Hi there, do you want to speak English fluently and confidently?
Do you often hesitate when you speak, searching for the right words?
Do you get nervous when you talk to native English speakers and struggle to express your
thoughts naturally?
Well, if your answer is yes to any of these questions, then you’re watching the right
video because in this lesson, I will give you five tips to become a fluent and confident
English speaker.
The problems that I just showed you are faced by English learners everywhere.
And if you follow the tips that I give you in this video, you will be able to overcome
all of these problems, and speak English fluently without hesitation.
Tip number one is relax and speak slower.
Many people think that fluency means speaking fast.
But that’s not true.
Real fluency is speaking without hesitation – it has nothing to do with just speed.
When you try to speak fast, you create two problems for yourself: the first is that you
make it difficult to speak by forcing yourself to find words faster and faster, so that makes
your brain go in ten different directions.
That can make you hesitate and use lots of fillers like ‘uh’, ‘um’ etc.
The second problem is that all of this will make you nervous and overexcited, making you
hesitate even more.
Instead, whenever you are in an English-speaking situation, the first thing you should do is
relax: take a full, deep breath, drop your shoulders and relax your face – by doing
this, you will remove stress and tension from your body and mind.
After you do this, when you speak, I want you to speak slowly (not very slowly) but
at a natural pace.
This way, you will have more time to find the right words, and you’ll speak with less
hesitation.
Also, your relaxed voice will make the other person in the conversation to relax.
By seeing that you are not nervous or stressed, they will get a positive impression of your
speaking ability.
So remember the three steps: take a deep breath, relax your shoulders and your face, and speak
slowly.
Tip number two is speak English every day.
If you’re serious about improving your fluency, then you need to make English speaking a daily
habit.
A fantastic way of doing this is to make sentences in your head regularly.
For example, if you’re sitting on the bus, you can describe what you see and how you
feel about it.
You can say, “OK I have the window seat.
I love having the window seat because I can look outside.
I see the park now.
I remember that as a kid, my dad used to take me to this park and I used to love playing
on the see-saw”.
You can do this in any situation (not just on the bus) and it really helps to improve
your ability to make sentences spontaneously in English.
If you’re at home, I also recommend that you have conversations with yourself out loud.
Pretty soon, this will become a habit and you will start to really enjoy the process,
and the real benefit of this is that it will train your brain to think directly in English
without translating from your native language.
You can also watch my lesson called one simple trick to become fluent in English where I
show you a great technique that you can use to improve your fluency by yourself.
Now, even though you can practice by yourself, the best way to improve your fluency is to
find a conversation partner so that you can practice speaking in real-life situations.
You should get together with people like yourself who are learning English – this could be
your classmates, your coworkers, your friends or even your family members - and start a
speaking club.
Try to meet at least one or two times a week (if you can do this every day, then that’s
great!)
and just speak English.
You can practice speaking freely or you can bring discussion topics and have conversations
on these topics.
Tip number three is to learn fixed phrases and expressions.
If you pay attention to the English of native speakers, you will notice that a lot of the
time, they use the same fixed phrases and expressions.
These could be basic greetings like “How are you?”, “How’s it going?”, “How
are things?”
“Good thanks.
How are things with you?”, “What about you?”
etc.
It could be phrases for making requests – “Could you help me with this?”, “Can you lend
me a hand?” or making offers – “Would you like a cup of coffee?”, “Do you want
me to open the window?”
or phrases for giving a compliment (that is for praising someone) like “You’re a fantastic
singer.”
or “You look amazing in that dress.”
These are just a few examples but if you learn and memorize these types of fixed expressions,
then you will have them available in your head, and you can use them in any conversation.
Whenever you have to speak, you spend less time searching for the right language and
instead, you can just pick the right phrase and throw it in.
That will give a huge boost to your fluency.
Tip number four is be ready to make mistakes.
For most people, mistakes are the reason they’re so nervous when they speak English, especially
when they speak with native speakers.
Because of our fear of being judged by the other person, we make conversation a high-pressure
situation for ourselves.
But you have to realize first of all, that native speakers are not talking to you to
judge you.
If you are relaxed, enthusiastic, friendly and appear confident, then people will care
less about your mistakes.
If they see that you are a friendly person, they might even want to help you to improve
your English.
Also don’t forget that in order to improve your English, you must make mistakes.
In fact, think about the best language learners in the world – who are they?
Well, it’s children.
How do they learn their mother tongue?
By making lots and lots of mistakes.
Children are never afraid to try and fail, they are never worried about other people
judging them for their mistakes, and what happens?
Through their experimentation and their enthusiastic attitude to learning, they pick up languages
much quicker than us adults.
As far as your learning English goes, you need to have the attitude of a child.
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes.
Instead, see your mistakes as opportunities to learn and to improve yourself.
The less you worry about your mistakes, the faster you will become a fluent English speaker.
And the last tip is enjoy learning English.
To me, this is the most important of all the tips in this lesson because the real secret
to improving your fluency is to enjoy the learning process.
If you see reading, listening, writing, speaking or learning in general as something difficult,
something you must do, then it will be hard for you to stay motivated to learn and improve.
Many people spend hours every day reading the newspaper or watching boring English language
TV shows hoping that their English will improve.
And then they get disappointed because their speaking ability just doesn’t seem to get
better.
Well, if this is your experience, let me tell you that it’s because you simply aren’t
enjoying what you’re doing.
So instead of doing all these boring things, do things in English that you enjoy.
What kinds of stories do you like reading?
Do you like adventures?
Do you like superheroes?
Action?
Or do you like historical fiction?
Or drama?
Well, whatever it is you like, find that kind of book in English and read it.
The same goes for watching TV or movies – watch what you enjoy.
Don’t read or watch something thinking that you have to learn vocabulary.
Read or watch it because you enjoy it and you will automatically learn new words, phrases
and ways of expressing yourself that will boost your fluency.
This is also true for speaking practice – you have to enjoy it.
Try to make friends with other people who are happy to practice speaking in English.
Enjoying the learning process in this way is the key to improving your fluency and being
able to think and speak English naturally.
So those are the five top tips to become a fluent and confident English speaker: number
one – relax and speak slower.
Number two: speak English every day, both with yourself by making sentences in your
head, and with conversation partners.
Number three: Learn fixed phrases and expressions in English.
Number four: be ready to make mistakes.
And number five: enjoy learning English.
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Happy learning and I will see you in another lesson soon.