Get Better at Speaking English

There’s a very simple exercise you can do to improve your fluency in English -> 

Speak out loud. 

If you make the effort to do this several times a day, and if you repeat this daily, then you’ll soon notice an improvement.

When you’re trying to get better at speaking English, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’re working hard. You might spend time reading, watching, listening or writing. These are all great for practising English, but they’re not great for practising speaking.

To practise speaking, and to get better at it, you must...practise speaking out loud.

It’s essential to do this because your mouth needs to get used to English sounds. You can’t achieve this by reading or watching. It’s so tempting to keep reading about the theory, or to watch videos where someone else explains exactly what you must do. But unless you try it for yourself, you won’t improve.

Speak as much as you can and let your mouth get used to English sounds. As you do this, you’ll create neural patterns between your brain and your mouth. Your brain will send signals to your mouth about what to do, and as you do it more and more, it will become automatic and spontaneous.

But it won’t happen unless you speak out loud.

Don’t worry if you make a mistake. Just keep speaking out loud. Practise this every single day - several times a day if you can.

Here are some ideas about how to get more speaking out loud into your daily routine.

🔵 Start small and take small steps. Remember, you don’t have to do everything at once.

🟢 Reading out loud is a perfect way to start. Choose something short like an article, a recipe or some instructions.

🔵 Practise ‘little and often’. That means practise for a short time then go back to it later. Repeat frequently.

🟢 Sing. Singing is excellent practice for practising speaking. It helps in so many different ways. So if you enjoy singing, then sing as much as you can in English.

🔵 Talk to yourself. Sometimes it’s hard to find someone to practise with, but you are always available! Repeat conversations you’ve had. Imagine scenarios like making a phone call or asking for help. Explain things to yourself. It can be anything. 

Just speak.

The more you keep doing these kinds of exercises, and the more you force yourself to speak out loud, the better you’ll get, the easier it will become and you’ll notice how quickly your fluency improves.

Written by me, not AI, so I can be clear, precise, and say exactly what I mean.

Header Image by Alicia Steels on Unsplash