Improve your English speaking skills | Part I

Speaking English is probably the biggest problem that our students communicate to us so that is what we focus on, helping you to improve your fluency and confidence.

Cambridge judges Speaking as a skill by using 4 main criteria: fluency, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. In this e-book, we break down what each of these individual criteria are and what you can do to improve in each.

Let us remind you that it is not enough to simply read this book. You must take action and put this into practice by firstly practising autonomously and then by interacting with proficient English communicators.

Start speaking English every day, even on your own or if you can, find a language partner and meet regularly to socialise and chat and enjoy communicating in another language. This way, you’ll begin training your mind to think and react in English in a range of natural contexts, something that doesn’t happen in school.

A skill that many learners overlook when considering how they can improve their speaking abilities, is listening. Listening is probably one of the most underrated methods of learning to speak, after all, it sounds counterintuitive; if you’re listening, then you’re not speaking, right? Wrong. You may not be speaking as you’re listening, but you are processing language that is being directed at you. All you need to do is receive this language, recognise it and reformulate it in speech and you’ll instantly be practising grammar and producing new vocabulary. Receive, Recognise, Reformulate. Listen to the person you’re lucky enough to be sharing the moment with and use their vocabulary to enhance your own. For example:

“…the experience was overwhelming but if I hadn’t done it, I would have regretted it…”

There are various elements in this phrase that a non-proficient learner may not completely understand however that doesn’t mean you cannot use it. In fact, you have to reuse it, even if incorrectly, and you’ll have started to widen your lexicon. You could reply:

“Why would you have regretted it if you hadn’t done it?”

What has happened? As a learner, perhaps I don’t even appreciate that the grammar tense is the 3rd Conditional, but that’s not important. I have simply listened to the phrase, recognised that it’s important my friend’s story and now I’m using the exact same structure to (practice) continue the story and communication. Receive, Recognise, Reformulate.

I have never seen a course book mention how fundamental listening is to speaking so I hope you have learned something new and even more importantly, put it into practice.

Lexical Resource

Without vocabulary, you have nothing to say, it’s quite simple. Expanding your lexical range is essential to being able to adapt to different contexts and maintain high quality communication for academic study, business and work or personal.

According to Cambridge to get the highest marks in vocabulary, a speaker must, “Use vocabulary with full flexibility and precision in all topics and uses idiomatic language naturally and accurately”. 

What this basically means is that you are able to speak about a wide range of topics and avoid repeating the same language over and over again. That is one part, while the other is using idiomatic expressions, also important because as native speakers, we frequently use this type of language in conversation.

 

                                                           Idioms

So let’s begin with the ‘easy part’: the idioms. Now of course the English language has possibly thousands of different idioms, all with different meanings and used in different contexts. We don’t expect you to learn all of them nor half of them nor even a quarter of them, but what you could do is start to learn five idioms at a time per topic.

Step 1 - Topics

Take a moment to think about the different fields in your life; things that you often think about, discuss, see or hear or converse with other people. They could be related to study, what you do at work, what the people closest to you often discuss or believe or could even be what your friends share when they hang out together.

This is an example for me, 5 topics of interest: travel, languages, food, teaching, technology.

I want you to write down five areas of interest that you’re involved in somehow, do this now.

I will then proceed and choose only one topic to focus on, for this example I will use, ‘Travel’.

Step 2 – Search for idioms

Now I will go to YouTube and search “English travel idioms”. I’ll listen to some videos, find five idioms that are connected to travelling and write them down (What is important about using YouTube in this activity is that most of the videos will include audio-visual examples. This can be incredibly helpful for you, depending on what type of memory you have.

Example: 

                       Idiom                |            Definition

·     Get off the beaten track – avoid common tourist areas

·     Rough it – sleep on the street

·     Culture vulture – someone who loves learning about cultural aspects

·     Shoestring budget – someone who’s on a very low budget

·     Spend a fortune – when you spend a lot of money 

I need to make sure that they are explained in the videos so I can write down the definitions for each one. This helps my comprehension and I can begin to understand the phrase’s construction.

Find your idioms now.

Step 3 - Construction

I try not to spend too long worrying about the construction because when you hear a native using it (as you have already done in the YouTube video), you’ll already have a good idea of how to use it. However, sometimes it’s necessary and some learners just appreciate the mechanics.

