How would I define “english mastery”? English is language, language is a tool.
A practice is based on theory and maintained by tools/work products.
So we must think about practice/method first, because it finally defines a tool.
Mastery is “mastery in a specific method”.
What are methods using English as a tool?
Any method which involves thinking, reading, writing (incl. touch typing), coding, listening and speaking can be named as such a method.
The main sign of a mastery is the presence of work products of this mastery.
With English as a tool this means having work products of any practice made with English.
Do I say “russian language mastery”? No. Why? Because this mastery is by default seen in any work product of any method which involves russian language. Nobody can argue the absence of a specific language mastery if he observes work product (written, said, heard, read) made with this language. Mastery in practice implies mastery of using a tool which maintains this practice.
So I take four basic work product of four practices:
- Reading - text which is read and understood
- Listening - audio which is listened and understood
- Writing - text which is written by me and polished by AI (no text should be published without AI which checks grammar and polish words). Note: there are differences in use cases of writing, writing a blog post or an article is different then chatting with a friend in a messenger.
- Speaking - a piece of thoughts which is spoken verbally.
One basic practice unites them all - all they are impossible without thinking in english (and in particular when I think and type, touch typing mastery helps to reduce friction in converting thoughts to letters on a screen, this is a goal of this practice).
Main conclusion: I focus on a practice with english, not english itself.
Volodina: thinking in English is way more important then other usage of language; grammar shouldn’t be learned just in textbooks, it is important to see how it is being used in real life - texts, speech. Vocabulary and grammar are auxiliary to thinking.
For example, thinking in writing practice will involve specific notions and definitions from a specific domain, independently of language. So to make a work product of this practice I have to know words and rules of this language to make creation of such work products possible. Every language is based on semantic, syntax, morfology, vocabulary, grammar. And it evolves.
What is the plan to improve my using english as a tool:
- I have to convert my english materials which have been gathered as the notes in my Google Drive into work products of specific practices. This folder should cease to exist till 31.12.2026
- I have to make work products of four basic practices in english.
- I have to use AI to improve the quality of such work products.
- All these tasks will involve thinking in english with widening my vocabulary and grammar improvement, and touch typing and thinking with AI as well.
You don’t learn a tool itself, you learn it in the context of a specific practice where you plan to use this tool.
