5 Tips to improve your English Speaking!

5 Dicas para Melhorar o Seu English Speaking

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Hey student,

This is a quick blog post to give you 5 practical tips of things you can do alone to help you practice English Speaking.

Many learners believe they need to have a partner to practice and improve speaking otherwise they are doomed to never speaking.

You can train your brain to speak English. As a matter of fact, most of the times when you get stuck and cannot speak English is due to the fact that your brain never gets enough practice, so it (your brain) cannot build the confidence to speak English well despite all the lessons you may have studied all your life.

That is to say, it doesn’t matter how much you have studied. If you have not worked on strategies to help you practice (with someone or alone), you will always feel stuck when you need to talk in English. The 5 tips I am about to show you will feed your brain with speaking possibilities. That way you will gradually build up the confidence to speak English in public whether it is a job interview, during a trip abroad, when making new friends and so many other situations!

Tip number 1

Have a clear conversation subject that you want to talk about

When you are building the confidence to speak in English, it is not easy to simply start talking. That’s why it is important to choose a subject (a topic) because then you will be able to study specific materials to help you talk about that subject. If you have problems to speak, don’t expect to easily and naturally start talking.

Focus on simple subjects. Define a list of 5 subjects you want to master. Then move on to my tip number 2.

 

Tip number 2

Study vocabulary connected to the subjects you chose

Now that you know what exactly you want to talk about, what conversations you need to master, prepare the vocabulary you are going to need. If you need to prepare for a job interview, what words, phrases, expressions, verbs and qualities are you going to need? And remember, you don’t need the most difficult and advanced vocabulary, communication is not about being great with words, but being efficient with words.

Tip number 3

Watch native speakers talking about the subject you chose.

Let’s go back to the job interview example. Now that you have studied some vocabulary, expressions even a little grammar (like present and past), it is time to watch other people do it. Kids learn by example. Do that too. The more examples you can watch of people talking, the better.

HOWEVER, don’t “passively” watch those videos. Take notes, pause, repeat, practice shadowing, copy some of their phrases (that can be useful for you) That’s how you learn by example!

Tip number 4

Practice Speaking the subject alone (aloud, not quietly)

Now, it is time to do some oral practicing! Yep! And you can do it alone! No problems! Find a quiet room where you can feel comfortable and no one will disturb you. Take a look at your notes and start talking about that subject, ALONE. This is a rehearsal of the real conversation. Your brain doesn’t really know what is real and what is fake. This is what we can mental rehearsal/practice. The more you do that, the more your brain will believe you can do it!

Imagine you are talking to someone in English and start speaking.

Tip number 5

Record your voice and listen to yourself

As you do your mental practice while orally speaking the words in English, record your voice. That way, when you are done, you can give yourself some positive feedback on what you can do better. See the parts that were difficult for you to explain or the words you forgot and try again! This is a great way to practice speaking!

 

Follow these tips and let me know how that goes for you!

 

Teacher Prix.