Improve Spoken English:-
In this Post we will discuss regarding how to improve spoken english. Let’s start with the most obvious: speak as much as you can! Whenever you have the opportunity to speak English, go for it! It doesn’t have to be a long conversation or a deep discussion about the universe: even a short discussion every day can make all the difference.
You may come across English-speaking tourists in your city on a regular basis: ask them what they are doing there, if they like the city, and so on. Don’t let your shyness prevent you from progressing in English! It will be difficult at first, but I swear it gets easier every time. Think about it: what’s the worst thing that could happen?! That the person in front of you decides not to answer you…
How can you better express yourself in English?
Unfortunately, you don’t always have the opportunity to express yourself in English. so here are our best tips to improve your spoken English, even when you are alone:
Listen to speak better
How can listening in English help you speak better?
Expose yourself to lots of audio in English: watch movies, series, YouTube videos, TV, listen to music, podcasts, and so on. First of all, this will help you to enrich your vocabulary, so always be on the lookout for new words and phrases that will be useful in your own life!
Next, the best way to make an comprehension exercise a method for making progress in speaking is not only to focus on what is being said, but to try to notice how it is being said: how the person articulates, how they form sentences, what transitions they use, what words are used in this or that situation, etc. You have to pay attention to the details for the magic to happen! Listening (and reading) more authentic English will allow you to observe better, to improve your English speaking skills.
How to use cheat sheets
That’s all well and good, but what if you need to speak English right away, because you’re in an English-speaking country for example?
When you’re in a full immersion situation, you need almost immediate efficiency and therefore a considerable amount of new vocabulary to get by on a daily basis. For example, to go to the doctor’s office or go shopping. A good trick to achieve this is to prepare a list of all the words you need and that you can use when you have a memory lapse. What’s more, you’ll remember them much faster if you use them regularly!
Complete sentences
How can you progress in oral English, to speak English more fluently, with less hesitation and, above all, gain confidence? Effective advice is to learn complete sentences, instead of isolated words. Not only will you learn the words in these sentences more easily (they are better remembered with context), but you will be faster when it comes to building sentences in your head. You will speak English more automatically, more naturally.
This is one of the enormous advantages of the Click & Speak® method: it allows you to learn English through lively, interesting and useful monologues and dialogues, with practical sentences that can be used anywhere. It’s like a dojo to practice speaking English!
Another thing you can do to improve your oral English is to learn the most common idioms and proverbs because they can be used well on their own, as a response to a story, for example.
The moral of all this is that working like an actor helps you to improve your oral English. So, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! Memorize your sentences. This will give people the impression that you are fluent and increase your confidence in English tenfold.
Prepare in advance
In the same vein, be prepared for specific situations! Think: what would you say, for example, to ask for directions in English? How would you order your favorite meal or drink at Starbucks? It might take some practice!
Then think about the different possible answers or reactions to that conversation and practice. Make sure you haven’t missed anything: brainstorm some native language sentences to make sure you’ve covered the whole situation, and translate them into English!
English pronunciation
Our basic tip for good English pronunciation is to take a moment to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (or IPA)!
Learning the English alphabet alone is not enough. The API will help you understand which sounds don’t exist in your native language. And therefore which sounds to pay more attention to. It will also lead you to know how to accentuate English words, which letters are not pronounced and how to improve your English accent!
Acquiring these basics of English phonetics will give you like a super power, to finally understand how English works when you speak.
Reading aloud
This technique will help you to have a good pronunciation in English: by reading out loud, you train your muscles to pronounce English words, and you can work on your accent at the same time. But you have to be sure of the pronunciation of the words. So there are two main options for putting this advice into practice:
- Check the pronunciation systematically in the dictionary. As soon as you have any doubt, check the pronunciation using the API and the audio in an online dictionary.
- Read a book while listening and repeat with the audio book.
Write in English
How is writing going to help me speak better, you say? The truth is that, for many, the problem is not speaking English per se, but finding words in English. When you write, you practice building sentences and articulating your thoughts in English so that you can use them again later!
But where can you practice your written English to practice forming your own sentences and thus progress in spoken English later? You can start by writing on forums (video games, cooking… pick the topic you like): by doing this, you’ll have time to think and collect your ideas. Also, you will avoid the stress of knowing that someone else is waiting for you to formulate your idea. Once it has become fairly easy and more automatic, you can move on to the next level, namely online chatting. where everything will go faster, which is also good practice.
You can also write short stories on topics that speak to you. Then try to correct your text yourself. Finally, share your text on Lang-8 to get corrections. This way you will learn from your mistakes and write better and better!
And in the traditional way, why not keep a journal in English? Write in it every day and tell what happened during the day, share your thoughts, ideas, problems, etc. This way you will focus your learning on your personal situations: nothing better to make sure you only learn the vocabulary you need!
Register in English
Record yourself while you talk about a topic of your choice; be careful to make sure it is also appropriate for your level. If you are a beginner, you can talk about your family, hobbies, work, etc., and if you have a higher level, you can give your opinion on the ban on plastics or animal rights, for example.
I know, it’s not nice to hear your own voice, but it can be a very useful exercise to improve your English speaking skills! Very often we make mistakes in speaking that we wouldn’t make if we had time to think about it. By listening to what you have said, you will be able to understand what mistakes you make and eliminate them. And then you can record yourself on the same subject over and over again until you get the perfect recording! You can also send these recordings to a native speaker who will help you correct your mistakes.
Create an immersion bubble for yourself
To automate spoken English (and thus speak better), you have to do as much as possible in English! Start with simple things like reading, watching movies, series and videos in English, then immerse yourself in an English-speaking environment as much as possible: change the language of your computer, try to think in English, etc. This way, you will learn to speak English with confidence!
If you think about it, there are many things you do in your native language every day (even every minute!) that you could do in English without much extra effort.
Hang on and dare!
What state of mind do you need to be in order to progress in English? We especially recommend that you dare to speak in English! Practice every day, make mistakes, laugh, learn from your mistakes and have fun: that way you are sure not to give up on the exciting journey of learning English!
