Hello, friends. Many teach English language months or even years, and are faced with the problem: “I know the words, I know the rules, I understand everything, but I can’t say anything!” I recently received this message:
I have a problem with speaking, I seem to have gone through all the grammar, but when I try to communicate with a native speaker, I can only speak the most simple sentences. It turns out that my level of English is like that of a schoolboy... Even the most simple words. I have no idea how to get out of this...
Tatiana
Let's try to find a way out of the situation. What do you need to do to start speaking English?
You need to relieve stress and responsibility for the result.
Imagine yourself not as an adult who is obliged to speak English after completing a grammar course, but as if you are a child whose task is to speak in such a way that others understand.
If you have watched someone learn to speak Small child, you probably noticed that this is a rather long process. Any child learns to speak the simplest possible phrases, which gradually become more complex. There is no such thing as a child getting up one morning and talking like an adult.
We must use the same principle: first we confidently say a couple of words together, then a couple of sentences, and gradually you learn to express your thoughts quite voluminously. But as a child, you practice all the time and want to say more, better, more correctly. At the same time, you are not at all worried about mistakes, pauses, intonation.
Your goal is to learn to speak “like an adult.” And you will do everything for this! We, adults, demand a lot from ourselves. And if after several weeks or months of study we don’t speak like a native speaker, then we get terribly upset. But remember yourself as a child, when you spoke with mistakes, with blunders, and everyone around you laughed. Remember how you were constantly corrected, forced to repeat the same thing several times. Or how we repeated out loud a hundred times some short poems, counting rhymes and songs. In order to compress the 6-7 years it takes for an ordinary child to speak in a language environment, we need to learn and speak out loud a lot. Every day.
Exercise every day.
Challenge yourself to read a few pages every day. English text aloud. It is advisable that before this you can listen to how the text is read by a native speaker. Next, learn short texts or dialogues, and then recite them out loud. It is important to speak quickly and keep pauses to a minimum. Therefore, take as much as possible simple texts. Read aloud along with the native speaker. Any phrasebook will do for this purpose. Your task is to read at the same pace as the speaker, with the same intonation and pronunciation.
Record your progress, record your results
Gadgets will help you with this: smartphones, tablets, computers. Keep a video diary, record your speech and what you learned. Write audio or video, review it, but do it “cunningly”. Imagine as if you are not an interested person. Review and record all the points that sound bad. Let's say, long pauses, incorrectly spoken words. Check how a native English speaker speaks and how you do it. Your task is to learn to speak just like him.
Practice every grammar rule until it becomes automatic
Despite the fact that many people who study English know the theoretical part well, they do not always practice it sufficiently in practice and bring it to automatism. To do this, you need to do not only written exercises on English grammar. Train yourself to work orally - make simple sentences for each rule. Open the table of contents of, say, Red Murphy's grammar (Essential Grammar in Use) and go through it, working with a new unit every day. Orally compose 20-30 examples for each rule. Learn to do it quickly.
Just because you speak slowly now does not mean you will always speak slowly. But if you don't learn to work with spoken English, if you don't train this particular skill, then the result will be bad. Those. you will be a theorist who knows the names of the rules and what they mean. You will be good at writing exercises and translating texts. Because that's what you learned.
Speaking skill is the most important skill in learning any foreign language. Some students admit that they easily master grammar, enjoy reading foreign literature and calmly listen to audio recordings. But when it comes to speaking English, they fall into the state of “I understand everything, but I can’t answer anything.” And this often happens not because of a lack of knowledge or a limited vocabulary, but because of a lack of speaking practice and a psychological barrier.
The Englex edition has sorted out not the psychological, but the linguistic reasons that may stand between you and fruitful communication on English language, and also talked about ways to solve them.
Insufficient level of language knowledge
The vocabulary of native speakers is 10,000 - 20,000 words. For anyone learning English, 2,000 words are enough for comfortable communication on everyday topics, which corresponds to the level Pre-Intermediate. To start speaking, you must master a minimum grammatical vocabulary: present tense - Present (Simple, Continuous, Perfect); past tense - Past Simple; Future tense: Future Simple e and design be going to; modal verbs: have to, must, can, may, might, should; indirect speech; passive voice. If your knowledge of English is at the level Elementary or Beginner, you need to tighten them up Pre-Intermediate. If you have already overcome this bar, then you are ready to communicate in English. Yes, such conversations will not be ideal and easy, but expressing your thoughts accessible ways you definitely can.
