How To Practice ENGLISH Speaking!
We will discuss 2 ways for how to practice English speaking:
- By talking to yourself
- By finding a native English speaking conversation partner
It’s probably not practical to practice with a native speaker every day. You can however talk to yourself for at least 5 minutes a day in English. This can be done when you are in private such as when having a shower or driving to work, or some other time when you have 5 minutes alone.
What can you talk about? Think of something to describe such as a movie or TV program you recently watched. Talk about the events of yesterday or talk about your plans or activities for today. Don’t worry about accuracy or avoiding mistakes. Just speak.
To get the greatest benefit from practice of course, you will need the input of a native English speaker. So once or twice a week you can book a lesson with an online teacher with the emphasis on conversation and speaking.
You can search web sites such as italki.com and find English conversation partners at very inexpensive rates. Be selective and choose a good teacher, probably after trying one or two free trial lessons. You will need a teacher who will listen patiently most of the time, allowing you the opportunity to speak, offering correction after you have finished speaking so as not to interrupt your flow of thought and speech.
You can choose a topic for conversation from this web site: esldiscussions.com Click on the subject and you will see a number of questions the teacher can use as a basis for discussion.
This step is very important – Practice! Practice! Practice! – alone and with a native speaker. Your confidence level will regularly reach new plateaus!
Plan of Action
How to practice English speaking – Create a plan.
Now you know the main strategies for speaking English with confidence, it’s time to create a plan:
- Decide on how much time you will spend each day improving your English:
- 10 minutes
- 20 minutes
- 30 minutes
Then decide whether it will be a 10, 20 or 30 day plan.
- Select a variety of activities using the tools suggested here and here. For example, you might spend some time on Vocabulary.com each day, or alternate 1 day on Vocabulary.com and 1 day on BBC Six Minute English. Every 3rd of 4th day you might spend time with the tenses tutorial or decide to listen to a TED talk. Mix the activities so you never get bored.
You will constantly discover new words. Create or copy a phrase using the word and make a note. Add them to your Anki flashcard program or put them in your personal word list in Vocabulary.com. Check synonyms and antonyms at thesaurus.com.
Be active. Jump in with full enthusiasm and create an energetic, fast moving, learning session. In a short time you will begin to recognize some words which appear in a variety of places. For example, you might learn a new word in Vocabulary.com and a short time later see it used in Six Minute English, or a speaker on TED.com might use it.
You will be amazed at how your brain will begin to absorb the pattern of the language so you don’t have to think about grammar rules! You will begin to get a ‘sense’ or a ‘feel’ for what ‘sounds right’ and your English will start to flow!
That’s how to practice English speaking.
This is an excerpt from my FREE online course.
Enroll here now: http://goodenglish.online