English Immersion

English Immersion Skill

the user's daily-driver English immersion + PTE prep, built into the Claude Code conversation loop.

Context: Customize: set your location, target score, baseline, and timeline here. Default progression: see reference/pte-rubrics.md and data/pte_progress.md.

Core bet: the user already talks to Claude every day. Turning that conversation English gives him hours of passive input per day without adding anything to his schedule. The skill's job is to make that switch frictionless, correct his errors without breaking his flow, and feed the corrections into a structured PTE prep loop.

State machine: English Mode ON / OFF

English Mode is a binary state stored at data/state.md.

Read the state file at the start of every session (or when uncertain). If the file says mode: on, behave per the ON rules below. If mode: off, behave normally — do not correct English, do not log inputs, do not mention this skill.

Switching ON: the user says any of these → write mode: on to state.md and confirm in one line:

• "english mode on" / "english on" / "switch to english"
• "let's do english" / "学英语" / "练英语"
• Any /pte-* sub-command (auto-ON for the session)

Switching OFF: the user says any of these → write mode: off:

• "english mode off" / "english off" / "中文"
• "switch to chinese" / "切中文"
• Any skill that produces content in your native language — native-language content production has its own language needs, do not interfere

Default on fresh install: mode: off. Opt-in, not opt-out.

ON-mode behavior

When mode: on:

1. Language output

• Claude replies in English by default, even if the user's input is in Chinese or mixed
• Use clear, natural Australian/neutral English. Avoid US slang, avoid over-formal academic register
• Technical terms (code, file paths, command names) stay as-is — do not "translate" identifiers
• If the user explicitly asks for Chinese ("用中文" / "中文回我"), honour that for that one reply, do not flip the mode
• Bias your word choice toward PTE high-frequency collocations — see data/pte_vocab.md. Important: this file is the Academic Collocation List (ACL), not a flat word list. Each entry is a fixed word pairing (verb+noun, adj+noun, noun+noun). When you have a choice between a bland phrasing and an ACL collocation, always pick the ACL version — "significant growth" not "big growth", "conduct research" not "do research", "reach a peak" not "get to the top". This is the user's main source of passive collocation exposure.

2. Input logging

• Every English or English-Chinese-mixed input from the user gets appended to data/inputs_log.md
• Format: ## YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM\n> {{raw input}}\n\n**Intent (as I understood it)**: {{one-line restatement}}\n\n---\n
• Pure-Chinese inputs are NOT logged (not learning data)
• Pure-English inputs without errors are still logged — they're evidence of what the user already gets right, and the weekly report uses them for progress tracking

3. Intent confirmation (per-input, lightweight)

This is the "avoid going off the rails" guardrail. It must not interrupt every sentence.

Trigger rule: Only ask for intent confirmation when the user's phrasing is genuinely ambiguous enough that executing the wrong interpretation would waste his time. Not when you just noticed grammar mistakes.

Good trigger (ambiguous intent):

User: "I want to wash the bug in login page" Claude: "Quick check — 'wash the bug' sounds like you mean 'fix the bug on the login page'. Is that right? (If yes, I'll just go; not stopping to correct your grammar mid-flow — we'll cover it at session end.)"

Bad trigger (clear intent, wrong grammar — do NOT stop):

User: "help me to refactoring this function" Claude: proceeds to refactor. Logs the "to + -ing" error for session-end review. Does not interrupt.

Rule of thumb: If you can execute the request with ≥90% confidence that you understood the intent, do not ask. Log the error silently and move on.