Nothing to say on the topic
If you feel like you don’t know what to talk about, start by developing your Russian speech. Take any object or phenomenon. Think about what thoughts and emotions you feel towards him. Try to find several subtopics within this broad topic. Then talk about this subject or phenomenon for at least one or two minutes. Exhale. Try the same thing, but in English.
Structure of answering oral questions
Let's imagine that you are asked a common question. For example: What is your favorite kind of food?-What is your favorite food? If panic arises in your head and the gastronomic variety creates complete chaos, take your time. The fate of humanity does not depend on your answer now. Think calmly and only then speak according to the following example: Introductory sentence - Answer - Reason/Example - Conclusion.
By practicing answering questions this way, you can get rid of the “I have nothing to say” problem.
1. Learn new words
The more words you know, the more conversational topics are available to you and the more accurately you can express your thoughts. Therefore, if you are carried away by speaking practice, do not forget about replenishing your vocabulary.
2. Making your speech lively and natural
To make your speech beautiful and natural, while learning a new word, look in the dictionary, which lists its synonyms and antonyms, as well as related ones phrasal verbs and idioms. This way you will diversify your speech and increase lexicon.
3. Learn phrases
If you ask modern polyglots how to learn to speak English quickly, many of them will answer the same way: “Learn cliché phrases and speech structures.” Expressions like Let's talk briefly about... (Let's talk briefly about ...), I am inclined to believe that... (I am inclined to think that ...), I've got an impression that... (I have the impression that ...) will help you start a conversation competently and beautifully. But what if you didn’t understand well what was said to you? You need to learn to catch keywords in a statement. Please contact Special attention on nouns and verbs, because they are the main words in any sentence. The rest will become clear from the general context of the statement, intonation, emotions, facial expressions and gestures of the speaker. Practice listening more often and get used to the sound of someone else's speech. In the meantime, you can ask the other person to repeat:
Screenshot from Englex
4. Activate vocabulary
Active vocabulary - those words that you use in speech or writing, passive - you recognize in someone else's speech or when reading, but do not use it yourself. The larger your active vocabulary, the more ways you have to express yourself and the easier it is for you to express yourself in English. Work on expanding it: learn new words and introduce them into your speech.
5. Learning to paraphrase
If you are afraid that during a conversation you may forget a word, then do not worry, because you can learn periphrasis - an indirect, descriptive designation of an object. And in order for you to be able to paraphrase, we will give some tips. If you forgot compound word, use the simpler one: a department store - a supermarket(Department store). Use that, which, who to describe a thing or object: I t’s a very large shop that sells food and other products for the home.- This big store, which sells food and other household products. Use antonyms and comparisons: It is opposite to a neighborhood shop. = It's not a neighborhood shop. - It is the opposite in meaning to a convenience store. Use examples: “S ainsbury's" and "Tesco" are examples of best supermarkets. - Sainsbury's and Tesco- examples of the best supermarkets.
6. Learn to ask questions
The strategy for any successful conversation is to talk less about yourself and be more interested in the opinions of other people. To do this, you need to master the scheme for constructing the main types of questions. For example, a person tells you that he likes to decorate his apartment. I like decorating my flat. - I like to decorate my apartment. Think about what questions you could ask this person? What materials do you like the most?- What materials do you like best? Did you learn something about decor?-Have you studied anything in decor? Could you please show me your best work?- Don't show yours better job? Would you like to take part in some decorators contest?- Would you like to take part in a decorating competition?
7. We use a special textbook
Aids for the development of oral speech are a good help for every English learner. They give you things to talk about interesting ideas and expressions, as well as new phrases that can be successfully used in any conversation.
8. Improving pronunciation
Work on your pronunciation: if you mix up sounds or pronounce them unclearly, you are much less likely to be understood. Do you want to speak correctly? Imitate the speech of people who speak clearly and distinctly. You can imitate your English teacher, BBC announcer, favorite actor or English-speaking friend, if you have one. When you learn to pronounce sounds clearly, your fear of being misunderstood will go away, and you will not feel embarrassed by your accent.
9. We are engaged in modern listening
English listening doesn't have to be monotonous or intimidating. You can train your listening comprehension of English speech using modern podcasts, audio series and radio shows. Some of them are adapted for learning, others contain useful colloquial phrases from real, live speech from native speakers. Even if you have little free time to study, you can install apps on your smartphone with podcasts, radio shows and audio dramas. Listen to them on your way to work, during your lunch break, while traveling, while shopping, etc. We recommend listening to the same recording several times. If possible, you can repeat after the announcer. This simple trick will improve your listening skills.
