How to improve your English Speaking skills.

English is the world’s lingua franca, a common language that people with different native languages can use to communicate.

Thanks to English, people with completely different native languages—maybe Hindi, French and Japanese—can sit down and have a conversation together.

English now spans across countries and cultures, and the ability to speak it well will open many doors for your career and social life.

The more fluent you are in English, the more interesting, exciting and insightful conversations you can have.

1. Expand your vocabulary

Learn New Words Every Day 💭

Gleaning new words day in, day out is a good way to widen your vocabulary. Commit to a suitable target: it can be three daily words or it can be ten daily words.

Even if you only have time to learn one new word per day, it is still worth trying. By learning one word every day, after one year you will have learned 365 new English words.

Write the number down to remind yourself frequently. If you have a learning partner, share it with her so that she can check on your progress.

Some good resources for words are the news, songs and TV shows, depending on your daily habits. If you love listening to music, pay attention to the lyrics and take note of the words you do not know. Songs often contain a lot of useful vocabulary, phrases and expressions, therefore, they are great for learning English. 

2. Learn the natural flow of English 

Being able to say individual words correctly is great, but the secret of speaking fluently in English lies in the flow of sentences. Whenever you read a piece of poetry, listen to a melodic song or watch a hilarious sitcom, pay attention to the following:

• Linking. Notice how native speakers link words together: joining two sounds, making a sound to disappear or changing a sound for a better flow.

• Contractions. Contractions are shortened forms of two words. For example:
  • I + am = I’m
  • he + will = he’ll
  • they + have = they’ve
  • do + not = don’t

• Stress. There are stressed syllables in a word and stressed words in a sentence.

• Rhythm. The rhythm is the overall result of stress, contractions and linking. It is the ups and downs, the musical feature of English.

3. Build English speaking confidence

One of the biggest barriers to developing English speaking skills is confidence. It is certainly something that all language learners have difficulty with and one of the best ways to overcome this is to get out there and practice.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, then get out there and practice English with strangers!