How to Practice English with Native Speakers at Home and Abroad
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lesson sign up for your free lifetime
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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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get tons of resources to have you
speaking in your target language and if
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