AE 1417 - Fluency Islands: Why You Feel Fluent Sometimes… And Lost Others

👉 Download the FREE PDF Worksheet: https://aussie-english.kit.com/fd330906f2

👉 Listen to this episode on the podcast: https://aussieenglish.com.au/1417

👉 Australian Pronunciation Course: https://aussieenglish.com.au/apc100

👉 Download FREE English Learning Resources: https://aussieenglish.com.au/free
👉 Join my 5-Day FREE English Course: https://aussieenglish.com.au/free-course/
👉 Join the Premium Podcast here & access 1000+ episodes: https://aussieenglish.com.au/podcast

If you're someone learning Australian English as a second language and you want to improve your pronunciation, reduce your foreign accent and sound more like an Australian when you speak English, check out my content at Aussie English!

And grab my Australian Pronunciation Course here - https://www.aussieenglish.com.au/courses

#australianaccent #aussieenglish #learnenglishwithpete #australianenglish #learnenglishonline  #aprenderinglêsonline #learnenglish #aussieenglishacademy #australianpodcast #languagepodcast

| FOLLOW AE |

- Facebook
- Instagram
- Website
- Twitter

| ENGLISH COURSES | 

- Australian English Pronunciation
- Phrasal Verbs
- Spoken English

| AE ACADEMY |

- Join the AE Academy

| AE PODCAST |

- Free Podcast
- Premium Podcast

*** Music from Artlist - License Number 524222 ***

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey Yum, welcome to Aussie English. I'm your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Yamanda. So whether you want to sound like a fading com Aussie, or you just want to understand what the flippin' L we're on about when we're having a yam, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa, and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go. G'day guys, welcome back to the Aussie English Podcast. I'm your host, Pete, and this is the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So today I want to talk about something that I genuinely think could completely change the way you think about fluency in English. And actually, before we get into that, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who listened to the recent episode 1415, Six Ways to Use AI to improve your English. I got a lot of really good feedback from you guys saying you really enjoyed that episode because you're using AI all the time. And also the response to the launch of the product I did with that episode, 100-day AI Fluency Plan. That product did really well. And so many of you guys signed up. And yeah, I'm really I'm really flattered. I'm really happy that you guys have enjoyed that because I made it because so many of you were telling me I use AI every day. I want to use it better to improve my English. I want a consistent plan that I can do. So so many of you signed up. I'm already getting messages saying you're happy about it, you know, you finally feel consistent, building daily speaking habits, feeling more confident, everything like that. And one of my private students, Eva, actually showed me the daily system that she's got. You know, she's set reminders in her phone, she's opening up the plan every single day, doing the exercise 10 minutes or so, and she's already getting really good results, which is just brilliant. And the good thing is she was telling me she opens it in the same chat in her AI each day so that she can then review all the mistakes as well as the progress that she makes over time. So great job, Eva, and I hope everyone else who grabbed it is doing something similar. So, anyway, let's get into today's episode. So, one of the things I've realized over years of teaching English learners is that fluency usually develops fastest in the parts of life that become genuinely meaningful, familiar, and repeated. So it's not really spread out equally across everything all at once in English, if that makes sense when it comes to your fluency. And I think one of the biggest mistakes English learners make is believing that fluency is one giant skill. Like you either have fluency or don't have fluency. But honestly, that's not really how it works. And I think most learners already know this intuitively, even if they've never consciously thought about it before. Because I'm sure you've had moments where your English feels amazing, you know, you're confident, you're smooth when you speak, everything's automatic. And then 10 minutes later, or an hour later, or the next day, you're suddenly struggling to explain something that feels like it should be simple, right? Maybe you can discuss politics, engineering, medicine, coding, economics, but then you completely freeze when someone asks you something like, What did you get up to on the weekend? Or maybe you can discuss things like climate policy in English. But the second an Aussie barista says to you, How's a gal, mate? Your brain just completely leaves the chat, right? You freeze, you freak out, and you're sort of like, oh, I don't know what to say. So suddenly every English word you've ever learned feels like it disappears. And if that's happened to you before, don't worry, you're not weird, you're not bad at languages. Honestly, you're probably not even bad at fluency, because fluency is not one giant continent, it's a collection of islands. You see the metaphor that I'm using there, right? It's not one huge mass, it's a group of smaller little smaller masses like islands, I guess. You know, that's the metaphor I'm going for here. And today I want to introduce this idea of fluency islands. And obviously, this applies to English, but it also applies to any language that you might be learning. Maybe you've heard of this idea before, but I often