Introduction

A strategy is a plan of action which you can use to achieve goals that take a longer period of time to complete. There are words that often go together – these are called collocations. Listen to Beth to learn some of the verbs that we often use with the noun ‘strategy’.

Common collocations with ‘strategy’

have a strategy
If you have strategy, you know what your long-term plan is.

  • have a strategy for improving my English.

map out a strategy
If you map out a strategy, you make a more detailed, long-term plan to see all the tasks you need to complete to achieve your goal.

  • I have mapped out my strategy and my first step is to join an English conversation class.

set out a strategy
If you set out a strategy, you make a formal proposal or presentation of the plan to other people.   

  • My teacher set out her strategy to help the class learn common English phrases.

revise a strategy
If you revise a strategy, you look at your plan again and make changes where you need to.

  • When the teacher realised her students were already quite advanced, she revised her strategy to include more complex English topics.

a strategy consists of
strategy consists of all the smaller tasks that must be completed to achive the overall goal.

  • Now our class strategy consists of learning phrasal verbs, completing listening exercises and practising our conversation skills with classmates.

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Beth
Do you have a strategy for improving your English?
 
You can have a strategy, but first you need to map out a strategy. This means make a plan for what the strategy looks like.
 
I learn visually, so I’m going to map out this strategy using notes on small pieces of coloured paper.
 
If you set out a strategy, you suggest or propose it to others. This is quite formal.
 
I’ll set out the strategy in the meeting, and then we can make a plan to implement it.
 
If you revise a strategy, you go over it again and make changes.
 
Let’s revise this strategy. There’s no way we’ll meet the deadline otherwise.
 
strategy can consist of many things. These are the parts that make the strategy complete.
 
My strategy for learning a language consists of practising speaking, and studying grammar and vocabulary with podcasts.