- Today, I'm gonna show
you a simple technique
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that can dramatically
improve your fluency,
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and it just takes five minutes a day.
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(bright upbeat music)
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Hello my, friends, it's Keith
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from the Keith Speaking Academy.
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And here today to help you
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become a more fluent speaker of English.
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Now this one technique I mentioned
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is called the chunking method.
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Now you've probably heard of this.
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I've talked about it a little bit before.
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but I want to make it crystal clear,
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super easy for you today
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so that you can start practicing
this straight away today
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and getting to that habit
of five minutes a day
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practicing this chunking.
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I'm gonna show you how this
works, how you can practice,
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and then we'll finish
up with a little story
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Now then, one of the reasons
you're not fluent yet
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is probably because you
focus on individual words.
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And this is quite normal
for students to do.
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The thing is, proficient
speakers and native speakers,
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we don't focus on individual words,
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we focus on chunks,
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two or three words together.
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And we speak with chunks
and we think in chunks.
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If you focus on individual words,
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And it's because normally,
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you've learned through
writing and reading English.
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And so you're focusing on the written word
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that you see is individual words.
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But when we speak, we
don't think in words,
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and we speak with sounds.
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So each chunk is a sound
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rather than an individual word, right?
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When I say "When I say,"
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I don't say WEN-AI-SAY.
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I say wen-ai-say, "When I say."
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It sounds almost Japanese:
when I say, when I say.
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But I think in sounds.
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And so it's much easier to speak
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with more flow and more fluently.
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It's a bit like when you go
shopping and you take bananas,
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and if you take an individual
banana, put it in your bag
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and another, boom and another.
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If you take a bunch of bananas,
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And it's the same with chunks.
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It's a bunch of words put into one sound.
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Now there are different kinds of chunks.
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There are grammatical chunks
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and there are lexical chunks.
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Let me give you a few examples today.
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Grammatical chunks, we've got verb chunks,
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like I tend to, I'm used
to, I find it easy to,
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Adverbial chunks, I'm sure you know,
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at the moment, at the moment,
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by and large, at the end of the day.
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And when we say these,
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we just say them as one
sound, one chunk, right?
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By-and-large, mm-mm.
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By and large, by and large.
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Meaning generally speaking,
by and large, okay?
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So verb chunks, adverbial chunks.
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So these chunks are our building blocks,
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and as we put them together,
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we build and speak with
more flow and more fluency.
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And the more you use them
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and the more you think in this way,
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the more fluent you're gonna become.
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Great, let's have a look
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at this five-minute a day fluency drill.
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So we're gonna look at three chunks,
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three verb chunks that
we can practice with,
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and then later we'll
add some adverb chunks.
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So the verb chunk is what you do,
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the adverb chunk is how you do it.
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And then we'll start building with blocks.
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So the first chunk
we've got is, over here:
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"I tend to do something,"
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meaning I usually do something.
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It's a habit, right?
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I tend to, da da da da da, okay?
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So instead of saying "I tend to,"
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I tend to wake up early.
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Wake up early, another chunk.
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I tend to wake up early.
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Hear the difference between
I tend to - wake up early,
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and I tend to wake up early.
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Totally different building blocks
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rather than individual words.
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Let's try another one.
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I tend to - have a big breakfast.
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Great, that's true for me.
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Tell me something true for you.
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Another one: I tend to - drink tea.
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Okay, I tend to drink tea.
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I tend to - get nervous - before meetings.
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Right, you've got it.
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Okay, so what we can do,
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we are just kind of repeating
these little chunks.
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Let's move on to chunk number two,
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which is I am used to doing something.
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So instead of, "I am used to,"
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I'm used to, that's it,
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That's another chunk, getting up early.
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I'm used to - getting up early.
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I'm used to - working - on my own.
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Three chunks, right?
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I'm used to - working - on my own.
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I'm used to working on my own.
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I'm used to - living - in the countryside.
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Okay, again, three chunks.
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I'm used to - living - in the countryside.
