If you are here, chances are that you can understand most things you hear and read. You can write well, too. But when it comes to speaking fluently, things get a little complicated, right? Here you have a list of the best things you can do to improve your spoken English and start talking to the world!
Listen and read a lot
When you are learning a new language, one of the most important things you can do is to expose yourself to that language. There is no way you will be able to write or speak – produce content in the language – if you do not have models in your mind. These models are the results of this exposure – of input.
The more you read and hear the language, the more you will be able to speak. So do that. Commit yourself to read and listening to the language for a while every single day. When you need to speak, you will notice how easily the sentences will come out of your mouth.
Learn words in context
A big mistake language learners commit when learning English is learning words out of context. They look up the meaning (or the translation) of the word and try to memorize it. The consequence is that when they want to say something using that word, they do not know how to combine it with others. That is why sometimes their sentences do not make sense, or at least sound weird.
When learning new words, learn how they are used in context. Learn phrases or whole sentences with the word in them. This way, you will know what verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, etc. combine with the word. Consequently, when you need to speak, you will not hesitate to say what you want.
Use tongue twisters
Sometimes, speaking may be difficult because you feel that you do not pronounce certain sounds correctly. When we learn English, we often find sounds that we do not have in our first language. They may be challenging to master, but they are manageable. A very good and fun way to practice the pronunciation of difficult sounds is tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are sentences that contain sounds that are difficult to pronounce together when we say them quickly.
Examples are:
- She sells seashells by the seashore.
- I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you.
- If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?
- Rory’s lawn rake rarely rakes really right.
They are very good to improve your pronunciation of specific sounds of the language, making you feel more confident about your spoken English.
Use online dictionaries
Sometimes you are reading when you find a new word of which you know the meaning, but you are not sure about how to pronounce it. When it happens, you need to look the word up in an online dictionary immediately. Why an online dictionary? Well, first, it much more practical. Second, most online dictionaries nowadays have the pronunciation of the word for you to hear and learn how to say it. So that is a good opportunity to improve your pronunciation of the language. It will make you be more understood by other people. That is what you want, right?
Think in English
This is a classic tip. You find it everywhere when it comes to tips on how to become fluent in English. Despite how cliché it sounds, it is very helpful to improve your spoken English. Why? When you start learning a new language, you automatically start comparing it to your mother tongue, which, in turn, leads to translation. A lot of learners think in their first language and translate it into English. This is something you must avoid at all costs. Besides creating sentences that sound very odd sometimes, it will train you to act like a robot, a translator. It will even take more time for you to say what you want.
The solution is to train yourself to think in English. How do you do that? Do you know when you wake up and think about all the things you need to do during the day? Why not do it in English? You can plan your day in your mind in this new language: “Today, I have to go to college and get a book from the library. After that, I need to take my sister to school, go to the supermarket to buy some groceries and come back home”. Simple, right? Once you manage these simple thoughts, you can start doing the same thing to more complex ones, such as thinking about politics or the social problems you face in your community. It will probably be difficult in the beginning, but if you keep focused, it will become easier and easier. The result will be sounding way more natural in your conversations in English.
Talk to yourself
Of course, the best way to practice your spoken English is by talking to someone else. But if you are insecure about it, start by talking to yourself. You can be creative and create possible dialogues according to different situations you may be involved in in the future. You can tell yourself a story you know in your first language. There are many things you can do if you use your creativity. Another tip is to think in English out loud. When you start thinking in English you notice that sometimes you will go back to your mother tongue without even realizing it. That is natural. You have spent your life thinking in your first language. To minimize this problem, you can combine thinking in English with talking to yourself. Voice your thoughts. You will see that by saying everything that you are thinking aloud, you will be able to control it and keep using English instead of unconsciously coming back to your mother tongue.
Focus on your weaknesses
Once you start practicing the tips above, mainly think in English and talk to yourself, you will notice that sometimes you want to say something but you do not know how to do that. It may be vocabulary, it may be grammar, but you will notice that there is something you do not know yet. For example, you want to talk about your favorite dishes but you do not know their names in English. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn them. Go online and search for all your favorite dishes and their names in this new language. Keep doing this every time this situation happens again. This way, you will notice how your ability to talk about different things in English is improving every day.
Focus on fluency, not accuracy
When you are speaking a new language, there are two different aspects on which you can focus your attention: fluency and accuracy. Fluency is the ability to talk naturally, in a natural flow, without stopping too much to look for words in your mind before saying them. Accuracy is the ability to say everything perfectly according to standard English grammar. Which is more important? Well, certainly both are important. But you need to be able to focus your attention on what matters the most at a specific time. If your focus is to practice speaking, you need to focus on fluency, not accuracy. Think about foreign people that have already talked to you in your own language. Probably, they committed some grammar mistakes but you could understand what they wanted to say. That is it. This is the goal of communication. This is not to say that accuracy, or your knowledge about the grammar of the language, is not important. It is. But you will focus on grammar when you sit down with a grammar book and study it. Not when you want to communicate with people in real life. Of course, the more you study the language, the more your accuracy will get better. You should be able to balance both your fluency and your accuracy. Just be sure to focus on each one at the right time.
Don’t be afraid of committing mistakes
If you want to improve your spoken English, this tip is crucial. There are lots of people who want to speak English well, but do start a conversation with other people in English because they are afraid of committing mistakes. This is extremely harmful. Never do that (anymore). If you think that because you said “She live next to me” everyone will laugh at your English, well, it may be a shock for you to know that even the so-called native speakers do that. There are lots of things that you learn in books that are not actually used in real life, at least not by everyone. And even if the mistake you committed is something that nobody else commits (well, is it possible?), do not worry! People will not judge you because you said something wrong. They will praise you because you are trying hard to communicate with them.
Speak, speak, speak, and then speak more
The last tip is obvious. If you want to improve your spoken English, speak, speak, speak, and then speak more. Remember that ‘practice makes perfect’. This is true for any skills you want to develop, such as learning a new language. Talk to your family members in English, talk to your friends in English, talk to foreign friends in English, find language partners online to talk to in English, etc.
Now that you have come this far, there is a bonus tip for you: if you do not have a lot of people to talk to in English and need some help to find language partners and make friends around the world, there is an awesome website that you can use to improve your spoken English: Free4Talk. There, you can talk to people in English 24/7 for free.
If you need more creative ideas on activities you can do to improve your speaking skills, check out our awesome post A Powerful Guide to Speak English by Yourself.
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