10 Ways to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

Talk to Yourself to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

If you don’t have anyone to practice English with, practice with yourself! Tell yourself what you are going to do today, or where you are going, or talk about whatever is on your mind. Ask yourself the questions you might use with a conversation partner, and practice answering them. Hearing your own voice while speaking English will help build your confidence and let you speak more fluently. The more you do it, the more you will succeed at speaking English. And also, you can take a live lesson by the experienced tutors from our site, EnglishCentral, and contact them whenever you want. Our tutors will guide you on your journey of learning English.

Increase Your Vocabulary

While you are talking to yourself, you might want to say a word that you can’t translate. This is a great time to go look it up, because you will be able to remember it much better while you are actually using it in a sentence. Or take notes of the words that appear on screen while watching a movie or a TV series. This will improve your English speaking capability as well as your research skills while studying English. Learn words that are useful to you and use them in your sentences. You can also practice and improve your vocabulary with the interactive videos in our site EnglishCentral and test yourself with our word quizzes right after.

Improve Your Pronunciation

Now that you know the meanings of words you want to use, remember that to be understood, you need to have good pronunciation. Vowels are the most important thing to get right. Now that we know the meanings of words we want to use, remember that to be understood, we need to have good pronunciation. Vowels are the most important thing to get right. Practice saying the vowels correctly. It will improve your confidence when you are speaking. If you don’t know how a certain word is pronounced, visit English dictionaries or online sources to get them right. You can also improve your pronunciation with interactive videos and live lessons on our site EnglishCentral.

Do Some Listening

When you listen to native speakers, you will hear many words and phrases repeated. The more you listen, the more these phrases will begin to sound natural to you, and you can begin to use them yourself. You’ll know how to pronounce them and when to use them.
Movies, series and YouTube videos are great for listening practice. Don’t turn on the subtitles until you’ve listened and understood as much as you can. When you turn on the subtitles, don’t just read them, speak them out loud! You can watch over 20000 videos on EnglishCentral and find a suitable working plan for your interests. You can also listen to EnglishCentral’s podcasts on Spotify.

Shadow the Native Speakers

Shadowing is speaking at the same time as the native speaker. Repeat everything you hear, again and again, until you can speak right along with the native speaker. It will help if you write it down or read the subtitles. If you need to, you can slow the speed of many audio files. Practice until you can shadow at full speed. Copy the native speaker’s pronunciation, intonation, stress patterns, and rhythm. This will help. You can also practice on our site EnglishCentral and take immediate feedback.

Record Yourself

While you are shadowing, record yourself speaking. When you listen, you will be able to hear exactly how your pronunciation differs from the native speaker’s. Practice, make improvements.

Learn to Use Filler Words

When you listen to a native English speaker, you will hear a lot of empty filler words, such as “umm”, “you know”, “like”. For example:

I’m, like, not happy at all with my job. You know?

I don’t like my job. Do you understand what I mean?

We use these words when we are thinking about what to say.

Chat With AI

Have a chat with Siri, Alexa or other AI friends! It’s a great way to practice speaking because they are extremely patient and you can ask various questions again and again. You can also chat with EnglishCentral’s AI-powered chatbot MiMi to review the videos that you watched on our site and to take feedback about your pronunciation and grammar capability.

Learn the Rhythms of English

Spoken English has a rhythm and patterns of stressed and unstressed words. Listen carefully to native speakers, and you will hear these patterns. Try to imitate them. Spoken English also uses contractions, such as “I’m” for “I am”. And just like in your own language, words in a sentence can be linked together by their sounds.

Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes

Speak with confidence. Most English speakers will be happy to hear you use English, and they will be patient and helpful. Just like everything else, the more you practice speaking, the better you will be. Now, put the grammar book away and start speaking.

Frequently Asked Questions About 10 Ways to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

How to speak English confidently?
Most English speakers will be happy to hear you use English, and they will be patient and helpful. Just like everything else, the more you practice speaking, the better you will be. Knowing this will help you speak confidently.

What should I listen to in order to improve my English speaking skills?
Movies, series and YouTube videos are great for listening practice.

How do I improve my pronunciation?
Vowels are the most important thing to get right. Practice saying the vowels correctly. It will improve your confidence when you are speaking.

How do I shadow a native speaker?

Shadowing is speaking at the same time as the native speaker. Repeat everything you hear, again and again, until you can speak right along with the native speaker.

10 Ways to Improve Your English Speaking Skills: Would you like to put into practice what you have learned about the Ways to Improve Your English Speaking Skills? If you wish, you can explore over 20,000 interactive video lessons on EnglishCentral, improve your vocabulary, and practice pronunciation. Alternatively, during live 1-on-1 English lessons, you can review what you have learned with your personal English tutor. How about signing up for EnglishCentral and starting to learn English right away?