10 Tips for Speaking English
English is one of the most common languages spoken around the world. It’s spoken as a main language in 96 countries, and over 1.8 billion people speak English as a second language globally. To travel or work abroad, we need to be able to speak English.
In our blog post on Mastering the four language skills, we spoke of some benefits of speaking English in a global economy. In this blog, we’ll look deeper into how to improve your English speaking skills, and give you tips to help you speak English with confidence!
You will see the ten tips below all tell you about something we mentioned in a previous blog post—that’s because it actually takes a good vocabulary (reading skill), pronunciation (listening skill), and thinking (writing skill) to speak English. All three of these skills come together in the speaking skill. Let’s have a look how:
Here are 10 Tips for Mastering the Speaking Skill:
Practise Pronunciation
Speak to Native Speakers
Record Yourself
Think in English
Expand Your Vocabulary
Practise Active Listening
Use Technology
Speak Slowly and Clearly
Read Out Loud
Do Interesting Things in English
Practise pronunciation
This one may seem obvious, but it’s important to remember that our brains are muscles, and we need to exercise them often to make them stronger. When you listen to native speakers, you may hear different accents, but you can still listen, to hear how words are pronounced, then read out loud to practice!
Practise every day for at least 30 minutes. Try to practise when you talk to your friends, to your cat, or even when you sing along to a song on the radio.
Speak to native English speakers
When you travel, don’t be shy to speak in English. If you work with native English colleagues, try to speak to them in their home language. Ask them to let you know if you’ve made any mistakes with grammar or pronunciation, and don’t be afraid to hear what they have to say. Corrections help us improve!
Talk to family or friends in English. Even if they don’t understand, practising your second language daily helps you to speak with more confidence, it helps you recognise mistakes you may be making in pronunciation. And to top it all off, speaking another language often can restructure the brain and help slow deterioration later in life. No matter when you learn a new language, it’s important to keep using it.
Record yourself
Record yourself reading out loud, or speaking to yourself in the mirror. When we record ourselves and listen to the way we speak, it’s a lot easier to hear what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong. Make notes when you hear your voice, are you using the correct tone? Are you pronouncing words correctly?
This doesn’t have to be a daily activity but try to do it at least once a week. This will also motivate you when you see how fast you’re improving!
Think in English
Think of words in English, rather than translating from your native language. Doing this will allow you to think and respond faster in real conversation, which makes you speak more naturally.
Expand Your Vocabulary
Learn new words and phrases daily to express yourself better. We covered the different ways of improving your vocabulary in previous blog posts about reading and listening.
Make notes when you hear a new word, then practise saying them out loud. You can record yourself doing this too, to hear if you’re doing it right.
Practise active listening
Pay attention to native speakers and try to copy their pronunciation and intonation. Listening actively means paying attention to the speaker, their body language, their tone and pronunciation, all of which helps us when it’s our turn to speak.
Use technology
There are so many Apps, YouTube videos and Podcasts that help non-native speakers improve their English speaking skills. Don’t be afraid to try these, they’re definitely a helpful addition to your language-learning journey. Apps are a good way to get immediate feedback and corrections on grammar and pronunciation.
You can also watch English movies and TV shows to experience different conversational styles and pick up on body language and tone. Listening to real conversations on the TV or radio also exposes you to natural speaking patterns.
Watching the news in English is a great way to learn more professional conversational styles, and to widen your vocabulary to relevant events around the world.
A really quick and easy tip to use is to speak to Google, Siri or Alexa in English. Don’t worry if they don’t understand you, just use it as an opportunity to perfect certain commands in English.
Speak slowly and clearly
Don’t rush when speaking English. It’s better to speak slowly and enunciate words than to mumble or have to repeat yourself.
Read out loud
When you read out loud, you can see the word on the page, and your brain connects it with what you say. This will help you later in conversation, when you have to think quickly to understand and respond to someone.
In our blog post on reading, we mentioned that it’s a good idea to read every day. Even reading for ten minutes a day will improve your vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. It’s an even better idea to read out loud so that you can practise pronunciation too!
Do interesting things in English
Find something you love to do and learn about it in English. When you find people who also enjoy the activity (like cooking, ballet, painting, or gardening) you can talk about it in English. Speaking about something you love will make the practise a more positive experience.
Why is it important to master speaking English?
Learning English as a foreign language is very important in the global economy. We’ve seen how a pandemic can turn a world inside out and upside down at the same time. It’s important to be able to adapt to our circumstances. Learning English only makes this so much easier.
If you travel, you may need to order food, ask directions, or even ask for help in an emergency.
Speaking English means using reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills together. Reading and writing help you learn more words and understand better. Listening helps you understand and talk to people. Speaking English is important for talking with others in daily life, at work, and when you travel around the world.
So, we’ve looked at all four Language Learning Skills that we need to work on to Master English. You are now equipped with the tools to go out and learn English! If you keep practising, commit to learning the language, and share as much of it with your friends and family as you can, the journey of learning will be fun, challenging, and worthwhile.
Happy learning!
