Boost Your English Speaking Confidence
Andrew Lee, TESL, MDiv
Empowering English Learners in North America to Thrive by Improving Their Cross-Cultural and English Communication Skills
“My written English is pretty good, but whenever I have to speak English with native speakers, I feel anxious and lose confidence ...”
Do you ever feel this way? I’ve been there myself, and I overcame this challenge.
There are many things you can do to boost your confidence in speaking English, but today I’d like to share a couple of things that worked well for me.
?? First, in order to build confidence in speaking, you need to speak more.
It sounds obvious, but it isn’t always easy to find a place to practice speaking English in real conversations with real people.
There are tons of materials, resources, YouTube videos, and blogs on English speaking, but they are all input, not output. You need more OUTPUT to improve your speaking and gain confidence.
Also, output has to be meaningful interactions with real people, not just repeating the memorized sentences in front of the wall like a robot. This is because speaking a language is an interactional and relational activity involving very complex skills and processes.
Therefore, it’s really important to seek people, communities, events, activities, and groups where you can actually practice your speaking in real situations.
Often, this is challenging even if you live in an English-speaking country like the US or Canada (who would have guess!?).
========
In my coaching program, I help you develop a very practical strategy to connect with English-speaking communities around you. DM me if you wanna chat with me!
========
Usually, local Americans and Canadians are too busy with their own lives to sit with English learners and patiently listen to you and have a conversation for an extended time, unless they are ESL teachers or really passionate about your culture or background.
And even if some people are willing to chat, often you realize there don’t seem to be many common things to talk about between you and them, so it ends up being a one-off instead of a continuing conversation and friendship.
This brings me to the second tip,
领英推荐
?? Seek English learners (especially at first) to make friends and practice English with.
Some people avoid meeting other English learners because they only want to meet native speakers. But for the reasons mentioned above, it’s not practical. It’s very hard to have lots of output that way.
Plus, practicing English with other English learners can be even more helpful because:
?? You feel less pressure because your pace of speaking is similar to theirs
???You’re less afraid to make mistakes because they make mistakes too
???You have common things to talk about (start with learning English and adjusting to North American cultures)
After you have lots of output in this safe and more encouraging environment and gain confidence this way, you can slowly seek native speakers and local communities.
This worked for me. My academic/written English was pretty good, but I didn’t have enough confidence even after having lived in the States for more than 5 years.
It was only after I had lots of output at English conversation meetups with other English learners that my English speaking improved significantly and exponentially, and I was not afraid to speak with native speakers eventually anymore.
Do you want to boost your confidence in your English speaking? Then speak it more and don't be ashamed to seek other English learners to practice together! Soon, you'll gain enough confidence to speak freely with native speakers as well?
—————
???? Do you find these tips helpful? Please like this post and feel free to share with others who might also like it!
?? Not very helpful to you? What are some of the things you tried to gain more confidence in speaking English that worked well for you? I'd love to hear your stories. Please share in the comment!
Lastly, if you'd like to practice speaking real English conversation with real people who are also English learners but from around the world, feel free to join my free weekly English conversation meetings on zoom. You can sign up here:?https://mailchi.mp/e7d28ab4afc7/ecc-registration-form