Not many people can claim to have mastered the English language, whether spoken or written. Speaking English fluently is perhaps one of the most vital skills, especially for students or workers seeking to take advantage of the myriad of opportunities in an ever globalized academic and work landscape.
You may have realized that most academic journals and courses are offered in English. Moreover, most international and local job opportunities demand fluency in English. Therefore, speaking English fluently gives you an added advantage in your academics and in the work field.
Learning to speak English, however, is not an easy feat, especially when you do not have a partner to practice your spoken English fluency. Having a partner who speaks English fluently greatly improves your spoken English abilities because you get to a first-hand account of how words are pronounced, and even learn the English accent.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn the art of an English conversation all on your own and propel your academic and career prospects.
Here are a Few English Speaking Tips you Can Use to Improve your Fluency Without a Partner
#1. Read it Out Aloud!
Even the best tutor cannot improve your English fluency if you don’t practice. If you ask anyone, efforts on how to learn English revolves around the idea of practicing. That’s where reading out aloud comes in. The beauty of this method is, you don’t need a speaking partner to practice with.
Simply grab a book written in English and read out the sentences aloud. Reading English sentences aloud is a great simulator for English conversations. You get to learn the mechanics of English grammar, and if you pick a book about English fluency to read about, you get to learn about other elements of the language guaranteed to improve your spoken English.
#2. Record Your Voice
While reading out loud, it pays to record your voice. A recording of your voice serves the same purpose a partner would serve when you’re trying to learn a foreign language. With a recording of your English speech, you can note which words you are pronouncing properly, whether you have an accent you need to suppress, or which grammatical rules you’re having trouble with.
You don’t have to invest in a recorder. Most smartphones have preinstalled recorders installed. These built-in recorders can be a replacement for spoken English classes because they give you the opportunity to evaluate your speech and work on areas you feel need improving.
At first, hearing your recorded voice might be weird, but with time, you’ll get used to it allowing you to exploit the technology to your advantage.
#3. Watch English Movies and Videos
Another great way of improving English speech is through watching English movies and videos. This is an activity you can do all on your own. While watching the movies and video, you want to pay particular attention to the conversation between the characters in the video and note how they use words and interact with each other.
You can occasionally pause the video and practice a conversation snippet. Do this as many times as you want, or until you feel comfortable in your ability to engage in a similar conversation.
Watching movies and videos, while not a substitute for other ways of learning such as spoken English classes, goes a long way in improving your skills.
#4. Talk to Yourself
Talking to yourself might seem absurd, but it’s a tested and proven method of acquiring fluency in a foreign language. You want to constantly talk to yourself in English. If you find it weird, you can take your phone and pretend to be talking to someone on the other end.
Sustain the conversation for more than 5 minutes at a time. This helps you improve your English conversation skills quite remarkably. You find that you even start to formulate and develop your thoughts in English. A few weeks of talking to yourself in English are enough to greatly improve your English fluency.
#5. Speak in Front of a Mirror
While speaking to yourself, it pays to do it in front of a mirror. A mirror helps you identify the unwanted habits in your speech that you may not have noted before. Speaking in front of a mirror may reveal things such as an expressionless face, angry facial features, and even sulking or fright.
Once you’ve taken note of such unwanted features, you can proceed to eliminate them, and possibly improve on your efforts of how to speak English fluently. If most students attempted to speak in front of a mirror, they would have better spoken English fluency.
Some of the students who approach various services to get homework assistance constantly struggle in expressing themselves in English. We usually advise them to practice speaking in front of a mirror.
#6. Try Tongue Twisters
Tongue twisters are a great way of improving your English fluency. In fact, they are employed in English speaking online classes to help in the pronunciation of different words. Tongue twisters and other word games are guaranteed to help you master the pronunciation of English words.
#7. Concentrate on Fluency, Not Grammar
When you pay attention to grammar when you’re working on your English fluency, the chances are that you constantly halt on your speech. Constantly stopping mid-speech makes you less confident thereby impeding on your learning.
Focus on your fluency and not your grammatical abilities. Once you have mastered fluency, you can focus on the grammar.