find many of my students haven't. So now, this is a metaphor I've been thinking about a lot for a long time when it comes to second language acquisition, confidence, automaticity, you know, being able to speak automatically, effortlessly, communication, identity, and personality in another language. Because after years and years of teaching English learners, I've realized people are not equally fluent across all topics, not even close. And beyond that, I've noticed the same thing in Portuguese, right? I speak Portuguese with my wife, you're consigo falaring Portuguese, you're following Casa Carajia, I speak at home every day, but I'm not fluent in the majority of Portuguese language. I can talk about my family, my friends, my work, my day, what I'm doing tonight, you know, going out to eat food. But if someone were to ask me questions about economics, politics, or other things that I never practice or talk about in Portuguese, all of a sudden my fluency goes from really, really, really good to close to zero, if that makes sense. And it's probably the same for you. You'll often understand English much more easily when the topic connects to familiar parts of your life. For example, an engineer might struggle understanding a movie scene full of slang and fast banter, but instantly understand a technical discussion about systems or problem solving. Or someone might completely panic during small talk with another Aussie, but easily follow a podcast about parenting, fitness, gaming, because the ideas already feel familiar. And I think this is really important for learners to understand. Sometimes when listening feels difficult, it's not always about your English level being bad. Sometimes your brain simply doesn't yet have strong enough fluency islands in that area. I've had students who sound almost native-like discussing their profession, right? They can explain engineering systems, financial models, coding problems, architecture, medical procedures, you know, in incredible detail. And then if I ask them something like, what do you normally do for fun on the weekends? Their fluency suddenly completely collapses. You know, and honestly, I've noticed exactly the same thing in my Portuguese as I mentioned. Uh, it happened in my French when I was a lot better at French about a decade ago. There are certain topics where I feel relatively comfortable, dare I say, like with Portuguese in particular, almost native level like when I'm talking about daily topics, you know, what do the kids want to eat? Do they need a shower? What time are you getting home, Kel? You know, my wife. I can talk about those things. I can talk about things like animals, language learning, teaching. But then conversations when they move into humor, banter, storytelling, emotional nuance, personality, suddenly I feel way, way, way less fluent, as I mentioned. And I think this happens because all of us have different fluency islands. Some islands are large and some are tiny. Some are basically just a lonely little rock in the ocean hanging on for dear life. Some are deeply connected, and others are completely isolated. And your strongest islands are usually parts of your English most connected to your daily life, your identity, your emotions, your repeated experiences, your routines, your interests. Things like your work, your family, your hobbies, your goals, your health, your migration story, your relationships, your daily routines. And interestingly, this idea actually lines up really closely with what we see in the literature around second language acquisition too, right? The learning of another language. Now don't worry, this isn't going to be a huge university lecture type episode. I'm not about to start throwing 50 academic terms at you, but I do think there are a few interesting ideas, really cool ideas from language learning research that help explain why fluency works this way. One of the big ideas in second language acquisition is that language learning is deeply connected to context and meaning. There's a concept called situated learning theory. Now, very simply, the idea is that humans learn more effectively when learning happens inside meaningful situations, not isolated information. And research across language learning consistently shows that language tends to stick better when it feels useful, emotionally relevant, connected to real life, and repeatedly experienced. Which really makes complete sense, right? Think about the English you probably remember best. Usually, it's language that's going to be connected to your work, relationships, hobbies, real conversations, emotional experiences, stressful situations, funny moments, not just random vocabulists. Because really, your brain probably doesn't care that much about memorizing 45 fruit names if you never use any of them, right? And that's this that's the case for me in English. There are plenty there's probably more fruit in the world that I don't know the name of than the fruit that I do, if that makes sense. Your brain is constantly asking, is this useful? Does this matter? Will we need this again? And if the answer is yes, usually the language sticks more strongly and a lot more quickly. This is also why learners often improve quickly in areas they already understand deeply. For example, gamers often learn gaming English quickly, nurses learn medical English quickly, engineers learn technical English quickly, and parents learn parenting vocab really quickly. Why? Because the concepts already exist in their brain. They're not learning the concept and English at the same time, they're attaching English onto existing mental structures. And there's another really