, the other level. And this is the level that I see many learners  failing, which is the conscious awareness. not just relying on the unconscious awareness  of the language or just on your intuition.

Check it out. Conscious awareness is about  actively noticing and understanding language features like grammar rules, vocabulary,  pronunciation, and cultural nuances. For instance, a learner consciously recognizes the  difference between I have been studying and I studied.

So you want to combine these  two approaches here. You want to combine the intuitive approach, which is all  about consuming content in English, experiencing the language in  real life as much as you can, but also want to combine that. You want to  couple that with mindful, conscious awareness, being mindful of certain structures that you are  trying to improve on, you are trying to learn.

trying to correct a mistake that you always  make. I say that because I have met so many learners who though they have learned  or they had learned certain topics over and over again in their lives, they still  make the same mistakes. The mistakes are so frequent that they become what we call  fossilized mistakes.

A fossilized mistake is when you make a mistake so much, so often,  for so long, that you internalize that mistake as the norm. You think it's okay, it's correct to  speak that way. Why does that happen?

Many times, lack of awareness. The learner is not  being aware enough. And more specifically, conscious awareness.

So the first  takeaway that I want you to have here is Thiago Alencar (07:19. 672) Don't rely solely on unconscious perception. You also want to be mindful and  actively notice patterns in the language, structures, rules, things of that nature.

Moving  on to the second component of awareness. This one is knowledge and understanding. Awareness implies  having some level of knowledge or understanding about the object of awareness.

In  this case, the object of awareness is the English language. Okay? So, when  it comes to knowing about the language, we have the knowing about the language,  okay?

We have the knowing how, and we have the deeper understanding. So,  knowing about the language, this is about studying the grammar rules, maybe making a  vocabulary list and trying to memorize it. This is nice.

It's nice to do these things as  long as they are paired with practice. But more important than just knowing about the language,  you should know how to use the language. Your know -how of the language is your ability  to use English spontaneously in real -time communication.

This is developed through  practice and exposure. Great. That's a.

. . a level above, would say.

But the ultimate  level that you want to get to, and that's what I am advocating for in this episode, is having  a deeper understanding of the language. It's not just about knowing about the language or knowing  how to operate in real life with the language, but having a deeper understanding of the  language. This goes beyond memorizing things.

Having a deeper understanding of English is  about grasping the meaning behind the words and structures and how they fit into the  broader context of communication. So you are able to notice nuances. You look at  context.

You look at feel. What feeling do you want to express with that sentence,  with that word? You are as precise as you can.

Thiago Alencar (09:45. 046) in your word choice, in your structure choice, in the  way you use the language as a whole. Another key component of awareness has to  do with external awareness and internal awareness.

I've already hinted at this  at the beginning of the episode today. So awareness can be directed inward, toward  one's own thoughts and feelings, or outward, toward the external world and events. So, both  are beneficial and it should be developing both kinds of awareness here.

Let's  talk about external awareness first. External awareness involves paying attention to  the language used by others, noticing patterns and trying to emulate them. If you are having a  conversation in real life with people in English, you are actively paying attention and  noticing how those people use English.

You are on the lookout for patterns. If you  are consuming content, watching a movie, listening to a podcast, you are actively paying  attention to how the speaker or the actors or the hosts use English. This is being mindful of your  surroundings.

This is about external awareness. OK, you can practice this by listening to speakers  of English using their language in general. in real life or in media.

Also,  by reading authentic materials. When I say authentic materials, I mean real  books in English or real articles in English, things that were produced in English,  directly in English, not maybe like a not a course book or something that was  written or tailored to learners of English, but authentic materials. You pick a book.

And  you read it. You choose an article online. Thiago Alencar (11:53.

652) read about. And of course, this is also about actively participating in conversations. But  aside from developing your external awareness, you should be developing your internal awareness, your  self -awareness.

Check it out. Self -awareness involves monitoring one's own learning process,  recognizing strengths and weaknesses, and adapting strategies. For example, a learner realizes  they struggle with listening comprehension and decides to focus on that.

Thiago Alencar (12:34. 818) Being self -aware is not the same as being self -conscious. It's important to tell the difference  between these two.

