Introduction
If you want to know about tips to speak English fluently, you have come to the right place. Sometimes, one may spend months and years learning a language without being able to develop his speaking skills. Or, you may already have a good understanding of the language, but you can’t speak English fluently. The reason, maybe, is that you lack the needed strategies to adopt so as to achieve your objective. The good thing is that in this article you will find tips, which, if followed, you will be able to fix your problem and learn how to speak English fluently.
Practice fluency-based exercises
One of the main tips that I should give you to learn to speak English fluently is doing tasks that are fluency-oriented. It is easy to speak English fluently. But to achieve this purpose you need to do certain exercises that will improve your English your speaking skills. Conversational exercises, for example, will help you start speaking with confidence. In these types of exercises, you will learn how to communicate better in English and ensure that you are speaking perfect English in no time at all.
Watch videos and listen to podcasts in English
Probably, you are so busy, but it is necessary to find the time for this task, as it will teach you the basics of the English pronunciation. This is also great for acquiring basic English vocabulary if you are not a native speaker. This method is useful even for advanced speakers. Just listen to the radio or watch TVs that present their programs in English. You should practice speaking what you hear in the recordings or see in videos to improve your speaking skills and learn English quickly.
Speak to native speakers
Speaking to a native will undoubtedly help you learn English quickly. The reason why you should speak to native speakers rather than non-native ones is that you will be able to learn how words are correctly pronounced. You will be able to learn the American or the British accent without any distorted sounds, that may characterize the pronunciation of non-native speakers.
It is true that non-Americans and non-British speak English fluently and accurately, but their produced speech is often colored by sounds and phones that belong to their native language. In addition, there are sounds and letters that exist in one language but don’t exist in another. An example of this is the English ”R” as opposed to the Spanish one. A Spanish speaker of English, no matter how excellent he is at English, will always pronounce the English “R” in a Spanish way because his vocal cords have become so stiff.
Putting it simple, talking to native speakers will ensure that you improve your speaking skills correctly and on a strong basis. Even if you make mistakes at the beginning, don’t feel frustrated. Just go on, be consistent and things will improve naturally without your being aware of that.
Learn English grammar
If you are planning to speak English with confidence, you must know how to use correct grammar and be able to write and spell English words correctly.
Many people want to speak English fluently, but they don’t want to learn the grammatical rules of the language. Their justification is that their main objective is fluency, not accuracy. But these people have forgotten that to be good at fluency, you must be good at accuracy. To clarify this idea, let’s give an example of what is known as homonyms (words that have the same pronunciation but different spelling and meaning. The words “sea” and “see” are pronounced the same way. But the first one is a noun and it means “ocean”, while the second one is a verb and it means “watch”.
To illustrate the correlation between fluency and accuracy, linguists compare language to the human body where grammar consists the backbone that, without it, the body will fall down. Thatis, as the body cannot stand without a backbone, language can not stand without grammar.
Read more English books
If you are looking for a way to learn English grammar and improve your writing, you must read English books. Reading also helps improve speaking and communication skills. Read aloud to yourself to see what your pronunciation is like and, maybe, correct it by comparing it to that of a native speaker. Start with children’s books and move on to more complex ones.
Another great benefit of reading is that you will be able to build your English vocabulary. Without which you can’t say anything. Vocabulary items are blocks with which you can build your English “house”.
Another excellent way to improve your grammar and vocabulary is to read an English newspaper. Since all newspaper articles need to be edited properly, you will learn the correct grammar, tenses, phrases, punctuation, writing, etc.
Use dictionaries
Using a dictionary to learn English in general and pronunciation, in particular, is a must not an option. As we know, it is almost impossible for a person, even a native speaker, to know all the words in a language, with their correct meaning, pronunciation, and spelling. For this reason, a dictionary is very necessary. It provides you with everything you need about a given word or expression.
Luckily, these days, there are electronic dictionaries, onlinedictionaries, and dictionaries in paperback. Electronic dictionaries are in the form of applications and softwares that you can install on your phone, tablet, or PC. Thanks to the advent of communication technology, learning a language has become much easier than it used to be.
Attend English language courses
There are many English courses that will help you improve your English. You should choose courses based on specific goals. There are courses that teach you general English referred to as English For General Purposes (EGP). And courses that teach you English For Specific Purposes (ESP), depending on what you want. If your objective is to learn English for everyday use, you have to opt for EGP. But if your objective is to learn English in a profession or job, you should opt for ESP.
For example, if you need English for business, you should learn business English. Similarly, if you want to learn English to use it at university, you have to learn academic English. In general, there are different types of ‘Englishes’, if I might say so, as every field has its own jargon.
To learn a language or study a course doesn’t automatically mean attending a school or university, despite the importance of institutions and ‘physical’ teachers. Nowadays, e-learning is gaining ground over classical learning. One has to know how to get updated and cope with the issue. Maybe, in the future, schools, in their traditional way, will disappear.
Go to live in a country where English is spoken.
I know that doing this is almost impossible for the majority of people. But if you can don’t hesitate a second. The reason is that living in an English-speaking country will definitely help you improve your English, especially the spoken one. Staying with an English or American family will enable you to communicate in English in a short time, maybe better than attending school. This will also improve your general understanding of the language.
Conclusion
In the above article, I have tried to cover all the tips that can help you to learn how to speak English fluently. If you see that I have forgotten a particular tip, please don’t hesitate to write it in the comment box below. I will update the article as soon as possible.
Thanks for your reading.
