How to Improve your ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS

Hey all,

I know how important communication in English is in our daily lives, so here are some tips that have worked for me and will definitely be useful to anyone trying to improve their English speaking skills.

1. Learn whole phrases

This is useful for improving fluency. If you know ready-made expressions, you will not waste time choosing words and will be able to fill in awkward pauses in a conversation.

2. Use a paraphrase

It happens that words can be easily forgotten. Nothing is wrong with this: if you don’t remember a word, replace it with a descriptive expression. For example, you can’t recall the English word for “laptop”. Say, instead, a “portable computer”, a small one you can take with you, or even something freelancers always use in cafes.

3. Use grammatical constructions in speech

Any theory needs to be fixed in practice in colloquial speech. If you have no one to communicate with in English, record your speech on a voice recorder, listen to the recording and try to analyse the mistakes.

4. Retell the read text

After reading an interesting book or article, find like-minded people to discuss ideas with. The main thing is to utilise new words, expressions and grammatical constructions in your speech.

5. Capture the tone of the natives

To improve your spoken English, listen to native speakers. Analyse their speech in TV shows, interviews, series and films. Catch and repeat their intonation; in this way, you will sound natural.

6. Repeat out loud

By repeating words and expressions, you will remember them faster: read the texts aloud, retell what you read, and sing along with your favourite music bands.

7. Use online dictionaries

In online dictionaries, you can find out how words are pronounced correctly. Choose a convenient dictionary for you, for example, Macmillan, Cambridge, or Longman. Listen to words’ pronunciation and repeat after the recording, trying to articulate them as similarly as possible.

8. Work on pronunciation using the shadowing technique

Shadowing is a method of shadow repetition. You listen to the speech of a native speaker and repeat what was said like an echo. The scheme of work is as follows:Select a video clip up to 1 minute long and download the text of the subtitles.
First try to divide the passage into short semantic phrases — note the pauses between them in the text. Try to catch the phrase, press pause and repeat it. Your task is to copy the pronunciation and intonation accurately. Repeat with each phrase several times. Listen to the entire passage, press pause and repeat it, copying the pronunciation and intonation. Repeat this several times.

9. Keep practicing

To overcome the language barrier, you must constantly have a speaking drill. For this, individual lessons with a teacher or practice with students like you, for example, in a conversation club, are excellent choices.

10. Chat with foreigners

Visit conversation clubs with native speakers, meet online or travel. Communication will not only give you language practice but also bring some experience. To exercise the writing, I advise you to find a pen pal. 

Each tip is practical on its own, but you will notice the result faster if you follow them simultaneously. Have you ever used any tricks from above to improve your speaking skills, and which is your number one? Let me know in the comments below.