Yutaro
Founder of InstaEnglish
Before We Talk About Instantaneous English Composition...
Hi, I'm Yutaro, the founder of the Instantaneous English Composition app, InstaEnglish, which I started in the United States. In this article, I'll explain the methods, tips, and actual effects of this training. But first, let me briefly share the background that led me to see the value in this learning method.
In English education, a common piece of advice for improving speaking skills is to 'just speak, speak, and speak some more!' The idea that you just need to rack up conversation hours is widely accepted. It's true that the more you're exposed to English, the more your skills will grow. This advice seemed reasonable enough, and I myself followed that path, from online conversation classes to short-term and long-term study abroad programs. However, as I immersed myself in English, I grew dissatisfied with the slow pace of my speaking improvement. I began to question whether this 'grit-based' approach to practice was truly efficient.
To find an answer, I started discussions with linguists at Northwestern University, where I was a student at the time of founding my company, to scientifically explore how second-language speakers can improve their speaking abilities. The optimal study method we arrived at was, surprisingly, 'Instantaneous English Composition.'
The Basic Method of Instantaneous English Composition
Instantaneous English Composition is a training method where you read a sentence in your native language, instantly form an equivalent English sentence in your head, and then say it out loud.
For example, given the Japanese sentence:
「この商品を半分にしてもらえますか？」("Can you cut this in half?" in Japanese)
You would instantly create and say the following English sentence:
Can you cut this in half?
Then, you check if you said the English sentence correctly. If you were wrong, you identify the reason for the mistake and review the correct example. You repeat this cycle with various Japanese sentences, translating them instantly into English. Each question can be completed in a few seconds, or 30 seconds at most, allowing you to practice many English expressions in a short amount of time.
This might sound like simple English translation practice, but there's more to it. If you practice Instantaneous English Composition the wrong way, you'll cut its effectiveness in half. Understanding why this method is effective for improving speaking skills will reveal the truly best way to practice.
Why is Instantaneous English Composition Effective for Improving Speaking Skills?
Regardless of the language, whether it's English or Japanese, when a person speaks, their brain processes the following three steps in order.
The Three Steps of Speech Production
Conceptualization
The stage of deciding what to say.
Formulation
The stage of assembling what you want to say into a sentence.
車
Car
Articulation
The stage of actually voicing the assembled sentence.
クルマ
/kɑːr/
The three steps of speech production (Kormos, J., 2006. Speech production and second language acquisition.)
① Conceptualization
In the first process, conceptualization, you determine in your mind the thoughts or ideas you want to convey. For instance, before saying 'A car is coming, be careful!' the concepts of 'car,' 'coming,' and 'danger' are formed in your head. At this point, specific words like 'car' or 'danger' are not yet attached to these concepts. Conceptualization is like a movie playing in your head without text or sound. Therefore, this process has little to do with the speaker's linguistic ability. It's generally not an issue where you can conceptualize in Japanese but not in English.
For example, the problem of 'I surprisingly have nothing to talk about in my English conversation lesson...' stems from this conceptualization process and can occur regardless of one's English proficiency. For those facing this issue, I strongly recommend preparing what you want to talk about in advance, even if it's just in Japanese, before your lesson!
② Formulation
In the second process, formulation, you construct a natural, meaningful sentence using the appropriate vocabulary and grammar of the language you're speaking. In our previous example, this corresponds to building the sentence 'A car is coming, be careful!' in your mind.
The struggle of 'I can't say what I want to say in English...' is a problem in this formulation stage. Many people have likely experienced being able to easily express a concept in Japanese, like 'Please put the skirt steak into four separate bags,' but then struggling to find the words when trying to say it in English.
③ Articulation
Finally, in articulation, you voice the sentence with the correct pronunciation and intonation. You connect the individual sounds, like 'A-car-is-com-ing-be-care-ful,' and output them as a continuous stream of sound with the proper rhythm.
The concern that 'My pronunciation has a Japanese accent, and people can't understand me...' is a problem that occurs at this articulation stage. The English pronunciation of Japanese speakers is sometimes called a 'Japanese accent' or even a 'samurai accent,' and it's often pointed out for its unique characteristics. For example, since Japanese syllables almost always end in a vowel (a, i, u, e, o), when trying to pronounce 'smart,' unnecessary vowels 'u' and 'o' might be inserted, resulting in 'su-ma-to.' Similarly, the English 'R' and 'L' sounds often fall within the range of the Japanese 'ra, ri, ru, re, ro' sounds, making them difficult to distinguish both when speaking and listening.