10. Watching videos
How to quickly learn to speak English using videos? — Watch videos on topics that interest you, listen to how and what native speakers say, and repeat after them. This way you will not only master spoken phrases, but also be able to learn correct articulation by imitating the characters in the video. Many videos for people with different levels of language proficiency can be viewed on the following resources: engvid.com, newsinlevels.com, englishcentral.com. One of the best resources that you probably know is the portal of educational videos from the world's best TED lecturers.
11. Sing songs
Favorite songs in English can help you improve your speaking skills. Find the lyrics to a song you like and play it in the recordings. Listen to the performer and repeat the lyrics after him. Try to keep up with the pace of the soloist’s speech and at the same time pronounce the words as clearly as possible.
12. Read aloud and retell what we read
Reading aloud works similarly to listening to video and audio, only here you read the text yourself and retell what you read. As a result, new words and phrases are remembered.
Choose a general conversation topic, for example, a story about your favorite book. Turn on the voice recorder on your smartphone or laptop and record your voice. After that, turn on the recording and listen to it carefully. Pay attention to when you hesitate, where you pause, how fast your speech is, good pronunciation and correct intonation. Usually, the first recordings for English learners are not a test for the faint of heart: firstly, we are not used to hearing ourselves from the outside, and secondly, English-language speech at the first stages of learning sounds strange and incomprehensible. We recommend that you do not despair. Imagine that this is not your voice, but some outside student who really wants to learn English. What would you advise him to work on? After a month or two, compare the first and last entries: the difference will be noticeable, and this will inspire you to further exploits in learning English.
14. We talk as often as possible
Do you dream of speaking English in your free time, but your friends are not interested? Try participating in conversation clubs with other English language learners. Such meetings are held both live and online. This a great opportunity start talking and get used to someone else's speech. In a relaxed atmosphere you can chat on different topics, on occasion, introduce interesting words and phrases that you heard somewhere, and just have a good time.
15. Finding a partner
Have you bought a membership to a fitness club but quit after a couple of months? Have you decided to learn the guitar, but your enthusiasm has faded and you have switched to something new? Perhaps you simply lack motivation and support. You need someone who will support your desire to learn English. Try to find a friend who will go to courses and conversation clubs with you, chat on different topics and motivate you in every possible way to continue learning.
16. We don’t theorize
Practice, practice and only practice of speaking will bring the desired results. Theory alone will not be enough: no matter how much you read useful tips on how to start speaking English, the language will not be given to you until you begin to put all the tips into practice. Yes, you know that yourself. Whatever you undertake, be it driving, cooking or yoga in hammocks, without practice, theoretical manuals will become waste paper.
Guess the riddle: “I’m eating and eating and there’s no trace, I’m cutting and cutting and there’s no blood?” - Probably everyone knows the answer. This is a boat :)
Here's a more complex riddle: “I teach and teach, but I’m still silent” - who is this? Did you guess it? 🙂
It’s annoying, of course, to spend an endless amount of time learning English without being able to connect even two words.
So how can you speak English quickly?
The answer is obvious: only active practice!
Here are 11 tips to help you on how you can train your spoken English skills on your own:
1. Study words not by themselves, but by word combinations and whole phrases.
Come up with vivid examples and say them out loud. Let your examples include crocodiles, unicorns, monsters, elves, robots. In this case, you activate different areas brain Don't be afraid of repetitions, think of them as fitness for your speech apparatus.
2.
Regularly, preferably every day, practice your pronunciation, for example, using the service https://www.merriam-webster.com
On this site you will find interesting articles about the nuances of the meanings and use of words in modern English (for example, “bake” and “bake” are 2 completely different words), the correct pronunciation of words and phrases, and various online games.
There is a nice feature of receiving 1 new word per day for free: this way, day after day, you quietly expand your own vocabulary. The resource has been specializing in dictionaries for many years, but the presentation of the material captivates from the first clicks of anyone learning English, and on different levels training.
3. Look interesting videos and try to repeat everything you hear.
These can be short videos, feature films, live streams computer game, video blogs. Rehearse, copying the intonations of your favorite bloggers and actors.
It is very important to choose sources only of original origin, where English speech native, otherwise you risk learning a deliberately incorrect pronunciation.
4. It is useful to watch and listen to video lessons that contain a lot of speaking practice.
To evaluate usefulness, use the 50/50 formula: 50% of the time you listen, 50% of the time you repeat what you heard. You must not be lazy to repeat all the proposed material, without omissions.
Don't wait until you watch to the end and then start exercising, practice colloquial speech directly while watching the video lesson. On our website BistroEnglish you will find a large number of training videos for every taste and color:
5. Talk to yourself and don’t be afraid to be considered crazy :)
For example, when you are trying to learn how to cook your next culinary masterpiece, imagine yourself as a chef and try to tell the recipe in English for your most popular video blog.