Some elements to analyse include the word order, prepositions, subjects and objects, not to mention word stress and intonation which shouldn’t be overlooked.

Example:

“To get off the beaten track.” = (non-transitive) Phrasal Verb + adjective + noun

 In use: I get off the beaten track by exploring new places and avoiding famous landmarks.

Your turn. Construction + Example.

Step 4 - Production

The next step is to create your own examples and produce them in written form, as in the example above. Trying to write two or three examples for each expression using different forms if necessary (positive, negative, interrogative, gerund etc). Check the construction and when you finish, say it out loud to yourself and judge if it sounds correct to you or not. If you’re unsure, write it into Google and see if the phrases comes up as you’ve written it.

Write at least 10 examples using multiple forms.

Step 5 – Practice

Once you’ve gone through all of the steps, the next thing you need to do is to practice using it in speech. If you have a language partner, agree to discuss this topic over coffee and prepare some statements and questions to ask him or her and try to use them in a conversation. Give your friend a piece of paper with your idioms written on it and every time you use one of the idioms correctly, your partner can tick it off. That way your partner has to listen carefully to what you say and you’re making yourself accountable to using this new language.

If you don’t have a language partner you can always try using it alone. We really believe in this method; thinking and speaking to yourself, when you are alone and away from distraction can be tremendous. You can even record yourself and listen to your speech at a later date for some self-evaluation. Try it. 

Topics

You can do this the fun way or the less fun way. The fun way is a little bit more work but is more authentic whereas the less fun way is easier because the information has already been collected for you but is a little less relevant to you personally, or, you can do both.

Find material using the same topics as you chose in the previous example when we were practising idioms. You can do that either by; A) finding them in a coursebook, which will have all the vocabulary selected for you, or, B) find and read articles or listen to podcasts with transcripts, and collect topic-specific words that you come across.

The book option is more simple as it’s designed for your level and the key language has already been identified for you. Let’s explore that option for now.

Step 1 – Locate vocabulary

Locate the unit that contains the topic of interest. Most books will have this explicitly written in the Contents section in the opening pages. Take your pick and find the topic you want to learn about.

Take action now.

 Step 2 – Vocabulary Activity

 Somewhere in the unit, usually near the beginning, you’ll find a vocabulary section with an explicit dedication to learning new vocabulary

Examples

Taken from Cambridge, Objective Proficiency

Try to complete the activity that the book offers. They often apply the ‘Test-Teach-Test’ technique, where students try to complete an acctivity first and test their existing knowledge on the subject.

Once you finish the activity, check your answers and analyse the mistakes. This is where the majority of the learning occurs and something that a lot of learners don’t do.

Understand why the answers are correct, analyse the form and use and even read the language reference found at the back of the course book. This will help clarify anything you’re unsure of and provide you a better understanding.

Example:  

Step 3 – Practice

 Of course, next you have to create your own personal examples using this new vocabulary in combination with the idioms you’ve already learned, within the context of the topic.

Example.     “Getting off the beaten track is never in vain, because it’s always fascinating to discover new places.”

“I’m on the brink of running out of money because I’m on a shoestring budget.”

By this stage, you have read the new vocabulary, written it and used it in context, so what’s missing? Two aspects; hearing it being used and saying it or using it in conversation.

Search for the vocabulary on YouTube and you may be able to find it being used. If not, which can often be the case, we advise preparing some opinions on your topic, record yourself speaking for a few minutes and try to use the new language as much as possible. Play it back afterwards and check the accuracy. Are you using it grammatically correctly? Is the pronunciation and intonation appropriate? You should be able to gain a good idea by listening to yourself.

Step 4 - Regular Review 

You need to keep this new language actively in your mind. This is very difficult to achieve over time, especially if you’re not practising regularly which is why it’s fundamental to have clear goals that you are constantly working towards, so you have a reason to constantly review what you learn.

Set a fortnightly reminder on your phone, computer or calendar to revise new vocabulary that you’ve learned and repeat Step 3, practising using the words in speech. This includes repetition of the idioms you should have also acquired.

You should try and speak to a language partner at least twice a week as a minimum. Join some social groups or find someone who would like to chat online. There are no excuses if you really want to improve.