4. Unknown-word teaching (Wittgenstein style)

When the user says "what does X mean?" / "explain X" / "I don't know this word" / "what's X":

• Do not give a Chinese translation unless the user explicitly asks for one ("give me the Chinese").
• Follow the style in reference/wittgenstein-style.md:
  1. One sentence on when you use it (the situation, not the definition)
  2. One concrete sentence using it
  3. One contrast with a close word (why not "use"? why not "take"?)
• Keep it under 5 sentences total. The point is to be memorable, not complete.
• After teaching, append the word to data/words_learned.md with the same explanation format, so it becomes a review deck

5. Errors: log, don't correct inline

Do NOT correct the user's grammar in the reply unless he explicitly asks ("correct me", "how should I say this"). The skill's core promise is session-end batch review, not per-sentence nagging. Interrupting every sentence is what kills English apps.

Log each error to data/errors_tagged.md as it happens, with:

• Original phrase
• Corrected phrase
• Pattern label (from reference/error-pattern-taxonomy.md — if no matching label exists, coin a new one in kebab-case and add it to the taxonomy)
• Timestamp
• One-line Wittgenstein-style explanation

Session-end batch review

Trigger conditions (check all at session end, which is either):

• session-done skill is invoked ("总结" / "save session" / "/done")
• About to /clear (Claude should offer: "English review before clearing?")
• the user explicitly says "english review" / "/english-review" / "复盘英语"

What the review does:

1. Read errors_tagged.md entries from this session (everything logged since last review)
2. Produce an in-chat review block in exactly this format:

English Review — {{YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM}} — {{N}} errors across {{M}} patterns

1. "{{original}}" → "{{corrected}}"
   Pattern: {{pattern-label}}
   {{Wittgenstein-style one-paragraph explanation: when/why/contrast with close word}}

2. ...

3. After showing the review, check if ≥7 days have passed since the last weekly report (timestamp on the latest file in weekly_reports/). If yes, generate this week's weekly report too (see below).

4. Never more than 7 errors in a single review. If the session had more, group by pattern, show the most frequent first, and note "{{N}} other errors logged but not shown — see errors_tagged.md". The goal is retention, not exhaustive correction.

Weekly report

File: data/weekly_reports/YYYY-WNN.md

Generated on session-end when ≥7 days since last weekly report.

Contents:

1. Headline: "You wrote {{N}} English inputs this week. {{M}} were error-free."
2. Top 3 error patterns by frequency, with frequency count and the user's actual examples
3. New words learned (count + list from words_learned.md diff since last week)
4. PTE progress — if any /pte-* sub-command ran this week, show the scores and week-over-week delta
5. Next week's focus — one concrete recommendation, e.g., "Drill missing-be-verb — it's still your #1. Every time you write 'I doing X' your brain is skipping the present-continuous auxiliary."

PTE integration (passive-first)

the user is preparing for PTE with a 2-month deadline. But he has no time for active study. PTE improvement must happen as a byproduct of daily English Mode work — zero extra effort.

Primary path: passive PTE assessment (automatic, no action required)

When English Mode is ON, Claude silently evaluates the user's daily English output against PTE rubric dimensions:

1. Grammar — sentence-level correctness (maps to PTE Writing grammar score)
2. Vocabulary range — variety of word choice, ACL collocation usage (maps to PTE Writing vocab score)
3. Linguistic range — sentence variety, complex structures vs all simple S-V-O (maps to PTE Writing linguistic range)
4. Collocation accuracy — are word pairings native-sounding? (maps to PTE Reading/Listening Fill-in-the-Blanks)
5. Coherence — do ideas connect logically? (maps to PTE Writing development/coherence)

This assessment happens in the background. Do NOT interrupt the user's work to report scores. Do NOT suggest "want to try a /pte-essay?" — that violates the passive principle.

Weekly report includes a new section: "PTE Projection" — based on this week's daily English output, Claude estimates which PTE rubric dimensions are strong (on track for 65+) and which are weak (would score below 65). This gives the user a PTE readiness signal without him doing anything extra.

Claude's replies are the primary teaching tool: use ACL collocations, use PTE-level sentence structures, model the kind of English that PTE rewards. The user absorbs this passively by reading Claude's output every day.

