Have you been studying English for a considerable amount of time but you feel you can’t speak fluent English? If you have, you’re not alone! Plenty of people have this feeling. It’s much more common than you imagine. But why does it happen? If you’re trying to search for answers (and an effective solution!), stick with us! We’re going to get you through this unpleasant situation!
Studying English
When we start studying English – be it enrolled in a language course, or on our own -, we basically think of the different core abilities we need to practice: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Besides these abilities, we usually worry about two other areas that are important for effective communication, namely vocabulary, and grammar. And let’s make it clear from the very beginning, there’s nothing wrong it that!
BUT there’s always a but. If you want to speak fluent English, you need to direct your attention to what matters the most. And what does that mean?
Here’s a question. Try to answer it honestly: What do you practice THE MOST when you take your time to study English?
The vast majority of people would honestly answer GRAMMAR! For these people, studying grammar would be a(n imaginary) way to lead them to fluency. Others would say that they spend most of their time with their coursebook (thus, doing activities that mix reading, writing, listening, and speaking). Few people would say that they focus on speaking – actually talking to other people on a daily basis. What kind of person are you?
Accuracy vs. Fluency
Fluency and accuracy are two common words when people discuss what studying English means. You’ve probably already heard them but if you haven’t, here’s a simple explanation about what they mean.
Accuracy is the ability to be accurate. Accurate is an adjective that means correct in all details, exact.
Thus, accuracy refers to an impeccable use of the language in terms of correctness. This leads us (mostly) to grammar. Therefore, grammatical accuracy means using the grammar of the language without any errors.
If you’re worried about being accurate, you’d never say “There‘s parks everywhere in this city”. You’d say “There are parks everywhere in this city”. You see?
Accuracy is about using the grammar rules you’ve learned flawlessly. Even though in everyday spoken English people do use sentences such as “There‘s parks everywhere in this city”.
Fluency, on the other hand, has to do with the flow of the use of the language.
This word leads us (mostly) to speaking. Speaking fluent English means speaking effortlessly, without much hesitation to look for words, or to make up sentences.
So, if you didn’t remember that you were supposed to use whether instead of if in “I don’t know if I’ll go to school tomorrow”, in terms of accuracy it would not be ok, but in terms of fluency, it would!
Speak Fluent English
Now you already have an idea about why you study a lot but can’t speak fluent English!
You need to acknowledge that both accuracy and fluency are important but you can’t do what most people do (focus almost exclusively on accuracy) and expect to speak English fluently.
Speaking fluent English is totally possible and achievable but you have to focus on fluency to get there!
So, instead of focusing all the time you have to study English on grammar activities, split it and practice fluency as well.
But how can you focus on fluency? As we’ve seen before, fluency is generally seen as a feature of your speaking abilities (even though you can refer to fluency for the other skills too). If you’re interested in speaking fluently, find more time to practice speaking English!
Find friends who can speak English and start using only this language with them. Meet people with the same goal as you (speak fluent English!) online. Join your English-speaking partners in a WhatsApp (or WeChat or Telegram, etc.) group. You can find many ways of being in contact with people who are also seeking to improve their fluency. Be creative and do it with them!
If you need some ideas on how to create a good schedule for your English studies, visit our article A Powerful Guide To Speak English By Yourself. You’ll find great apps and websites to meet English-speaking partners for free!
