“Motivation is what gets you started.

Habit is what keeps you going.”

Jim Rohn

STEP BY STEP CHECKLIST

www.deepenglish.com
 STEP–BY–STEP
T h e Tr u e S t o r i e s F l u e n c y C o u r s e C h e c k l i s t

Many students ask us how long they should practice with each lesson.
Everyone has different needs, so the answer will be different for everyone.
These are some goals you should meet before you move on to the next
lesson.

There are 12 units in the True Stories Fluency Course. Each unit has 11 audio
lessons. We recommend that you spend at least 1-2 weeks on each unit. This
means that you don’t just listen 1, 2 or 3 times. You should listen many times.
Repetition is necessary to build your listening and speaking skills.

Use this step-by-step checklist as you work through the first 11 lessons in
True Stories #1 Life or Death. The most important thing to remember is to
not get sidetracked by trying to be perfect.  Your goal is to listen a lot and
speak a lot, and have fun.  That means answering the questions quickly, not
perfectly.  Follow this guide step by step and you will see success.

-Aaron and Dan

 Active Listening Slow, Normal and Fast Speed Checklist
(Tracks 1, 2 and 3)
q Listen to the slow speed lesson first. Don’t read along with the PDF text file.

q Don’t worry about understanding everything. Relax and focus on what you do understand.

q Listen again and close your eyes. Imagine what you’re hearing. Really see it. Create a movie in
your mind. Stop the audio if you need to.

q After listening 4 or 5 times, listen again and read along with the PDF text file.

q Use a dictionary as necessary, but remember that your main goal is to listen a lot.

q Imagine how things look, sound and smell. How do the characters feel? The stronger you
imagine, the more you will subconsciously process the language.

q Listen again and then stop the recording. How much can you remember?

q Do you understand the main points. If the answer is no, listen again. If the answer is yes, start
listening to the fast speed recording . Listen many times until it becomes easy.

q Go back to the slow speed recording and practice shadowing. You can learn about shadowing
here: (http://deepenglish.com/2011/10/shadowing/)

q Now try shadowing with the normal speed recording.

q After you've built your confidence with the normal speed, challenge yourself with the fast
speed.

Active Speaking Checklist

(Track 4)
q Answer the questions with complete sentences.

q Pause the recording if you don’t have enough time to answer.

q Speak in a loud voice. If you want to become fluent, you can’t be shy with this step. Be bold! Be
confident! If you don’t feel confident, don’t worry. Confidence is a feeling that takes practice.
Imagine confidence at first, and real confidence will grow.

q Don’t worry about the mistakes. The goal is not to be perfect or to match the recording. The
goal is to increase your speaking time to become fluent.

q Speak along with these lessons many times, until you can answer easily and quickly, without
pausing the recording.
Future, Present Continuous, Past Continuous, Present Perfect
Checklist
(Tracks 5, 6, 7 and 8)
 
q Start with the Future tense. This one is the easiest.

q Try to give your answers in the correct tense, but don’t worry about mistakes. Relaxing while
you listen and speak is very important.

q Listen many times.

 
q You are ready to move on to the Present Continuous, when you can:

q  (1) Answer the Future questions without thinking.

q  (2) Speak without worrying about mistakes.

q  (3) Speak in a loud confident voice.

 
q Focus on opening up, relaxing and not trying to be perfect. Fluency is smooth speaking, not
perfect speaking.

q Follow the same steps for the Present Continuous, Past Continuous and Present Perfect.

Fluency Booster Lessons Checklist

(Tracks 9, 10 and 11)
q Follow the same steps as the Active Speaking. Don’t think about what you are going to say,
just speak. If you are thinking too much, go back to the Active Speaking lesson and practice that
lesson more. When you are confident, come back to the fluency booster lessons.
 Before you finish True Stories Unit 1 and start Unit 2
q There are 12 stories with 11 lessons each in the True Stories Fluency Course totalling 132
lessons. Don’t hurry. This isn’t a race. Your number one goal is to increase the amount you listen
and speak everyday. The speed that you finish these first 11 lessons is not important. In fact, it is
better if you go slow and relax. This is the best way to build real fluency and confident speaking
and listening.

q Retell these stories to your friends. Of course, retelling these stories in English is best, but even
retelling them in your own language will help you process the story more deeply.

q Look at the supplementary material on our launch pages.

Here is the link to our launch pages: http://deepenglish.com/true-stories-pages/ You will need to
be logged into the members area to access this link.

q Now, you’re ready to move on to True Stories Unit 2. Follow the same steps and remember, you
don’t need to force anything. Just keep listening and keep speaking everyday, and you will
improve.

q Don’t forget to use the Deep English Goal Tracker. This will help you stay motivated.