How can you become a more fluent English speaker?
We talk about a lot about ‘fluency’ in English. But what exactly is fluency?
Fluency is defined as;
“the ability to speak or write a particular foreign language easily and accurately.“
And what does this involve? What do we need to be fluent?
To be completely fluent we need confidence to use the language in these key areas;
- SPEAKING
- LISTENING
- READING
- WRITING
There are so many methods and ideas and suggestions out there! It can feel overwhelming.
Overwhelming is an adjective which means too much or too big. We can say “excessive”. When something is overwhelming it can be difficult to absorb all the information.
But I’m going to ‘narrow it down’ for you (to ‘narrow something down’ is a phrasal verb which means to ‘simplify’ or make something easier to understand or learn.
Follow these steps every week and you will make BIG improvements in your English!
- READ ALOUD IN ENGLISH for 15 minutes a day
What does ‘read aloud’ mean? This means reading from your book and speaking the words out at the same time. This will help your English improve in a big way! Reading aloud from a book will help improve your pronunciation, your understanding of grammar and sentence structure, it will build your vocabulary and most importantly, it will give you CONFIDENCE with your speaking.
Important points: To get the best results from this exercise, you should follow these steps;
- Start very slowly.
When you read and speak aloud, do it slowly. Think about what you are saying and how you should form the sounds and say the words. (later you can get faster!)
- Use the BIG MOUTH technique.
What is this?? This is my special technique for improving your pronunciation. While you are speaking out the text, open your mouth very wide with each word. Really exaggerate the sounds.
to ‘exaggerate’ something means to represent (something) as being larger, better, or worse than it really is.
So when speaking the text, do it more. Do it big! Imagine there is an invisible tennis ball in the middle of your mouth, sitting on your tongue. You have to ‘talk around’ this ball. This might seem like a strange exercise, but I promise you if you do this you will notice that your pronunciation is almost instantly clearer! Why? Because you are forcing your mouth to work harder to make the new sounds and you are thinking carefully about what you are saying.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to talk like this forever! This exercise is only to help you adapt to the different sounds of English, which you don’t use in your own native language.
After some time, you can start to read and speak faster and in a more normal way.
Try this with my original mini story HERE
HOT TIP – For best results, do this before you go to sleep at night. You may DREAM in English! This is a good sign for your fluency!
2. LISTEN TO AUDIO BOOKS
Listening is the best way to become a fluent English speaker. Why? Because listening is the most natural way that we learn a language. As children, this is how we learnt our native language – by listening to the adults around us, our parents, teachers, grandparents and so on. We listened and copied the sounds and started to make sentences.
Since this is natural to us, why not use it when learning English?
Listening to audio books is not only an effective way to ‘pick up’ (acquire / gain / learn) the language but it’s also convenient because you can do it anywhere (listening on your headphones while travelling and walking etc). It’s also interesting and educational.
My tips for listening to audio books.
- Start with short stories (you don’t want to get overwhelmed!)
- Find the transcript or text and read as you listen.
- Then listen again while you are doing an activity (such as cleaning, walking, working out at the gym)
- SHADOWING – Listen again and pause the audio. Repeat the sentences. Try to ‘mimic’ – copy – the speech patterns as accurately as possible. You might need to do this a few times. This is great for your pronunciation.
Some resources for audio books
- For lower levels – Try THIS SITE – A free audio book site for English learners.
- For higher levels – Try AUDIBLE – You can find many audio books, both new and classic, on this site. You can also get a one month free trial.
Here are two original mini stories I wrote, with audio, for you to practice your English listening and to learn new phrases and vocabulary in context.
3. PRACTICE THINKING IN ENGLISH
How do we do this? Take 30 minutes (or an hour) of your day to name everything you see in English. So when you are walking around, sitting at your office desk, doing your work etc, look around you. What do you see? Think about exactly what you see, but don’t think of the objects in your native language. Think ONLY in English. Start simply by just thinking in words first. Then you can move to sentences.
For example – I am sitting in a cafe, doing work on my computer at the moment. What do I see?
“A computer…..A computer screen…. A cafe…. Chairs…. Waiters… Lots of books! ….Sugar…. Cups….and more!
Then –
Books….Interesting books…. Those books look interesting. …….Quiet. It’s very quiet. A quiet cafe…..
Try to put words together in your mind. Then make sentences.
I made a video about thinking in English too!. It’s called “3 WAYS TO THINK IN ENGLISH”
4. TALK TO YOURSELF!
This is strange, isn’t it? But actually, it’s healthy to talk to yourself. To speak your thoughts out aloud. It helps you to get your thoughts clear and make decisions. But try to do this in English!
This is similar to the thinking in English activity but you are speaking your thoughts. When you are at home (you might need to be alone!), try to speak your thoughts out aloud. You can do this while you are doing some house chores (housework) such as cleaning or cooking.
For example;
I’m very tired today….. Today was such a busy day…. I’m so hungry….What should I eat for dinner? Hmm…maybe i’ll have pizza,… or chicken. What should I do with chicken? Make a chicken salad?…A chicken curry?….I don’t know how to make chicken curry……Where can I get a recipe?….
This may be difficult at first, but don’t worry about speaking perfect English. Just try! The more you do this, the better you will get.
5. WRITE IN A JOURNAL
A journal is a private notebook where you can write all your thoughts, feelings and ideas. I suggest you do ‘stream of consciousness’ writing. What is this? This means you simply write about anything that comes into your mind. So, again, this is similar to the thinking and speaking exercises, but you do this in writing.
Set your timer for 10 or 15 minutes. Put your pen to the paper and just write! Don’t stop! Even if you just write words, or parts of sentences. This is a time when you can forget about grammar and spelling. The purpose of this exercise is just to help you think more freely in English.
So just keep writing and trying to put your thoughts and feelings down on the paper.
So here you have 5 practical ways you can build and expand your English fluency. With these exercises you are using all 4 key skills; speaking, listening, reading and writing. You are bringing English into your life!
Soon you will start to feel more confident and you will be surprised how quickly your English will improve.
Want to feel more confident and motivated with your English?
JOIN MY FREE ENGLISH FLUENCY CHALLENGE!
- 5 Benefits of Journaling for English - September 23, 2020
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