interesting idea here too from Stephen Crashin. Crashin talked about something called I plus one. Now very simply, the basic idea is that we improve fastest when language is understandable, slightly challenging, just beyond our current level. And while Crashen mainly focused on comprehensible input, I actually think this connects really strongly to familiar life contexts too. Because your fluency islands create familiarity, safety, comprehension, confidence. You're not swimming straight in the middle of the ocean, you're gradually moving away from shore. And I think a lot of learners accidentally try to swim too far too quickly. They constantly force themselves into abstract topics, emotionally disconnected topics, intellectually difficult topics, or unfamiliar conversations. And then they wonder, why is my speaking feeling so exhausting? And the reason is because they haven't spent time building strong fluency islands first. And just to be clear here, this does not mean you should only ever talk about your daily routine forever. Broad exposure still matters enormously. Listening matters enormously, reading matters enormously, new vocab matters enormously, podcasts, films, books, TV shows, all of that still helps massively. In fact, a lot of the best English learning happens when new language from books, podcasts, or conversations slowly starts attaching itself to your existing fluency islands. You hear something three or four times, then suddenly, one day, it naturally appears in a real conversation about your own life. But fluency develops faster when new language repeatedly connects back to meaningful parts of your life. And I think that distinction is really important. And the thing is, I think this leads directly into one of the biggest mistakes most English learners make. And I say this with love because I see it constantly. Learners become obsessed with new vocab, advanced topics, complicated ideas, quote, interesting content, rare expressions, and sounding intelligent, instead of building deep automatic fluency about their actual life. And the funny thing is, sometimes learners can discuss things like artificial intelligence ethics, macroeconomics, climate policy, quantum physics, but then they totally panic when a barista says, How's a girl mate? Or they can understand a documentary about ancient Rome, but struggle to explain things like what stresses them out, how they met their partner, what they did last weekend, why they're tired today. And I think a big part of the reason this happens is because novelty feels productive, new things feel exciting, repetition feels boring, but fluency is built through repetition, not endless novelty. And that's such an important distinction because fluent speakers are not inventing language from scratch every sentence. A huge amount of fluency is automatized retrieval, meaning your brain has repeated certain patterns so many times that accessing them becomes fast and unconscious. And a side note, working on this stuff is how people stop thinking in their native language. That whole idea of, oh, I keep thinking in my native language is the fact that you haven't automatized the language you're trying to use in your target language. You have to keep going back to your original one, thinking, what do I want to say, and then translating it into your target language. So that's what real fluency is. Not perfect grammar, not huge vocab, not sounding intellectual. Fluency is retrieval speed. It's how quickly your brain can access meaningful language without consciously analyzing every word. And really, this is one reason why native speakers sound so smooth. Not because they're linguistic geniuses, but because they've repeated stories, jokes, emotional reactions, opinions, conversational patterns over and over and over again throughout their lives. When you think about it, think about how many times you've probably explained what you do for work, where you grew up, how you met your partner, why you moved countries in your native language. Hundreds, maybe thousands of times? Of course, those conversations feel automatic. Your brain has rehearsed them for years. And I think learners massively underestimate this. Fluent speech often sounds spontaneous, but a huge amount of it is actually deeply familiar language being retrieved very quickly. And really, I think learners should spend way more time becoming deeply comfortable speaking about their life, their experiences, their emotions, their routines, their interests. Because if you think about your native language, most of your conversations are not about philosophy, geopolitics, quantum mechanics. Most conversations are about work, stress, food, relationships, family, plans, annoying situations, funny experiences, goals, and memories. That's everyday communication. And if you become highly fluent in those areas first, your overall confidence grows dramatically. So if I were learning a language from scratch again, these are probably the fluency islands I'd focus on first. Daily routine, work and study, hobbies, relationships, family, health, emotions, goals, memories, entertainment, travel experiences, and future plans. Because those are the topics most connected to identity, emotion, repetition, and real-world communication. And there's another really important point here too. When building a fluency island, I actually don't think learners should focus too heavily on isolated vocabulary. You should focus more on phrases, collocations, chunks, repeated conversational language. For example, let's say your fluency island is fitness. Don't spend all your time memorizing words like treadmill, dumbbell, protein