Spoken English Class 1 How to Speak Fluent English Beginner to Advanced Speaking Practice

hello everyone and welcome back to

english with lucy today i have a spoken

english class for you

i have got eight tips that will help you

to master spoken english

if you apply these tips to your everyday

life you will really notice a difference

and you will become more confident and

more comfortable speaking english

my first tip is to get to know the parts

of your body that you use whilst

speaking english this might sound a

little odd

but trust me on this one

if you don’t understand which parts of

your face

tongue and throat are used when speaking

english then how will you ever be able

to correct your pronunciation mistakes

watch yourself in the mirror whilst

speaking english is a common tip that

many teachers give

however i think you should go one step

further than this

you absolutely need to analyze what your

lips

tongue throat

face in general is doing when you speak

english

you need to find a close up video a

zoomed in video of a native speaker or a

speaker that you admire speaking in

english

you then need to record yourself up

close

preferably at the same distance

speaking the same sentence

analyze the way your lips move in

comparison to their lips

analyze how far they stick their tongue

out or maybe they push it right back in

their mouth

what are you doing with your tongue this

started a big learning curve for me when

i was learning spanish

i started to really analyze

spanish speakers tongues they might have

found this quite weird when i was

watching them speak looking at their

tongue instead of their eyes but i

realized that when in english we say da

with the tongue inside of our mouths

it’s quite a delicate sound the spanish

speakers in the area i was living in

would stick their tongue out a little

bit more

like that

by listening alone i would never have

realized that but by watching and

analyzing i managed to transform my

pronunciation and you can do the same

with english

you should also analyze the voice

quality

how much voice do we allow to escape

through our throats compare it to yours

as well

if you are serious about improving your

pronunciation and your spoken english

then you do

need to be very critical about what you

are speaking at present and work towards

correcting it

tip number two is to combine reading and

listening

thus improving your pronunciation

perhaps you will know by now that a way

a word is written in english

normally gives very little indication as

to how that word is pronounced in

english in many languages across the

world the way a word is written

tells you and shows you exactly how that

word should be spoken

this is not the case in english and it’s

part of the reason why

english pronunciation and english

speaking is so difficult for learners

i have found a really good method that

has helped so many of my students

take a book that you have already read

in english or a book that you would like

to read in english i have got a fair few

recommendations in the description box

down below and read that book again but

here’s the important part whilst

listening to the audiobook version on

audible if you listen to a word

as you read it your brain will start

making connections and the next time you

hear that word you’ll know how it’s

spelt and the next time you read that

word you’ll know how it’s pronounced

it’s such an effective method and the

best part is you can get a free audio

book that’s a 30-day free trial on

audible all you’ve got to do is click on

the link in the description box and sign

up

then you can download one of my

recommendations give it a try it really

works tip number three is another

reading one but it’s practice speed

reading

this isn’t such a common technique but i

think it should be

it’s a really good way of improving your

fluency so how fluently you speak

english your velocity so that’s how

quickly you speak english and also it

will help with your connected speech how

you join one word to another or one

sound to another in english

you need to find a text that you’d like

to read this text can accommodate your

level honestly i recommend using

reputable news sources and news websites

if you want to practice your informal

speech then you could find a blogger you

like who writes as if they’re chatting

to a friend

read the text aloud and time yourself as

you’re reading it

then

read that text aloud again and try to

beat your previous time

you can repeat this as many times as you

want but i find after four times

four

after four times i’m getting pretty

bored of the text this will help you to

familiarize yourself with the common

sounds in english

a step further would be to record

yourself and to send it to your language

instructor

or to use it as a topic in your next

language lesson tip number four is a tip

that has been massively important for me

as a native speaker so i can only

imagine how important it could be for

you it is to prepare

your monologues and stories that you are

likely to repeat

in advance

i’m talking funny stories you want to

tell at a dinner party i’m talking about

your elevator pitch i’m talking about

your answer to what do you do for a

living or where do you come from these

common questions that you get asked

again and again and again prepare your

answer have them up your sleeve that’s

the way we say to have something

prepared to have it up your sleeve if

you’re an advanced speaker and you’re

more worried about keeping people

interested or making people laugh then

prepare your funny and interesting

stories

i first thought about this when i was

dating this was a long time ago

and i remember that i

would get stuck and i wouldn’t know what

to talk about so i always felt good and

confident if i went into a dating

situation with my best stories and i my

most interesting things to say up my

sleeve it was funny because when i met

my husband-to-be i had all these stories

and interesting things to say up my

sleeve

and it all went out the window

conversation just flowed without any

effort but i understand that speaking

english

speaking a second language can be very

nerve-wracking it’s just like dating in

my opinion

and you do want to have these things

prepared

tip number five is focus on

pronunciation

over grammar now there will be some

teachers out there watching this and

thinking oh my god

what

this is honestly my opinion i think that

bad grammar habits are much easier to

correct than bad pronunciation habits

i would say that it’s much easier to

understand somebody speaking with great

pronunciation

but bad grammar

than hearing someone speak with perfect

grammar but terrible pronunciation

i’ve met so many students that know

every single grammar rule they even can

sometimes correct me but their

pronunciation they just they got to a

certain level and then they found it

very very difficult to improve they are

able to improve with specific help

professional help but it could have been

