This may sound very controversial for the uninitiated: To master a foreign language, you need to to keep you mouth shut (especially at your beginner level) and focus on getting a huge amount of input into your brain cells first. Let me explain.
I don’t know about you, but I started my English learning journey since I was a little kid but it was not until when I graduated from college and came across Stephen Krashen’s second language acquision theory one day, however, did my command of this language start to get better.
The core theory of Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis goes like this:
language acquision happens when language learners expose to comprehensible input, and speaking(output) is not practicing and does not result in improving language proficiency.
My own experice can be shown as a empirical evidence that Stephen Krashen is onto something. As I recollect my own language learning experience, it seems that after months of intensive input sessions (tons of content from my favorite podcasts and youtube channels), my english level just magically improved with no deliberate practice on speaking whatsoever.
Furthermore, we learn better when the materials presented to us are more engaging and fun.
The lack of fun could be the reason why the language lessons I used to take didn’t lead to any improvement in my English. And worse, It made English learning stressful, when I was forced to have a conversation using my broken grammar and pronounciation.