How to Improve English Speaking Skills and Become a Great Communicator
Knowing lots of vocabulary is only half of the journey to learning English.
You can understand English, but can you produce English? The following steps will help you improve your writing and speaking.
- Write a little English every day.
- Keep a diary or create a blog in English.
- Write posts in social media in English.
- Join an online community and write messages to other people in English.
What about grammar?
The time to open the grammar book is when you are trying to write something, but you’re not sure about the grammar of your sentence. Maybe you want to write “I am going to Shenyang tomorrow”, but you are not sure if this is correct. This is the time to open the grammar book and check your grammar. Then you will see that you need to write “I am
going to Shenyang tomorrow.” Grammar books should be used as reference books.
Basically, you learn to write English by writing English, and then by
getting feedback on your language use.
You can use a grammar book to give you feedback and it’s the same with speaking: you learn to speak English by speaking English, and by getting feedback on your language use.
Here are 3 ways to improve your speaking skills.
- Speak English: create videos Make some short videos about your everyday life, and post them on the Internet. This will give you a real audience and motivation to create videos.
- Speak English: talk to yourself: Talk to yourself as you go through the day. If you are doing something (e.g. cooking), tell yourself what you are doing in English (e.g. “I am cutting some onions”, “I am frying some chicken in the frying pan”) Talk to yourself in English in the shower. Go for a walk and talk to yourself in English; if you see something interesting, think about how you would say that in English. If you have a pet, talk to them in English.
- Speak English: Shadowing is a useful technique: when you shadow, you listen to someone speaking English and you repeat what they are saying, and how they are pronouncing the words, right after they say it.
In summary
Basically, learning English is about noticing how English is used, and using this knowledge to improve your own English.
Fundamental to this is reading and listening. Reading and listening help you grow your vocabulary, and it shows you how English is used. You can then use this knowledge when you write and speak English.
