5 tips to help you improve your spoken English!

Thread Content

This post was last edited by huamei461112 on 2016-2-16 at 16:28. The key to improving spoken language is practice. This inevitable relationship is just like eating food, which fills one’s stomach; even if one pretends to be full while hungry, that fullness is only temporary, isn’t it? It seems that everyone has practiced speaking on their own to some extent, but aside from the varying levels of proficiency achieved, a large number of those who are strong in written English still struggle to speak it. In fact, the character for “practicing” refers not only to practicing itself but also to diligence. The emphasis on “practice” when it comes to improving spoken language refers to an attitude. I’ve made up my mind; I’ll stick to it to the end. There are always methods for doing things that allow one to achieve more with less effort. Practicing *spoken language is necessary because it is a tool, and of course the sooner one masters such a tool, the better. With a swift gesture, he listed the following ingredients for the medicinal core: 1. Carefully selected materials. The selection of materials for practice is related to the level of our language in the future; it serves as a blueprint for our language in the coming years. Therefore, it is essential to be careful and make thorough selections. The material can be poetry, beautiful prose, or anything else you like as long as it is linguistically sophisticated. Generally, I first recommend that people choose articles from the New Concept series, ranging from Book 1 to Book 4. The difficulty levels vary, but each article is a classic piece of writing with authentic language and aesthetic appeal. Additionally, each article comes with an audio version available in both British and American accents, satisfying the needs of everyone. Having a genuine English style similar to that of the New Concept approach remains my relentless goal to this day. 2. Practice *speaking by listening to recordings. 　 Once the materials for practice are selected, it’s necessary to first thoroughly address any unfamiliar words, usage patterns, or meanings within those materials. There are techniques involved in determining what is more important, but that’s not the topic we’ll be discussing today. Once these tasks are completed, we need to learn to apply those sentence structures and usage patterns in spoken language. The first step is to read aloud. When transitioning from written to spoken form, one issue arises first: speech intonation. Why can many foreigners who are learning Chinese speak it in a way that makes sense, but when Chinese people hear them, they can tell right away that they are foreigners? This is why foreigners struggle with mastering intonation in speech; such speech cannot be considered authentic Chinese either. The same is true when learning English. I recommend the simplest way to master speech intonation: listen to recordings and imitate them. Don’t rush; go one sentence at a time, and pay close attention to the pauses, intonation, stress, omissions, etc. If you can’t remember, can you make notes in the book and come up with your own ideas? Quantitative changes eventually lead to qualitative changes; it is possible to achieve a native-like accent in English, whether that’s a British or an American accent. I’m the example, hehe. 3. The arduous journey from reading thoroughly to memorizing. Hearing about recitation, most people’s heads seemed to split into two. In fact, the recitation I propose is different from traditional “memorization”. Hehe, how exactly is that memorization done? Extremely skilled. After making the markings as instructed in Step 2 and undergoing rigorous practice of reading the audio materials aloud in accordance with standard pronunciation, once we are able to recite New Concept English Book 4 with ease, our English skills must surely be excellent! But, how many people can truly complete this arduous journey? I don’t have any around me. Don’t be discouraged; maybe you can be the first. Furthermore, an extremely important point that must be mentioned is: when conducting drills, it is essential to find an open outdoor area and carry out the drills at the highest volume possible. There is a famous figure in China named Li Yang, and this is included in his \"Crazy English\" program. A good method seems to be one that is widely agreed upon; in fact, that’s exactly the method I used back then – I would go to the river behind the school playground and deliver speeches there, covering topics such as the New Concept, the inaugural speeches of U.S. presidents, and poems by Longfellow. This attracted the old man and old woman across the way to bring out small stools to watch the excitement. How is oral communication developed? It was developed for giving speeches to people who are more than 10 meters away from you and have poor hearing. 4. Improve through practical experience. Spoken English is a tool that is spoken by people. We need not only individuals who are eloquent, but also those who learn, practice, and improve through interaction with others. Many people say that they feel extremely nervous every time they have to communicate in English with others or interact with foreigners! My answer: It is the lack of necessary reserves. In daily life, whether it’s during the process of reading aloud or using other methods, we should write things down, accumulate more knowledge, so that when the time comes to use it, we’ll have everything we need. At the same time, preparing in advance some common sentence patterns, greetings, and idioms before having a conversation with people, especially foreigners, can also help to gain a solid footing. In reality, you’ll find that the foreigners you’re most afraid to speak to never criticize you from a grammatical perspective; as long as you can communicate smoothly and have built up some experience with pronunciation and intonation, they often give you a thumbs up and praise your English as \"excellent\". It’s so beautiful! Multiple such experiences become a source of confidence for you. With confidence, everything becomes easy to handle. But I have one thing to remind you: be sure to practice more with people whose spoken language is better than yours or with foreigners; otherwise, the aforementioned results cannot be guaranteed. Many people say they rarely have the chance to interact with foreigners. What should they do? I would say, create opportunities for yourself. The opportunities I created for myself were by enrolling in foreign teacher tutoring classes as well as taking free lessons with foreign teachers; the registration address is: http://www.acadsoc.com.cn/trial/55. Spend some time every day practicing with foreign teachers through one-on-one live sessions, and your skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing will improve significantly, especially in speaking. There are also free lessons, and the video recordings of these lessons can be saved, which makes it convenient to review them. Sharing this information can also be beneficial for everyone; you can find out more details on your own, so I won’t go into further detail. 5. It is said that listening, reading, writing, and speaking are interconnected. 　 English includes four aspects: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As mentioned above, accumulation – listening to news, watching movies, reading newspapers and magazines – can indeed provide a solid linguistic foundation and a wealth of material to help improve our spoken language skills. Conversely, improving spoken English also brings surprises in other aspects of learning English, especially writing. Give it a try; you might be surprised too. In general, it still comes down to practice – finding clever ways to practice. The points mentioned above are all the result of practical experience and are highly valuable for application. Wish everyone to reap the benefits, unlock their potential, and make progress in learning English.