Practice Makes Confident (English Speakers)

We have an English proverb that says “Practice makes perfect,” but it doesn’t always. Practice just reinforces what you can already do.

Do you work for an international company, or with a team of scientists or professionals from several different countries? Even if you can read—or even write—English well, needing to speak it might feel uncomfortable or even scary. It’s easier to just keep quiet!

But your team needs your insights and experience—and guided, appropriate practice can help you be more prepared and confident when you need to speak English at work.

So how can you practice when you don’t know exactly what will be discussed?

? Think of the times you are most likely to need to speak English.

? Look over the agenda of a meeting coming up.

? Think of issues you and your colleagues are working on and problems that have come up. Do you have ideas or opinions on how to solve those problems? Do you agree with some of the proposals your teammates might suggest?

? Consider how to express your feelings about the topic in English. Try writing out your main arguments, or at least the important words, in advance—when you can look them up if you have any doubts.

Then try recording yourself expressing those thoughts for a minute or two in English-- without stopping, even if you realize you made a mistake or can’t think of the right word... When you finish, listen to yourself and notice what you said that was clear, even if you missed parts of it. If you try again, I bet it will be a little better the second time!

If you practice making suggestions and answering questions for a few minutes several times a week, you WILL improve, especially if you’ve heard the subjects discussed before in your meetings.

Some example statements and questions to practice

Do you have an idea you want to share?

You could start: “I’d like to make a suggestion...” (or “I think we could...” or “What about if we...?”)

You could continue with something like this: “We need to look at three main factors to improve our efficiency. We need to identify the bottlenecks slowing down our work. Then we must design a simpler workflow that removes them, and persuade the production team that the change will save them time.”

Or you might explain why your idea matters:

“The big advantage of this change/idea is that...”

When you want to ask someone their opinion of your idea, you might ask:

? “What do you think, Sue?” (or “Sue, what are your thoughts on...?”)

? “Mark, how do you see it?” (“What’s your perspective on...?”)

If someone thinks your idea is too expensive or time-consuming, but you think it’s important, you might ask them,

? “What are your worries if we implement this?” (“What might go wrong?”)

? “You sound unsure about this. What do you see as its potential problems? How could we avoid or resolve them?”

Try these networking or small talk questions—and ways to ask for or offer help

Q: What kind of work do you do?

A: “I’m a _________.” Or “I study _________.” Or “I’m part of a team that investigates ___________.”

Q: ”How long have you worked in that field?’ (or “for your company?”)

A: “I’ve worked there for ___ years.” (or “since 20__.”)

Q: “What do you enjoy most about your work?”

Q: “Could you find time to go over your report with me today or tomorrow? There are some details I need to clarify before our staff meeting Thursday.”

A: “Sure. I can talk with you anytime after 3:15 this afternoon. What time works best for you?”

Or: “I’m dealing with an immediate deadline. Could you talk with Karen instead. She helped on the report and can make corrections or additions if they’re needed.”

Q: “How is your project going? Ours went well, and I know you have a couple of teammates out sick. Would you like to borrow one of ours for a couple of days?”

A: “That would be a real help! Thanks!”

Or: “We are doing O.K., but thanks for the offer.”

Do these examples of common discussion topics sound helpful?

I have been working on a set of short emails, one per week, to give some starter sentences and ways to express some of the more common ideas or questions you might want to share at work. They range from ways to make a suggestion or defend your idea in English to ways to agree or politely disagree with your coworkers.

The idea would be to use these statements and questions as a way to jumpstart practicing things you could say in a meeting or discussion. Then develop the thoughts so you can more exactly express your own insights.

If this sounds interesting to you, you can sign up here to start receiving a series of short emails each week, so you can keep practicing English ways to express what you might say in different situations. (You can, of course, unsubscribe at any time if the emails aren’t worth your time.)

For these emails to be useful for more than a month or two, I would need some feedback and ideas for what kinds of things you and other research professionals want to say in English. So this practice could become a community, collaborative effort—and maybe even a chance to practice discussing your work with other scientists.

Let me know what you think—or if you have ideas to make such emails more helpful to you. When do you find it most difficult to express yourself in English?