When you are self -conscious, you have a heightened self -awareness, let's say.  Self -conscious is the heightened self -awareness, and it's usually a bad thing. It's a negative  thing because you are so self -conscious.

that you are worried about what  other people will think of you, how others will perceive you. This  is bad. This is self -consciousness.

You don't want to be self -conscious. Why?  You want to be self -aware.

Self -aware is about understanding your learning style, your  needs as a learner, your routine as a learner. What works for you? What doesn't work  for you?

This is self -awareness, being aware of who you are as an English learner,  English speaker, English communicator. Okay? I love this part here about being able  to monitor your own learning process, recognizing your strengths as a language learner,  your weaknesses as a language learner.

I got a. . .

mention another student of mine now  because this happened about, I think, two weeks ago. And that was really interesting.  I have this student who started having classes with me recently and we had about a month  of classes.

OK. And then after a month, he asked to join me on a meeting. He wanted  to talk to me about the upcoming classes.

And then in this meeting, he said that  he reflected on his needs as a learner, the things that he is trying to achieve. Thiago Alencar (14:35. 256) with English, his goals, his routine.

And then he came up with a series of  suggestions of things that we could implement in our classes together that would be more suitable  for him and for his goals. And then at the end of the call, I actually told him, congratulations,  great job. You know why?

Because what you did now, You know, calling this meeting,  calling me on a meeting, wanting to meet with me to discuss  this, very few people do. Very few students do. He was self -aware enough to  reflect on what he needs from the classes, what he's looking to achieve.

Reflect on his  lifestyle, his difficulties with English. and proactively come up with solutions and  strategies. And he wanted to run those strategies by me, those solutions to see what I think, and if  we could start implementing some of these things in the classes.

You see, this is self -awareness.  All right. It's a perfect example of being self -aware as a learner.

All right. The next  component of awareness has to do with perception. Awareness is closely related to perception,  the process of acquiring information about the world through your senses.

OK, now,  when it comes to being sensorial, right, and being able to perceive things through your  senses and English learning, we can think of auditory perception, things that you hear. So  this is crucial for spoken language understanding. spoken English, recognizing sounds, intonation,  and rhythm.

And you as a learner need to train your ears to distinguish subtle differences.  When it comes to English pronunciation, there are many subtle differences between  the sounds. One sound can be very similar to the other sound, but they're still  different.

But the difference is subtle. So, Thiago Alencar (16:59. 17) The more aware you are as a learner, the more of this subtle ear you also  develop when it comes to listening comprehension.

We can also talk about the  visual perception. This is also important, things that you see, mainly for reading  and writing, would say. You know, being able to recognize letters,  words, punctuation.

punctuation. This is so important, I have come across many  messages online or even, you know, talking to students, former students, and I am amazed how  people don't pay much attention to punctuation. But this is incredibly important.

You know, using  the capital letter when the capital letter needs to be used. Using the period when the  period needs to be used. So, you see, this is all about being aware of things.

You pay  attention to these details. Again, we could say that the more aware you become as a person, the  more detail -oriented you become as a learner. And the more detail -oriented you are, the  better your English gets because the more nuances you'll be able to pick up, the more  correctly you'll be able to write down things.

because you'll be looking at every comma,  every period. In other words, you will increase your level of accuracy in the language. Still  talking about visual perception, this also aids or helps in picking up non -verbal cues during  communication.

When you are talking to a person live or even online on a Zoom call, for example,  it's important that you are visually aware. And Thiago Alencar (18:59. 426) Pay attention to the the body language of the person, you the  person's body language, the gestures, the facial expression.

And to combine that with  your auditory awareness and you can listen to the person's tone of voice. How the person is  probably feeling talking to you at that time, if the person is OK or not. You see, all  this can be accomplished through awareness.

Alright? The next and final component of awareness  is attention. Attention.

Awareness often involves focusing attention on a particular object or  phenomenon. Bringing that to English learning, we can talk about selective attention. This is  the ability to focus on specific language aspects.

while filtering out directions or distractions.  Selective attention is about focusing on specific language aspects while filtering out or  eliminating distractions. For instance, a learner might focus on verb tenses in  a conversation.