powder. Instead, focus on phrases people actually use. Things like I'm gonna work out. I push myself, I'm staying consistent. Today I'm gonna skip the gym. I feel exhausted at the moment. Is he getting back to training? She lost motivation. I feel really sore at the moment. Because real communication happens through connected language, not isolated dictionary words. Native speakers don't usually think, hmm, now I need a verb, now an adjective, now a noun. They retrieve whole patterns automatically. Things like, I've been meaning to, I'm trying to get back into, I can't be bothered, I ended up. That's how real fluent speech actually works. And I think this is one of the biggest mindset shifts learners need to make. Stop asking what words should I learn, and start asking, what conversations do I want to become automatic in? That's a completely different way of thinking about fluency. Because ultimately, fluency is not about knowing the most English, it's about being able to access the right English quickly and naturally when your life demands it. Now, if there's one thing I think learners should do more than almost anything else to build fluency, it's storytelling. Seriously. I think storytelling is probably one of the most underrated tools in language learning. Because stories force you to use so many important fluency skills simultaneously. When you tell a story, you naturally practice verb tensors, sequencing, emotional language, descriptive language, connected speech, reactions, opinions, and transitions between ideas, all at the same time. And importantly, stories are emotionally memorable, which matters a lot. Because emotion plays a huge role in memory and learning. Your brain remembers emotionally meaningful experiences much more strongly than emotionally neutral information. Which is why learners often remember things like embarrassing moments, stressful conversations, funny misunderstandings, awkward situations, emotional interactions way more clearly than textbook exercises. And I think this is one reason traditional language learning materials often feel so forgettable. A lot of textbook conversations are emotionally dead. You know the kind I mean. Hello John. Hello Sarah. How are you today? I'm fine, thank you. Nobody has spoken like that since about 1987. There's no emotion, no personality, no tension, no humour, no identity, no stakes. Not the kind you eat. Real conversations are messy. They involve frustration, excitement, awkwardness, storytelling, exaggeration, humor, emotional reactions. That's real communication. And this is why I think repeatedly telling stories from your real life is unbelievably powerful for building fluency islands. Tell things like your funniest childhood memory, your worst travel experience, an awkward first date, your most stressful day at work, a funny misunderstanding in English, how and why you moved to Australia, a moment you felt proud of yourself. And don't just tell the story once, tell it again and again and again. Because every repetition strengthens the island. And I know some learners hate repetition. They think, but Pete, I already talked about that topic. This is boring as shit. Good. Talk about it again. Because repetition creates automaticity, and that's what we're after, right? Which is unfortunately much less exciting than some magical become fluent in seven days YouTube thumbnail. That's how fluency develops. Really. Really, I think learners massively underestimate how much repetition native speakers have had throughout their lives. Native speakers have told the same stories hundreds of times. My dad is a great example of this. He's got about four stories. He just rotates through them. They've repeated emotional reactions, opinions, jokes, explanations, controversial patterns for years. And over time, those patterns become deeply automatized. That's why native speakers often sound spontaneous, even when they're actually recycling familiar conversational structures. They've used countless times before. And this is where I think a lot of fluency advice online becomes misleading. Because some people make fluency sound like instant creativity. But a huge amount of fluency is actually familiarity, repetition, retrieval speed, and automatized conversational patterns. That should feel encouraging. Because it means fluency is trainable. You don't need to become some linguistic genius, some polyglot who can speak ten different languages all fluently. You need repeated, meaningful retrieval. That's very different. Now, once your fluency islands become stronger, something really interesting starts happening. You naturally begin building bridges between them. And this is where conversations start becoming more fluid and spontaneous. Because real conversations almost never stay inside one topic forever. People constantly move between connected islands. For example, you might start talking about work, then naturally move into stress, then health, then fitness, then motivation, then future goals. That's how real conversation works. It flows. And interestingly, I think many learners don't actually struggle with the individual topics themselves. They often struggle with the movement between topics, the transitions, the flexibility, the ability to move naturally through conversation without mentally freezing. So one really useful exercise is asking yourself, what topics naturally connect together in my life? Maybe cooking connects to family, family connects to culture, culture connects to identity, identity connects to language learning. Or maybe work connects to stress, stress connects to sleep, sleep connects to health, health connects to motivation. You can