Hello everyone,
Do you want to become a better, more fluent English speaker rapidly?
Maybe you have an upcoming job interview, presentation, or exam where you need to speak English well.
Or perhaps you’re planning to travel or move to an English-speaking country.
Whatever your reasons, improving your spoken English fast is very possible if you follow the right strategies.
In this blog post, we’ll cover 10 highly effective tips that can help boost your English-speaking abilities in a short period of time.
With regular practice using these methods, you’ll be able to communicate more naturally and confidently in English before you know it. Let’s dive in!
Tip 1: Listen to English Every Day
Listening to native English speakers is one of the most powerful ways to quickly improve your own speaking skills.
Make it a habit to watch English TV shows, movies, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. for at least 30 minutes per day.
Hearing proper English pronunciation, intonation, expressions, and conversations will train your ear and help your brain get accustomed to how the language actually sounds when spoken by fluent speakers.
Over time, you’ll pick up nuances that you can then apply when you speak.
Tip 2: Study Phrases, Not Just Individual Words
When learning new vocabulary, focus on studying and memorizing common phrases and expressions in English, rather than just single words on their own.
The reason is that we speak in phrases and collocated word combinations, not just random individual words stringed together.
Start paying attention to the natural phrases that native speakers use for different situations, such as: “I was wondering if you could…” “How does that sound?” “No problem at all!”
Studying phrases will make your English sound much more smooth and natural when speaking.
Tip 3: Get an English Pronunciation App
There are excellent apps and websites that can help improve your English pronunciation very quickly through science-based training techniques.
Some popular ones are Elsa Speak, Speechace, Rakuten and others. These use speech recognition along with AI and machine learning to detect mispronunciations and give you precise feedback.
Many of these apps have a “standard” pronunciation mode for general English, as well as the option to learn the accent and pronunciation of a specific English-speaking region or country.
With just 10-15 minutes of daily practice, you can make huge strides.
Tip 4: Watch Content With Subtitles
Whenever you’re watching any kind of video in English, whether a movie, TV show, or YouTube, be sure to turn on the English subtitles or closed captions.
This will let you read along and connect the spoken words and pronunciation to the written words.
Seeing and hearing the language together is extremely beneficial for speech improvement. It creates connections in your brain to help you remember phrases and pronunciation rules better.
Over time, this will positively impact your speaking as words become easier to call upon and articulate.
Tip 5: Learn Tongue Twisters
Tongue twisters are fun, silly phrases that are difficult to say quickly due to the combination of similar sounds and words.
However, practicing tongue twisters can actually be quite valuable for improving your English pronunciation and fluency.
Challenging yourself to recite tongue twisters correctly and at increasing speeds will help train your mouth muscles while solidifying difficult sound patterns.
Start slowly and keep working your way up to saying them smoothly at a faster pace.
Tip 6: Read Out Loud
Whenever you’re reading anything written in English, such as books, articles, scripts, etc., make it a point to read out loud to yourself.
Reading silently in your head doesn’t give you the speaking and pronunciation practice that your mouth and vocal muscles need.
Reading aloud activates the physical movements and muscle memory required for proper English speech. Over time, the patterns will become more automatic and natural when speaking.
It’s a very simple habit that can have compounding benefits for your spoken English.
Tip 7: Record Yourself Speaking
Regularly record your own voice as you have conversations in English, read passages out loud, tell stories, etc.
Then, go back and listen to the recordings carefully, noting areas that need improvement in terms of pronunciation, grammar, fluency, etc.
This self-monitoring process is extremely valuable for recognizing your own speech patterns and mistakes in an objective way.
Listening to recordings helps your brain pick up on things that need work more easily than when you’re the one actually speaking in the moment.
Tip 8: Learn and Use Conversation Connectors
In everyday English speech, there are certain connecting words and phrases that help tie ideas together smoothly and improve overall comprehension and flow when communicating.
These include connectors such as:
“So that…”
“Because…”
“For example…”
“In other words…”
“Basically…”
“But at the same time…”
Make an effort to learn and start sprinkling common conversation connectors into your own English speech.
This will make you sound much more coherent and natural when stringing together sentences and ideas.
Tip 9: Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes
One of the biggest obstacles for improving spoken English quickly is the fear of making mistakes or sounding silly.
However, in order to truly progress, you need to get over this mental hurdle and give yourself permission to make mistakes freely.
The truth is, mistakes are going to happen constantly when learning a new language – that’s completely normal!
Embrace them as a necessary part of the improvement process.
Over time, you’ll naturally start making fewer and fewer errors as you gain more experience.
For now, stay focused on practicing and prioritize improving fluency over perfection.
Tip 10: Have Conversations with Native Speakers
While all of the previous tips are helpful, there’s no replacement for real-life practice by conversing as much as possible with native English speakers.
This could be classmates, co-workers, online language partners, tutors, etc. Just get out there and start speaking!
When actually engaging in back-and-forth dialogue, you’re simultaneously practicing listening to comprehension, retrieving vocabulary from your memory, formulating responses, pronunciation, and more.
With each conversation, your brain is making neural connections that will strengthen your overall English skills at an exponential rate.
The More You Use It, the Better It Gets!
Those are ten proven tactics to rapidly accelerate improvements in your English speaking in a relatively short time frame.
The underlying key to progress is using English as much as possible through a combination of input (listening/reading) and output (speaking/writing) practice.
Remember, learning any new language is a gradual process that requires consistent effort over time.
So, stick with it, implement these tips daily, and you’ll be stunned by how quickly your English speaking advances!
Before long, you’ll gain the confidence to engage in spontaneous conversations naturally and fluently.
