Are you learning English, but find the speaking portion challenging?
You’re not alone! The many facets of spoken English have proven to be difficult for English learners for ages, and learners of the future will face the same problems, too.
While difficult, it’s by no means impossible to learn how to speak English fluently. With practice, you’ll be able to perfect your pronunciation, handle your homophones, and land your liaisons.
Here are 8 precise tips and exercises you can use to learn to listen and speak in English.
1. Get Comfortable with Discomfort
The first tip is a mindset change: you will start out in your spoken English journey sounding awkward. Every learner of every language goes through a stage of learning where they know enough about the language in their head to speak, but it never comes out as good as you want it to.
There are several factors that influence your ability to speak another language.
The Organs of Speech
Different languages utilize the speaking organs in different ways, which means you will need to train your body to switch into “English-speaking mode” in order to nail your pronunciation.
The speaking organs include the lips, tongue, hard and soft palettes, pharynx, glottis, epiglottis, and larynx. And of course, you’ll need to train your brain, too!
Some of the hardest sounds for English learners to master are “TH” like “throw” and the English “R,” which is sounded in the back of the throat and not trilled or rolled at all.
It will take a long time to
1) Identify the parts of your vocal tract that need training
2) Learn how to train them to make the right sounds
3) Learn to recall the muscle memory of your vocal tract while speaking all the different sounds sequentially in a natural way.
“Everyone has their own ways of expression. I believe we all have a lot to say, but finding ways to say it is more than half the battle.” ―
Tongue-Tied
Another problem that plagues learners is tripping over their words or losing the courage to speak.
Whether you get stage fright when it’s time to speak out loud, can’t seem to get your words out, say the wrong words, or get disheartened if it seems the person you’re speaking with can’t understand you, choking up really prevents progress if you let it.
In this world where we are pressured to either do something perfectly or not at all, trying and doing a poor job can feel like failure. But it’s not! Everyone starts as a beginner in everything. Even Einstein had to learn how to use the toilet.
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Continuously practice speaking to improve:
- Pronunciation
- Articulation
- Enunciation
- Volume control
- Intonation and inflection
- Stressing syllables
- Speech pace
- Natural pauses
- Vocabulary and word recall
Don’t let your learning curve scare you off of future practice. The only way to get better is through trial, error, and progress.
Imposter Syndrome
Even when you do actually know the language, and even when you do improve your speaking, you may experience imposter syndrome.
This happens when you feel underqualified for the thing you are doing. You might feel like you’re speaking gibberish when actually you’re speaking quite clearly, simply because your mind hasn’t reconciled that you actually know what you’re doing yet.
With more and more practice, this feeling will fade. It may flare up now and then, especially if you encounter a new word or phrase, or speak with someone with an unfamiliar accent. Try not to let it affect you!
And trust me, there are some native English speakers even other native English speakers can’t understand because of their accents. It happens to everyone.
2. Progress Over Perfection
Practice makes perfect?
This age-old phrase is meant to inspire, but most of the time, it just sets unrealistic expectations. The truth is there are very, very few things in life you can actually be perfect at.
Most of us are only sort of good at breathing.
So how can we expect to be perfect in something much more complicated like speaking a language that is foreign to us?
Instead of getting frustrated at how much you have left to learn, consider your current progress. You started with no knowledge (or maybe just a little) and now you’re here!
There are many people all over the world who can only speak one language, and now you have a solid grasp of at least two. That’s something to celebrate!
Take time to acknowledge your progress, especially when you feel frustrated. Accept even a 1% improvement from yourself each day or week or month. It can be challenging to have progress go slowly, but sometimes that’s just the pace at which we learn.
Try recording yourself saying the same thing every two weeks or so and compare your first recording to your most recent to appreciate how much you’ve progressed. It can be any speech you like!
Here are some suggestions:
- A historical speech (in full or just a section)
- Your favorite part of your favorite book
- Your favorite lines from a TV show or movie
- A poem or song lyrics
- A handful of quotes you like from the internet
“To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.” ―
3. Listen to Spoken English
When you are exposed frequently to people speaking in English, you can better learn it for yourself. After all, that’s how we all learned our first language as infants and toddlers!
So, take the time to listen to lots of examples of spoken English. You can learn several different particular skills from this technique depending on what you focus on.
