Tips for Speaking English Better

Language study requires hard work and careful effort. Some ways have proven themselves more successful than others. Ten such ways are given here for your improvement.

 1. Find a Partner.

 Communication in any language is really practical when there are two agents. Therefore, at the beginning you have to find a partner for making English conversation and it is better to find a partner from your peers with whom you are really comfortable to communicate may be with all your mistakes

           

2. Start thinking everything in English and use chunks.

 Don’t try to speak sentences translated from other languages. Always think in English and speak spontaneously. Talk to yourself. Play back in your mind the language what you just heard, mimicking (to copy the way somebody speaks) intonation, stress (an extra force used when pronouncing a particular word), etc. This will help you to improve your fluency.

 This helps the beginners particularly. Chunks are phrases or groups of words which can be learnt as a unit by one who is learning a language. Examples of chunks are ‘Can I have the bill, please?’ and ‘Pleased to meet you’, etc. This is another way to improve your fluency. It is because, while learning English, it is very important to notice how words are often heard together.

             

3.Don’t worry too much about Making Mistakes.

  Get over your shyness and hesitation. Use the language as often as you can; may be with a lot of mistakes at the beginning. Slowly, you will be all right. The more you speak the faster you will learn. Also don't try to avoid the “illers’ /noises’, “repetition of words’, ‘pauses’ etc.

Even the native speakers use “filler’ phrases to varying degrees. These are phrases like “What I’m trying to say is ...”, “If you know what I mean . . . “, “Let me think a minute here...”etc., which give speakers a small space to think before they express their next idea.

4. Don’t worry about starting trouble

  Even native speakers of English find it difficult to get started. So, don’t let the starting trouble disturb you. Using discourse markers (a word or phrase that organizes spoken language into different parts, for example ‘Well …’ or ‘On the other hand …’) is a good idea in handling starting trouble.

 Okay, all right, right then, well, hmm’, you know, like, etc., are all examples of discourse markers used in conversation. They are employed to give the speaker a second to think about what he wants to say. At the beginning don’t speak fast. Being fluent does NOT mean speaking quickly. It is better to speak slowly and clearly at the beginning than quickly and incoherently. People will not understand you if you speak too quickly with the wrong intonation (the rise and fall of the voice in speaking, especially as this affects the meaning of what is being said).

5. Don’t follow written English Style and don’t learn by heart.

 Don’t try to follow a formal written English style or don’t make deliberate attempts to speak full and complete sentences as in written English. Also don’t try to connect your sentences through logical connectors like ’Above all’, ‘in addition to’ etc.

                                             

6. Hear English Everywhere.

 Have you ever asked yourself: “How did I learn my own language?” In fact, you never really “learned” it at all - you just started speaking it. One day, when you were about two or three years old, you started speaking your language. A few words at first, not full sentences. But you spoke. And very soon you made progress without even thinking about it.

It was like magic ! But it wasn’t magic. It was the result of hearing. For two to three years before you spoke, you heard people speaking your language all day and may be all night. You heard people speaking your language. May be you listened to people, but more importantly you heard them. For two to three years, words went IN to your head.

Then words came OUT of your head! That is why hearing (and listening to) English as much as possible is so important to you now. The more English you put in, the more you’ll get out! There are many ways of hearing English:

Radio:

Two of the best international networks are the BBC World Service and Voice of America. Both of them have special programmes for learners of English. In addition to this you can make it a habit to listen to News broadcast by All India Radio.

Television:

TV helps both in hearing and listening to English. The pictures help you understand what is being said. Again BBC, CNN, DD News, NDTV24/7, Star News etc, are the good choices to serve our purpose. When you are watching TV, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

Cinema:

Make it a habit to watch to English films. If you need to read the sub-titles, at least you’ll be hearing English even if you don’t understand it.

CD Player / Computer:

CD player has one really great advantage. You can hear/watch repeatedly by replaying them. If there are sub-titles, you can cover them with paper (which you can remove if you really don’t understand after listening several times).

Friends:

 Try to make friendship with English-speaking people so that you can practice your English through conversation. This will serve as an exercise for your speaking as well as listening. At least you can chat a little by telephone. Thus, if you want to speak English better in the future, speak it as much as, possible NOW! Finally, don’t worry if you don’t understand everything you hear. Hearing comes first! Understanding comes next!

 Record your own voice (if possible) and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

7. Develop your Active Vocabulary.

 Active vocabulary consists of the words you use frequently and comfortably in speaking and writing, while passive vocabulary consists of the words you recognize when you read and listen. So one has to increase his Active Vocabulary to be good speaker.

Learn new words every day. If you add 5 words a day, to your vocabulary, you will learn about 150 new words a month. As you are searching for words that you want to know, it will be easier to remember them. Do it this way

 a) Keep a small notebook handy: Think of a word you know in your mother tongue. As you read, study, listen to TV or talk with other people, note down words and expressions that you think would be helpful for you. 

b) Look it up in your dictionary. Refer only an English - English dictionary. Get into the habit of looking up words which you don't know and their phonetic symbols (for correct pronunciation of words when you are not sure).

 c) Write the English definition of every thing.

d) Copy a sentence from the dictionary. This will help you learn how to use the word correctly. Do not yet write your own sentence. Practice reading this sentence until it becomes natural for you.

8. Make Substututions.

 If you learn some basic sentences in English, you will be able to make unlimited number of sentences based on this basic structure. This process is called substitution. Let us see how it works : Basic sentence  : Do you speak English?

Substitutions:

 I. Do you speak Hindi / Do you speak Spanish? / Do you speak Tamil ? / Do you speak Greek? / Do you speak Italian ? (Just imagine how many sentences you can make substituting English).

II. Do your sisters speak English (Just imagine how many sentences you can make substituting you into your...

 III.Do you speak English fluently?  (Just imagine how many sentences you can make adding one more word )    

 9. Read aloud (the books that are not too difficult).

Read aloud in English for one to two hours each day. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English. It will also help you to Listen, Speak and learn new words.

Find a book that is not too difficult - don’t be embarrassed to start with a children’s storybook with pictures! Once you feel comfortable with these kinds of books, you can start reading simple short stories and then graduate to novels

 10. Make a promise.

It is said that zeal without action is fire without heat. So be active from today. Even make a promise to follow all the above tips. On one fine day you will be speaking fluent English. It is true like law of gravitation. Follow the AIM CARD that will be given to you at the beginning of the course. So this is a new day in your life. Look forward. Success will be yours.

Remember for speaking better in English you have to listen and read a lot.