TESOL – EFFORTLESS ENGLISH – A.J.

HOGE

CHAPTER 1: A BETTER WAY TO LEARN ENGLISH

Có rất nhiều lý do để 1 người học tiếng Anh: công việc, đi du lịch, du học, … Nhưng cũng có
rất nhiều nỗi sợ với việc học tiếng Anh: ngại nói, sợ sai, nói quá chậm hoặc sợ sai phát âm,
sai ngữ pháp. Tất cả không phải vì chúng ta tệ mà vì chúng ta được dạy SAI PHƯƠNG
PHÁP => Tất cả mọi người đều có thể NÓI TIẾNG ANH LƯU LOÁT nếu học ĐÚNG
PHƯƠNG PHÁP.

Giáo dục truyền thống: tập trung vào SGK, ngữ pháp, làm kiểm tra… Qua 2 ví dụ: 1
học sinh tên Gladys thông minh, luôn ngồi bàn đầu, nghe giảng, ghi chép, học và làm bài
tập đầy đủ -> Sau 6 tháng vẫn không nói được -> chán nản, stress; hoặc lớp dạy tiếng Anh
ở Nhật (và tương tự ở nhiều nơi trên toàn cầu), hs nghe giáo viên giảng bài bằng ngôn ngữ
mẹ đẻ 90%, hiếm khi nghe tiếng Anh -> cũng không thể nói được tiếng anh.

A.J.Hoge nghiên cứu tìm kiếm 1 phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh mới với mục tiêu cuối
cùng là GIAO TIẾP -> Giáo dục theo phương pháp mới + thay đổi cách dạy, áp dụng ->
Thành công!

A.J.Hoge thành lập CLB Effortless English -> nơi học viên giao tiếp, được động viên,
được boost sự tự tin, thành công, được hỗ trợ, được “play with English, make mistakes,
communicate without fear”, người thành công sẽ giúp những bạn khác thành công theo.

Effortless English is not lazy English => it takes a lot of effort to become effortless
speaking = Speak fluently, powerfully.

CHAPTER 2: THE PROBLEM WITH SCHOOLS

Học sinh luôn sợ hãi, stress, chán nản sau nhiều năm học tiếng Anh mà vẫn không
nói được, thậm chí ghét tiếng Anh = “English trauma” => Vấn đề đến từ phương pháp giảng
dạy tại trường học.

1st problem = using the grammar translation method = grammar analysis &
memorization of grammar formulas (and its exceptions) + adding unnatural “communication
activities” >< REALITY: no time to think about grammar formulas => failure of students to
speak English

2nd problem = student passivity = S listen to the teacher, take notes, memorize the
notes = sitting for a long time leading to energy drops >< REALITY: speaking English =
connecting with people, asking and answering constantly, with emotions and
descriptions spontaneously, actively.

3rd problem = “one right answer” = every question in the tests has 1 answer => If
Students are wrong, they are punished with a lower score. => Fear of mistakes, avoid risk
and being confused in reality >< REALITY: there are always many ways to say the same
thing, no perfection. Speakers can make mistakes, mispronounce words, break the grammar
rules= FOCUS ON COMMUNICATING.

4th problem = curriculum / textbooks / grammar translation method / unnatural

communication activities / low - energy students => benefit teachers and schools, NOT THE
STUDENTS. => Result for students is boredom, frustration, poor results.
CHAPTER 3: PSYCHOLOGY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GRAMMAR AND VOCAB

EFFORTLESS ENGLISH = PSYCHOLOGY + METHOD

Without an effective psychological system, you will struggle to find success with even
the best language teaching method.

SUCCESS = RIGHT ENGINE (Method) + RIGHT FUEL (Psychology)

SUCCESS PSYCHOLOGY:

+ xuyên suốt các chương 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7

+ Psychology = Emotions + Energy + Enthusiasm + Confidence + Motivation +

Beliefs

+ Xây dựng dựa trên NLP (Neuro – Linguistic Programming)

Chương 3 nói về EMOTIONS = POSITIVE EMOTION ANCHORING

Mỗi khi vui, bạn thường xuyên nghe 1 bài hát nào đó => tạo sự liên kết bài hát với
niềm vui => Sau này, mỗi khi nghe bài hát thì sẽ thấy vui (cảm xúc tiêu cực cũng tương tự)

English learners thường sợ hãi khi học / nói tiếng Anh => Negative anchor => Mối
liên kết này có thể thay đổi dần.