Language Learning Should Focus on Two Steps: ② Formulation and ③ Articulation
The Three Steps of Speaking
Conceptualization
Decide what to say
Formulation
Assemble what you want to say into a sentence
Articulation
Actually voice the assembled sentence
When a fluent native Japanese speaker wants to improve their English speaking skills, the steps to train are ② Formulation and ③ Articulation. As mentioned earlier, ① Conceptualization is a language-independent thought process, so it's not a concern in the context of language learning. (Of course, since English is a communication tool, training to conceptualize valuable content is important outside the context of language learning!)
On the other hand, ② Formulation and ③ Articulation are where many people struggle, as these are language-dependent skills that they can perform effortlessly in Japanese but find difficult in English.
Instant Composition is Ideal for Training ② Formulation!
The Efficiency of Instantaneous English Composition
Conceptualization
Decide what to say
Formulation
Assemble what you want to say into a sentence
Articulation
Actually voice the assembled sentence
Instantaneous English Composition is a highly efficient method for training the process of 'formulating a concept into a sentence.' In this method, the concept to be translated is presented as a prompt in your native language (Japanese), allowing you to conceptualize the meaning instantly. This significantly shortcuts the effort of ① Conceptualization. As a result, you can engage in efficient practice that specifically targets ② Formulation. In other words, Instantaneous English Composition is a training method that effectively enhances your ability to construct English sentences with the correct vocabulary and grammar.
4 Important Points for Practicing Instantaneous English Composition
I've explained that Instantaneous English Composition is effective for training the formulation process. However, to maximize its benefits, there are four key points to keep in mind.
Start After Mastering Basic English
To get the most out of Instantaneous English Composition, it's desirable to have mastered junior high school level English grammar and vocabulary. Specifically, you need enough English proficiency to understand the provided example answers without difficulty, both grammatically and lexically. If you lack this foundational knowledge, it becomes difficult to instantly create accurate English sentences, as you won't have the necessary building blocks to formulate the concept from the Japanese prompt.
For example, when you read a sentence like, 'He gave me 400 grams of meat,' you should be able to recognize its structure as S(he) + V(gave) + O(me) + O(400 grams of meat) and easily grasp the meaning of each word. Instantaneous English Composition is a training method to evolve your English from 'I can understand it when I read it' to 'I can say it myself (formulate it).' Therefore, it's crucial that the English you are practicing is already at a level you can understand upon reading. Before you start, make sure you have a solid grasp of basic English knowledge, typically learned in junior high school.
Don't Rely Too Much on Rote Memorization
The goal of Instantaneous English Composition is to train the process of creating an English sentence from a concept. When you speak a memorized phrase, you aren't going through the formulation process; instead, you're performing a different process called 'memory recall,' where you retrieve the answer from stored memory. Rote memorization can be necessary in language learning, and for common phrases, it can be efficient to train through repeated memorization and recall. In such cases, tools optimized for memorization, like vocabulary lists or flashcards, are more suitable.
However, relying solely on memorization won't develop your ability to construct English from concepts. You may find that you can't form a sentence if the expression is slightly different, leading to situations where you can't speak effectively in real conversations. To be able to freely express a wider range of concepts in English, it's better to focus on training your ability to build sentences from concepts, using your foundational grammar and vocabulary (including memorized phrases), rather than just recalling memorized sentences.
The Key to Skipping Conceptualization is Short Japanese Sentences!
One of the benefits of Instantaneous English Composition is that it significantly reduces the effort of 'conceptualization' because the concept to be expressed is provided in your native language. The key here is that the prompt should be 'your native language sentence that can be understood instantly at a glance without much thought.' For example, try reading the following Japanese sentence:
「400gのハラミ肉を4つに袋分けしてください」
Most people probably had to read that sentence carefully to understand its meaning.
