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How to Improve Your Fluency in English!
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Many of the students I have taught are not confident because of a lack of fluency. Their speech is interrupted with long pauses or word fillers like ‘um’ or ‘uh, uh’, or corrections where a person says something and then goes back to correct it, realizing they said the wrong word.
Most times the problem revolves around 3 main areas:
- Definite – Indefinite Article
- High Frequency Words
- Tenses
1. Definite – Indefinite Article
When do you use a, an or the? This can be very confusing for a student studying English.
See this page: How To Master Definite | Indefinite Articles in 7 Days!
You can create your own Cloze Exercises by deleting the three words a, an, and the in the text. (See next section)
2. High Frequency Words
The following 9 words make up 33% of spoken English:
| the | 6.00% |
| of | 5.50% |
| and | 5.00% |
| to | 4.50% |
| in | 3.75% |
| a / an | 3.25% |
| that | 2.75% |
| is | 2.25% |
| TOTAL | 33.00% |
Source: Basic English and Its Uses (1943) by I. A. Richards
The following 100 words make up 50% of all conversation:
| 1. a, an 2. after 3. again 4. all 5. almost 6. also 7. always 8. and 9. because 10. before 11. big 12. but 13. (I) can 14. (I) come 15. either/or 16. (I) find 17. first 18. for 19. friend 20. from | 21. (I) go 22. good 23. goodbye 24. happy 25. (I) have 26. he 27. hello 28. here 29. how 30. I 31. (I) am 32. if 33. in 34. (I) know 35. last 36. (I) like 37. little 38. (I) love 39. (I) make 40. many | 41. one 42. more 43. most 44. much 45. my 46. new 47. no 48. not 49. now 50. of 51. often 52. on 53. one 54. only 55. or 56. other 57. our 58. out 59. over 60. people | 61. place 62. please 63. same 64. (I) see 65. she 66. so 67. some 68.sometimes 69. still 70. such 71. (I) tell 72. thank you 73. that 74. the 75. their 76. them 77. then 78. there is 79. they 80. thing | 81. (I) think 82. this 83. time 84. to 85. under 86. up 87. us 88. (I) use 89. very 90. we 91. what 92. when 93. where 94. which 95. who 96. why 97. with 98. yes 99. you 100. your |
So a quick way to improve fluency is to become confident using the first 9 words and then expand it to the first 100 words. How?
By using Cloze Tests, also called Cloze Deletion Tests. These tests or exercises consist of a portion of text with certain words removed. The participant then has to replace the missing word.
Interestingly, the word cloze comes from closure in Gestalt Theory. A key principle of Gestalt Psychology is that the mind tries to form a whole when faced with something incomplete.
So by doing repeated Cloze Tests or exercises, the student gradually learns to make incomplete sentences whole using the correct preposition or high frequency word.
You can easily create your own Cloze Exercises:
- Select a portion of text from a web site, and copy it into Microsoft Word.
- Create a copy.
- Use the Search and Replace tool to replace words like: the | a | an | to | in etc. with a blank space or ____.
- Fill in the blanks using the word you feel should be there.
- Check your copy with the original and make a note of any errors.
This simple exercise will greatly increase your confidence in using the ‘little words’ like to, at, in, on.
3. Tenses
This is perhaps the greatest challenge to fluency, knowing how to use the correct tense when speaking or writing. Although English has a number of different tenses, you just need to master about 6 to speak fluent English.
This web site offers a good tutorial with many exercises so you can practice:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html
Conclusion
To increase your fluency, spend time practicing these 3 main areas:
- The definite and indefinite articles – a | an | the
- The ‘little words’, prepositions and high frequency words
- The tenses
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, until you can use them without hesitation. You will notice a huge improvement in your fluency, and of course, your CONFIDENCE![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_column_text]This is an excerpt from my FREE online course.
Enroll here now: http://goodenglish.online[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Next: How To Build A Powerful English Vocabulary
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