SECRET = CẢM XÚC CÀNG CAO, LIÊN KẾT CÀNG NHANH VÀ SÂU.

Step-by-step to Create a very intense positive emotion and Anchoring for English

1/ Change your body: pull shoulders back, chest up and out, head up, eyes ahead,
smile

2/ Change your thoughts: think something great = biggest success in the future >
Smile bigger > raise your arms over head > jump in the air > shout and cheer loudly (A
PEAK EMOTIONAL STATE = INTENSE POWERFUL POSITIVE EMOTION)

3/ Connect this great feeling to English: still feeling great + start listening to an easy
English audio + keep smiling and moving your body in a strong and positive way

REPEAT THIS PROCESS EVERYDAY to break the old negative anchor and replace
it with a new positive one.

CHAPTER 4: YOUR BELIEFS DETERMINE YOUR ENGLISH SUCCESS

Beliefs = the most powerful brain programs. -> guide decisions, feelings, thoughts

2 types: limiting beliefs and empowering beliefs

 + Limiting beliefs -> negative emotions -> bad decisions -> disappointed results

+ Empowering beliefs -> give you power -> create success

TO CHANGE OUR BELIEFS = MODELING

1/ Find a successful person and study them carefully

2/ Learn what they did, how they did it, talk to them, learn their psychology and methods

3/ Try your best to do exactly what they did

STRENGTHEN YOUR BELIEFS

1/ Reviewing all past experiences with English -> Find positive ones (fun activities,
reading short-stories, watching movies, …)

2/ Write down -> List of all positive experiences with English

3/ Focus on these memories every day -> Review the list -> Remember each of them

4/ Add new positive experience with English to the list

5/ The list will grow longer and longer

ð Create more positive emotions, better decisions, better motivation, better results à
stronger empowering beliefs.

CHAPTER 5: ENGLISH IS A PHYSICAL SPORT

English is a skill to “play”. Real English conversations are fast, unpredictable, no time
to think about grammar, translations.

START PLAYING ENGLISH BY USING PHYSICAL ACTIONS (because our bodies change
our emotions -> body is the key to learn English)

TPR = Students dùng hành động để học từ vựng (phrases) mới -> dễ nhớ

Người năng động, nhiều năng lượng -> học nhanh, nhiều và nhớ lâu hơn.

Có thể vừa đi qua đi lại vừa học -> máu bơm lên não nhiều -> nhiều năng lượng, tập
trung hơn.

Tạo “PEAK EMOTION” bằng SHORT ENERGY BREAK: sau mỗi 20 – 30 phút học
tiếng Anh, take a short break to jump, shout, smile, cheer and dance

8 steps to changing emotions

1/ Find energetic music you love

2/ Play the music

 3/ Raise your head, look up, change your body, pull your shoulders back, stand tall,
smile, take deep breaths

4/ Move your body, dance, jump, look up, smile, arms over head -> feel happy,
energetic

5/ Say loudly Yes, Yes, Yes

6/ Play English lesson -> while learning, keep shoulders back, eyes up, smile, stand
up and keep moving, walk, breath deeply

7/ Answer questions loudly, don’t be shy.

8/ If tired or bored, pause the lesson -> play music again > repeat these steps

CHƯƠNG 6: USE BIG REAL WORLD GOALS TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF FOR

SUCCESS

A powerful goal energizes, inspires, motivates us to do more and be more. -> can
change your life. -> pull you towards action and success.

A STRONG GOAL = CREATING A POSITIVE OBSESSION

How? => Repeatedly asking why -> DEEPER PURPOSE FOR ENGLISH

The point is that English is a tool for communication

With English, you must focus on your real world reasons for speaking the language

ð Find exciting goals to give you energy, power.

ð Choose big, powerful goals for learning English. Ignite your passion!