Now, look at the next sentence:
「ハラミ肉をください」
You likely grasped the meaning of this sentence at a single glance. It's said that people can generally comprehend about 13-15 characters in an instant. The first sentence has 22 characters, while the second has 13. To eliminate the cognitive load of 'conceptualization' in this training, it's important for the Japanese prompts to be around 15 characters or less.
Expressions like '400g of' or 'pack into separate bags' can then be learned by breaking them down into multiple Instant Composition problems, like so:
「400gのお肉をください」
「お肉を袋分けしてください」
Because the name includes 'composition,' it's easy to imagine it's like the exercises from school English classes, where you carefully read a Japanese sentence and translate it word by word. However, Instantaneous English Composition takes the opposite approach. The essence of this training is to instantly grasp the concept by looking at the Japanese sentence and then construct an English sentence from that concept. The trick is to look at the prompt momentarily, understand the meaning, and then look away from the Japanese text as you say the English sentence.
By the way, the English for the above examples can be expressed as follows:
400gのお肉をください:
Please give me 400 grams of meat.
お肉を袋分けしてください:
Please pack the meat into separate bags.
400gのハラミ肉を4つに袋分けしてください:
Please pack 400 grams of skirt steak into 4 bags.
Translate a Wide Range of Concepts to Broaden Your Usable English Expressions
The final point is to increase the variety of concepts you can formulate into sentences. For instance, even if you can say 'I'm hungry,' if you can't formulate 'I'm starving, let's go into the next restaurant we find,' you won't be able to truly convey what you want to say to others in English.
Instantaneous English Composition is also very effective for expanding the range of concepts you can express in English! For example, do you find yourself spending most of your valuable online English lesson time on self-introductions, or using the same limited expressions and conversation patterns every time? Many people can manage to talk about familiar topics like self-introductions or cultural differences between their country and the tutor's. However, this type of practice alone won't efficiently expand the range of concepts you can express.
In contrast, with Instantaneous English Composition, the concept—what you need to talk about—is given to you in the prompt. This forces you to practice converting new and unfamiliar topics into English sentences, moving beyond the 'same old stories' you've been practicing.
The key is to challenge yourself with prompts for English expressions you're not yet comfortable with. Simply practicing Japanese sentences you can already express well in English won't broaden the variety of concepts you can formulate, much like the online lesson example. Use books or apps focused on Instant Composition to pick out and create a list of problems that deal with unfamiliar concepts, and practice them repeatedly.
Did Your Speaking Improve After Practicing? 3 Metrics to Measure Speaking Ability
So far, I've explained that Instantaneous English Composition is effective for training the formulation of concepts into sentences. If you're now convinced and have decided, 'Alright, I'll start today!' that makes me very happy! But before you start practicing blindly, I'd like you to understand the importance of measuring your speaking ability with numbers.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I was heavily influenced by the 'just speak a lot' mentality for improving my speaking skills. There was a time when I spent countless hours in conversation practice without setting any specific goals or identifying my weaknesses. While my speaking ability did improve, I knew it was clearly not an efficient process. The reason was that I had no visibility into 'what skills I needed to improve and what I should do to improve them.'
"If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it."
To ensure your efforts are heading in the right direction for speaking improvement, it's essential to quantify your ability, establish a baseline, and set a target! So, how can we evaluate and quantify speaking ability in the first place?
The CAF Framework: 3 Aspects for Evaluating Speaking Ability
In the field of second language acquisition research, three aspects are considered crucial for evaluating a speaker's proficiency: Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency. This is known as the CAF framework, an acronym for the three terms. (Housen, A., & Kuiken, F., 2009. Complexity, accuracy, and fluency in second language acquisition.).
Complexity：Refers to the variety of grammar and vocabulary used and the length of sentences, indicating how advanced and rich the expressions are.
Accuracy：Indicates the lack of errors in grammar and vocabulary, showing how correctly the language is being used.
Fluency：Focuses on the speed of speech, measuring how smooth the communication is.
Academically, there are several ways to quantify each metric, but here are my own simplified definitions that I find intuitive and helpful for guiding one's efforts.
Complexity：The number of words in a sentence. For example, 'What do you think?' has 4 words, while 'What do you think about the issue?' has 7 words, with the latter being evaluated as having higher complexity.
Accuracy：A binary judgment of whether a sentence is correct. For example, 'What does he think?' is correct, while 'What do he think?' is incorrect.
