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This post was last edited by The little devil should be good on 2015-12-16 at 16:38. Many people say that their spoken English is not good, but if you ask them, do they have good listening skills? Are you good at reading? Are you good at writing? Do you have a vocabulary? Then, you’ll be surprised to find that they don’t just have poor speaking skills; they have serious problems with listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Many people’s concept of “conversational English” still remains at asking for directions while traveling, ordering food, buying drinks, or talking about the weather and things like that ； If that’s your goal and you’re only willing to practice *these topics, your speaking skills will never improve. Because they are really too simple; they can hardly be considered true communication. The goal of practicing spoken language should be to be able to express one’s thoughts accurately and to discuss relatively in-depth topics such as academic exchanges, current affairs, culture, movies, music, and so on. Here I’d like to share a cost-effective online learning platform*【I’m providing you with the link; they offer free courses that you can try out: http://bbs.hcbbs.com.dd.ma/PrJZJROu. In-depth discussions like these are not possible when the information you have is insufficient. If you have a limited vocabulary and don’t read enough, you might forever be restricted to using very crude expressions, and you won’t be able to convey your emotions accurately. If you can’t even recognize or understand basic words like “result”, “depress”, or “fragment”, it means there’s little you can actually express. Every time you try to say something, you’ll find that you simply can’t put it into words. [Step 1: Lay the foundation] Remember, speaking is about output! When planning to improve your spoken language skills, ask yourself whether you’ve already built up sufficient vocabulary, reading, and listening skills. Lack of vocabulary means that the things you can express will be **limited** ； Not reading means you read too little, and naturally you don’t know how to express yourself ； Without hearing ability, you can’t understand what others say – how can you improve your spoken language skills? Vocabulary and reading: I’m already looking for ways to improve my English reading skills quickly As mentioned before, I won’t say much about it here. Interested students can go back and take a look. Let’s talk about listening here. I don’t know when it started, but there’s a popular method for improving listening skills going around – by listening to English broadcasts for N hours every day without realizing it, one can become an expert at listening. This method is completely nonsense. The key to improving listening skills lies in \"interaction\" – you need to respond to what you hear, to confirm whether you have heard it, heard it correctly, or missed something ； Unconscious learning is a waste of time, especially for \"adults who don’t have much time.\" Extensive listening is necessary, but at the very least one must constantly keep in mind what the speaker is saying! My extensive listening material is a philosophy podcast called Philosophize This! It’s a really fun podcast; much more entertaining than listening to the news. Make more use of English resources. With so many online resources available these days, why not create an all-English environment for yourself? I looked online for foreign teachers to practice with; they offer one-on-one lessons. These teachers have standard pronunciation, and the courses are open and transparent in terms of content. Class schedules can be arranged freely. Most importantly, the prices are very reasonable—there are even free foreign teacher sessions available. Everyone should give it a try. Once again, watch movies in English. I’m sure everyone likes watching blockbusters, and most of them are in English. So why not take this good opportunity to learn some English? You can download the Chinese and English subtitles for the movie you want to watch online; with \"Baofeng Yinying\", you can load both Chinese and English subtitles, or just one English subtitle. In this way, when watching movies, one will inevitably come across many words and hear the authentic English pronunciation. But the most crucial thing is still input! The method for listening should be like this. Select text. The text is written in such a way that you should be able to understand over 80% of it. If you can’t understand anything at all, then you need to hurry up and improve your vocabulary, sentence structure, and reading skills. It is not recommended to listen to articles where you don’t know every word, because… such practice is ineffective; you’re too busy looking up words. When listening for the first time, try to grasp the main idea of the whole text. After listening, quickly go through the structure of the article in your mind. Listen carefully; those who are willing to do the dictation can proceed with it, while those who are not should identify the parts they don’t understand and