10 Ways to Boost Your English Speaking Skills

There are a few stages of learning a foreign language: you start with the basics of grammar and vocabulary, master your reading and listening skills, learn how to write, and eventually arrive at the point of speaking it. The latter often does not happen as easily as the other parts. Many students complain that while they understand the language, they struggle to speak it. And I was there too. However, with some regular practice, you can overcome this fear and start speaking. Discover my tips and tricks in this article.

Fluency Comes With Practice

Remember that you already know everything you need to start speaking. What is missing for confident speaking is practice!

What you need is a push to make you activate all your language skills and knowledge and start speaking. For instance, a stressful situation when you have to use English to explain yourself. You can often face this when you travel abroad and need to use your language skills to find the right bus stop, ask directions, or buy something in a shop.

You can also create an environment that makes you use your English speaking skills on your own. For example, you could start a blog in English.

Ideally, you should make it a video blog on YouTube or go live often on other social networks, practising your speaking. If you do not want to go public, try running a video diary instead.

Film yourself, speaking about your day or things of your interest to you, and never release these videos anywhere. Over time, you can re-watch these recordings and notice what mistakes you make in order to pay special attention to this area in the future. It will also help you to track your progress and grow confidence in speaking in English.

Remember Phonetics

In English, the words are often not pronounced the same way as they are written. To pronounce them correctly and with confidence, you need to learn phonetic rules.

It may take some time to make your brain ignore the rules of your native language, especially if you are learning a language related to your own. The words may look exactly the same but be pronounced very differently so please, keep it in mind and learn the rules properly.

When you pay close attention to the way native speakers pronounce words and phrases, you may notice that they also connect words, insert sounds, omit some letters and use other tricks to speak more quickly and casually. For instance, they commonly use linking: a way of connecting two words to sound like one long word. When the last sound of the first word and the first sound of second word are the same, they pronounce it just once: “good day” sounds like [gooday]. Another trick is elision, which is where one of the sounds disappears when two words are joined together. For example, an expression “next door” sounds like [nexdoor]. When you learn the rules of phonetics and pronunciation, you will master these tricks and will sound just like the natives.

When you brush up on your phonetics, you won’t need to think too much on the pronunciation of particular words. Instead, you will move your focus onto building phrases and sentences and communicating your ideas. It will make your speech more fluent and fast.

Smash These Phrasal Verbs

While you do not need to know all the idioms and rare expressions, you have to understand and use phrasal verbs. They are a very common conversational element so avoiding them makes your speaking more clumsy and less fluent.

Start with 30 or 40 of the most basic ones. Gradually, you will discover that you can guess the meanings of the new ones. Over time, you will stop noticing when you learn a new phrasal verb, it will just happen organically.

Don’t Overcomplicate

You may assume that to speak English fluently and sound like a native speaker, you need a lot of advanced vocabulary and idioms. But that’s not true! According to a recent study, published by the BBC, a typical native English speaker knows about 15 000 to 20 000 word families — or lemmas. However, if you learn only 800 of the most frequently-used lemmas in English, you’ll be able to understand 75% of the language as it is spoken in normal life!

Not sure you know these most frequently-used words? Discover my tips for learning 30+ new words a day here and check out our A2 Grammar and Vocabulary course for people with an Elementary English level. You will learn all necessary words and grammar structures to get started with speaking and writing in English, in just 2 weeks!

For spoken English, it’s common to simplify, using only short sentences and simple words. Furthermore, when you address people with the words and phrases you know, they will answer you using them. It will help you more easily understand one another and keep the conversation as fluent and easy as possible.

Don’t Be Embarrassed by Your Accent

Having an accent is normal, and nobody expects you to speak perfectly. Look, for example, at TED conferences: for most of the speakers there, English is their second language. Having an accent does not prevent them from giving public speeches and succeeding.

Furthermore, even native English speakers from different countries, states, and regions may have very different accents. To improve your pronunciation, you need more speaking practice as well as more exposure to native speech. You can watch films and TV shows in English, listen to English podcasts or audiobooks, follow English-speaking bloggers…

And of course, you can sign up for our intensive course Speak English like an American with Venya Pak. In 14 lessons, you will lose your accent, feel more confident, and learn to sound just like a native speaker.

Intonate Like Native Speakers

Don’t be monotonous, instead, check out how native speakers intonate in their conversation and repeat after them. Also, avoid being choppy or pronouncing each word separately without building phrases. It sounds like a robot, and you are a human being.

To get rid of these bad practices, you can simply record yourself and listen to your intonation and speed of speaking.

Ask Them to Repeat It or to Speak Slowly

Of course, it’s good to talk to native speakers. But I understand that it can be scary. You might be afraid of not understanding some things they say or to being lost with the pace at which they are speaking.

Instead of avoiding these conversations, try asking people to repeat or explain things you have not understood. If you are friendly, open and sincere, trust me, nobody will feel bad about repeating something once again or speaking more slowly to help you catch up.

If you’re wondering where you can find native speakers with whom to practice your English in the first place, I’ve got you covered. Check my previous article to discover five ways to meet foreigners and practise the language with them.

Watch TV Series and Vlogs

TV series, films and vlogs are the best sources of everyday language and slang words for you. Watching them is the best way to see how people actually speak and to pick up relevant vocabulary and grammar from them.

Don’t forget to turn on subtitles: it will help you to follow through the story, check the words you don’t know in a dictionary, and practise not only listening but also your reading skills.

Why not check out our YouTube channel English with LinguaTrip? There, you will discover a lot of education and entertaining content in English, recorded by native speakers for English students from all over the world.

Think in the Language You Are Trying to Speak In

When you think in your own language and speak in another, it is confusing for your brain. You become slow, make obvious mistakes, and cannot really work on your fluency, accent or intonation. Practise, practise, practise, and check out my previous article for tips and tricks on thinking in English.

Or sign up for our marathon Think and Talk Like a Native Speaker. Not only will you master your speaking skills, but you will also get valuable cultural insights into the American lifestyle and the ways it influences American English.

Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes

Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes, both English students and native speakers alike. The fear of making a mistake should not prevent you from speaking in English. Relax and treat every conversation in English as if it were your conversation with your good friend, who may either not notice or politely correct your mistakes, but will never judge you for making them.

If you want to avoid them as much as possible, try planning your conversations ahead. Formulate the clear call to action for your communication. You can think through all the questions you want to ask and foresee what you may need to address during the conversation yourself. Then, you will know what to expect during the chat and will have all the necessary vocabulary and grammar prepared. Over time, this extensive preparatory practice will become redundant as you will grow confident in speaking English.

Summary

There are many reasons to be afraid of speaking in English. However, we found at least 10 ways to help you speak with confidence. Be relaxed and do not focus on your mistakes or accent. Instead, ensure that you know basic grammar and vocabulary, and use them actively. Do not overcomplicate, and speak in short and simple sentences.

Practise more with native speakers, and do not shy away from asking them to repeat themselves or clarify something for you. Aspire to start thinking in the language you are speaking. To achieve these, watch more TV shows and vlogs in English, start your own video diary or blog in English, and practise as much as possible. I’m sure over time, you will master your speaking.

Want to make smashing progress in your English studies while staying at home? Check out a full range of our online courses. These are suitable for all levels and study goals from a simple grammar boost to exam preparation.