Fluency：The number of words spoken per minute (WPM). For example, if you say the 4-word sentence 'What do you think?' in 4 seconds, your WPM is 60.
While these are my own simplifications derived from reading academic papers, I believe they are intuitive numerical indicators that learners can understand and keep in mind during speaking practice. With these three metrics in mind, here's how you can use Instantaneous English Composition.
Challenge yourself with longer Japanese sentences to increase your average words per sentence.
Practice a set of problems (e.g., 100 questions) repeatedly until you achieve 100% accuracy (getting all 100 correct).
For the problems you can answer correctly, use a stopwatch to time from when you see the prompt to when you finish speaking. Calculate your WPM using the formula: (Number of words spoken × 60 seconds) / Time taken in seconds. Practice each problem repeatedly until you reach 150 WPM, a comfortable listening speed for native speakers.
In What Order Should You Improve These Three Metrics?
I believe the optimal order for improving these three metrics is Accuracy → Fluency → Complexity. For example, prepare a set of 100 Instant Composition problems where the English sentences are short (5-6 words) and use simple vocabulary (lowest complexity). Then, follow these steps:
- Improve Accuracy: Practice all 100 problems repeatedly until you can say them all correctly.
- Improve Fluency: For the 100 problems you got correct, practice them in order until you can say them at a speed of 150 WPM.
Once you've cleared these two steps, prepare a new set of 100 problems with slightly longer English sentences (slightly higher complexity). Then, follow the same process: achieve 100% accuracy, and then work up to a speed of 150 WPM.
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
The Order for Training Accuracy and Fluency
By improving accuracy and fluency within a certain level of complexity, and then gradually increasing the complexity, you can develop all three CAF metrics in a comprehensive and balanced way. ...However, I think many people would find it surprisingly difficult to actually implement this process. Yes, I can hear you thinking...
Preparing my own problems and measuring CAF metrics every time is too much of a hassle...!
After I became convinced of the scientific effectiveness of Instantaneous English Composition and figured out the ideal process, I faced the following challenges (or rather, just tedious prep work) when I tried to put it into practice.
It's a pain to create a set of problems that match my level...
It's hard to tell if my English is correct when my answer is different from the example answer...
It's a hassle to measure my WPM with a stopwatch every time...
After much trial and error trying to automate this tedious process, 'InstaEnglish,' the Instantaneous English Composition app, was born. I wasn't sure if anyone else would use it, but I started the project with my classmates based on a decision that's not very business-savvy: I just wanted something that I personally needed and wanted to use.
How Does the InstaEnglish App Handle the CAF Metrics?
First, as a fundamental design choice, InstaEnglish prioritizes the improvement of 'Accuracy' and 'Fluency.' In Instantaneous English Composition, being able to correctly express a given concept (the Japanese prompt) in English directly leads to an improvement in 'Accuracy,' while being able to say the English expression more quickly and instantly leads to better 'Fluency.'
On the other hand, improving 'Complexity' with this method would require using longer and more difficult Japanese prompts. However, this increases the cognitive load of 'conceptualizing' the meaning in step 1, which reduces learning efficiency. The process of improving speaking ability follows a growth path: first, you learn to 'say what you want to say accurately and smoothly,' and then you progress to 'expressing it with sophisticated expressions and sentence structures.' Therefore, the InstaEnglish app intentionally provides only short Japanese sentences as prompts so that intermediate learners struggling with 'I want to say it, but I can't' can focus on improving their 'Accuracy' and 'Fluency' first.
'Accuracy' = Is Your English Correct?
To measure the accuracy of your English, the natural language processing system implemented by the InstaEnglish engineering team evaluates it from the following three perspectives:
- Does it correctly capture the meaning (concept) of the Japanese sentence?
- Is the grammar correct?
- Are the words used appropriate?
Instead of comparing your answer to a single prepared example, the system evaluates only the learner's English against the concept presented in the Japanese prompt. This allows for a variety of different answers to be accepted as correct for a single problem, solving the issue of 'it's hard to tell if my English is correct when my answer is different from the example answer.'
'Accuracy' = Active Vocabulary?
Now, while a binary judgment of 'Is your English correct?' for each problem is close to the academic definition of 'Accuracy,' we don't believe it's the most optimal metric for learning efficiency. Here is an extreme example.
