How to Practice English with Native Speakers at Home and Abroad

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most people who learn a foreign language

learn it so that they can one day have

real-life conversations with native

speakers when you start out learning and

crack open your first textbook or listen

to your first podcast having a real

conversation can feel like a fantasy

when everything about a language feels

new it can be overwhelming but this

couldn’t be further from the truth while

it does take a significant amount of

time and effort to become fluent having

a conversation might not be as far off

as you think in this video we’ll look at

three ways you can boost your

conversational skills and start talking

to native speakers number one find

native speakers and practice with them

it’s unlikely you live near a big group

of native speakers to practice with if

you happen to be in a major or

international City your chances may be

better check and see if your city has a

general language exchange chances are

there could be a native speaker there

who is also trying to learn another

language practicing in person with a

native speaker is probably the most

interesting option for honing your

speaking skills but if you can’t find

anyone where you live the next best

option is to look online luckily for

language learners the past 10 years or

so have seen an explosion and online

language exchange sites on these web

sites you can search for someone who is

a native speaker of your target language

and is also learning your native

language the idea behind a language

exchange is that you communicate with

them via video or text Jeff and half of

the time they help you practice your

target language and for the other half

you help them practice theirs practicing

via an online language exchange is a

highly effective way to practice your

conversational skills number two work on

pronunciation pronunciation is often an

overlooked skill when it comes to

learning a foreign language most people

think of a good foreign accent as a

luxury rather than a necessity but what

most people don’t talk about is how

having a good accent boosts your

listening and comprehension skills if

you can hear a sound from a foreign

language and know how to make it

yourself then you’re more likely to

understand native speakers when they

talk at normal speed and you’re also

more likely to remember any new words or

phrases you come across having a good

accent means that the language no longer

sounds foreign

it sounds familiar maybe even natural so

how do you go about perfecting your

accent the best way is to break down the

language into its individual sounds make

note of any sounds that are the same or

similar to your native language and of

those that are different of the sounds

that are different spend your time

practicing the ones that you find the

hardest to say correctly after you’re

comfortable with the individual sounds

you can start linking together words and

phrases this is where accent practice

starts to get really fun and interesting

get your hands on some native speaker

audio from a TV show song or podcast

play the audio back and listen closely a

few times take note of how words blend

together in speech then do your best to

imitate what you hear trying to match

the speaker’s emphasis and intonation

our language learning programs playback

feature is perfect for this record

yourself and compare it to the original

recording rinse and repeat until you’re

comfortable with the audio selection and

then move on to something more difficult

this is how you can break through the

accent barrier and really start to make

the language your own number 3 learn

phrases not just individual words

learning grammar and individual words is

great but it’s not the only approach you

should take if you want to speak

fluently in addition to your regular

grammar and vocabulary try learning

whole phrases even if you aren’t totally

sure how they work grammatically learn

phrases that are specific to your needs

it’s a good idea to learn phrases that

are grouped around a certain setting or

subject such as simple greetings or

introductions questions for getting to

know someone or traveling comfortably

you can even learn filler phrases which

you can use so that you have something

to say when well you don’t know what to

say

learning phrases like this will help you

become conversational faster you may not

understand what you’re saying literally

but as long as you know the general

meaning behind the phrase and know when

to use it you’ll be able to talk like a

native eventually your knowledge of

grammar and vocabulary should catch up

with the phrases you know learning a new

language should feel like an adventure

there will be plateaus and periods in

your learning where it feels like you’re

hitting a wall but being able to speak

with native speakers and have real

conversations will help you combat

language fatigue

after all talking to someone face to

face in a foreign language is one of the

main reasons we start learning in the

first place and for even more ways to

gain conversation skills check out our

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speaking in your target language and if

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