Why Is Your Speaking Level Lower Than Your Listening Level

hi i’m vanessa from speak english with

vanessa calm why is your speaking level

lower than your listening level let’s

talk about it to answer this question i

want to ask you another question in your

native language is your reading level

higher than your speaking level

can you read words and understand words

that you don’t use in daily conversation

well for English it’s true for me when I

read a book there are plenty of words

that I know what they are but I never

use them in conversation maybe they’re

high level words or they’re just words

that I don’t find necessary to use in

daily life but this means that even in

my native language I know words that I

don’t use let me give you a quick

example i just opened a book on my

bookshelf and found one of the first

sentences and it used two words but i

hardly ever use in daily conversation

let me redo the sentence it says I went

expecting to see people denigrating the

language and instead I found them

reveling in it hmmm the word denigrating

and reveling I hardly ever use in daily

conversation but I know what they mean

and it’s probably the thing for you to

in your native language your reading

level is higher than your speaking level

and reading and listening are quite

similar because they are input skills

you’re not creating something you are

just taking information into your mind

so writing and speaking are a little

similar because you’re creating language

you’re making sentences but reading and

listening are just input kind of passive

skills I want to ask you a second

question I promise that I will answer

the question myself but I want to ask

you a second question first

when you were a child did you understand

your native language before you started

speaking it well I think so this is

pretty common unless you are an amazing

genius one of a kind most people listen

to their native language for years from

their parents before they start to make

beautiful sentences they start by

speaking slowly and maybe just a couple

words but usually when their parents

give some kind of directions can you do

this where is this the kids understand

perfectly fine but they never make those

sentences for themselves at least not

yet so our natural listening skills our

passive skills are easier to develop

those come first and then our active

skills like writing and speaking they

come second we just saw that it’s

natural that your speaking skills are

lower then you’re listening or reading

skills but how can you improve your

speaking skills because maybe they will

never be the same level even in English

in my native language they’re not the

same level but how can you improve your

speaking well the first thing is to

spend time speaking you probably spend

more time listening or more time reading

in English then you spend speaking

English it’s pretty normal because we

don’t always have people around us to

speak English to it’s easier to listen

to a podcast or watch a YouTube video

like right now you can do this passive

skill more often than actively speaking

so I challenge you to simply find more

time to speak I have a couple videos

where I give examples and ideas of how

to speak if you don’t know any English

speakers maybe none of your friends are

learning English I

make sure that I post a link to this

video at the end so that you can take a

look at some ideas of how you can start

speaking now but my biggest

recommendation is to speak more if you

are listening to English for 30 minutes

every day and you’re only speaking

English for 30 minutes once a week you

need to raise that level if you want it

to become closer to your listening level

I hope that this lesson today was useful

for you and I hope to answer this

question because it’s really important

to feel certain that you’re on the right

path so I’ll make sure I post a link to

the video so that you can check out some

ideas for how to improve your speaking

and let us know in the comments below is

your listening level higher than your

speaking levels I’m curious what it’s

like for you tell us your experience and

maybe even tell us in your native

language do you think that in your

native language you’re listening and

reading level or higher than your

speaking let’s talk about it in the

comments I can’t wait to see what you

have to say and I’ll talk to you later

bye the next step is to download my free

ebook 5 steps to becoming a confident

English speaker I want to help you

master English and speak fluently feel

free to subscribe so that you don’t miss

new English lessons thanks so much for

learning with me bye

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