This is a tip that I've given my students over the years quite frequently. For example, imagine we are  learning the present perfect tense. What I would always tell my students is,  okay, you have learned the present perfect tense in this class.

Now, watch a movie in  English with the subtitles in English and actively look for present perfect sentences  throughout the movie. Whenever you spot a present perfect tense being used, pause  the video and read the subtitles and see how this structure is being used  in that scene, in that context. This is selective attention.

You  are choosing what to focus on. Thiago Alencar (21:06. 114) Maybe you listening to a podcast and then you can apply selective  attention by going something like this.

OK, today I want to focus on the speed of the  speaker. want to focus my attention on how fast or how slow the host of the podcast speaks.  And as you listen, you pay attention to that, person's pace.

The next day, you can listen to  the same podcast, but focusing on something else. focusing on the vocabulary the person uses  more often or how the person pronounces certain words. You see, selective attention,  but you can only have that if you are aware as a learner.

We also have sustained attention.  This is about maintaining focus on language learning tasks over extended periods,  which is essential for progress. So.

. . If you are the type of person who gets bored  easily, be careful with that.

Maybe you need to work on your sustained attention and develop  it more. Because while learning English for the most part should be fun, there are some  things sometimes that you have to do to learn English that are not so attractive, are not so  exciting. For example, maybe you love writing.

But maybe you hate writing. You  know, one learner might love writing, the other learner might hate  writing. But if you hate writing.

. . Know that you still have to write.

You  still have to practice your writing in English if you want to develop as an English  communicator and speaker, you know, as a whole, right? You want to develop all your skills.  This may be boring for you to practice, but you got to do it.

So increase your  sustained attention. We also have divided attention. Divided attention is  about managing multiple language tasks.

Thiago Alencar (23:12. 274) simultaneously, like listening and taking notes, which becomes  important, especially in advanced stages of proficiency. I've already talked  about the IELTS exam here on the podcast, for example.

One of the skills you need to  develop within yourself is actually this, divided attention, being able to listen to  a passage and take notes at the same time. relatively quickly. You see?

It's something more  cognitive. It has nothing to do with the language itself. So these are the five main components of  awareness.

Just to recap, we have consciousness, knowledge and understanding, internal awareness  and external awareness, perception and attention. Now, I want to give you, want to close this  episode by giving you some practical tips that you can implement to improve your level  of awareness as an individual. Remember, my opinion, the more aware and self -aware  you become, the better English speaker and learner you will become.

So  how can you increase your level of awareness? How can you become more aware  as a person in general? Here are some tips.

Practice mindfulness and meditation. Cultivate  present -moment awareness through practices like mindfulness meditation or  simply focusing on your breath, sensations, and surroundings. I know  that for some people, meditation works wonders.

It might not necessarily work  for everybody, but you can definitely try meditating because meditation is all about  bringing your attention to the present moment. and being aware of what's happening right now.  But you don't have to meditate to practice this.

You can simply deliberately focus on  your breath, sensations and surroundings. In order to achieve that, you should  be in a place with no distractions. So deliberately eliminate distractions.

Maybe  leave your phone in another room and just Thiago Alencar (25:39. 687) Have that moment where you are just looking around the room,  just looking at your surroundings, wondering. This is practicing  awareness and being in the moment.

Thiago Alencar (25:54. 173) By doing this, you can significantly improve your overall awareness of things. Slow down and  observe.

Another tip, slow down and observe. Resist the urge to rush through activities. Take  time to truly experience and notice details, whether it's eating a meal, walking in  nature, or having a conversation.

This is particularly challenging  nowadays in this Instagram, TikTok world that we live in nowadays.  These social media platforms are making us look like zombies. They are zombifying  people.

You go like this, scrolling up all the time and instant gratification,  instant stimulation. It's also fast. Fast, fast, fast, quick.

So be  careful with that. Slow down. Observe.

Let me say that again. Resist  the urge to rush through activities. You know, life nowadays feels very fast,  right?

