Tips for improving and maintaining your speaking skills.

 

When you ask a language student what their goals are, almost everyone says “improve my speaking”. When learning a foreign language, you’ll find yourself talking with all kinds of native speakers – your teacher, servers in restaurants, taxi drivers, and your landlord, so it’s vital that you feel comfortable. Like all skills in English, there are techniques that you can use to improve your spoken English in a more direct way.

Here are some of my favorites

1. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

Many language learners get so stressed about their speaking yet they forget that their basic goal is to deliver a message, not to speak perfect English, with perfect grammar and vocabulary. Remember, that even native English speakers make mistakes!

2. Speak, speaking, spoken.

Let’s start by saying that there isn’t an easy way to perfect better speaking. Basically, the best way to speak better is to practice, practice and more practice! Commit to practicing often and with as many different people as possible. If you already live or study overseas, take advantage of the many native speakers in your community, such as your friends and their families or even people that you meet, or work with at places where you work or visit.  If you’re learning in your own country, increase your practice time by meeting your classmates after class, finding a speaking partner or joining an online community of learners.

Tips for making it easier to learn idioms.

Tips for making it easier to learn phrasal verbs

Tips for taking the stress out of learning grammar.

Making the rules of grammar easy to understand.

Tips for improving speaking fluency.

3. Reflect on your conversations

After your conversation is over, take a moment to reflect. How did it go? How much do you think you understood? How comfortable did you feel with that subject matter? Did you encounter any unknown words? The mere act of thinking about it in this way will increase your confidence for the next time you speak and give your specific things to work on for your next conversation.

4. Listen and read

It is important to remember that you need words in order to talk, and whilst class time is great place for learning vocabulary, there are other ways that you can increase yours such as watching movies, listening to music, the radio, online videos or to podcasts. Reading books, magazines and blogs is also another excellent way.

When listening and reading, find new and interesting expressions, idioms, slang, general terms and synonyms. As you encounter them, write them down so that you don’t forget them.

5. Prepare in advance

Part of nervousness around speaking is the feeling of not knowing what to say. To prevent this, prepare a cheat sheet. Are you going to the dentists? Before your appointment, research vocabulary and some common phrases you’ll probably need. Use the technique before going to pay a bill, eating at a restaurant, job interviews, or for any other situation that might make you anxious.

6. Call someone on the phone

Most people find phone conversations particularly challenging. Why? Because on the phone, we can’t see the other person’s body language or watch their mouth move, both of which are tools that really help communication. To feel more confident on the phone, start small with phone conversations with friends – then move on to more challenging calls like making appointments or inquiries.

7. Talk to yourself

It will look funny, we know. But by talking to yourself in English in front of the mirror for a few minutes each day, you will learn when and how to use different expressions. You’ll also learn where you make most of the mistakes.

8. Record your voice

It’s a fact that most people dislike hearing their voice recorded – but it’s actually an extremely beneficial way to improve your speaking! Hearing yourself on tape shows you things you might not realize. On the other hand, you could be pleasantly surprised to hear that your speaking is far better than you thought!

9. Learn phrases rather than single words

Another tip to increase your fluency is to speak using a variety of phrases rather than individual words. Instead of automatically asking “Hello, how are you today?”, change it by choosing other expressions like “What’s up?” “Hey, dude!” or “How ya going, mate?”

10. Think in English

Thinking in English will help you go from just speaking good English to actually speaking great English. You’ll find it difficult at first, but after some time you’ll learn how to switch between speaking English and your first language.

Everything that you need to know about conjunctions

Everything that you need to know about verbs

Everything that you need to know about pronouns

Everything that you need to know about prepositions

Tips for making vocabulary easier to learn

11. Have fun

It’s far easier to learn something new when you’re having fun. Inject some fun into your speaking practice by talking to yourself when you’re alone, singing along with popular songs in English, karaoke, doing one-minute impromptu speeches on randomly-chosen topics (such as sports, coffee, Latin America or subjects such as “If I was the president, I would…”, “Three surprising things about me,” or “Which came first, the man or the woman?”). Great practice and awesome, silly fun.

12. Tongue twisters

Another fun way to practice is with Tongue twisters which help to improve your diction and to teach you how to speak quickly. Practice with tricky sayings like this: “The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday".

13. Celebrate your success

Every time that you talk to someone in English is an achievement. Every single interaction you have, no matter how small, will help you improve your skills over time. Be proud of your progress.