Also, during morning physical exercise Say out loud what you are doing, even rest pauses or count steps in English.
6. Be sure to join an English speaking club.
At first, you may feel shy and confused; after all, not everyone can boast that they can easily come into an unfamiliar environment and talk to new people, and here in English! But it's worth a try!
Video English Course for Beginners
Video English Course for Intermediate Level
Firstly, the atmosphere of English speaking clubs is democratic and sincere; they bring together positive-minded people united by one goal - to practice spoken English.
The vocabulary of a speaking club can be simple - however, you yourself regulate the level at which you would like to communicate. No obligations, just come when you are in the mood and have the time.
Very famous today https://www.meetup.com, where people gather based on their interests and organize live meetings, including for the practice of foreign languages.
7. Retell jokes and stories.
Train your memory and retell something you read a long time ago. Reread and retell again. Did you feel the difference?
This is very good habit, which, on occasion, will help you brighten up the discussion interesting phrase, fact or joke.
8. Try to think in English.
This will require a quiet, quiet environment in which you can concentrate.
It is easiest to find such an atmosphere at home, but you can practice simply on the way to work or school, while walking or traveling in public transport.
For example, describe the weather, your mood, or the appearance of people you met along the way, mentally speaking phrases.
9. Compose several short speeches about yourself and memorize them, adding interesting details and details.
Who am I, what do I do, my preferences in food and drinks, unusual hobbies, recent travels - short stories that characterize you and best sides. When meeting people, for example, in spoken English clubs, such stories will greatly help relieve the first awkwardness.
10. Read out loud.
Choose exciting stories or popular articles, even fairy tales!
You can alternate them to understand different styles and genres. If you correspond in English, reread your phrases out loud, this will help kill two birds with one stone: improve your writing style and more firmly fix the phrases in your memory.
11. Come up with life dialogues and bring to automaticity the phrases that you plan to use in life.
If your imagination refuses to turn on, you can simply find the desired topic and memorize the dialogue. For example, if you are going on a trip, any phrases on the topics will be useful to you: hotels, airports, buses, museums, vacations, cafes, restaurants.
By supplementing your question with gestures, a tourist map and lively facial expressions, you will do just fine without an interpreter abroad.
Don't worry about repeating the same thing over and over again. Believe me, as a result, this will lead you to “automatic speaking” when you communicate in English as if it were your native language.
Practice at home, sometimes even in front of a mirror, practicing new expressions, facial expressions and gestures - this way you activate your brain to perceive new material lighter and stronger, using the features of our memory. It's time to learn oratory, if you've never tried this skill before! 🙂
Your reward for persistent work will be the ease with which at the right moment you will successfully make an elegant turn, instead of painfully choosing words and blushing, not daring to start a conversation.
In order to talk, there is no point in looking for some innovative way, you just need to talk, train the skill yourself.
The more regularly and persistently you practice, the more noticeable the progress will be, and soon you will find yourself naturally giving out advice left and right on how to start speaking English.
Fluent spoken English implies the ability to communicate quickly, easily, and without difficulty. Many people believe that fluency is equivalent to perfect knowledge of a language, but this is not entirely true. If you think about it and listen to the speech of native speakers, you will notice that they also make mistakes in grammar, choice of appropriate words, and sometimes in pronunciation.
Below are some tips to help you speak fluently - quickly and easily, but not without error.
“I want to learn to speak English fluently. What needs to be done for this?
Many of my friends ask this question. After discussing what is meant by “fluent,” I ask how often they speak English. Naturally, the most common answers are “only in class” or “only with a tutor.” This is clearly not enough.
If you need to learn how to do something well, the only way to achieve it is through practice. In relation to English, this statement is completely true. The best thing you can do to achieve smooth, free speech is only practice: talking with friends, classmates, foreigners on Skype, live meetings with native speakers, and so on. The more you practice, the better your speech becomes, that's obvious.
Continuing communication, you find out that typical emotions in relation to speaking in English are “scared”, “worried”, “embarrassed”. Therefore, the second advice is to relax, there is nothing to be afraid of. There were, are and will be mistakes. Pauses in speech initial stages inevitable. If you don’t know which word is more suitable or which tense to choose, don’t be silent and don’t worry, say at least something, express your thoughts as best you can.