What does he think?
What does he think about it?
If these two sentences were given as problems, you would get 1 point for 'Accuracy' if you say the first one correctly, and 2 points if you say both correctly. However, the amount of growth from not being able to say the first sentence to being able to say it is much greater than the growth from being able to say the first to also being able to say the second.
In this situation, if you were given 1,000 problems, focusing your efforts on achieving 1,000 correct answers = 1,000 'Accuracy' points is not efficient. A sense of 'blindly' pushing through by just doing a large quantity starts to creep back in.
This is where 'Active Vocabulary' comes to the rescue—a method that evaluates 'Accuracy' on a word basis rather than a problem basis. Specifically, we define the words contained in a correctly spoken English sentence as 'Active Vocabulary' and evaluate 'Accuracy' by counting the number of these words.
「What does he think?」
are recorded. This means you gain 4 'Accuracy' points here.
「What does he think about it?」
are recorded as Active Vocabulary, but the new words you've learned to say are only 'about' and 'it.' Therefore, the 'Accuracy' points you gain from this sentence are only 2. As you can see, by using Active Vocabulary as the 'Accuracy' metric, we can more precisely measure the improvement in accuracy gained from each sentence.
Active Vocabulary registered upon correctly answering a problem in the InstaEnglish app
With this in mind, the InstaEnglish app sets a goal of achieving an Active Vocabulary of 2,000 words, which covers about 90% of daily conversation. To help you reach this goal as quickly as possible, InstaEnglish recommends problems that are likely to contain a high number of new Active Vocabulary words for you.
'Fluency' = WPM (Words per Minute)
For the 'Fluency' metric, we simply use the number of words spoken per minute, or WPM, as defined. When you solve a problem in InstaEnglish, a timer starts automatically when the Japanese prompt is displayed. It automatically measures the time taken when you finish your answer, and if your answer is correct, the WPM is calculated automatically. This completely frees you from the hassle of 'measuring WPM with a stopwatch every time!'
WPM automatically measured upon correctly answering a problem in the InstaEnglish app
Additionally, since our goal is to reach 150 WPM—a comfortable speed for native listeners—any questions where you fall short of that speed will be presented as 'recommended questions to increase your speaking speed'
Recommended Problems Feature
By recommending problems based on both the Accuracy (Active Vocabulary) and Fluency (WPM) metrics, we aim to solve the challenge of 'it's a pain to create a set of problems that match my level.'
Recommended exercises for instantaneous English composition to increase your active vocabulary.
Even Just 10 Minutes a Day is Enough—Try to Make Instant Composition a Daily Habit!
Finally, to truly make English expressions your own, daily repetitive practice is essential. I'm sure you've heard this so many times you're tired of it. You know it's important, but you just can't do it... I don't have a silver bullet solution for this. But Instantaneous English Composition is a method that can ease that burden.
Each problem takes only a few seconds, or 30 seconds at most, so try to set aside just 5 to 10 minutes each day to immerse yourself in it. If you can incorporate it into your daily routine—perhaps while in the bathroom or during your commute—you'll often find you can continue daily without much effort. Users of the InstaEnglish app challenge themselves with about 10 to 20 problems every day!
About the Author
Yutaro
Founder of InstaEnglish. Lives in Illinois, USA. Holds an MBA & MS from Northwestern University and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Born and raised in Japan, I was very confident in my English skills, even ranking 16th nationwide on a mock English exam in high school. However, when I studied abroad in the U.S., I was confronted by my overwhelming lack of speaking ability and experienced a major setback.
Afterward, I took the common advice 'the best way to improve speaking is to just have lots of conversations' to heart and invested over 1,000 hours in English conversation services. Unfortunately, I didn't see any noticeable improvement and began to have serious doubts about the 'grit-based' approach of just speaking relentlessly.
This led me to collaborate with linguists specializing in second language acquisition to find a scientifically optimal English learning method. With the help of a multilingual team that included native English speakers, we established the InstaEnglish learning methodology. InstaEnglish offers a new learning method that evolves 'Instantaneous English Composition' by quantifying Active Vocabulary and speaking speed, helping learners achieve their goals in the shortest time possible.