How can you improve your spoken English?
I was in Chennai for five years. I tried to learn Tamil. I learnt many words. I purchased books like ‘Learn Tamil In 30 Days’. I used to watch Tamil channels. Slowly I started grasping the language and managed to speak broken Tamil with the local people whenever needed. I really wanted to speak eloquently but failed.
Somewhere down the line, I felt that I was not putting an honest effort as I was more prone to speak in English at my workplace and at home.
I’ve shared my story just to make you understand that for learning any language you really have to live the language. You need to immerse yourself in the English language.
Here are a few of my top ways to speak eloquently in English :
- Conversational Connectors: Basically, fluency is about keeping the conversation flowing, without uncomfortable pauses, so that everybody involved enjoys the experience. You can keep the conversation flowing by using the vocabulary that you already have in a way.
The trick here is to connect short bursts of facts from your vocabulary with what I call conversational connectors. They are a great technique for sounding like a native speaker, for removing the awkwardness from the conversation and forgiving yourself time to recall vocabulary. You can use it in a variety of situations such as agreeing with someone, sharing your opinion, or changing the subject.
(Image source: Google)
- Learn Chunks or phrases to improve the fluency of your speech.
These include Collocation such as ‘densely populated, an awful lot, painfully slow ;
Phrasal Verbs such as ‘chip in, come down with, do away with, shop around ;
Idioms like ‘at drop of hat, the ball is in your court, best of both worlds and so on.
Think in English: One of the best things to do is to think in English. Think of a story that you would like to tell your friend. Here you may find my this answer useful.
How did you start thinking in English? by Monika Rai Monika Rai’s answer to How can I start thinking in English in my mind?
- Avoid Procrastinating: You have to develop your own strategies for avoiding procrastination.
Engage with English everywhere.
Practice until you know it,
and then use it until you owe it.
Stay motivated and enjoy getting inflow.
All the best :)