repeat them after hearing them. Be sure to take good notes, and listen repeatedly to the parts you can’t hear. Listen again. Until it is understood. Someone asked whether watching American shows with Chinese subtitles can improve listening skills What I want to say is... why do you deceive yourself like this? Honestly, I think that for those who are just starting to practice listening, they should start with proper texts. Take “Science 60 Seconds” as an example. Its articles are well-structured, the speaking pace is relatively fast, and the texts are brief—making it excellent learning material. Systematic learning is definitely more effective than random reading. Actually, I also used American TV shows to practice my listening skills. I divided the programs into 10-minute segments, listened to them three times without subtitles first, and marked the parts that I didn’t understand ； Then turn on the English subtitles to see where you didn’t understand, take notes, and repeat the pronunciation several times ； Turn off the subtitles and listen again several times until you understand it. The whole process is extremely boring; unless you’re a true fan of this TV series, it’s really hard to keep going with it. I can recite many lines from Hannibal by heart... It’s not that I love learning foreign languages; it’s just that I fucking adore Hannibal!!! If you can’t resist temptation or tolerate boredom, never do this; otherwise, you’ll become a slave to television shows! ! ! ! PS. Under no circumstances should Chinese subtitles be used! I’m serious! To improve listening skills, the most important thing is to listen every day, listen extensively, and listen attentively. By listening to 100 episodes of “Science 60 Seconds” per month, over several months, your listening skills will naturally improve. Never fish for three days and then dry your nets for two ； Being overly lenient with oneself is also not acceptable. 【Step 2: Speaking – start with speaking correctly】 An accent isn’t a big issue; making mistakes in pronunciation is what matters. As for the Chinese word for \"to eat,\" people in the north might pronounce it with more rolled tongue, while those in the south may have a more straight tongue (which gives a softer sound); this is a matter of individual differences... But you shouldn’t pronounce \"to eat\" as \"zi fan.\" Incorrect pronunciation not only affects speaking but also listening and spelling. On regular days, pay more attention to phonetics and develop a keen sense of hearing. Many people make pronunciation errors year after year simply because they can’t tell the differences between sounds at all; this is the most problematic aspect. 【Step 3: Learn to speak sentences without grammar mistakes】 Some students rely entirely on memorization when learning spoken language. For example, if they plan to go to the airport, they memorize a bunch of phrases like “Where can I get my baggage?” ”“Phrases like “Do you have anything to declare?” exist, but when you ask him to form a sentence on his own, either there are grammar mistakes or others simply can’t understand it. Is grammar important? I think it’s important. The grammar is truly beautiful and interesting. If you say “She dog” to a foreigner, they will understand that what you really mean is “Her dog”, but that’s quite strange... When we learn a language, we can’t just think about whether the other person can understand us; instead, we need to be strict with ourselves in order to make progress. When you first start practicing spoken *language, don’t focus solely on learning cool slang or casually omitting elements from sentences; it’s like trying to run before you’ve even learned how to walk. First, you need to have a basic understanding of sentence structure – the subject, verb, and object must not be forgotten – and you also need to master various ways of expressing things, such as comparatives and different tenses (it’s essential to master tenses well!) ), as, clauses, and so on, all need to be used proficiently. Without carefully analyzing sentences, one will always end up saying things like “I have a dog. It is cute. It is big”; there’s always just one sentence structure. Sentences are truly important in English learning; one must be able to read and understand long, complex sentences, as well as to speak and write beautiful and well-structured sentences. Doing more sentence-making exercises is definitely helpful. If you feel that speaking is too slow for you right now, it’s better to start with writing first ； As you write, think about the most appropriate way to express yourself, and gradually you will find that you can craft complete, precise, and fitting sentences. 