To most people, speaking is the most difficult part when learning a foreign language. Although everyone knows that the best way to speak a language fluently is to practice speaking as much as possible, not many people can do this. Language centers often create courses focusing on speaking skills, but besides the help of these courses, you should make some effort to improve your skills on your own.
Learners often hesitate to speak because they are afraid of pronouncing the words wrongly. In fact it is very difficult to correct a mistake in pronunciation later if you don't pay attention to it from the start. The advice is that you should try to pronounce the words right from the very first lessons. Be patient when pronouncing new words. If you make a constant mistake in pronunciation, you should record the right pronunciation of that word and listen over and over again so that you will be familiar with it.
You can find short stories in the language you are learning, in books or on the internet and read them aloud at home. In this way you can roughly judge how good your pronunciation is and gain more confidence when speaking to others later. You can also try to think in the language you are learning. It may sound crazy but speaking to yourself in a foreign language is very effective for your learning.
Of course the best way to improve your speaking skills is to talk with a native speaker. That also means the best language class is the one which has a native speaker as the teacher. The foreign teacher usually uses only the language being learnt in the class and refuses to speak in any other. Therefore you can become more familiar with the language you are studying because you are forced to speak in it.
Talking to a native speaker in your country is good, however, talking to a native in his own country is far better. If you can afford to travel to the country where the language that you are learning is spoken and stay there for some time, it's the fastest way to improve your speaking skills. When you are surrounded by a new language everyday and no one talks to you in your mother tongue, you have to try your best to speak in that language to survive! Besides being able to learn how people really talk in their daily lives, you can also enlarge your vision with new views and enrich your knowledge about a different culture.
Let me confess that I am an American and l used to speak very badly. Now I speak very well, at least that is what everyone tells me. The fact is, my change from being a poor speaker to being a good speaker happened virtually overnight. Here's the story.
I was a student at UCLA in the 1960s. After graduating, I spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, East Africa. When I got there, of course everything was quite different from anything I had previously experienced. For one thing, I was posted to a tiny bush village next to what was supposed to be a major north-south road. Anything beyond 20 cars per day passing by was considered to be heavy traffic; in Los Angeles, less than 20 cars per minute was considered to be abnormally low traffic.
Perhaps the biggest surprise occurred when I turned on my shortwave radio. I quickly found the frequencies for both the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and the Voice of America. The difference was astounding.
Listening to the BBC, I heard cashiers, janitors, parking attendants, etc., speaking as if they had graduated from prestigious universities. By contrast, listening to Voice of American, I heard people at the top of the educational and social ladder speaking as if they had never even graduated from primary school.
This was no chance occurrence; it happened every time I turned on the radio. "How is it that high-level Americans seem to speak less well than low level Brits?" I kept asking myself. And found no answer.
After a few weeks I came to a startling conclusion. The apparent superiority of the Brits had nothing to do with either intelligence or education. It was in fact physical.
If you pay attention, you will notice that the British, particularly the English, tend to form their words on their lips, while Americans form them in the throat. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable among males, whose deep, gravely voice is considered to be masculine, virile and seductive.
I believe that forming words in the throat puts abnormal strain on the larynx, which is why Americans so often tend to stumble over their words. They frequently interrupt their speech by interjecting "ah" or other irritating hesitations. This is not because they don't know what to say next. It's because they are giving their vocal cords a momentary chance to recover.
To put the idea to the test, I consciously began forming my words on my lips rather than in the throat. My own irritating hesitations (I was notorious for this) vanished almost overnight. Suddenly I could put together a sentence that flowed fluently from one end to the other. In fact, I could put together whole series of sentences that flowed fluently from one end to the other with hardly hesitation in sight.
Having tested this discovery over several weeks, I decided to purposely redesign my articulation. It wasn't easy. I had to consciously think about how I was forming my words virtually every minute of the day. However, after a couple of weeks it began feeling more and more natural, until finally it was.
All this happened 40 years ago. During the intervening four decades, I have gained somewhat of a reputation as an entertaining and provocative public speaker, not only in English but also in French (I live in Belgium).
In short, redesigning my voice has worked extremely well for me. I don't know it if would work for anyone else, but I see no reason why not.
But a word of warning. If you do decide to make the change, you are likely to develop a pseudo "Oxbridge" English accent. This is quite normal; forming words on the lips naturally gives rise to this type of accent. However, out of context it can be rather embarrassing.
Since I was living with a lot of British expatriates in Tanzania, my new way of speaking didn't seem particularly odd. However, the minute I returned to Los Angeles, people began commenting on it, including my mother. "Where did you pick up that snooty accent? Get rid of it." So I did.
It is not all that difficult to find a middle ground between the two accents. You will still sound like an American, but without constantly tripping over you tongue. Why not give it a try. The results might amaze you.
Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the ?I? of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).
Both Michael Russell & Philip Yaffe are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Michael Russell has sinced written about articles on various topics from Celebrities, Dieting and Diabetes Treatment. Michael RussellYour Independent guide to . Michael Russell's top article generates over 2240000 views. to your Favourites.
Philip Yaffe has sinced written about articles on various topics from Writing, Public Relations and Writing. Philip Yaffe is a former writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing communication consultant. He now teaches courses in persuasive communication in Brussels, Belgium. Because his clients use English as a second or third language, his. Philip Yaffe's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.