hi I'm oli welcome to Oxford online
English in this lesson you can learn how
to speak more fluently in English how
long have you been studying English do
you find that sometimes even though you
study hard you can't speak fluently do
you learn lots of grammar and vocabulary
but you find it difficult to make
sentences when you speak in this lesson
we're going to talk about fluency and
what you can do to change this situation
and improve your English fluency part 1
what is fluency sometimes when people
talk about fluency they just mean
speaking a language well for some people
speaking English fluently just means
having a good general level of English
however fluency is more specific than
that
fluency means you can speak smoothly
without stopping or hesitating there are
two sides to fluency one side is
physical your mouth needs to produce and
connect English sounds and words in a
fast smooth way the other side of
fluency is mental your brain needs to
find the right words and build English
sentences quickly and smoothly to
improve your fluency you need to work on
both sides physical and mental but first
part two rule number one get out there
there are many things you can do to
improve your English fluency however if
you want to become more fluent that's
really one thing you have to do get out
there and speak English talk to people
and have conversations regularly nothing
else you can do is as important as this
reading English will improve your
reading practising listening will
improve your listening but what about
speaking nothing will help your speaking
except speaking speaking English is a
practical skill it's not an academic
subject it's not something you can learn
from
but it's more like doing a sport or
playing a musical instrument you need to
practice regularly to make any progress
how regularly as often as you can
there's no maximum but I'd recommend you
need to spend at least two to three
hours a week
speaking English if you want to improve
so how can you do this go to classes
talk to expats or foreigners in your
city join groups or activities with
English speakers find the conversation
partner online do a language exchange
there are many possibilities by the way
what you do doesn't have to be language
focused you can go to English classes to
practice your speaking but anything you
do which is in English and which will
make you speak English is just as good
I'm going to take a guess here about
what many of you are thinking right now
but I don't have people to talk to but
I'm shy but it's too difficult let's
talk about these things quickly part
three get used to pressure speaking a
foreign language is hard situations
which would be easy in your language and
feel difficult in another language
situations which would feel difficult in
your language can feel almost impossible
when you have to do them in a foreign
language that's how it is it's easy to
imagine when you start learning another
language that you'll reach a point where
everything is easy and comfortable but
unless you live in a foreign country and
live completely inside that culture that
won't happen trust me I've studied
several languages at this point in my
life I speak some of them quite well but
it never feels easy or comfortable what
are we talking about this I'm trying to
motivate you to go out and speak more
practice more to do that you have to
accept that
it will feel difficult uncomfortable and
intimidating a lot of the time that's
how it is don't let it stop you
you can still practice you can still
communicate and you can still improve
I'll give you an example of this from my
own experience I hate making phone calls
in another language I don't know why but
I find it particularly intimidating I
guess because I can't use context or
facial expressions or anything like that
to help me understand or communicate I
lived in Russia and I studied Russian I
hated making phone calls in Russian then
I lived in China and I studied Chinese I
hated
making phone calls in Chinese now I'm
studying Greek guess what I hate making
phone calls in Greek - it still feels
just as difficult and just as
intimidating I haven't learned any
tricks to make it easier all I've done
it's that I accept that this is how it
feels that's it I still do it because I
have to sometimes I just accept that I'm
going to feel nervous or uncomfortable
and I have to speak and communicate
anyway and I do it doesn't stop you
feeling nervous does not stop you
communicating this will be the same for
you sometimes it might be phone calls it
might be something else
the key point you have to accept and
learn to deal with that pressure don't
think it feels scary so I won't do it it
wouldn't feel less scary in the future
the only way to make it easier is to go
out and do it if you do that you'll feel
more confident it will get a little bit
easier with time okay so now you know
the most important point about fluency
but if there are anything else you can
do to practice yes there is part 4 speed
reading find a text in English it can be
something from a text book from a
newspaper
my blog or anywhere the text should be
fairly easy for you don't choose
something with a lot of new words or
something which is way above your
current English level sit down with a
timer read the text aloud time yourself
now read it again try to beat your
previous time keep going like this see
how fast you can read the text what's
this for well remember that passive
fluency is physical your mouth needs to
produce English sounds and English words
fast and smoothly speed reading like
this is a good way to practice that side
of fluency this way of practicing is
really useful because you can do it
almost anywhere and you can also do as
much or as little as you have time for
you can do five minutes practise or
fifteen minutes or half an hour it's all
helpful let's see another good technique
like this pop five using songs find a
song in English choose something which
you like find the lyrics online if you
don't know where to look
just put the song title and the word
lyrics into Google you'll find them play
the song read the lyrics sing like with
speed reading this is a good technique
to practice the physical side of fluency
when you sing a song you have to go at
the speed of the song start with slower
songs then choose faster ones try to
choose something that's possible but
challenging so you can sing the song but
it's difficult to go fast enough again
this will really help with your physical
fluency it's also easy to do you can do
one song a day and I promise you you
will feel a difference quite quickly
I used this technique a lot when I was
learning Chinese and it really helped
speed reading and singing songs are good
for physical fluency but what about the
mental side
fluency let's see what you can do to
improve that part six learn language in
chunks here's a question how do you
learn vocabulary when I see students
learning vocabulary often it looks like
this people write down the English word
the translation in their own language
and then they try to memorize it okay
but what does that have to do with
fluency think about it if you learn
language like this you're making your
brain do things in a very unnatural and
complicated way first of all you're
learning each word individually but when
you speak a language you don't need
individual words you need phrases and
sentences secondly if you do this you're
learning English through your own
language you're not learning to speak
English you were trying to learn to
translate your language into English in
your head so does this sound familiar
you have a sentence in your head in your
own language you move through the
sentence translating each word into
English if you don't know the
translation of a word you get stuck you
feel bad about your English and you stop
speaking you need to break this habit if
you want to speak fluently first of all
this way of thinking and speaking is
always slow it will always be slow
because you're trying to do too many
things at once you're trying to think
and remember things in two languages
it's too difficult for anybody so what
can you do we said before that you need
phrases and sentences when you speak so
learn language in phrases and sentences
for example imagine that someone asks
you what are you doing this weekend
look at three answers I'm going to see
some old friends I
thinking of going for a bike ride I
might do some odd jobs around the house
now make your own sentences I'm going to
mmm I'm thinking of mmm
I might hmm try to make two or three
sentences for each one so that you use
different endings
now think if someone asks you this
question what are you doing this weekend
if you remember language in big pieces
you only have to remember two things I'm
going to see some old friends I'm going
to have dinner with my family I'm going
to watch some old movies that makes it
easy to respond to questions like this
fluently on the other hand if you make a
sentence in your head in in your
language in your head and then you
translate each word into English it's
much more complicated you don't just
have to remember two things you have to
remember many things so try to learn
vocabulary in this way take a sentence
like I went for a walk yesterday keep
the basic sentence form but change part
of it I mmm
yesterday now make two to three
different sentences
I took an exam yesterday I was lazy all
day yesterday I cooked a spicy curry
yesterday now practice and remember the
sentences and phrases this is a much
more natural way to learn vocabulary if
you learn vocabulary like this it will
be much easier to respond fluently
because you won't need to think in your
own language and translate you'll
remember the whole phrases and sentences
that you need okay that's the end of our
lesson I hope you learned something
about spoken flu in
see and how you can improve your fluency
in English you can find more free
English lessons on our website Oxford
online English comm thanks for watching
see you next time