To achieve fluency, in addition to speaking, listening comprehension is also important. WITH educational materials no problems, they great amount for every taste. Just play an audiobook or movie in the background everyday affairs. Even if you don’t concentrate on the narration, unbeknownst to yourself, you will still record some turns of phrase, pronunciation, variations in the use of words, and gradually begin to automatically use all this in your speech.
If you are studying in study group, then the game “Just a minute” is good for developing fluency. The rules are simple - any topics are written on pieces of paper, for example: holodays, Michael Jackson, being rich, dogs, my favorite movie. Everyone takes turns taking a piece of paper and talking non-stop for a minute on the topic they come across. Moreover, you cannot repeat the same thing several times and you cannot change the topic. Yes, it’s not easy at first, but the more you practice, the easier and easier this game will become. A monologue on a certain topic can be difficult even for a native speaker, so mistakes and pauses should not confuse you at all.
Comments
| Elena Dzizinskaya
live among native speakers - then you will speak fluently)) |
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| Kaleria Erina
To learn to speak fluently |
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| Nastya Khaydukova
Hello everyone) I`m looking for native speaker for chatting in English on skype) Will be happy to find new friends) Have a good time |
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| Maxim Vladimirovich
Why does she have that rectangle on her boobs? Can't stop looking at it! |
|
Hello friends. Very often, people who learn English cannot speak it quickly. When they do the exercises, work on grammar, everything is fine. But as soon as you have to speak English, and speak quickly, in front of someone, they remain silent, as if they had taken too much water in their mouth. From somewhere fear, self-doubt, and stupid mistakes appear. But thought simply refuses to work quickly.
I want to give you a couple practical advice how to speed up and speak English faster.
— Learn texts and dialogues by heart. To begin with, read the same text a lot, a lot. Instead of text, dialogues, film scripts (episodes), and song lyrics are suitable. It is also important to have time to read along with the announcer who does the voice-over. a) first learn to read some text quickly. b) answer this text to yourself orally, without peeping. Imagine yourself as an actress. It's like you're learning a role. Speak your role with expression, with meaning. Even if you don't understand what you're saying. Still try not to stop. It's like you're already on stage.
- Talk to yourself. Make it a habit to talk to yourself for at least 10-20 minutes a day. Again, like an actor who reads monologues. Choose a topic and talk about it. The topic may be the simplest; there is no need to philosophize. For example, they took a pencil, put it on the table and said I’m putting the pencil on the table. Then they put it in the book, they said I’ve just put it into the book.
Daily exercises of this kind will help loosen your tongue.
— Retellings of the text. Read the text several times, then retell it in your own words. But required condition for this and the above exercises, speak out loud. Open your mouth, perform a speech act. It is very important!
When retelling, you need to say the same idea that you read, but in different words. It is not necessary to complicate it, it is better to simplify it. Speak in as clear and simple sentences as possible. Where you can say a complex sentence, it is better to say 2 simple sentences.
- Rehearse your speech. Imagine that you have a presentation at work tomorrow, or you need to say a few words in front of the team. What do you say? Think about it. Make up a speech. And then rehearse it. Set yourself a time limit. Let's say you need to speak for 1 minute. Speak at a normal pace. Practice your speech until you can speak quickly.
- Record yourself on camera or at least on a voice recorder. Keep a video diary. You don't have to show this to anyone. The point is that you see yourself from the outside. At first you won't like yourself very much, especially when you speak English. But if you do this every day, then speaking in front of someone will become something normal and familiar to you. And it’s also important to hear yourself from the outside in order to know what you need to work on.
- Believe in what you can say in English free. Imagine if you already know how to do this. As they say, try this one glass ceiling. Then both stiffness and slowness in speech will go away.
— Get rid of perfectionism. Many people don't speak up because they're afraid of making a mistake. But no one will execute you for mistakes. You are not in the exam. On the contrary, foreigners are very helpful people, they are ready to help, ready to wait patiently for you to express your thoughts. Don't be afraid of your accent or the fact that you think for a long time. The main thing is that you want to talk and you can express your thoughts. All the same, you won’t be able to skip the stage of mistakes, and all your mistakes will come out in your speech. Speak out your mistakes to get rid of them forever.
I once had a student - an adult man, the owner of a small but successful company in Ukraine. His English was very funny. But this did not stop him from speaking it at all. Use English during negotiations and while traveling. He was not shy and treated English as it should be done - as a means of expressing thoughts and a way of interacting with people who do not know Russian. You should have heard how the Chinese speak English. But this does not prevent them from interacting with enterprises and companies around the world. So more optimism, less perfectionism! If you are physically able to speak quickly (do not have mental disabilities), then you will be able to quickly speak not only Russian, but also English. I wish you success!