so much easier but from a very very

young age they were taught bad

pronunciation

or they weren’t corrected on their

pronunciation the focus was only on

grammar and that focus needs to switch

i’m not talking about having a perfect

accent you don’t need a perfect accent

you just need to be clear and

understandable when you speak it will

make you feel more confident when people

move to an english-speaking country they

are most likely embarrassed of their

pronunciation than they are their

grammar bad grammar can make it not so

easy to understand someone but bad

pronunciation can make it impossible to

understand someone

so big tip focus on pronunciation

tip number six is to try and think in

english i have made an entire video

about this topic but it’s such a big

topic

some people find it very easy to think

in english and some people find it near

impossible to think in english if you

want to be able to speak english

fluently without even thinking then you

need to train yourself to think in

english a good way to start doing this

is to have a little english narrator in

your head

choose someone’s voice that you like i

know a lot of people use emma watson’s

voice they have her speaking in her head

this is normally females but for a

couple of hours a day or even a couple

of minutes a day

have

your little chosen person emma watson or

whoever it is

narrate in your head everything you’re

doing i am washing the dishes i am

picking up the spoon i am putting it on

the table oh no i don’t like that what

have i done

just chat to yourself as you would in

your own language but in english

something weird might happen after a

while you might automatically start

thinking in english and you might even

start dreaming in english they say that

you are really really becoming fluent if

you start dreaming in a second language

and a very weird thing can happen you

can start dreaming about your friends

and family that don’t speak your second

language speaking in your second

language i’ve had my parents telling me

to do stuff in spanish and i’ve just

woken up very very confused

another point still related to the topic

of thinking in english is to be

constantly on the search for new words

new phrases and new vocabulary

keep a note app on your phone or a

physical vocab book and when you are

idle or not doing something for example

commuting to work or

at work

look around think what don’t i know in

english and if you see something for

example lamppost

curtain

then note it down and make a point of at

the end of the day

finding out what that word is in english

number seven

this tip

is very helpful

because i know a lot of you

just want to learn one specific accent

well this tip is speak with a variety of

native speakers who all have different

accents

so tempting to just focus on one accent

but you will be doing yourself a

disservice

the wider the variety of people that you

speak with the more flexible your brain

will be when it comes to understanding

speech

a great example is my poor mother she

struggles so badly when it comes to

understanding

different accents

it’s funny and it can also be insulting

to the speakers sometimes but i’m

talking scottish accents irish accents

spanish people speaking english

she is surrounded by mainly english

people she speaks with people who all

speak the same accent and she really

really struggles i however have been to

many different countries and i’ve had

students from all over the world i’ve

lived in different locations and i find

it very easy to understand

different accents

we’ve got the same genetics we’ve had

the same upbringing to a certain point

but because i listen to speakers with

lots of different accents

i am able to understand and she isn’t

thank you mum for letting me use you as

an example she does find it funny she

really struggles but it might happen to

you as well if you just focus on a clear

rp accent then you will struggle to

understand a glaswegian accent or an

australian accent or an accent from the

deep south of america

many of you will be thinking great i

would love to speak to loads of native

people but i don’t know how to speak to

them well i have a couple of suggestions

number one is of course attend english

classes group english classes

number two is attend expat meetups

expats are people who have left their

home country to live in another country

a lot of them will have meetups because

they want to speak with other people

that speak their language and have a

taste of their own culture their home

culture well you can also try going to

those and seeing if you can mix with

them and speak their own language with

them you’ll find a wide variety of

accents because they’ve normally come

from all over the world you can also use

italki’s language partner feature i’ve

spoken about this quite a lot this is a

free feature where you can find a

language partner to practice with if you

speak a language that the partner wants

to learn and the partner speaks a

language that you want to learn you can

do a tandem i think it’s called in some

countries

a language exchange

i’ve left a link to that in the

description box

some people find it quite hard to find

native speakers that want to speak their

language especially if you come from a

country where everyone wants to learn

english but it isn’t as popular for

english speakers to learn your language

you could perhaps consider paying for a

private language tutor italki’s prices

are really really good per hour

yeah they’re very very affordable i

would recommend i’ve used them myself

and number eight

if you cannot find native speakers with

whom to practice

then just find like-minded people

a really great resource is facebook

i never thought i’d be recommending

facebook but honestly

facebook groups are fantastic for

finding like-minded people and for

helping each other out if you have a

question about english if you want

someone to analyze the way you speak

there will probably be someone on a

facebook group that will be willing to

help you

i’m on lots of facebook groups for many

different reasons facebook groups for

wedding planning facebook groups for

being a farmer’s wife

lots of them and there are so many

helpful people i’m a member of some

english groups as well i’m not going to

tell you which

but i will often respond to people’s

questions

anonymously there are also some good

forums on websites like reddit

and places like that

right that is the end of my lesson those

are the eight tips for spoken english

don’t forget to check out audible the

link is in the description box you can

click that and claim your free audiobook

and don’t forget to connect with me on

all of my social media i’ve got my

facebook my instagram and my twitter

and i shall see you soon for another

lesson

i’m only one minute from finishing i’ll

see you in a sec oh could you just hang

out the duvet

the duvet’s in the wash would you mind

just hanging up

thanks han

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