literally build networks of connected conversational territory. And the more bridges you build, the more flexible your English becomes. This develops spontaneity, conversational agility, smoother transitions, confidence during real interactions, because eventually you stop feeling trapped inside rehearsed conversations, memorized answers, or rigid speaking patterns. Instead, you start moving naturally between ideas, just like native speakers do. And to me, I think this is one of the clearest signs that fluency is developing. Not perfection, not fancy vocabulary, but conversational flexibility. The ability to move comfortably through connected parts of your life without constantly mentally translating everything. Alright, let's pause for a second and think about this. What are your strongest fluency islands right now? Seriously. Pause the episode, think about it, get a pen, get some paper, and try and write down your fluency islands. What topics feel easiest, safest, most automatic? And then ask yourself something like, which topics completely destroy my confidence? Because most learners already know the answer immediately. For some people, work is strong, whereas emotions are weak. For others, hobbies are strong, whereas small talk is weak. Or perhaps technical discussions are strong, but storytelling is weak. And becoming aware of that is incredibly useful because once you notice the pattern, fluency stops feeling like one giant mysterious problem, and instead, you can deliberately strengthen specific islands one at a time. And I think there's another really important emotional layer to this as well. I hear learners say this sort of thing constantly in my private lessons. I'm less funny in English, I'm quieter in English, I sound less intelligent in English, I'm less confident in English, I'm way more introverted when I speak English. And really, I don't think this is usually about intelligence at all. I think it's often because learners haven't built strong enough fluency islands around things like humor, storytelling, emotional expressions, personality, and social confidence. So even if their grammar is pretty good or perfect, their identity still feels trapped. And to me, I think this is what many learners are actually chasing when they say they want fluency. Not just grammar, vocab, and pronunciation, they want freedom. They want the ability to joke naturally, express emotions, tell stories, connect socially, feel relaxed, feel like themselves. And I think that's a much deeper and more human goal than simply I want better English. Because language is deeply connected to identity. And eventually, real fluency is when English finally starts feeling like your voice. So here's what I'd love you to do after this episode. Build one fluency island this week. Not ten, one. Choose one meaningful part of your life. Work, fitness, gaming, parenting, cooking, your migration story, relationships, your hometown, whatever genuinely matters to you. Then spend a week building automatic English around the topic. And I'm gonna give you a structure here. I'll include it in a free download. You can download this PDF and it'll have this in here, but if you don't, if you can't be bothered doing that, I'll read it out for you that so you can write it down as well. So the structure is gonna be day one, learn useful phrases and chunks. Day two, answer simple questions about the topic. Day three, tell stories. Day four, give opinions. Day five, record yourself speaking. Day six, use the language in a real conversation, and day seven, reflect and repeat. Because that repeated meaningful retrieval is exactly how Fluency Islands become stronger. So to help you guys apply this stuff, I've made a free downloadable Fluency Islands little workbook that goes with this episode. It'll help you actually map out your own fluency islands so you can identify which areas of English already feel strong, which topics feel disconnected, where your confidence breaks down, and what conversations you should focus on next. It'll also help you build bridges between topics, practice storytelling, collect useful conversational phrases, and create your own personalized seven-day fluency building plan around your real life. So if you want to grab that, the link will be in the description. So if there's one big idea I want you to remember from this episode, it's this fluency is not becoming perfect in English. Fluency is gradually building parts of your English that feel familiar, automatic, emotional, and personal. One island at a time. And eventually, those islands start connecting together. Your conversations become smoother, your confidence grows, your personality starts appearing more naturally in English. And slowly, English stops feeling like a school subject. Instead, it starts feeling like part of you. And honestly, I think that's when language learning becomes truly life-changing. Anyway, thank you so much for listening, guys. I am Pete. This is Aussie English. Grab that free download and uh yeah, let me know how you go. Send me a message. Tell me, you know, tell me about your fluency islands, what you're working on, and let me know if you enjoy this sort of episode focusing more on fluency and language learning tips and tricks and ideas. And I'll make some more in the future. Thanks again. I'll chat to you next time. To roo. Alright, that's it for today. If you found this one helpful, leaving a quick review really does help other learners find the podcast. And if you know someone who's learning Aussie English, feel free to share this episode with them too, mate. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you in the next one.