How to improve your speaking skill

1. Expand your vocabulary Learn New Words Every Day Gleaning new words day in, day out is a good way to widen your vocabulary. Commit to a suitable target: it can be three daily words or it can be ten daily words. Even if you only have time to learn one new word per day, it is still worth trying. By learning one word every day, after one year you will have learned 365 new English words. Write the number down to remind yourself frequently. If you have a learning partner, share it with her so that she can check on your progress. Some good resources for words are the news, songs and TV shows, depending on your daily habits. If you love listening to music, pay attention to the lyrics and take note of the words you do not know. Songs often contain a lot of useful vocabulary, phrases and expressions, therefore, they are great for learning English. Learning words in context will help you remember them much easier, and you will be surprised by how quickly your vocabulary will grow! Learn Words in Phrases and Chunks It is important that you learn words in groups. For example, you refer to beverages as a glass of wine, a pint of beer, a cup of tea, a pot of coffee, etc. It is better to learn those phrases than merely wine, beer, tea and so on. You can also benefit from learning words that are related. The moon has four phases during a lunar month: crescent, gibbon, waxing and waning. It is more efficient to learn all four words at the same time.

3. Learn the natural flow of English Being able to say individual words correctly is great, but the secret of speaking fluently in English lies in the flow of sentences. Whenever you read a piece of poetry, listen to a melodic song or watch a hilarious sitcom, pay attention to the following: Linking. Notice how native speakers link words together: joining two sounds, making a sound to disappear or changing a sound for a better flow. Contractions. Contractions are shortened forms of two words. For example: I + am = I’m he + will = he’ll they + have = they’ve do + not = don’t Stress. There are stressed syllables in a word and stressed words in a sentence. Rhythm. The rhythm is the overall result of stress, contractions and linking. It is the ups and downs, the musical feature of English.

2. Improve your pronunciation You might know a lot of words, but if you fail to say them correctly, you will not be understood. That seems like a waste of the time spent on remembering words, right? When using online dictionaries such as Macmillan and Merriam-Webster, make use of the little speaker symbol to check the pronunciation of any word that you are not sure about. There are English pronunciation tutorials on YouTube or podcasts like English Pronunciation Pod or American English Pronunciation to teach you the many aspects of American English pronunciation. When you are ready for something more challenging, try out tongue twisters. Some examples are available here. Personally, I love the Fork handles sketch from the show “The Two Ronnies.” It might not be a typical example of everyday conversation, but it shows you the richness of spoken English. Besides, you will have a good laugh. Learning with these types of authentic videos is key to improving your pronunciation because you are listening to media by and for native speakers.

5. Speech shadowing In a nutshell, this technique is about imitation. You listen to how a native speaker says something and try to copy it. Pick your favorite video with subtitles. Make sure that it is something you enjoy watching because you will… Listen to it many times. Listen to the video once and read the subtitles to get a good grasp of the general content and flow. While you are playing it again, complete the next step. Imitate the narrator sentence by sentence. Play. Listen. Pause. Speak. Record (optional). Copy the speech pattern as best as you can. With enough shadowing, you’ll naturally get closer to sounding like a native speaker. Just make sure to pick videos with the same kind of English accent!