【Step 4: Practice* some difficult topics】 I’d like to share my experience: when I was learning* TOEFL listening, at first I found the conversations completely confusing... Later, I decided to start with the more difficult lectures and Science 60 seconds. After practicing for a while, I found that the conversations became easier to understand. All in all, it’s something that has to be taken care of anyway! Why not start with the difficult part! You must strive to tackle things that are more difficult than your current level, rather than those at the same level as you. When practicing spoken *language, even if you have a teacher, don’t always talk about the simplest topics. What’s the weather like? What are you eating? What’s your cat’s name? My dog’s name is Tobby... and so on! Let’s talk about some serious topics. If you read a book today, you can try to retell its contents ； After watching \"Interstellar,\" you can briefly describe the plot in English ； Then look up more information and adjust the way of expression based on what you already know ； Usually, after reading foreign magazines and reports, one can also share their own opinions... When practicing, it’s important to pay attention to logic and keep one’s mind clear; never fall into a state of unconsciousness~! Try to use as many new sentence patterns and new words as possible~! Over time, one will get better and better at speaking! When you are able to discuss more complex topics, do you still necessarily worry about simple everyday expressions? To reiterate, slang and local expressions are similar to phrases like “drunk” or “stunned”; you’ll pick them up after spending some time in the local environment ； I think it is most important to first learn proper and correct expression. Secondly, I recommend that people follow the TOEFL speaking test as a guide for learning; its design is actually quite scientific, as the speaking section involves listening, reading, and speaking ； Practicing according to the topics above can save you the trouble of having to choose spoken language materials. 【Step 5: Should you hire a teacher? 】 I think the matter of having a teacher is a matter of personal opinion... It mainly depends on the budget and on whether there are friends who can help. I used to have a teacher, but once I reached a stage where I could learn on my own, I started doing it by myself. It isn’t the most important thing whether the speaking teacher is a foreigner or not, or where they are from... The best teachers are those who are patient, use scientific teaching methods, and are suitable for you. Find a teacher who will help you create a study plan, one who teaches genuinely rather than just chatting during classes. If you have a sensitive heart, you should find a gentler teacher ； If you are prone to procrastination, it’s better to find someone more strict… After signing up, don’t buy a large number of expensive courses at once; instead, try out a few classes or purchase 1-3 classes first to see if the instructor is right for you Spend money rationally~! I must say: a good teacher is not someone who chats with you, but rather someone who corrects you and guides you ； Following this guideline to find a teacher is definitely the right approach. 【Step 6: Learning Resource Recommendations】 I won’t recommend too many learning resources. Otherwise, everyone rushes in, and then doesn’t look. First of all, for grammar books, I would recommend \"Grammar Club\", but it doesn’t seem to be published in China; perhaps it can be found on Taobao, or people can look for download links. This grammar book is truly excellent; the author believes that all grammatical phenomena are logical and explainable, and there is no need to memorize them by rote. Recommended! For listening materials, I recommend the audio and text of “60 Seconds of Science”. . By listening carefully to 2-3 passages per day, your skills will improve rapidly! (Actually, it’s not that quick either; it takes at least 2-3 months…) Scientific topics are really interesting~! For spoken language books, I recommend \"Ten Golden Sentences\"; it’s the book I used during my preparation. There are many example sentences inside, as well as model essays, which can be used for practice accordingly*. . There are some quite formal elements in this book... It can also be used as a book for writing short essays... (Killing two birds with one stone.) . . . ） 【Summary】 Are there any quick tips for learning spoken language? I don’t think there’s any secret formula… If there were one, I would have gotten rich by now… Would I still need to post here?! By the way, why do I think the method of \"memorizing\" spoken language is not very good? Because I think memorizing example sentences is endless; it’s impossible to memorize all the sentence patterns ； Secondly, you can’t keep replacing sentence patterns; instead, you need to learn to craft sentences on your own! Of course, it’s fine to remember some phrases and classic expressions, but the ultimate goal is to be able to craft one’s own sentences and learn how to use them. I think learning spoken * involves laying a solid foundation, setting high standards for oneself, practicing a lot, and constantly reflecting on one’s progress; gradually, things will get better. In the end, I hope that through your persistent efforts, you can achieve your goals. Wishing you success soon! ! I’ll be waiting here for good news from you. You can consider this place as a small starting point for you; once you achieve success, come back and share your experiences.