How to improve your fluency without a speaking partner

We all know we should practice speaking to build fluency, but what if you’re still lacking the confidence to actually talk to another human being? I mean, what if they don’t understand or I don’t understand them or what if they laugh at me? I had one client who was very embarrassed about her fluency and felt that all her colleagues spoke English much better than her. She felt her coworkers were annoyed by her slow English, so she stopped contributing to conversations and even stopped trying to socialize with people at work. She told me she knew she needed to practice to get better, but she didn’t want to irritate her colleagues.

I know exactly what that feels like and I want to share three tips you can use to build your confidence and practice your fluency until speaking to another person doesn’t feel so scary.

Ready?

Tip number one- write a diary

Now, I know, writing and speaking are NOT the same thing, but writing can help you build the first neural connections making recall of grammar structures and vocabulary faster and easier each time you use them. You can write about anything you want.

Here are some topics:

1. What did you do today?

2. What made you smile today?

3. What are your plans for the weekend?

4. If you could do anything right now, what would you do?

While writing on fluency, you can even set a timer for say, 10 minutes and keep writing until the timer goes off. Don’t worry about making mistakes, but use the opportunity to look up new words that you want to use because you have a perfect context for them.

Tip number two- watch part a tv show and pause it

I’m sure there are television programs you’ve seen a hundred times. Maybe there are some in English! While watching your favorite tv program in English, try to predict what the character is going to say next and say it out loud. Sometimes you’re right and if you’re wrong, you get some non-judgemental feedback that can help you say it “correctly” the next time.

That brings us to my absolutely favorite, number one tip. Are you ready? It can be a little embarrassing, but I promise it works wonders and as a trainer it is SO noticeable when clients use this tip..ready?

Tip number three- talk to yourself

I know, I know. You DON’T want people to laugh at you or think you’re crazy, but please- trust me, this works. You don’t actually have to speak out loud if you don’t want to, but that the most effective way.

Think about it…this is what children do when they’re learning their first language! How many times have you seen a young child playing teacher or mommy or professional footballer giving interviews? We rehearse situations we’ve seen, making the connections real in our brains.

I always tell my clients they can start by imagining the questions I might ask them in our next session. For example, how’s your day been going? or tell me about that job interview? What’s the latest gossip in the office? Imagine I ask you one of these questions, and just respond. You can respond out loud (I always liked to practice these fake conversations in the shower) or in your head. Think about what follow up questions I might ask you next or what I might not understand.

Of course, you can be much more imaginative. You can imagine your favorite celebrity only speaks English and has come to your town. They’ve had some sort of problem and the only person who can help them is you!

Or maybe imagine you’ve won some sort of prize and you have to give an acceptance speech in English. The situation doesn’t matter!

Speaking to yourself can be a very effective way to build your confidence and your fluency, without feeling you’re annoying someone else while you’re still learning.


So those are my top three tips for improving your fluency without a speaking partner. Give them a try and let me know how it goes in the comments!

Good luck!

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