Improve your English with this study PLAN: Intermediate to Advanced (Marina Mogilko)

hey guys welcome to lingua Marina today I will give you your study plan to go from intermediate to Advanced in English as a language learner who's been learning English for a number of years now I understand that it's really hard to improve your language starting with Upper Intermediate Advanced because those improvements are very nuanced and very detailed let me give you an example when you just start learning a language you know you start with basic phrases and it takes you a few weeks and then you can actually interact in language you've learned a hundred words

and it seems like a little of progress but what if you're intermediate and you already know say a thousand words in English adding 50 more words doesn't seem like a huge Improvement and this is where your motivation starts disappearing because we constantly need this dopamine uh we constantly need to see our results to be happy with ourselves and continue studying and I've been there so so many times so today we going to go through every section of the language we're going to talk about reading we're going to talk about vocabulary grammar and I will give

you a list of things that you need to know in order to become Advanced I've created this list together with a teacher from California hi Lea thank you so much for helping me but before we start please like this video And subscribe to this channel if you're not yet subscribed I'm going to add a lot of commentary from myself because oh my God I just took another TOEFL test we're waiting for the final result but despite living in the US for 10 years I still think that tofl is a very very intense test now without

further Ado we're going to transition to your vocabulary and when I say that it gets harder and harder to get to the next level when you're closer to the top uh I am not making this up let's look at the table that shows the number of learning hours you need to achieve each level from the level below so for example if you at B1 now you will need at least 180 hours to become B2 but if you're at C1 level and you want to become C2 almost a native speaker you need at least 300 hours

and at this level we're talking accent we're talking pronunciation of the most advanced words if we convert it into weeks you need at least 40 weeks to get from B1 to B2 but you need at least 75 weeks to go from C1 to C2 and this is where I tell you brace your self because yes it's going to get harder at my level for example C1 C2 I am working with academic vocabulary I'm working with idioms that are not used in our everyday lives I'm working with those tiny details and there are so many of

those okay now that you understand that this transition is going to require some work um now you're ready now let's talk about things that you actually need to become Advanced and the first aspect that we're going to talk about is reading and when it comes to reading there are several aspects that you need to be able to understand text from many genres dealing with a wide range of subjects doesn't matter if you understand the subjects or not so for example I just took the tol test and in the Reading part I had several texts one

text was about mammals in the sea and the ocean the second text was about economics the third text was also related to science and there was some terms that I did not know beforehand and there was so many nuances and details but if you want to score the highest grade on test like tofl ILS and other English language tests you need to be able to understand texts about anything very complicated academic text so I'm adding academic vocabulary here now there are several ways to improve your reading but obviously you need to read a lot and

this is the time for you to start switching to more advanced resources so look at texts from magazines like time National Geographic The Economist Vogue self Men's Health the New Yorker and the guardian those articles are Advanced and they're going to be great for your reading practice number two listening oh my goodness because I just took tol I'm going to give you a lot of examples from an advanced English language test when it comes to listening you need to be able to understand sarcastic sentences you need to be able to understand idioms you need to

be able to understand which information actually matters and what information was secondary information you need to learn how to pay attention to the right things and also be able to understand accents idioms dialects that is all part of advanced listening so there we go accents again Advanced vocabulary I would write priorities but basically understand what's important what's not and we're going to talk about grammar later in this video but um people love to use conditionals and you need to understand what they actually mean so how do you practice listening through podcasts I wish they existed

20 years ago when I was actively learning English cuz podcasts give us such a great variety of accents and Views I like Lex Friedman's podcast I like Andrew huberman's podcast and of course movies and TV shows would definitely help you with listening uh Emily and Paris this TV show is kind of easier to understand but I would highly recommend it anyways they have such a beautiful vocabulary there they use a lot of idioms they use a lot of comparisons their speech is strikingly beautiful in that TV show at least for for me the Hunger Games

the little things big little lies if you're interested in a place where I live big little lies was filmed very close to to the Bay Area The Social Network Bal soul and some of the other shows now the third aspect that you need to be working on is of course writing now here let's look at what TOEFL test makers actually want you to be able to do if you want to qualify for the C1 level produce clear well-developed and well organized text that means that every thought has its own paragraph that means you have an

