How to go from B1 to C2 without the pain!

So, how do we get from B1 to C2 without

the pain? Let me show you.

Oh, hello. Oh, matching colors.

Hello, it's Keith from the Keith

Speaking Academy here to help you become

a more confident speaker of English. Now

then, to go from B1 to C2 doesn't just

mean study harder. Not at all. For me,

it means study smarter and with a system

that you enjoy.

Simple as that. Those of you who follow

me will be familiar probably with the

speaking success system. Three simple

steps. Discover language, practice it,

and review it. And to be honest, that's

all you need. If you just do that,

you'll get to your C2.

However, some of you don't know the

system. If you don't, go and check out

this video. You'll get a quick overview

of that system. One of the important

things is the way we use this system at

different levels is slightly different.

So, I would use it differently at a B1

level and differently again at B2, C1,

and C2. Okay? It's not used in exactly

the same way. What I want to do with

this video is to show you for each level

what to do and focus on and what not to

do. And once you've got clarity on where

to focus with your study, it's going to

help you move up the levels to become

more confident and fluent in English.

Just to let you know, I've also put all

of this information. I've captured the

info inside this PDF. You can download

for free. There's a link in the

description. Let's begin then with level

B1.

Okay, you're at B1 level and you want to

move up to B2. The problem is you feel

stuck, right? You can understand a lot

and probably you can understand 99% of

my videos, but you can't speak and you

can't speak fluently yet. Okay. So, your

goal is you need to build a larger

spoken vocabulary.

You want to be using high frequency

chunks, and I'll talk more about those

in a moment. And you want to start

activating your vocabulary and

activating your grammar. So, you've

studied a lot of grammar. You've studied

the tenses, the different voices,

perfect, passive, active, but you can't

speak them out loud. So, it's time to

activate. You want to start building

your fluency so you can keep going and

keep talking, not just individual

sentences.

That's it, right? That's your goal. So,

your focus basically is speak more, not

learn more. Okay? Activate what you

know. So the core idea here with

vocabulary is to use high frequency

chunks and with grammar to activate the

12 tenses and the different um aspects

of those tenses. First of all, high

frequency chunks. So what do I mean by

those? These are chunks of language we

use regularly naturally in everyday

spoken English. And you probably know

them, but you don't think of them as a

chunk. To think of them as a chunk is to

think of them as one sound. So when you

see what do you think, the chunk is what

do you what do you think? What do you

think? What do you think? And so the

idea is to start thinking in sounds and

using that chunk. What do you think?

Because then that think you can change

with all different verbs. What do you

do?

What do you do? What do you like? What

do you eat? What do you do on the

weekends? What do you What do you So,

using these chunks suddenly starts

building up your fluency.

Another high frequency chunk. Uh, can I

have a look? Can I have a look? Can I

Can I have a look? Can I help you? Can I

come to the party?

They're just sounds. Can I? Is a sound.

So, stop thinking of words and think of

chunks and speak out the chunks. Another

one. How was How was your weekend? How

was your weekend? It's one sound or two

sounds. How was your weekend?

Once you've got how was, you can do

different endings. How was the film? How

was the book? How was your weekend?

Okay. Now, obviously in this video, I'm

not going to give you all the high

frequency chunks. I'll give you a lot

more in that PDF that I mentioned, but

just to give you an idea of this is a

change in mindset and a change in how

you're practicing speaking. Okay.

Likewise with the grammar, there are

chunks of grammar and you can do the

same thing with those. Okay. Again, PDF

will give you more examples. Next, just

let me tell you some things to do and

some things to don't. To don't do to not

do, do and don't do. Do right. Speak out

the chunks. Start speaking with

strangers. I don't mean strangers in the

street. I mean find people online in

different groups or uh areas where you

can practice English speaking. So,

you're practicing speaking with people

you don't know

to start building confidence. Okay? Tell

stories. Whatever you're doing, whatever

you're thinking, start telling stories,

speaking out loud in English. Don't

overcorrect

mid-sentence.

It's the one thing that is killing your

fluency is midsentence you're

overthinking, overcorrecting.

It kills your fluency. make a few

mistakes but focus on your fluency.

Okay, I'm just going to add something

about thinking in English because a lot

of students ask me, you know, how do I

start thinking in English? Don't wait

for it to happen. You make it happen.