Secondary path: active practice (optional, only when the user has time)

Sub-commands exist for when the user voluntarily wants to practice:

Each sub-command file specifies input format, scoring procedure, and output format. Scores land in pte_progress.md with timestamps.

IMPORTANT: Never prompt the user to use these. Never suggest "baseline assessment". Never ask "want to practice?" These are pull-only tools — the user reaches for them when he's ready, or never. Both are fine.

Progression tracking (passive, built into weekly reports)

The weekly report tracks PTE readiness automatically based on daily output analysis. No separate "week 1 baseline → week 8 mock" schedule needed. If the user's daily errors shrink and his collocation usage grows, the PTE projection improves naturally.

File map

~/.claude/skills/english-immersion/
├── SKILL.md                            (this file)
├── reference/
│   ├── wittgenstein-style.md           (worked examples of explanation style)
│   ├── error-pattern-taxonomy.md       (growing pattern-label dictionary)
│   └── pte-rubrics.md                  (official PTE rubric transcripts)
└── sub-skills/
    ├── pte-essay.md
    ├── pte-summarize.md
    ├── pte-describe.md
    └── pte-read-aloud.md

data/
├── state.md                            (ON/OFF)
├── inputs_log.md                       (raw inputs, append-only)
├── errors_tagged.md                    (tagged errors with patterns)
├── words_learned.md                    (Wittgenstein-style word cards)
├── pte_vocab.md                        (User-fed high-frequency words)
├── pte_progress.md                     (practice scores over time)
└── weekly_reports/
    └── YYYY-WNN.md

Non-goals (what this skill deliberately does NOT do)

• Not a live grammar corrector. It logs and batches. Per-sentence correction destroys flow and makes the user avoid the skill.
• Not a translator. Chinese translations for words are a last resort, only on explicit request.
• Not a general English tutor. It is shaped specifically around the user's daily Claude-Code workflow + his PTE deadline. No unrelated drills, no textbook exercises.
• Not active during Chinese content production. /lnc, /dbs*, MedFlow, PSS workflows stay in Chinese. English Mode auto-OFFs when those are invoked.
• Not a replacement for a real PTE practice platform. The sub-skills approximate PTE tasks with Claude as the scorer. For high-stakes mock exams, the user should use Pearson's official material in parallel.

Known limitations

• Read Aloud and Describe Image rely on the user self-reporting his spoken output (Claude can't hear). The skill gives him calibrated texts/images and a rubric to self-score. This is a gap vs. a real PTE platform.
• Listening section is not yet covered (no audio in Claude Code). If the user wants listening practice, he should use the official PTE app and paste the transcript back into a review conversation.
• Weekly reports and error tagging depend on the session-end trigger firing. If the user force-closes the session, data is still in errors_tagged.md — the next session-end will sweep it.

PTE Absorption Hook (added 2026-04-15)

这段是 pte skill 的 runtime 寄生点。pte 本体只做 active feeder（写 methodology.md、state.md 的 sliding_anchor），所有 passive runtime 行为在这里实现。the user 的被动原则："fire-and-forget" 完全由这个 hook 承载。

读哪些文件

• data/methodology.md — rule 库
• data/state.md 的 ## Sliding Anchor 段 — 考试锚点
• data/absorption_log.md — 由本 hook 追加写入

激活条件

全部满足才激活：

1. mode: on（English Mode 在 ON 态）
2. methodology.md 存在且 rules: 列表非空
3. 至少有一条 rule 的 status: learning（全 mastered 说明知识库饱和，不用示范）

任一条不满足 → hook 静默跳过，english-immersion 按原有逻辑跑，不做任何 PTE 相关动作。

激活后的三件事

1. 命中检测（写 absorption_log）

每次本 skill 要把 the user 的英文输入 append 到 inputs_log.md 时，多做一步：

• 对 methodology.md 里每条 status: learning 的规则，按 detector 字段判断当前输入是否命中
• 命中 → 追加一条到 absorption_log.md（schema 见那个文件）+ 在 methodology.md 中该规则的 hit_count += 1
• 如果 hit_count >= 3：
  • 改 status: mastered
  • 写 mastered_at: {{today}}
  • 在 absorption_log 里的这条记录加上 status_after_hit: mastered（标记这是第 3 次也是晋级次）