introduction that means you have a conclusion that means you use a lot of linking words like in my opinion however furthermore the speaker stated that the speaker mentioned that so I am writing here well structured texts that include paragraphs linking words of course the use of advanced vocabulary meaning idioms C1 level words and phrases also when you're writing a text and you want to qualify a C1 you need to select important information from multiple sources integrated and presented coherently and clearly in writing with only occasional minor in Precision in the summary of The Source information

what they basically mean is that yes you can summarize with your own words but you have to be attentive to detail you have to be very clear with what you're writing by the way when it comes to tests they actually allow you to make minor mistakes uh so if you're typing if it's a typo or maybe you didn't know how to spell the word correctly that's fine but of course don't make too many mistakes I I'm just saying that because I want you to relax and stop trying to be perfect now how can you challenge

yourself with Advanced writing something I can recommend is of writing a review uh as a Creator sometimes I go to places like hotels and uh they ask me as part of our collaboration to leave a review and this is where I have to start with my general thoughts overall this experience has been one of the best so far and there are several reasons and then different paragraphs number one I really enjoyed the view from my room number two the service was amazing number three I'm simplifying this for you but this B basically shows the structure

so try writing a review on a platform like Kel or Google reviews that's going to help you that's going to help you practice that advanced writing and of course if you have any tests coming up the best way to practice the best way to get ready for the test is to go and uh take the mock test and uh see what's going on another way to practice all of your skills especially listening is to take an English language course and the course that we've developed at lingua trip is called from intermediate to Advanced and when

our teachers were working on it they were paying extra attention to this plateau effect when you're already intermediate but you can't see any growth and because the teachers in that course are native speakers or non-native speakers whose accent is almost perfect you will get exposure to a variety of teachers thus practice your listening that course includes 40 lessons on the most important English topics there are some of my class as mostly motivating and talking about my own experience and life hacks that can help you improve your language learning Journey uh there is of course Venia

our accredited teacher from Los Angeles and there is Angela who's a native speaker who's been teaching English for a while now she's also an expert in methodology and she creates programs for English language programs worldwide we have leveled tests before and after the course so you can see your progress and of course we try to make your learning process as interesting and as entertaining as possible over 10,000 students have already taken courses with lingua trip and I hope you join them as well also if you decide to take this course with a group and the

next group starts on April 12th and if you're watching this video after April 12th check the link down below for the next start date so basically if you're taking it together with a group we're going to match you with people from all over the world so you can practice together the link will be down below I will be very excited if you take that course to speed up your way to the advanced level in English now let's move on and talk about speaking oh this one is the most most challenging honestly for me because especially

when you take a test or when you interact with a native speaker for the first time I remember I was shaking when I was talking to a native speaker just because I thought they're judging me they are judging my English they think I'm dumb all the time all the time uh it kind of never goes away it stays with you uh this you know this feeling that you're not a native speaker yesterday I was at a dinner almost everyone there was either a a speaker or moved to the US when they were kids they graduated

from American schools and you know sometimes there are things that they discuss that I don't understand just because I'm not part of that culture I only immigrated when I was 25 I was basically born and raised in a different country but at the same time I realize how inclusive the American society is and if you're doing something interesting uh people are willing to interact with you so this fear never goes away but it gets better so when it comes to speaking you guys are actually lucky you have ai these days and you can totally talk

with AI well for example the paid version of Chad GPT allows you to interact with it in English there are other different websites like speeches or speak and improv.com that you can use to practice English I'm going to leave all the links below now here basically my advice will be practice and the other thing as a non-native speaker try incorporating new words as soon as you can so you've learned something like it happens to me all the time I learned something and I'm like okay great word and I forget about it if you start incorporating

those words into your speech as soon as possible there's more probability you're actually going to remember and use those words now let's talk about my favorite people are always like Marina but how many words do I know to be advanced in English now there you go the common European framework of reference states that B1 requires 2,000 to 3,000 words at advanced level you need 5,000 to 6,000 words how does that sound sounds overwhelming I agree there is nothing you can really do except just learn those words so there is actually a test that you can

