Language, at its base, is simply an exchange between people. This happens whenever you engage with language at all, in any way. When reading, you are participating in an exchange between the author and yourself. When you watch a movie, you are in communication with all the actors, the director, the screenwriter – everyone who took part in the making of the show. You are even having a kind of exchange between different aspects of yourself when you speak to yourself!
For most students learning English in non-English speaking countries, the majority of their time studying is spent in their native tongue. This is to be expected – people feel most comfortable getting information in the language they understand best. Unfortunately, what it often means is that people end up being able to understand written English extremely well, but fall short when it comes to understanding spoken English and, most importantly, speaking it themselves.
So what does this mean for your learning process?
It’s simple – your priority, when learning any language, should be using it as much as possible. There are three main ways to do this… read on for some useful tips!
1. Think in English whenever you remember to! Don’t ever underestimate the power of creating and using sentences in your own mind. The things you think about most often are usually the things you speak about most often, so any internal practice will help in the outer world.
- Try describing things in your head. (“This is a cup of tea. It’s my cup of tea. It’s a delicious cup of tea! I wish I had thought to make my tea with honey before.”)
- Whenever you catch yourself thinking something, try translating the thought into English. (“I can’t believe my mom said that to me the other day!” or “I’m so excited about my holiday tomorrow!”)
- After you feel comfortable with those two, try having full conversations with people in your head. We spend a lot of time round different people and you can imagine having conversations with all of them! When you’re waiting for your coffee or sitting on the bus or doing your shopping, pick a person and imagine chatting to them about something. The more passionate you are about the conversation, the better. For example, when I was learning languages, I would imagine uncomfortable or difficult situations so that I would have to have a heated debate or fight with the other person (in my head, of course!). Perhaps I would pretend that the person making my coffee spat in my cup before putting the coffee in, or the lady behind me in the supermarket accidentally pushed her shopping cart into my ankle (but then blamed me!). The more excited or passionate you are about the imagined conversation, the more meaningful the language use is to you.
2. Speak to yourself as much as possible! Often, we can’t find conversation buddies, but that’s no excuse to not use your language skills. If you are shy, it’s okay to just limit this to when you are on your own. If you are brave, do it all the time! Everyone talks to themselves from time to time, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about!
- Narrate what you are doing as you go about your day. Talk yourself through your morning and evening bathroom routine as you are washing yourself and brushing your teeth. Can’t understand yourself with a mouthful of toothpaste and toothbrush? That’s okay – say so! It’s the actual creation of sentences that’s important in this exercise, not the clarity of your speech or your pronunciation.
- Sing English songs to yourself in the shower or while you’re driving. The rhythm and speed of music does wonders for helping you practice your own English speaking rhythm.
- Speak to your pets, your plants, your car… whatever creatures and objects around the house you find you have something to say to! Dogs and cats are great listeners, and it has been proven again and again that plants grow better when you speak to them. And we all know that, sometimes, we need to express our frustration with a broken or badly working appliance! I know that I swear at my internet connection at least 3 times a day, so why not do it in English?
- Talk to yourself in the mirror. Tell yourself you’re great, that you’re going to have a fantastic day, that life is wonderful, that you’re enough and doing the best you can. Positive affirmations have long been proven to be beneficial for your state of mind – why not let them be beneficial to your English as well?
- Record yourself speaking with your phone voice recorder or camera. It is such good practice and really wonderful to be able to actually hear yourself speak. In doing so, you will notice all sorts of things you didn’t realise you were doing well, and might pick up on some places where you could improve or that need more practice. Consider starting a daily recorded diary. If you’re feeling brave, you could even publish it on Youtube! Lots of language learners do this for the sake of the community that they build with followers to their channels. You never know, you might even get some helpful tips and suggestions from people!
3. Communicate with other people every time you get the chance to. Nothing beats actually talking to other people when it comes to practicing your language skills. When you’re speaking to someone else, you can’t ever predict what they’re going to say in response to your words, so you have to learn to be speedy and agile with your thinking and speaking.
- Try to find people in your area who are also learning English. Speaking English with other people who speak your mother tongue is often the least intimidating way to practice, as you can always swap back to your own language if you are confused or can’t find a word. It’s important to be strict with yourself, though! That moment of tension and discomfort is where you learn the fastest, so perhaps try setting rules for yourself. English only for 5/15/30 minutes, or prizes if you can explain what you mean without resorting to your mother tongue.
- Set up a language exchange. There are lots of websites online which connect people who are wanting to learn languages. It is often easy to find a native English speaker who would gladly spend an hour a week speaking with you in English in exchange for an hour a week speaking in whatever languages you speak and can offer to teach them.
- Join a facebook group or follow an instagram account that sparks your interest. It is wonderful to make friends at the best of times, but if you can bond with a native English speaker over your mutual love of model trains or stamp collecting, all the better! Not only will you be practicing your language, you’ll have a chance to learn all sorts of subject-specific vocabulary which might not crop up in everyday conversation.
- Enroll in a group conversation class. Having guided conversation with a teacher and other learners from around the world is so enriching and extremely productive. You will have the valuable experience of interacting with lots of different accents and learning about all sorts of different cultures and places. On top of that, having a class held by a teacher means that there will be more structure and you will definitely walk away feeling you have learned something new.
- Find a native teacher. One-on-one conversation classes with native English speaking teachers will catapult your language learning to the next level. A teacher working with just you will help you work on your own specific errors, bad habits, pronunciation and anything else that comes up that you need. A teacher will be able to support and guide you through your process so that you become a confident and capable English speaker in no time!
I hope some of these tips are useful to you and that you will put them into practice in your daily life. Remember, the more you speak, whether in your head our out loud, the faster your language skills will improve and the better your English will be.
Good luck with your learning and hopefully I’ll speak to you soon!