CHƯƠNG 7: PROGRAM YOUR BRAIN FOR ENGLISH SUCCESS

The method of “mental movie programming”

What most people lack is control over their mind and emotions. In fact, you have all
the talent, intelligence and power you need to master spoken English at the highest possible
level.

Your internal movies are the programs you use to create feelings, beliefs and goals

Change the results you get with learning English by changing 2 things: WHAT is in
your movie and HOW that movie is made.

Making the bad feelings powerless, Increase the strength of positive memories, thoughts,
beliefs, goals
 - Push the negative movie screen farther away, make it smaller, darker,
harder to see, make the sounds quieter

- Take a deep breath and calm your feelings

- Think about your goal, make a movie of your goal, bring it closer, bigger,
make the colors beautiful, make the image brighter. Remember the feeling
“WOW, my English is great!”, the feel of pride and happiness. You are the movie
star!

- Use the “SWISH” to connect the two movies to create an automatic change
from the negative to positive movie.

- Focus on this power movie EVERYDAY.

YOU ARE THE MOVIE DIRECTOR OF YOUR OWN MIND

CHƯƠNG 8: BABIES LEARN BEST – THE EFFORTLESS ENGLISH ENGINE

A baby FIRST starts to learn English by LISTENING and body language of people
(without speaking) for months = THE SILENT PERIOD => Learn to understand language

Then, the baby begins to SPEAK => Everybody is happy, smiling, and laughing
(even though the baby’s pronunciation or grammar is not correct) => Speaking English is a
happy experience.

Focus on SPEAKING for YEARS => better Speaking, better Grammar (without
learning Grammar rules), better pronunciation

CHƯƠNG 9: THE 1ST RULE – LEARN PHRASES NOT WORDS

Phrases = Natural chunks of language

Tradition: Memorizing lists of vocabulary words in mother tongue => When speaking
English, find yourself translating in your head: think of word in mother tongue > remember
the translation to English => Slow, unnatural

Effortless English: (LEARN THE LANGUAGE IN CHUNKS = LEARN IN THE

NATURAL WAY)

Learn a phrase from real English conversation / movies / story => write down the whole
phrase or sentence + where it came from (learn when certain phrases and words are used,
and when they are not)

- More information

- Learn faster

- Remember faster and longer

 - Deeper meaning (meaning of phrase and also of the word)

- Learn grammar: learn the correct verb conjugation

- Faster speech, faster understanding

- Better at the intonation (the rhythm of English is created by the natural

pattern of pauses between phrases)

CHƯƠNG 10: THE 2ND RULE – GRAMMAR STUDY KILLS YOUR ENGLISH SPEAKING

DO NOT STUDY GRAMMAR! Analyzing Grammar doesn’t help your English

Speaking Skill. For writing English, that’s not as bad.

Learning grammar rules does not improve your spoken grammar. (You know the
grammar rules but still make grammar mistakes when speaking). It also makes slow and
hesitant speech.

INTUITIVE GRAMMAR is based on a “feeling for correctness”.

Learning phrases, using natural methods -> learns to identify what “sounds right”

When hearing a mistake -> you know it’s a mistake because it “sounds wrong”

PRACTICE NOT THINKING ABOUT GRAMMAR: change your focus, focus on

communicating. => Native speakers understand that even if you make grammar mistakes,
they want to hear your ideas, your feelings, your thoughts.

CHƯƠNG 11: THE 3RD RULE – LEARN WITH YOUR EARS NOT WITH YOUR EYES

This is how we all learn language as children.

Listen a lot à learn vocabulary, learn grammar, do all of this in a more natural and
enjoyable manner

Native speakers learned to speak English with their ears by listening, listening and
listening.

2 ways: through listening and through reading. But the most powerful kind of input for
learning speaking is listening.

Speech happens as a result of listening. Listening ability will naturally grow faster
than speaking ability. As the listening level rises, it pulls the speaking ability up with it.