take if you go to lexor.com they have a test for 2,000 level 3,000 level 5,000 level of course they're not going to ask you all of those words but they took some of the brightest examples from the category and you're going to be able to just test yourself they also have a university word list and they have a 10,000 level word list just go ahead take that test and see how you feel of course it's an estimate of course it's not 100% accurate but I feel like it's a cool place to start they they have

all kinds of different tests on their website I like it a lot go to Lex t.ca check them out now what are the other traits of advanced English language students vocabulary Advanced word combinations like a surge of anger Heavy Rain volcanic eruption Advanced synonyms let's look at the example I think it was my second year in uni when I finally learned how to be a good student I think it was in my second year in uni when I finally got the hang of being a student oh that's a nice expression Cambridge Dictionary British by the

way says that that's a C1 phrase or instead of saying do you still want to play tennis tonight you can say are we still on for tonight now those words and phrases are the advanced level in our intermediate to Advanced course we pay a lot of attention to such words and phrases okay now let's talk about grammar I know I know some people like but Marina can I just learn three tenses that's it n when you come to the US people use all kinds of tenses all kinds of structures and if you don't understand their

meaning sometimes you can get confused and I'm sorry the lighting is kind of weird today it is really windy so clouds come and go and sometimes the sun is shining brightly in my studio but then the next second it's gone and uh it's all great but yeah the reality of living in California of course when you are an advanced English language learner you know all the 12 tenses we're not going to talk about that but we're going to talk about are those Nuance details like inversion you need to understand how to use it and what

it means here comes the trouble see inversion in the word order is used to highlight our emotions the action come first and who or what does the action comes second not only did Sheldon save my life he didn't rat me out to the landlord or the police Homeland Security conditionals not only your regular conditionals but also mixed conditionals I remember when we were learning that at school I was like I was so tired of conditionals and then they say oh but you know we just learned all the rules sometimes they do not apply or apply

in a different way when it comes to mixed conditions I'm like come on why so complicated when so when you were at intermediate level you've learned zero first second and third conditionals but at advanced level you have to be familiar with mixed conditionals let me show you an example you create sentences with a past condition and a present or future result or the other way around let's look at type one present results of a past action if I had worked harder at school I would have a better job now so the structure is if Plus

past perfect and in the second sentence we have would plus infinitive type two past result of present condition here is an example from the movie oh my God I just met that actor a couple months ago he was presenting a book um here in the Bay Area I mean I read it on a cruise and if I wasn't afraid it was an environmental hazard I would have tossed it overboard and the structure is if Plus past simple would have Plus past participle and of course if this sounds confusing this topic is we talk about this

more in the course now there are a couple more things that I wanted to talk about before we wrap up I know your head might be exploding but it's important I would add them as bonuses here bonus number one is called spoken grammar what does that mean I know we've been learning all of the grammar structures but sometimes you just have to forget about them to sound like a native instead of saying do you want some coffee you say want a coffee right or instead of saying are you ready yet you can just say ready

yet at advanced level you need to understand you don't have to speak like that but you need to understand that people use those phrases and they emit grammatical structures that we're used to as language Learners and yes if you want to sound more native then start using them as well and another boat bonus is cleft sentences an example of a cleft sentence is what I really like is chocolate so they're all about giving extra emphasis on something that you want to highlight in the sentence let's look at another example Sharon's car got broken into yesterday

didn't it no it was Nina's car that got broken into so we're highlighting who car was broken into okay guys I feel like there is too much for a YouTube video I'm going to stop right here of course this is not the whole list of things you need to know in order to become Advanced but this is a general list of things and of course the language is very nuanced uh there are a lot of things that you're going to learn but all I want you to understand is that every level gets more and more

complicated and in a nutshell what you need to start doing is immerse yourself into language as much as possible by watching shows read extensively listen to authentic English write emails reviews reports whatever practice speaking and receiving feedback on your speech expand vocabulary and master those grammar nuances thank you guys so much for watching this video up to the very end I am very happy to see you as part of this community please subscribe to this Channel and I'll see you very soon in my next videos bye