How to speak English more fluently without hesitation - Top 5 ways

Learn English. Get Fluent on ELSA Speak. Download the App Today!

 

Speak english fluently:

Hello everyone and welcome back to Trendingology.

Today, we're going to talk about whether you can learn English at home on your own. I think you can, and I'm going to give you some tips and recommendations. It's a pretty weird thing, isn't it?

A lot of us are suddenly having to spend a lot of time on our own at home, but this does not mean that we have to put a pause on what we want to achieve, like learning a language. It is possible to continue learning a language on your own at home, and I'm not going to talk about all of the tried and tested methods like watching TV shows, movies with subtitles, listening to the radio. I've mentioned all of that before. These are new tips that are more relevant than ever before. Let's get straight into it. The first one is free conversation classes. If you want to learn to speak a language, you are going to have to practice conversing.

Conversation Class:

I reached out to some of the students that I consider to be very, very successful, and I asked them what they are doing during the lockdown. The one activity that came up time and time again, was online conversation classes. I thought that was interesting because I expected that they were paying for them, but it turns out that a lot of them are doing it for free. This surprised me. I didn't think that there would be people running online classes for free, but there are, and you can find them, and you can use them to improve your language skills on your own. There are lots of non-profit, online communities offering Zoom conversation lessons. There are lots of teachers that offer these group sessions to advertise their private sessions as well.

 

Motivation:

Well, that brings me on to point number two. When I was speaking to my students about learning from home on their own, two key problems came up again and again and again. Motivation and access to feedback. Feedback is like gold dust when you're learning a language. Derive motivation from YouTube, Google, etc. It is so valuable, but it's often very hard to find, especially if you are learning a very popular language.

Accountability Buddies:

Let's move on to number three, accountability partners or accountability buddies. This one depends on your personality and whether you like working under pressure or not. I know that I work best under pressure, so this tip is one that I've used a lot in the past. When people embark on a difficult challenge, like losing weight or running a marathon, they often find it easier to do it with someone, somebody that's going to act as an extra push of motivation, because sometimes if you don't feel like doing something, but you see someone that you're close to doing that thing, it pushes you and it persuades you to do what you don't necessarily want to do. This applies to me. If I see my friend, doing lots of exercises and going to the gym, I feel far more inclined to join him. You can do this with language learning too. You can find an accountability partner. I bet there's a nicer name for it. English buddy, or something like that, or a motivation mate. Somebody that you can be in touch with, you can check-in when you've done your study session, you can share something new that you've learned. You can compare techniques. This can all be done over WhatsApp or text message or email, but forming a friendship with someone and being in the same situation, offering those kind words, when you need to, offering those motivational words when they need them. I had this when I was learning Japanese at school with my friend. That was amazing. We always spoke to each other on WhatsApp in Japanese, and when I heard that he had joined a new conversation class or something like that, I felt motivated. There was a little element of competition as well. It's whatever you like. Maybe you don't like competition. Maybe you do. Maybe you just want someone to say nice words. Maybe you want somebody to tell you off. I don't necessarily recommend that, but everybody learns in different ways.

Listen to Podcasts:

Number four, listen to specific podcasts. I love podcasts because you can multitask. I love running and listening to something educational, while I'm doing exercise, seems like an excellent use of my time. If you want to improve your listening and pronunciation, the most amazing way to do it is to listen to a podcast while reading the transcript at the same time. I always recommend that with audiobooks, but I'm focusing on podcasts today. What I'm talking about is something that I think all podcasters should do, adding transcripts to your podcasts. It's great for language learning. It's also so important for accessibility. If you're hard of hearing, you're missing out on a lot if there aren't transcriptions provided. There is a fantastic website that I've found that nearly solves this problem. I think many of you will find it very, very useful, indeed. If there is a podcast that you like, one of the popular podcasts that do not provide transcriptions, there is a website called Podscribe. 

Link to Podscribe: https://podscribe.app/

Imitation:

ELSA: Learn And Speak English Confidently. Download the App Today!

The last one, number five is imitation, a topic I've spoken about a lot before. It's what I did when I was learning Japanese. It leaves me to achieve natural fluid pronunciation. When I conversed with my Japanese friends, I looked at their mouths, which sounds weird, but it's not. Instead of making eye contact, I would make eye-to-mouth contact, and I would look at their lips and their lip position, and their mouth shape. I'd look at where they put their tongues in their mouth and how their teeth were in comparison to their tongues. I probably made them feel a bit uncomfortable. So, that is one of the beauties of studying at home on your own. You can do this without embarrassment. All you need is a mirror and a smart device. Take a video of somebody speaking slowly and clearly. If you really like the way somebody speaks, but they speak quite quickly, play around with slowing them down. You can do this on YouTube. Sometimes it doesn't work so well. Make sure it's a video where you can see their mouth. Hold the video up to your face. Play the video. Hold the mirror up to your face. Recreate the mouth movements and the intonation and the tongue position. If there is a sound that you just can't grasp, this technique will help you. When people try to improve their public speaking, whether they're learning a new language or doing it in their native language, it is often recommended that they practice in front of a mirror. This is very much the same. It's about getting more comfortable. Right? That's it for today's lesson. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you can take some of these tips and put them into practice.

Practice all these ways and start speaking fluently. Bye👋🏻

 

ELSA: Learn And Speak English Confidently. Download the App Today!