Conversation is different from written English è more casual, more phrasal verbs

è Want to Communicate = Learn from English conversations and audios

Listening to what? à COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT

Understandable English speech + repeatedly

 It takes time / reduces stress

A silent period (while listening comprehensible input) à had strong (+) effec

Beginners: Listen to easy English = understand 95% = without stopping and

dictionary

READ AND LISTEN AT THE SAME TIME = MORE CONCERNTRATION

Advanced learners: film + read subtitles, podcast

WHEN? à whenever you can

Movie Technique

Step 1:Watching the 1st scene 3 - 5mins with Eng Subtitles à until understand

Pause if don’t understand + look up

Step 2: Watch the scene again, several times à understand and watch without Engsub

Watch x 4 – 5 days/scene

Step 3: Watch and pause after each sentence / phrase

Repeat out loud, act out the scene. Copy the movements/facial
expressions/emotions

X 1 – 2 days/scene

CHƯƠNG 12: THE 4TH RULE – REPETITION IS THE KEY TO SPOKEN MASTERY

Deep learning means repeating what you have learned again and again.

Repeat each lesson daily for at least 7 days à truly deeply understand the phrases
you’re learning

Repeat the audio at least once a day for 7 days à deeper and deeper à learning for
mastery

After you’ve learned the vocabulary, keep listening à Learn grammmar, use correctly,
speak faster.

Focus on the most common words, verbs, phrases à repeat, repeat, repeat.

Avoid boredome = COMPELLING MATERIAL

Deep learning technique:

Exercise 1:

Pick 10-min audio

Listen a few times

 Repeat everyday for 7 days with peak emotions “stand up, move around, shout”

Exercise 2:

Change the focus by learning with several methods for 1 audio

Learn vocab

Listening and Understand without text

Play a sentence à Pause à Shout + Write down

Play 2 sentences à repeat with emotion

CHƯƠNG 13: THE 5TH RULE - LEARN GRAMMAR INTUITIVELY AND

UNCONSCIOUSLY

Point-of-view Stories

Change the time frame and change the gramar

Listen to a main story, from the past tense point of view

Create your own new vesion in the present tense / future tense / present perfect
tense

Record and listen to these stories a few times every day x 7 days

CHƯƠNG 14: THE 6TH RULE – LEARN REAL ENGLISH AND TRASH YOUR
TEXTBOOKS

Spoken American English is full of idioms

Learn from books / articles / audio books / podcasts / videos

Podcasts / audio books are perfect.

- Created by native speakers

- Easy = children’s storybooks with an audio version

- Higher = books for older children / young adults à real English (CNN / BBC/
American movies / British movies / novels…)

- Authentic à learn idioms / culture / writing ability / reading speed / vocabulary

CHƯƠNG 15: THE 7TH RULE – LEARN ENGLISH WITH COMPELLING STORIES

The 7th rule trains the SPEED

Learn to think in English with listen-and-answer stories = ASKING STORIES

 The question train you to understand and respond more quickly.

Visualize what’s happening

Learn the phrases, grammar, vocabulary

Strange and funny à remember longer

Learn to think and respond faster and faster.

Storytelling: quickly, focusing on the speed. Shout and use big gestures. \

CHƯƠNG 16: YOUR DAILY ENGLISH PLAN

Establish daily English learning rituals, scared è consistency

Morning:

Wake up à Play music, take out list of (+) Eng experiences

Think about biggest goals

Jump, smile and shout

Play an easy Eng audio, shout your answers, use movements and gestures

Use travel time to listening

Lunch:

30 mins for mini story / point-of-view story

Evening:

Do more English listening 30 mins

(Repeat the same audios/day)

CHƯƠNG 17: THE POWER OF PLEASURE READING

Reading for pleasure = read interesting and fairly easy books in English

Read a lot of them = Volume is the key

Read more pages everyday, more books every month

Compelling content is vital.

Listening to audiobook of the book while reading

After 1 week, increase average daily page count.

CHƯƠNG 18: THE SECRET TO GOOD ENGLISH WRITING

CHƯƠNG 19: WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PRACTICE SPEAKING

CHƯƠNG 20: ENGLISH IS THE LANGUAGE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

CHƯƠNG 21: HOW TO GIVE POWERFUL ENGLISH PRESENTATIONS

CHƯƠNG 22: ENGLISH CONNECTS YOU WITH THE WORLD

CHƯƠNG 23:THE EFFORTLESS ENGLISH CODE AND MISSION