You actively start thinking in English,

right? It doesn't magically happen one

day when you wake up. It's little things

that you're doing in your life where

every day you're starting to think of

things in English. What am I going to do

today? I'm going to do this. I'm going

to do that. Think in English. There's a

whole video up here you can watch about

thinking in English. Now, I'm going to

add something else about B1 to B2. U

because at B1 to B2, the change is that

you not only can talk about familiar

topics like home, work, health, hobbies,

but at B2 you can start talking about

unfamiliar topics. things like the

environment, the economy, space,

advertising. Okay. So whilst at B1 your

focus is on activating language, in

addition you should start listening,

reading, watching things on unfamiliar

topics. Don't worry about learning the

vocabulary, but just expose yourself to

these more unfamiliar topics. And that's

going to help you

lay the foundation for your B2 level.

That's it for B1. Talking of B2, let's

have a look how things change at B2.

Okay, from B2 to C1, and this is what we

often call the the plateau.

You've been studying since you were six

years old. You're now an adult. You've

made progress, but now suddenly it seems

like you're flat. You just can't go up

any higher. It's the famous plateau.

Basically, you know, you sound okay when

you speak, but well, and you know, you

can communicate in the classroom, but

when it comes to native speakers,

really, you can't quite communicate so

effectively. And it's because you don't

sound natural and you don't have

flexibility. So your goal here is to

move from a student of English to being

more like a proficient or native

speaker. That's it. To do that, you need

a wider range of vocabulary to

understand nuance and register. Is it

formal, informal, slang? understand and

use collocations much better and control

discourse much better. The cohesion, how

you connect ideas fluently and flexibly.

Also, you need to be listening more to

English at native speaker rates.

So, I mean listening to authentic

English, not just study English. So

maybe up until now you've been listening

to Keith's English podcast helping you

learn English. What you should be

listening to now is Brian's football

podcast for for British people. If you

like football or Angela's musical

podcast if you like music, something

authentic aimed at native speakers. You

need to be getting into that space a lot

more. And another thing here which a lot

of people forget is a change in mindset.

And it is a change in mindset from just

being able to communicate okay to really

communicating naturally. Because if you

don't make that change in mindset and

really want it, you're not going to

carry on. You'll just say, "Ah, it's

good enough. They understand me." You

need a change in mindset for this B2 to

C1. So I would say your focus then maybe

four things. Um collocations,

lexical patterns.

For example, you know, is a verb

followed by an infinitive or a girund.

What are the different prepositions

after this verb? Thirdly, grammatical

patterns. And fourthly, discourse

phrases and how you manage discourse,

the cohesion, your ideas. Okay. Another

important thing you must focus on is

activating language as you build it. So

as you grow your language, make sure

you're activating it. So the core idea

here basically is to learn how to

express your ideas and opinions more

naturally.

Let me talk in a bit more detail about

collocations, grammar, and discourse.

Collocations super important. These are

two or three words that typically go

together the way that native speaker

will use them. Okay? For example, you're

in a meeting, right? And somebody comes

up with an idea and you go, "What?

That's crazy. That's a crazy idea." And

you say, "It's a completely crazy idea."

Now, that's okay. Everybody understands.

But probably what a native speaker would

say is that idea is utterly absurd.

Utterly absurd.

That is your native collocation.

So you need to be learning what native

speakers would say, the collocations

they use. Another example is you're at

the hospital. You go, "Ow, I'm in pain.

I'm in a lot of pain. I'm in strong

pain." and the doctor goes, "Oh, you're

in excruciating pain." Excruciating

pain. That's the natural collocation.

Okay? So, that's a really important

focus. Grammar. Next. It's getting a

deeper understanding of grammar, not

just the surface level. So, for example,

knowing that the present continuous,

um, I'm doing something now is not only

used for now, but it's used in the

future, right? I'm visiting Tom

tomorrow.

Different nuances, the deeper level of

grammar. Finally, discourse.

So, you may be again in a conversation

and you say, "Listen, I don't agree with

that idea." Okay? Whereas a native

speaker might say, "I see your point,

but I think da da da. I see your point,

but what you need to do now at getting

into C1 level is to be able to use both.