Develop Your Ear for the Language
You don’t have to know everything that’s being said in order to get better at listening to English. With repeated exposure over time, you’ll naturally be able to pick up repeating sounds, words, phrases, the rhythm of speech, when to pause, and liaisons.
You’ll also get better at understanding implicit and explicit meanings as well as how emotions are conveyed by tone, intonation, volume, and choice of words.
Pronunciation and Articulation
By listening to speakers, whether it be the same few over and over or a wide variety, you will improve your ability to anticipate and better understand other people’s ways of speaking. Remember, there are many different English accents, and each person also speaks in their own signature style.
Additionally, you can develop your own speaking tendencies by copying these speakers and finding out if approaching English with a certain accented angle works better for you than previous speaking attempts.
Perhaps you’ve been learning British English this whole time, but after listening to Canadians for a while, you find that their pronunciations roll off your tongue easier. You’ll be understood by the majority of English speakers no matter which accent of English you speak, so you may as well choose the one that works best for you.
Where to Listen to Spoken English
With the internet and the vast swath of English-speaking users on it, it’s incredibly easy to find study materials for listening. Here are the most popular resources for learners to improve their English fluency:
- Podcasts
- Dubbed movies and TV
- English movies and TV
- Music
- YouTube
4. Practice Speaking by Yourself
Although it might feel awkward, one of the most impactful ways to practice your speaking is by having conversations with yourself.
It can be helpful to record your speech and listen back to it to identify what you need to work on. However, you can also just speak with yourself without recording it to practice moving your mouth and recalling words quickly.
You can think in your head or speak out loud as you practice.
Here are some prompts you can talk to yourself about when you practice:
- Describe how you look and what clothes you like to wear
- Describe your environment
- Explain a situation at work
- Give an opinion about something you saw
- Tell a story that happened to you (or one that you make up)
- Practice what you’d say if you were in a certain situation (like ordering from a restaurant or asking for directions)
5. Practice Speaking with Others
Remember what we said earlier about embracing discomfort!
Practice speaking with others even if you don’t feel very confident. When you speak with an English speaker, you can get real-time feedback on your spoken words. You might be more understandable than you give yourself credit for!
And, if your practice partner can’t understand you, that’s alright too. Try not to let it discourage you. Instead, it can give you valuable perspective on exactly what you need to focus on in your practices.
And, if anyone is rude to you, drop them and brush them off. We are all learners at one time or another and if someone doesn’t have empathy for that, they aren’t worth your time.
There are many ways to connect with English speakers for practice. Sometimes you’ll be able to connect with a native, and other times you can find fellow learners of varying levels (including fluent). Typically, you can use chat apps, social media, or forums to find speech partners.
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6. Immerse Yourself
Want to give yourself the ultimate course in English?
Try traveling to an English-speaking country! You can take a vacation or study abroad to surround yourself with the language and learn through immersion. Many people find this to be the best way to learn because they have no other choice if they want to be able to express themselves to the people there.
If you can’t travel abroad, you can arrange staycations where you only speak English all day. Try watching travel videos on YouTube to pretend you’re out talking with locals. As you go about your day at home, try naming everything in English- table, chairs, rice, refrigerator, shoes, dog, trees, etc. If you don’t know a word or how to say a certain thing, look it up!
7. Use Level-Appropriate Resources
It can be frustrating when you try to learn from resources that are meant for a different level of expertise than where you are currently. Either the material is too difficult and you can’t get anything out of it, or it’s too easy and you find yourself bored by the explanations for things you already know.
If you find that the material you’re trying to use falls into either category, it’s ok to take a step back and try something else. Don’t force yourself into something simply because it’s been touted as “a surefire way to learn.”
8. Practice with a Tutor
And the very best way to improve your English? With a private tutor, of course!
With a private tutor, you can practice speaking and listening, as well as reading and writing. You’ll get individual and attentive, immediate feedback on your skills and progress. Tutors can also give you “homework” to practice between sessions and help you if you run into trouble.
A tutor is meant to teach you the way you learn best, rather than a group class that follows a strict curriculum and the teacher doesn’t have enough time to work individually with each student.
Your tutor will work with you to explain things in ways that make sense to you and help you in the areas you specifically need so you can learn how to speak fluently in English.
Use these techniques no matter your skill level and keep using them throughout your life to firmly grasp the English language forever.
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