The pace feels very fast nowadays. If you think about all the things you have  to do in a given day or on a given day, excuse me, study, go to work, use social  media, right? Everything's so fast.

But you have to be deliberate about this. Slow  down and appreciate doing things more slowly. You can also try journaling.

Reflecting on  your thoughts, feelings, and experiences through writing can help you gain deeper insights  and identify patterns in your behavior. So maybe five minutes in the morning or five minutes in the  evening before you go to bed, pick up a notebook, pen, and jot down your thoughts about  the day, about yourself. Try journaling.

Thiago Alencar (28:08. 381) This can definitely help you raise your level of awareness as well. You can  also seek feedback, but make sure you ask trusted friends or colleagues for honest feedback on their  strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots.

Okay? But I only recommend doing this with trusted friends  or colleagues. Don't ask anybody for feedback.

OK? Feedback about yourself. So, only select a  very small handful of people who you truly trust to do so.

OK? When it comes to language learning  specific awareness, you can actively plan your learning, monitor your progress, and evaluate your  strategies. You can ask yourself questions like, what am I doing well with my English  learning?

Where do I need to improve? An idea for this is you could  have some sort of weekly review. Once you have set a plan to practice and  study English every day throughout the week, maybe reserve a day at the end of the week,  maybe on a Sunday evening, where you can sit down and do a weekly review of your English studies  that week.

Reflect on your past week. OK, how was this past week for me? When  it comes to my English learning and development, what did I do to practice my English?

Could I have done something differently?  Did I do something that I didn't enjoy or that didn't work for me?  Should I change something?

Thiago Alencar (29:58. 057) Should I talk to my teacher about something? You see?

Do some sort of  weekly review. Reflect on your past week. This is also practicing your  awareness.

This is you being aware as a learner. Error correction.  Pay attention to your mistakes and seek to understand why they happened.

This  helps identify areas for improvement. I can't tell you how many times I  have corrected learners in classes, but it seems like they don't listen, you know? Why?

This is lack of awareness, guys.  Lack of awareness. If you are more aware, you will have the correction.

You will  receive the correction. You will take notes of the correction and you will work on  that mistake. And then hopefully next class, you will either stop making that  mistake altogether or you will have reduced the frequency of that mistake.

Still  talking about mistakes. I would say that Self -correction is also very important to  develop as a learner. As a matter of fact, the more advanced you become as an English  speaker and user, the more or the better you are able to self -correct.

We all make mistakes.  The problem is not making mistakes. The problem is being aware of our mistakes.

And if you can be  aware of our mistakes and if you can catch it, Thiago Alencar (31:36. 809) when you can spot that you have just made a mistake and you can self  -correct, this is a very good indicator. You don't need a teacher anymore to correct you  so much.

You yourself can correct yourself. You know when you just said something  wrong and immediately you recognize that, you go back and you correct yourself.  You see, this is awareness as a learner.

Also, when it comes to active listening,  you can focus on understanding the meaning and intent of the speaker, not just individual  words. Like I just said, the feel, the type of impact the speaker is trying to have. You can  notice pronunciation, intonation, and even non -verbal cues if you are talking to the person  live.

Shadowing and mirroring, also mimicking. You can practice repeating phrases or  dialogues immediately after hearing them, mimicking pronunciation and intonation.  This can boost your phonological awareness, your awareness to the sound of the  English language.

And of course, have language immersion. Surround yourself  with the language, in this case English, as much as possible through books,  movies, music, conversations, etc. because this fosters unconscious learning  as well.

Here are some additional tips to become more aware as a learner. Reduce  distractions, limit multitasking and create focused time for activities. Minimize phone  and social media usage.

Spend time in nature, connect with the natural world, observe details  and practice mindfulness in nature. You can go to park, go to the beach, just practice mindfulness.  Engage in creative activities, explore arts, music, or any hobby that allows you to express  yourself and connect with your inner world.

Thiago Alencar (33:47. 933) You guys know that I love to play music. I love to play guitar.

Guys, whenever I play guitar,  to me is a transcendent experience. I feel that I am very in touch with my most authentic self when  I have a guitar on me in my hands and when I'm playing it. It feels like home.