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We put them all together
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with a bit of intonation.
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I'm used to living in the countryside.
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It's almost one chunk, right?
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The more you do it, the
better you get at it.
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Chunk number three,
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"I find it easy to do something," okay?
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For example, for me,
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I find it easy to cook, okay?
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The difference again between
"I find it easy to cook,"
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I find it easy to cook.
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Practice that little chunk.
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Yeah, I find it easy - to learn languages.
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I find it easy - to stay organized.
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Now let's start combining a bit.
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Let's start adding some adverb chunks.
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Do you remember like at the moment, okay?
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So I might say: "At the moment,
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I tend to wake up early."
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Kind of three chunks, right?
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At the moment - I tend to - wake up early.
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I'm slowing it down a bit
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so you can hear the chunks.
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Obviously, as you put them together.
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I would say, at the moment,
I tend to wake up early.
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I have the intonation,
but that comes later.
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Just focus on the chunks first.
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Right now, I'm used to living on my own.
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Okay, we've got this adverbial
chunk and the verb chunk.
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By and large - I find it
easy - to stay organized.
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Stay organized or stay focused?
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Stay organized, yes.
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By and large, I find it
easy to stay organized.
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And what I could start to do
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is extend the sentence
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by having a because or since or as.
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"At the moment, I tend to wake up early
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because I'm on holiday."
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No, that wouldn't make sense, would it?
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At the moment - I tend to - wake up early
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because - I'm very busy.
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That would make sense.
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But it doesn't matter if it makes sense.
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Actually, it's good
not even to make sense.
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Say something illogical,
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but focus on these chunks.
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and you are building up
your sentences, right?
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The idea is not to make
the idea of this practice.
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The five-minute fluency drill
is just to practice fluency.
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Practice these chunks, okay?
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We can do it with a mini story.
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Let me develop these into a mini story,
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and I want you to really focus
on the sounds of the chunks
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Whether it's logical or not.
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At the moment, I tend to wake up early.
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By and large, I find it
easy to wake up early
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because I go to bed early.
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Right now, I'm used to going to bed early
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because I'm on holiday, right?
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Mini story, but I'm just building blocks,
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building little sentences.
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And in your practice, do this,
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make up stupid stories that make no sense,
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but just practice the chunks, right?
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Later it will all start to work out.
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But this is the drill.
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This is where you're
kind of like the soldiers
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learn to walk and to drill.
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It's the basic footsteps.
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These are the footsteps of your language,
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So let me just recap,
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summarize this five-minute fluency drill.
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Very simple routine.
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First of all, pick three verb chunks.
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You can use the ones we've done today.
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I do have a PDF, boom, boom.
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And you can download that
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and get lots more chunks
you can practice with.
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First, pick three verb chunks.
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Practice repeating and changing something.
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Take some adverb chunks,
practice repeating.
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Put them together,
building up little phrases,
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and then make a mini story,
sentence after sentence,
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using these chunks or
others, building them up.
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It can be totally illogical.
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And then if you've got time,
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do a mini story but that's true for you.
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And that's more difficult
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'cause you have to think
about meaning as well.
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But if you've got time, record yourself.
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Great to listen back
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and listen to the sounds and the chunks.
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See how well you're doing.
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You can do this five minutes a day.
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Seriously, three chunks,
some adverb chunks.
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Practice, first of all, with
the ones you've seen today.
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Go and get the PDF.
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There's loads more there
you can start practicing.
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And just with this focus
on sounds and chunks
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rather than individual words.
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You will notice a difference
after a few weeks.
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That's it for today.
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If you've enjoyed this video,
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Anyway, and it also helps me,
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but I'll leave it to you.
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It would be lovely to see
you as a channel member.
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If you want to find out
more about my courses,
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go and visit keithspeakingacademy.com.
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You can find out all about
the work that I do there.
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It's been lovely today.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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I've really enjoyed it,
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and I will see you soon,
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maybe in the next video on YouTube.
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Take care, bye-bye.
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(bright upbeat music)
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