I don't agree and I think I see your

point, but so it's building your

repertoire of discourse. Okay. So, how

do you do this? Do and don'ts. Do watch

more English, native, authentic English,

and notice the collocations they use.

Keep a record. Write them down and then

start to use them in discussions,

conversations, debates, giving

explanations,

all of these. And a quick tip when

you're watching or reading something,

every time you read something, give

yourself a quick oral summary. It's a

really good practice. Don'ts don't

download and memorize word lists from

the internet because memor well

downloading the word list means you you

haven't got the context and you haven't

been through the process of noticing and

getting the words. The word list isn't

going to help you. And also if you're

going to do that make it a collocation

word list at least. But even so, you

find the context, you make your own

lists of collocations.

There is a very useful tool out there

called www.osdick.com.

It's a collocation dictionary. Great

reference tool for you. Okay. And my

final tip is another challenge for you

probably at this level is you have what

we call fossilized errors. those

mistakes, the same mistakes you've been

making year after year after year. It's

time to iron out those errors. Get rid

of them. The way to do it is record

yourself speaking, transcribe what

you've said and notice the errors or

feed it into AI chat GBT and get it,

him, her, them to identify the errors.

So, a you're aware of them and then

every time you're speaking, just be

aware of those fossilized errors and

start correcting them. That's it. From

B2 to C1, what's next? Ah, C1 to C2.

Right, here we are. The highest level,

C1 to C2. I wonder what level you are.

Let's have a look. Okay. So here um

probably at this level you can

understand everything and you can speak

a lot with very little effort but you

make small noticeable mistakes. Maybe in

your vocabulary, in your grammar, in

your discourse, in nuance, in style, in

cultural references. It's the kind of

thing that when you're speaking to a

native speaker, they're very impressed

with your English, but now and again

they smile because you've said something

that doesn't sound quite right. And when

you see that smile, you know, oh, I've

made a small mistake somewhere. Okay. So

now getting from C1 to C2, it's all

about what I would say effortless

clarity. That's what we're looking for.

So, your goal is to get near native

automaticity

and appropriateness of language.

Automaticity. What a great word that is.

Um, from the word automatic, right?

Automating your language. The noun

automaticity.

So, speaking without thinking really,

that's what it is. So, you need that.

And also near native appropriateness,

right? using the right tone, the right

register, the right word at the right

time basically and all of that across a

wide range of contexts. In order to do

that, you need to finetune your lexical

choice.

So, choosing the right words, exactly

the right words in the right moment, the

right nuance, the right connotation. So,

having a deep deep understanding of

words. Okay? And also you need better

rhetoric. So what I mean by rhetoric is

basically not just using language to be

understood but to convince people to do

things. It's the effective use of

language to get things done and convince

people. Not only that they understand

you but they act on what you've said.

Let me give you an example in Spanish of

that rhetoric and something that

happened to me. Come with me just a

moment. A while back, we did some

renovation work on this bathroom in

here. Okay? And basically, we wanted to

make it a bit bigger. So, add this extra

unit over here. And as we were doing

that, the builders who were here, one of

them said to me, "When you make it

bigger, you'll be able to dance in

here." And I said,

and at that moment all the workers

stopped and looked at me and went, "Oh."

Because I was being sarcastic and I

said, "Yeah, you can dance a chis in

here. A chis is an old Spanish dance

where literally you dance on the spot

without moving." So what I was saying

was it's actually still very small. It's

too small to dance. Um but what happened

was instead of just being understood,

there was a communication on a deeper

level and a connection and that led to a

better relationship and then working

more effectively. So English is not just

or language is not being understood.

It's about a deeper connection and

getting things done. Rhetoric. And

finally, I'd say having really good

repair strategies. It's interesting. A

lot of people think native speakers or

proficient speakers don't make mistakes,

don't have breakdown in communication,

that they just speak perfectly all the

time. Of course, we don't. And you don't

in your mother tongue. You make kind of

misunderstandings. You suddenly stop,

change your mind, restart, you need to

clarify, um you need to rephrase. All of

these are repair strategies if you like.

So getting really effective repair

strategies is also very important. So

the focus is to use appropriate language

and tone

to get things done effectively

in a wide range of situations.

