hello this is jack from tofluency.com and welcome to this lesson where we're
going to talk about how you can get more speaking practice and I want to start
this lesson off by asking you a question and you can answer this question by
clicking the card somewhere on your screen now and the question is just
simple how often do you speak in English? So take your time pause the video if you
need to and answer that question now once you've done that welcome back
to the video we are going to talk about how you can get more practice because
I'm pretty certain that a lot of you answering this will say I don't get
enough speaking practice I get emails all the time from people saying ok I'm
doing certain things to improve like watching YouTube videos but I can't find
anybody who wants to help me with my English and help me get more speaking
practice and this is a problem for a lot of people and without that speaking
practice the language doesn't feel real it doesn't feel like you're improving
your English for the right reasons because you're not actually using it in
the way that you want to use it - a lot of you watching this will want to improve
your English so that you can have more conversations and if you're not having
those conversations then it starts to become a little bit boring and it
doesn't feel very real - but also a lack of speaking practice means that your
speaking won't be improving now I've talked about different methods that you
can use to improve your speaking and your English in general for example
listening more using the to fluency method writing so that you can formulate
sentences in your head but actually speaking will help you too - it's a little
bit like when somebody is training to become a soccer player or they... or
they are a soccer player and if they just train all the time
that's great they're going to improve but they also need that much practice
they need to play in a competitive way in order to know where their weaknesses
are in order to practice playing in a normal environment and it's the same
with speaking - so speaking practice is important so with that in mind let's
talk about how you can get more practice if you live in an English-speaking
country then this should be quite easy for you and one of the things that might
be holding you back from actually getting that practice is due to your
your confidence so sometimes it is about a lack of confidence that you're not
getting enough practice because you don't want to be able to speak with
somebody or you don't want to speak with somebody and make mistakes - you don't
want people to laugh at you when you speak so that might be holding you back
from getting the practice that you need and this is true if you're living in an
english-speaking country or a non-english speaking country so think
about that think about if a lack of confidence is holding you back is
stopping you from getting the practice that you need but again if you live in
an english-speaking country then there are opportunities all around you just
interacting with people in everyday life should give you enough opportunity to
practice however I have lived in a Spanish-speaking country and I didn't
practice my speaking enough because I was surrounded by English speakers I was
surrounded by fellow English teachers and my wife who is an English speaker so
that could cause a problem to think about ways that you can integrate
yourself more and meet native speakers so that you can just interact with
people on a daily basis the majority of you watching this however won't live in
an english-speaking country so you need to find alternative ways to practice
your English and luckily there are many apps and ways
that we can do this online now there is an argument saying that online speaking
isn't the same as in person speaking but it gives us the opportunity to to
practice in a certain way and the application
I recommend which I haven't used but a lot of people have used and tell me
about is something called hello Talk Hello Talk I'll leave a link to their
website in the description so you can check it out so you can take a look but
Hello Talk is an app where you can meet people and find language exchange
partners and a language exchange partner is where you speak half the time in the
language you want to learn and half the time in your native language so you
learn in English let's say you are from Spain you speak Spanish you find
somebody who's from the UK or from America who wants to learn Spanish
so it's an exchange it's a deal you're not spending money on this but instead
you're spending your time helping that person - and again hello talk I think
from my research is the best app out there for that it allows you to make
friends on this application to find somebody who fits your criteria and to
speak with people in real time it's a good idea to take your time finding the
right type of person so it can be frustrating for certain people and they
give up very early in this process because they say ah I did this once oh I
tried this once and it didn't work the person didn't show up but it's worth
taking the time and making the effort to find the right partner for you because
once you have this relationship established then you're going to benefit
so much from it language exchanges are just an online thing you can find them
in most cities around the world too so again when I lived in Spain there were
so many opportunities for others English speakers who wanted to learn Spanish to
go to a local bar and meet people in a organized language exchange so we went
to all these different language exchange nights and just talk to people openly
sometimes in English sometimes in Spanish and especially in the early days
mainly in English for me but again this is just a way to meet people and to
practice your English in a real way another way to get more practice is to
use sites such as couchsurfer and air B&B now how far you want to go with this
depends on your situation because if you don't have a spare room or a spare sofa
that you can offer to somebody then you're limited here but you can use
these sites in a in a variety of ways I do know that couch surfer allows you to
post a profile where you can say I can meet you for coffee and show you around
my city and this again it gives you the opportunity to meet English speakers who
you want to tour your city and speak to them in English so you can show them
around your city and it's a fantastic way to practice now you can go as far as
you want with this depending on where you live again there might be some
regulations here there might be a lack of ability to give up your sofa or a
spare room but having people stay with you is an option to get more speaking
practice too so that's another way to think about meeting new people who want
to connect with you for whatever reason and therefore you can practice your
English another way to practice is to find a teacher - to pay for a teacher
to give you lessons again this could be online or offline but the benefit of
having a teacher is that they are going to give you feedback on
mistakes that you make so if you are looking for feedback in addition to just
being able to practice then I recommend finding a teacher now there are so many
different ways you can find a teacher you can look for a teacher in your local
area you can look online on sites like iTalki or Lingoda or you can get in
touch with a youtube teacher and see if they offer lessons again the benefit are
finding a teacher is that they can give you feedback on mistakes you make so if
that is important to you then find a teacher who can do this you might be
able to find a language exchange partner who can do it too but you're more likely
going to find this in a teacher and finally another way to practice is to
speak to yourself so to practice sentences to think about role plays or
situations in which you can actually speak English now I know a lot of people
do this a lot of people practice their speaking by putting themselves into an
imaginary situation so it could be any type of situation or you could just
simply describe things that are happening around you you can describe
what you see you can go into a park and talk about what you see or you can just
process your thoughts in your own head in English like I said before having the
ability to practice your speaking is important and with most things to
stronger the context the better for you so having a real-life situation in which
you need to use your English is very strong and that could be more beneficial
for you whereas just talking about things in your own head isn't as strong
it doesn't have the same type of context so think about ways that you can get
more practice and build this into your daily routine it's going to help your
English in general especially if you combine this with other methods such as
getting as much input as possible and doing things like the to fluency method
and also just reading in English and writing things
out so you can process the thoughts in your head let me know if I have missed a
way in which you can practice your English and just let me know your
thoughts and tips for anyone who wants to get more speaking practice if you've
enjoyed this video then please like and share it and also if you are new here
subscribe to the channel and get my book the five-step plan for English fluency
it will give you advice on the goals that you can set to think about why
you're learning English and then it also talks about the methods that will help
you improve our fast rate so again thank you so much for being here and for
spending this time with me while you're here why not check out another one of my
videos okay speak you soon bye bye