How can I speak English confidently?

This is a question which I have heard on numerous occasions from students of ALL levels. Many are frustrated that, however hard they try, however much time they spend studying, they never reach this mythical land where they feel comfortable speaking English. They want to be “fluent”.

I ask them :

“What would it take to make you feel comfortable speaking English?”

They reply :

• to speak fluently without any mistakes
• to always understand what is being said
• to always find the right word to express myself.

These are all quite reasonable answers. I wouldn't disagree. So let's take each in turn.

"To speak fluently without any mistakes"

What does “fluently” mean?

When asked this question many reply talking about speed. Let me tell you that the speed of your speech actually has very little to do with fluency. Depending on their personality, people talk at various speeds even in their native languages.

Taking pauses and speaking more slowly can actually be good things. In fact I frequently tell my students to speak more slowly. Some of them, in their misguided enthusiasm to speak more fluently, try to speak faster – and end up speaking faster than me.

Generally when people speak fast in a foreign language, they tend to adopt the intonation (rhythm) of their native language. This non-English intonation can make it more difficult to understand them. So take it steady and pause regularly (and this can be good because it gives you a little time to think).

“Without any mistakes”

Who can honestly say that they never make any mistakes in their own native language? I believe that this obsession with not making mistakes goes back to language classes at school.

I remember being asked a question by my French teacher and, when I answered and happened to make a grammatical mistake, being shouted at and told to repeat for homework. This reinforced the idea that mistakes are bad and need to be removed - not to mention the effect it had on my confidence!

Every day we have those around us who constantly make grammatical mistakes when they speak – they're called “children”. Does this stop us from understanding them?

Ok – I know you don't want to sound like a child when you speak. However scientists tell us that when someone speaks to us, we only listen to 60% - the brain makes up the rest.

In addition most native speakers don't even notice simple mistakes made by others – the brain simply hears what it thinks the person said – and autocorrects any errors.

When I was studying to become an English language teacher one of the surprising difficulties was to actually hear mistakes made by others – normally the brain just ignores them.

It is true that a certain threshold of accuracy must be reached in order not to impede understanding. In my experience, however, I have met very few students who have not passed this threshold. This means that when they speak, even though they make mistakes, it is very easy to understand them.

In my practical experience working in various countries I paid no attention to the fact that those with whom I was speaking made a few grammatical mistakes. I was just happy to be able to understand them and to communicate. There are far more important things to worry about.

So leave behind the obsession with not making mistakes – leave it where it belongs – at school!

"To always understand what is being said"

I would agree that this is the fundamental skill required to really communicate in any language.

Is it necessary to understand everything ?

Clearly not – provided we reach a certain threshold we can “guess” the rest.

Understanding is great. Not least because, if you understand what is being said to you, your confidence in replying increases dramatically. And confidence is the thing we are looking for.

So rather than worrying about this, how can you go about improving your understanding?

It's actually rather easy and also rather difficult. Easy because all you have to do is to listen – to everything - as much as possible.

This task is now easier than ever thanks to the internet and streaming TV … Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.

If you're looking for tips on how to listen, try one of my free courses “How to Learn a Language”. Click on the image to view.

Difficult because listening when you don't understand very much (sometimes nothing!) can be very frustrating and also very very boring. Let me give you just one piece of advice – carry on and don't give up.

I can tell you categorically that if you continue, after a few months, your ability to understand will increase exponentially. This was true for me personally and also for every one of my students who has ever followed this advice.

"To always find the right word to express myself"

I doubt that you always find the right word in your own native language. Everyone pauses and rephrases when they speak. It's natural and normal – we are not robots. It actually makes us sound human.

Many students complain that they only use simple vocabulary. In my experience this is not true.

Nevertheless it is always good to expand your vocabulary and I give lots of ideas on how to do this painlessly in another free course “How to improve your vocabulary”. Click on the image to view.

Be creative in how you speak. If you don't know the correct word by all means check it when you have the opportunity and try and memorise it for next time. In the meantime, find another way to say what you want to say. 50% of everything said in a language is made up of just the top 100 most common words. There is always another way. This is a technique which you can practice.

Confidence comes when you have sucessful, positive experiences., The more times you have successful, positive experiences speaking English, the more confident you will feel. The more confident you feel, the more likely you are to speak, the more likely you are to have more successful, positive experiences and therefore become more confident – a virtuous circle!

It's true that at times you will have unsucessful, negative experiences and in these cases your confidence will go down. For most people , however, postive experiences will far outweigh negative ones. I have spent years speaking foreign languages throughout the world – frequently not very well. Yet, despite this, I can only remember four or five times when people have been negative because of my lack of proficiency in their language. You may feel embarassed when you speak in English. I felt the same way when I started speaking French, German, and Italian. You would think that I might have stopped after learning my first language. The reassuring thing which I can tell you is that the feeling of embarassment soon passes and is forgotten.

So my one piece of advice is this –

forget fluency, forget mistakes, forget embarassment and just start speaking.... whenever and wherever you can!  

If you found this article useful and want to improve your English you can find more resources here on my site- just click on the image.

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https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/englishprofessionals