5 English Conversation Tips How to improve your communication skills
hello and welcome back to english with
Lucy today I wanted to talk to you
well actually I wanted to have a chat
with you just a casual informal
conversation about how to improve your
conversation skills so I recently asked
all of my students on facebook and
instagram what sort of videos they’d
like to see in the near future because i
have had a little bit of a rest recently
but I’m back in the game now and most
people wanted to see more grammar videos which
will definitely be coming soon more
vocabulary videos and also tips on how to
improve their spoken english and also
their listening skills now I’ve
already done a video on listening which
you can watch just up here but I haven’t
done a video on conversation yet so
that’s what I’m going to do today but i
am going to provide you with some real
vocabulary and some very useful grammar
so I’ve squished everything that you
wanted into one video alright let’s get
started with tip number one number one
is be aware of the sounds that you make
when you think if you want to sound more
native when speaking and not offend
anyone when speaking then you need to
think like an Englishman when I was in
Spain I was quite surprised when i first
had proper conversations with people
because they would be talking to me and
then suddenly say eeeeeeeeh and I would think what was that
that’s quite loud mouth right open eeeeeeh and
in the UK it’s considered impolite have
your mouth open in somebody’s face so
when we think about what we’re going to
say next in a conversation we tend to
say ummmm or hmm
so we tend to hum with our mouths closed
so try practicing at home if you see any
interviews of British celebrities and
personalities check to see what sort of
noises they make when they are thinking
about how to respond to a question
the next tip is be aware of
interjections now what are interjections
well they are short little expressions
that express how you are feeling so if I
say something like oh it means i’m
interested maybe I haven’t heard that
before
maybe on a bit surprised oh and if I say
something like hmm it could mean I don’t
quite believe you
the people from the UK of less inclined
to tell you exactly what they think and
more inclined to tell you through
interjections and body language if you’d
like more information on interjections
like oh right yuck eww then i can
definitely make a video all about them
it really is good to know them because
it will help you understand what speaker
thinking and also convey what you are
thinking as well tip number four (three) is
learn to use question tags properly now
what are question tags they are short little
questions that go at the end of
sentences things like you’re not married
are you?
or he didn’t go did he? or you like tea
don’t you?
now they can mean two different
things they can be a genuine question or
they can be almost a request for
confirmation of something that the
speaker already knew
you’re very tanned you’ve been on holiday
haven’t you
I know that they’ve been on holiday
I’m just asking for confirmation now
question tags are very simple to form and
use if you have a positive statement you
are coming then you’d add a negative
question tag on the end aren’t you you
are coming aren’t you
and if you have a negative sentence she
didn’t say
that then you add a positive question
tag at the end did she she didn’t say
that did shee right now we’ve spoken a
little bit about noises a bit of
vocabulary and a bit of grammar that you
can use to improve your conversation
skills
well now I’d like to talk about some
real hardcore practice so when I was
working as a private English teacher a
lot of people wanted conversation
lessons and they would come in and say I
just want to talk which is great but I
had a small handful of students that
really knew how to improve their
conversation skills and I actually
learned from them i had a couple of
students come in and say I want
conversation lessons but I want to practice my
story and this was great they would come
in with a handful of stories that they
would tell on a daily basis maybe where
you’re from
why you’re living in London something
funny that happened to you onholiday
something that they like to tell they
like to be interesting they like to be
funny in group situations it’s good to
have a few stories up your sleeve
well they would come to me and i would
ask to practice them and perfect them
so they could tell their stories
fluently and efficiently and make people
laugh and make people feel interested
and make people enjoy their company so i
really really recommend that apart from
practicing your conversation you
practice your stories you go over them
again and again and again until you have
them sorted until they’re perfect and fluent
and natural more than anything
now you guys already know that I work
with a company called Lingoda if you
haven’t seen my review video for Lingoda
you can find it just up here and this is
a website that i really would
recommend if you want to practice your
conversation because every single one of
their lessons encourages speaking you
sign up on a monthly basis and you have
a mixture of group lessons and private
lessons and the great thing about it is
with the private lessons you can choose
the topic that you want you can say
right today I want to practice my
stories and they will organise that for
you
so they’ve given me another discount
voucher to offer you you can get 50 euros or
fifty dollars off your first
month at Lingoda if you’re interested
in that offer click on the link in the
description box now my final tip for you
is reflection
it’s all very well going to a language
exchange and speaking and speaking and
speaking but if you don’t reflect on
your mistakes you’re never going to
improve so after every single
conversation that you have in a language
that you’re trying to learn
make sure you take some time afterwards
to think back and ask yourself where was
i lacking and there could be a multitude
of answers I didn’t know enough
vocabulary to properly express myself or
my listening skills weren’t strong enough
to fully understand my partner or I was
telling a story and I wasn’t comfortable
enough with the past tenses to tell it
accurately so make sure you analyze and
reflect and then do some research about
it so you can practice what you lacked
in in the last conversation now the
world is your oyster here on YouTube you
just have to type in question tags
interjections past tenses and there will
be some lovely person teaching you
exactly how to use it
you have just got so many dictionaries
apps online schools there is everything
that you need to help you here online
so make sure you take advantage of it
that’s it for today’s lesson I hope you
enjoyed it I hope you learnt something
don’t forget to connect with me on all
of my social media you’ve got my Instagram and
my facebook where I host a free live
pronunciation lesson every sunday at
four thirty gmt more information on the
facebook page i will see you soon for
another lesson i’ve got lots of grammar and
vocabulary videos coming out soon
I can’t wait to show you them mwah!