It feels like  I can be. All I can be. So if you don't have.

an activity that provides you with that  feeling, I would encourage you to find one, find a hobby, find an activity that  allows you to connect with your inner self. Be curious. Approach new  experiences and people with an open and curious mind.

Ask questions and  seek to understand different perspectives. I truly believe that the more aware you  become as an individual, the more curious you become as well. And curiosity is another  key trait of successful English learners.

What you see, in my opinion, curiosity is built on  top of awareness. First, you develop awareness, you become more aware. And then, other traits  such as curiosity tend to flourish as well.

Remember, consistency is key. Make these  practices a regular part of your routine to experience lasting benefits. Be patient  and kind to yourself.

Increasing awareness takes time and effort. Celebrate your progress  and don't be discouraged by setbacks. And also, enjoy the journey.

As you become more aware,  you'll discover new depths and richness in your experiences and interactions.  learning English will be a whole different experience, the more aware you become.  Guys, I hope you enjoyed this explanation about awareness and these tips on how you can become  more aware as a person.

Before we wrap up today's episode, let's jump into the learner's  corner. And I have here another message to play for you today by one of our followers here on  the channel and on the show. This is Jorge.

Thiago Alencar (36:15. 891) Jorge Gomez. So let's listen to Jorge's message right here.

Hi, Tiago, it's Jorge Gomez from Colombia. I  want to just say hello. I've been watching your podcast.

I've been speaking, reading, writing.  I get immersed into the language because I was school, studying of English, and I learned some  skills or I get my English for some level, but. .

. I really want to get to the another level  because right now I'm being working with a company that is from Canada  and I'm a Latin guy that just knows to speak Spanish fluently. But  right now, I think I am improving my communication skills.

So I'm practicing  a lot. I get immersed into the language. hearing, watching, speaking, writing all  the time, 24 -7 and 365, that language.

So I had to say hello and thank you for all the  classes and all your information. All right, nice. Jorge, thank you so much for the  audio message.

was great to listen to your message here on the podcast. And yeah,  mean, great job. Keep immersing yourself.

Keep practicing the language and you  will see that the more you do that, the better you become. I really enjoyed your  vocabulary use here when you said 24 -7 -365, meaning 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days  of the year, right? So you have been immersing yourself in English and practicing it all the  time, like in a very intense way.

So that's great. Thiago Alencar (38:18. 825) Guys, if you want to do it like Jorge and send me an audio message,  you can send me a message on this link, speakpipe .

com slash English with Tiago. So  speakpipe . com slash English with Tiago.

can record a short 90 second message in audio there  and I can feature your message here on the show. Or if you prefer, can also send me  an email. You can write me an email at hello .

teachertiago . gmail . com and  you can send me a message, a question, a story that can also be featured  here on the show.

All right. Guys, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Remember  that a free way for you to support my work is by subscribing to the channel here on YouTube. 

This is really important. Like this video. leave a like and also leave a comment telling  me what you thought about today's topic, about awareness, about these points that  I brought up today and share the channel with your contacts.

The more you interact with  the channel here, with the videos, commenting, liking and watching, the better it is for  YouTube because YouTube understands that, this is a good channel. I have to promote  it more to other people. this is a very nice and free way for you to support  my work here.

If you are listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can  also leave me a five -star review on those platforms there. And if you  want to take a step further with me, there are some things you can do to support my  work even further. First of all, you can become a member of the channel here on YouTube.

For a  very small amount of money, you got to support my work here and you make it possible for me to  keep creating this content. Week in, week out. Also, can join my private community, the  community I mentioned at the beginning of the video for exclusive content  and also one live Q &A with me every month.

You can also check out my  pronunciation course. This is a course that teaches you the main sounds of the  English language, the main connected speech patterns that you hear in fast spoken  English. And that's pretty much it.

I mean, this is how we can support my work. If you want  to maybe take a step further and support my work. Thiago Alencar (40:43.

986) financially speaking. Okay. Guys, I'm Thiago.

I'm signing off. Thank you so much. And I'll be talking to you very soon in  the upcoming video or episode.

Bye bye.