Methods

The FarWest Method is a foreign language self-teaching system and completely free. Using the Method, you will choose goals, identify your gaps (mistakes), build your own English learning material, and find free online resources that are useful to you.

The FarWest Method was designed to address the 5 Reasons Why Training Fails. It takes into account the structure of the English language and how the brain learns languages.

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	1. CHOOSE YOUR GOALS 2. IDENTIFY YOUR GAPS + ACQUIRE MATERIAL 3. MEMORIZE NEW MATERIAL 4. PRACTICE NEW SKILLS 5. IMPLEMENT IN YOUR LIFE

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1.Choose your Goals

We are going to divide your goals into two types: Life Goals and English Goals.

Life goals are big goals that don't directly involve English.

For example:

•"I want to get a promotion." •"I want to communicate better with my foreign friends." •"I want to help my children to be successful." •"I want to travel."

English Goals are the tools you need to accomplish your Life Goals.

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While your Life Goals can be general, your English Goals must be specific.

Some examples include:

•"I want to read medium length emails (5-10 sentences) about work, specifically import and export." •"I want to have a conversation with my boss about entertainment, specifically sports." •"I want to give a short speech (5-10 sentences) about work, specifically graphs and charts."

Click here to read more about choosing your Goals
Use this Cheat-Sheet to Quickly Select Your Goals

2.Identify your Gaps

Your gaps (mistakes) are what you need to learn to meet your English goals. The more accurately you identify your gaps, the more efficiently you can meet your goals.

Perform – Perform the activity in your native language. For example, if you want to have a conversation about food, write 5 questions and 5 answers in Chinese about food. Translate – Translate your Chinese sentences into English. If you have any trouble translating a word or phrase, mark it down in Chinese. Identify – Identify what you think you know, but you're not 100% sure about. This is the hardest part of the process. There are several ways to do this including online assessments, a private teacher, or a language exchange. Contact FarWest now for a FREE Gap analysis [link] Record – Record all your gaps on a Gap Sheet. This will become the core of your learning material.

Read more advice about Identifying Your Gaps
Download a Gap Sheet


3.Memorize New Material

i.Short-Term Memorization New Vocabulary - There are 600,000 to 1 million words in the English language, so you must identify the words that help you accomplish your English Goals. When memorizing vocabulary: •Divide your vocabulary into chunks of seven words. •Make a sentence for each word and memorize the sentence, not the word. •When you visualize your sentence, think about location, faces, and emotions. •Memorize for 15 minutes then take a 5 minute break. •Test yourself for 15 minutes. Just like with exercising our muscles, we need to force our brains to do a lot of work for short periods of time. Study 7 sentences aggressively for 15 minutes then take a 5 minute break, followed by a 15 minute test.(memorize) Read more about Memorizing Vocabulary Download a Memorizing Vocabulary Cheat-Sheet [UNDER CONSTRUCTION] ii.Super-Useful Phrases Memorizing phrases is a lot like memorizing vocabulary. However, there is a key difference. Super-Useful phrases involve those 100 words that make up 50% of the English language. They are extremely useful but also extremely hard to remember. The reason is those words usually have no direct translation and no direct meaning. For your brain, this makes them seem useless so your brain decreases their priority. You need to associate these 100 words with something your brain will remember – food or animals. For example, you could associate "an" with "ant" or "on" with "orange." These should be personal. If you choose them yourself, they will be easier to remember. The associations should be made once and memorized. Click here to read more about Memorizing Super-Useful Phrases [UNDER CONSTRUCTION] iii.Long-term Memorization We can memorize information quickly but we also forget information quickly. Luckily, modern marketing techniques give us methods to acquire and reinforce these memories. We can reinforce memories by: •Changing our desktop wallpaper to English sentences we want to remember •Hanging signs in our room or beside our desk at work •Listening to an MP3 of the sentences we want to remember Reinforcement and acquisition are useful. However, sometimes we need to do a detailed review. Modern psychology suggests that this should be done every 30 days for maximum efficiency and retention. Click here to read the Long-Term Memorization

4.Practice New Skills

Practice has many stages:

Absorbtion – Initially using the material that you memorized (ie using a new phrase in a familiar situation) Mastery – Reaching the level of a native speaker (ie using a learned phrase in any situation) Maintenance – Keeping your English ready for use (ie occasionally reviewing the phrase through reading or listening)

Click here to read "What is Practice?"

Many students have trouble finding time to practice. In fact, there are many ways to include English in your day without using too much time. The key is creating a schedule for your English practice.

Click here to read some advice about Time Management and Scheduling

The Internet gives us some great opportunities to practice. These days, there are hundreds of English games available for free. They are a fast, fun, and useful way to practice.

In addition, there are lots of free assessments to practice with. They are very useful because they challenge you to think and help you measure your progress.

Click here to read about Games and Assessments

5.Implementing English in your Life

Implementation means using your English in real life. This is where all of your work becomes a reality. There are 4 types of problems that can occur when we implement our English:

Lack of Preparation: When it comes time to use English, some people "panic" and other people "choke." Lack of Health: Issues like diet and sleep can have a big impact on our performance. Brain health is the key to a good memory and quick thinking. Lack of Support: Having an English speaker available for back-up can make a huge difference. They can help you with editing as well as a warm-up call before you implement. Lack of Confidence: Confidence comes with being prepared, good health, and support.

Click here to read the FarWest Implementation Method

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