And I would add I think you know to do

that you you need to learn really to

adapt your language to different

situations to be able to speak in formal

situations informal academic business

conversational parties speaking to

children old people. All of that is so

important. Let's look first at lexical

choice. There's a number of things you

can do. I'm going to focus on just one

that I think so many students neglect

and that is word families and this will

help so much by word families I mean

knowing the the noun the verb the

adjective the adverbs all the different

parts of a particular word for example

if we take the word to consider that's

the verb the noun is

consideration

right um the adjective is considerable,

a considerable number of people or

actually there's another adjective

considerate. He's very considerate, very

caring and thoughtful. So these word

families are so important. Let me test

you at your level. If you are a C1 kind

of level, let's see. Let's take the

word, let me find a word. Let's take the

word imply.

That's the verb, right? to suggest

something without actually saying it.

Right? Let's see if you know the

different word families. Okay, fill in

the gap here with one of the word

families of the word imply. Okay, first

one's easy. What are you blank?

Right. What are you implying the verb?

Right. Very good. Um, that is clearly

your

blank.

It's the noun. That is clearly your

implication.

Right. Last one. It is blank in

everything you said.

It is implicit in everything you said.

The adjective, right? Can you start to

see how important these are and how they

give you flexibility? Because what a lot

of people do is when they don't know the

word family, they try and rephrase in a

different simpler way. That's okay. But

at your C2 level, you're using all the

word families flexibly. So that's one

simple thing you can do or focus on for

your lexical choice. Another thing you

can do is practice what I call styles

shift drills. So style shift is is

practicing saying something in different

styles.

So how would you say this in a

conversation, in a meeting, um down the

pub, right? You can do this for whole

texts or just for different phrases. Let

me give you a bit of a fun example,

right? Let's take some let's take this

sentence. Um don't worry, everything

will be okay. How might you say that?

first with mates down the pub.

What do you think?

You might say down the pub, "Don't

panic. Things will work out." Okay. How

would you say that in a meeting,

a business meeting?

Maybe you might say, "There's no need to

worry. Everything will go according to

plan.

How would you say this? Talking to a

granddad.

Maybe

it'll be all right, granddad. Don't

worry yourself.

Okay. But can you see how the language

changes slightly in each case? The the

register, the tone, the lexical choice.

This is what you want to be doing more

and more at C2 level. So, some quick dos

and don'ts at this level. Do do lots of

advanced noticing as you listen, watch,

read, notice collocations, nuance, and

idioms.

Idiomatic language is really key at this

higher level. Don't

don't worry about slang too much. I

think sometimes there's too much

emphasis on slang, especially on social

media, learning all the slang in

English. Useful to know, but not so

useful to use. Um, and also I'd say

don't aim for accent eradication. You

don't need to get rid of your accent.

It's fine if you've got Chinese accent,

Vietnamese accent. So long as you're

clearly understood, that's it. Don't

waste time getting rid of accent. Focus

on better pronunciation. Okay? Aim for

clarity. At this level, it's all about

effortless clarity.

So, there we have it. For each level,

from B1 to C2, we've looked at the

challenge, the goal, where you should

focus and how you can get there, some

tips on how to get there, and some dos

and don'ts for each level. In essence,

all of this basically is it's the

speaking success system. It's all you

need, but just a different focus

depending on the level where you're at.

I hope this helps. You can do all of

this. Oh, by the way, do you remember

there's a PDF if you want to download

this with a lot more detail. It's a

really nice study guide to help you get

through each level. Um, if you want my

help, I mean, you can do this on your

own, but if you want my help, I am here

to help. You can come and join a course.

I can make some recommendations. If

you're at B1 level, try the fluent

grammar course uh to automate your

grammar and your fluency. If you're at

B2,

try the gold course, my flagship course.

If you're at C1, I'd suggest the 150

idioms course to learn idioms in

context, how to use them as well. And if

you're at C2, well, you probably don't

need my help. It's not about learning,

it's about practicing. So, you could

practice with the murder mystery

challenge. It's a fun, exciting way to

practice. Go and check it out. Whatever

you decide to do, I will always be here

for you on YouTube. Thank you so much

for watching. Um, hope you've enjoyed it

and I'll see you very, very soon. Take

care, my friend. Bye-bye.