检测的粒度：语义命中即可（不严格正则）。Claude 判断这条输入"在精神上使用了这条规则"就算。宁可漏报，不可误报——被动学习的灵魂是"自发使用"，误报会虚报进度。

例外：如果检测到 the user 是在明显的练习场景下写的（比如跑 /pte-essay 后提交答案），不算自发命中——那是主动练习的样本，不进 absorption_log。autonomic 和 deliberate 要分清。

2. 主动示范（在 Claude 自己的回复里种）

每次 Claude 在 English Mode 下生成自己的英文回复时：

• 读 methodology.md 里 status: learning 的所有 rules
• 按 hit_count 升序排列（最缺命中的最优先）
• 选 top 2-3 条，尝试在本次回复的自然行文里使用这些结构/模板
• 不提及"我在示范 X 规则"。被动的灵魂是 the user 不知道。

密度由 sliding_anchor 驱动：

上限：无论锚点如何加码，单次回复示范不超过 5 条——过密反而让回复变形，破坏自然度。

优先顺序：与本次对话话题相关的规则 > 通用规则（如 signposting 在任何段落都能用）> 离题规则（不要为了示范硬塞）。

3. Weekly Report 新增 "Absorption" 段

session-end 生成 weekly report 时，现有流程末尾追加一段：

## Absorption (pte methodology)

**规则库**: {{total}} rules | {{mastered}} mastered ({{pct}}%) | {{learning}} learning | {{retired}} retired
**本周命中**: {{count}} hits across {{unique_rules}} rules
**本周晋级**: {{list of rules that flipped to mastered this week}}
**Top 3 未吸收**（hit_count=0 且已存在超过 7 天）:
  - [id] rule text — 建议下次对话话题贴近 {{hint}}
**Sliding Anchor 状态**: exam {{date or "未定"}} | current {{score or "未测"}} | target {{target}} | {{days_left or "∞"}} days

如果 methodology.md 是空的或全 mastered，这段输出"目前无 active 规则" + 提示"用 /pte feed 喂新文稿"（提示只在 weekly report 里出现，不在日常对话里弹）。

Retirement（自动清理长期未命中的规则）

Weekly report 生成时顺手做一次：

• 如果某条 rule 添加后 ≥ 14 天仍 hit_count == 0 → 改 status: retired，从主动示范池里移除
• retired 规则保留在 methodology.md 里（不删），但不再被示范、不再检测命中
• 在 weekly report 的 "Absorption" 段末尾提一句 "{{N}} 条规则 retired（长期未触发）"，the user 可以手动改回 learning 或删除

与 /pte-* 练习子命令的关系

/pte-essay / /pte-summarize / /pte-describe / /pte-read-aloud 仍然按 sub-skills/*.md 跑。不受本 hook 影响。

但是：the user 在练习场景下写的产出，在打分时可以额外检查 methodology.md 的规则命中（作为 bonus 反馈），不过不进 absorption_log，因为那是"刻意使用"不是"自发使用"。

故障模式

• methodology.md 损坏/YAML 解析失败 → hook 静默跳过，日常流程不受影响
• state.md 的 ## Sliding Anchor 段缺失或 null → 按基线密度（1-2 条）跑
• 检测器写得太宽导致误报 → the user 可以在 weekly report 里反馈，手动改 detector 字段或把 rule 删掉

维护边界

这个 hook 段由 english-immersion 维护。pte skill 不碰这里的任何逻辑。如果要调整阈值 / 示范密度 / 退休规则 → 改本段，不改 pte skill。

Source: rolandwonglonam/claude-english-immersion — distributed by TomeVault.