Over the years, English has emerged as a global language. The use of English is becoming prominent in every sphere of life, including education, business, communication, etc. In a country like Bangladesh where English isn’t the first language, many people face problems with the intricacies of speaking English fluently. However, there are some easy ways to improve the quality of spoken English within a short time. Let’s look at them.
Tips to improve your spoken English at home
Getting the basics right
Before diving into the speaking part, it is important to understand English as a language. Just like any native tongue, English also comes complete with its own words, grammar, and sentence structures. And all of these together complement the speaking process.
Learning vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structures are essential for speaking English. However, they must be given equal importance to ensure correct usage while speaking. Or else there might be fluency after a while, but it will neither be correct nor sound natural like the native speakers.
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Keep speaking
Figuring out the grammatical and colloquial aspects is half of it when it comes to improving spoken English. So, what’s the next step? It's the speaking part. The same principle of “Practice makes a man perfect” applies here. Speaking regularly will help to remove the initial hesitancy that comes with speaking English.
To improve spoken English, an individual should try and practice English in every sphere of socialization. In addition to self-improvement, it can also influence and encourage others to practice English speaking skills. Finding a partner in this regard can be helpful. Just like any other learning, there should be a targeted approach to better English-speaking skills. And the targeted learning starts with speaking, irrespective of the current level of proficiency.
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Reflect on a conversation
Speaking English is one of the sure-fire ways of getting better at English. But it is not about speaking alone. The outtakes from a conversation session should be reflected upon? How was the overall interaction? Was there any communication gap? What were the new words and innuendos? All of these are important aspects that will work as a stepping stone to getting better at speaking.
It is important to remember that in addition to speaking, there is also the need to speak correctly. The outtakes from a conversation will not only help to improve your lacking; but also increase the confidence of speaking in its wake.
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Listening and Reading
Improving spoken English is not a one-way thing. There is not just one thing that can be done over and over again to get better at fluency. Rather every aspect should be given equal importance for holistic development. Listening and reading are an intricate part of that development process. Speaking only gets better if it is complemented with listening and reading.
From the context of Bangladesh, getting the colloquialism is hard as the people are not native speakers. A good solution can be watching English movies, TV series or documentaries. This will help to better grasp how the native people speak. Try and imitate their ways as it will help to considerably improve the figure of speech.
Reading should also be given equal importance. There are countless books and novels to choose from. However, reading books is not everyone’s cup of tea. Reading English dailies and news scrolls can be a good option for the professionals out there who want to stay productive in every way.
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Prepare pop up cards
The most common issue associated with speaking English is how to start a conversation. Most people do not know how to start a conversation or keep it going. This is due to nervousness and lack of practice.
The conversation strategy for a 9 to 5 professional compared to a journalist will not be the same. As a result, pop-up cards can be a great way to practice mock scenarios. This will help to mitigate nervousness as well as help to boost confidence while speaking.
Self-recording
Many people do not like hearing their recorded voice. However, listening to self-records of speaking can help to pinpoint the speaking errors better. While speaking, it is difficult to understand whether the natural flow is maintained. Sometimes people get nervous and mumble. These are the things that should be taken note of and the best way to go about it is through repeatedly assessing the practice progress.
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Pronunciation
While it is impossible to gain or let go of an accent overnight, it is certainly an important aspect when it comes to speaking English. What matters more than the accent itself is the pronunciation. The English language is so intricate that a mispronunciation will change the meaning of words. As such, it is important to learn the correct pronunciation of every word. Google can be an amazing source in this regard. It is possible to get the correct pronunciation of a word within a few clicks. Using correct pronunciation will automatically make the accent better, regardless of ethnicity.
Expanding the vocabulary
The unit of English is its words. So, the depth of vocabulary will determine competency when it comes to speaking English. It is not very hard to develop vocabulary competency. In addition to resources on the internet, there are countless books and thesauruses which can be a great source of learning new words. Besides these, YouTube has a rich collection of vocabulary lessons, classes, and audiobooks. People who do not like reading books can listen/watch those audios/videos to learn vocabulary.
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Learning phrases
While learning new words will enrich the vocabulary, it does not necessarily imply a better command over speaking capability. What is the point of learning new words if they are not used in the correct sequence or context? This is where the need to learn phrases comes. Learning phrases will help to better articulate a conversation. In addition to that, phrases will help you to speak elaborately and colloquially rather than simply using a few words.
Bottom Line
The way to get good at speaking English is not a tough one. But, it is hardly possible to improve the skill of speaking English overnight. Rather it is a long and continuous process where focusing on the basic and key elements are necessary. With the right mindset and effort, it is possible to speak English fluently.