This lesson will help you to break free from your current struggles with spoken English and equip you with practical skills to strengthen your confidence in speaking English fluently.

Why can't I speak English fluently?

This is mostly related to the fact that understanding a language requires the use of receptive skills: listening and reading. Most English learners focus on language input like watching films, YouTube videos and TV shows all in English. They listen to English-speaking podcasts. They read books in English to immerse themselves in the language as much as possible. This is fantastic. Lots of us do it and don't stop doing it. It's a great way to build vocabulary and gain a better overall understanding of how the language functions. But, and there's always a but, this doesn't do so much to increase your fluency when speaking because, in contrast, speaking requires the use of productive skills. You need to take a more active role in your studying, and by that, I mean practice.

You need to focus more on output: using the language rather than just taking it in. We need to have a good balance between the two, but unfortunately, language output can be much harder to practise than language input. It's not so free and easy to go to an English-speaking country and find a personal English tutor or find an English-speaking best friend.

This is why I meet so many students who are grammar geniuses. Students whose knowledge of grammar is higher than most native speakers. However, they just can't speak. They know all of the theory, but when it comes to the practical, they struggle. Today I have six practical tips for you.

1. Talk to yourself

One of the simplest things you can do to increase your output is to talk to yourself, and you can start right now. It could feel a little bit strange, but it's truly magical how well talking to yourself works to improve your fluency and fluidity; plus, you do it all day long anyway, so why not do it in English?

Most of us have a little voice in our head when we think. Some people don't have this, but most of us do. This little voice probably speaks in your native language. See if you can come up with an English alter ego for your inner voice. If you can't find that inner voice, you're going to have to speak out loud.

I am watching TV.

I am washing the dishes.

I am picking up the plate.

I am scrubbing it with a sponge.

I hope my husband brings home pizza for dinner.

Now I really recommend speaking out loud because you need to practice creating new sounds and feeling how words are formed in the mouth. But narrating in your head is a great way to start, and it's a good thing to do if lots of people are around you; this slight adjustment can help you significantly increase how much you use English during the day. It's especially useful if you don't have anyone to practice speaking with and you can't afford to hire someone.

I want to make a further addition to this point, and this is a way you can supercharge your vocabulary. As you are narrating in your head or out loud everything you do in your day, watch out for when there is a specific word or phrase that you just don't know in English.

Keep a vocab diary. Nowadays, there are apps for that. You can use your notes app. You could program your smartwatch to take in your voice. 

2. Talk to a tutor

This one is incredibly important. Why is talking to a tutor better than talking to yourself or talking to another English speaker? You can say to a tutor how you would like the conversation to go, and you can reenact situations in which you felt you failed in the past. Maybe someone at a networking event asked you what you did for a living, and you stumbled over your words, got flustered and just gave a really oversimplified version of what you do, a version that didn't do you justice.

When you hire a one-on-one tutor, you can run through those exact situations so you never have to struggle like that again.

The next two points are really important, too: corrections. You want someone who fully understands the English language, and who can accurately correct you when you make mistakes. That might be your grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, or, more importantly, whether you are speaking clearly and naturally. I don't recommend aiming for absolute perfection. Instead, you want everyone to understand what you're saying.

And number three, you're in a safe space with a tutor to request feedback and to make mistakes. You're not going to be ridiculed. You're not going to feel embarrassed. A personal tutor is someone who experiences mistakes with English learners all the time. It's literally their job. And because of all of that experience, they can give you targeted advice to make quick improvements.