If English isn’t your first language, it can be hard to improve speaking skills.
Of course, the most obvious piece of advice is to practice as often as possible. But there are some things you can be doing that you might not even know about!
Here are five tips to improve speaking skills if English isn’t your first language.
Read!
This is certainly the first step to mastering another language.
It’s no secret that reading is a way to improve speaking skills, even in your native language! But for foreign languages, it’s absolutely essential.
If you’re just starting out, children’s books are great because of the vocabulary used.
Once you’re comfortable reading, try reading some of these books out loud!
Listen To Music
Listening to music in English is a great way to get a feel for how language is used.
Music often relies on poetic imagery, the sort of thing that you wouldn’t necessarily get out of a classroom. Understanding English metaphor can really help you to understand how native speakers talk!
Plus, it’s more than a little fun to try singing along — although if you aren’t the best singer, you might want to try that in private.
Watch Movies and TV Shows
Watching movies and television shows in English is incredibly important. And the less you rely on subtitles, the more you learn.
Again, watching these types of shows teaches you things that you can’t learn in classrooms. Television includes things like slang words and gives you a feel for how people “really” talk.
If you use subtitles, a lot of the phrasing will slip past you, so do your best to watch and understand without them.
You may have to look more things up, but that’s good! That means that you’re learning.
Hear Yourself
This is one of the most important things you can do to improve your English.
The thing is, your voice just doesn’t sound the same to you as it does to other people. So no matter how much you practice out loud, you aren’t catching your own mistakes.
Instead, you should try to record your own voice, so that you can really hear what you sound like when you talk.
Make Friends
We said it at the beginning: practice makes perfect. And it’s easier to practice when you have motivation.
Whether you’re in a class with other people, or you seek out native English speakers online, you should have friends who can speak English with you.
If you do this, you’ll find that your English will really improve over time as you get more comfortable trading it back and forth with your friends.
Need Help to Improve Speaking Skills?
Learning English isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try!
If you want to learn more about how to improve your speaking skills, check out our blog. We offer all sorts of advice for becoming more proficient.
We want to help you be the best you can be!