How to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

How to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

Speaking is often the hardest of the four language skills. It's one thing listening and understanding, or even reading and writing, but it's another talking to a native speaker and not getting all flustered and experiencing brain shutdown. But with the right tricks, you can get over the learning curve with ease.

There are some useful and fun alternatives to develop the speaking ability in addition to other skills.

1.- Record yourself.- When you're by your lonesome, you have no reason to be nervous. You can let your brain flow freely so record yourself now! Your English is going to be at its best. Find an application (youtube) or online course that allows you to imitate the sounds of the language . Does your English sound the same?

2.- Read aloud.- If your hands are full or you don't have a recording device, simply read aloud -- ideally, every day for at least 15 or 20 minutes. You'll get used to speaking for longer periods of time and forming long sentences won't phase you. And you'll run into words you can add to your vocabulary.

3.- Listen to music.-  If you can concentrate on one song a day or so, even better. Just make sure you actively try to understand it. Google the lyrics and sing along!. It's best to stick to ballads songs that go a bit more slowly. Pick one a day until you have it mostly memorized and understand what the words actually mean. It's a great way to learn a language.

4.- Watch TV and movies.- An integral part of speaking is hearing or listening. Because of this, the easiest way to involve yourself in a conversation without actually having one is to watch English TV and movies. If you absolutely have to, turn the subtitles on but try to resist! Movies are great because you watch them over and over; the more you watch them, the more things you'll pick up. TV is good though, too, because you develop relationships with the characters and you grow accustomed to how they talk and the quirks of their speech.

Now let's practice!

Activity in class

1.- Look for a topic of your interest and practice your ability to speak by recording a video in which you mention important aspects about the topic you have chosen.

2.-After recording your video, upload it to YouTube and share the link in the virtual classroom with the rest of your classmates.

3.- Make comments on the videos of the rest of your classmates and read the comments they made to you to know what are the mistakes and corrections that you should take into account when developing a speech.

Here you have an example: