Have you ever felt dazed and confused when speaking a foreign language? Perhaps, you used several applications and had been learning a foreign language for years. 

If you’ve felt this way, don’t worry. You’re not the only one. But unfortunately, it is a common situation with language learners.

Let’s start right off by clarifying two things. The first one, there isn’t a magic wand for better and faster speaking. The second one is that there are two different speaking areas, Spoken Production and Spoken Interaction. So again, there’s no right or wrong. Still, it’s easy to get frustrated when we’re intensively practicing spoken production with the expectation of improving spoken interaction. 

Spoken production focuses on a monologic speech, which emphasizes a person conceptualizing an idea, constructing it with the elements of the target language, and producing new sounds. Examples of this speaking area are pronunciation practice, oral repetition, oral presentation, or narrationю

Spoken interaction focuses on dialogic speech, and the emphasis lies on fostering the learner’s ability to communicate and express experiences, emotions, and opinions based on another person’s responses. It includes the area of spoken production indeed but adds the element of reaction. This area contains dialogues, role-plays, debates, interviews, speed dating, video or phone calls, discussions, and meetups.

We want you to make progress! We want you to speak courageously in English, Spanish, German, or whatever target language you are learning!

Practicing speaking in a new language is like playing an instrument. It’s not until you start using the device that you produce sounds. Chat or forum groups and watching movies are good tools. Yet, suppose you’re not moving your muscles in your tongue, lips, jaw, cheeks, and throat. In that case, you might practice a different language skill such as writing, listening, or reading. 

If you’re using your facial musculature but not conversing with another person, you are just practicing spoken production. To put it – you have to talk and interact orally with others to improve your speaking fully.

Many language learners look for opportunities to practice speaking but struggle with them. So have a look at these ideas on how to practice each. 

Practice spoken production

#1 Read and share aloud: 

Find digital or printed books, magazines, or articles about a topic you’re interested in. Then, read aloud and make pauses to share your comments or thoughts. 

#2 Start your daily journal:

Spend some time each day writing down plus narrating aloud how your day went and your plans for the next day. You can also use it to express your ideas, dreams, and gratitude. 

#3 Imitate others:

Listen to a song, podcast, or video that you enjoy and repeat what they say. You can pause then repeat or try to imitate how they speak immediately. Try to emulate their tone and intonation as well. 

#4 Sing:

It doesn’t matter whether you have a great voice or not. The important thing is that singing is a perfect way to build vocabulary and learn how to pronounce words. You can start with karaoke or social media videos with or without lyrics. 

Practice spoken interaction

#1 Travel:

Visit a country where they speak your target language. You can learn the language by interacting with native speakers and other language learners. As you spend most of the time in the target language, you live the culture and experience local lifestyles. 

#2 Find a language partner:

Talk to a native speaker or another language learner online or offline. Agree on a time and choose a discussion topic. You can even make plans, set learning goals together, and help each other in the languages you are learning. 

Studying with a friend can strengthen your knowledge when you go forward with your studies. You may learn different methods of analyzing information. Studying with a friend, colleague, or your class/group mates is a good idea.

In a research study about Study Buddy Support (Thalluri et al., 2014), they found out that 72% of students who had study-buddies passed an exam. Whereas only 49% of students who did not have study buddies passed the exam. 

#3 Find a language gathering:

You can join in-person or virtual groups were talking in a target language is the primary objective. Some have a topic to discuss, others agree on one on the fly, and some distribute participants in smaller rooms to have more opportunities to speak.   

#4 Join a Verbal Bridges Meetup:

Learn day or night and get immersed anytime. Schedule one or several meetups that fit your busy schedule and practice meaningful conversations as much as you want. Each meetup and learning path you choose is designed to contain all you need to interact with a specific topic as we want you to have actual practice. Principal rooms are broken into smaller groups of 2-3 participants, so there is plenty of time for members to interact. Additionally, you’ll see your progress as your total speaking time is displayed at the end of each session. So, with each meetup you join and speak, you’ll be moving closer to speaking the language. You might want to join a meetup every day, and maybe you’d prefer one every other day, or perhaps even join just once a week if you’re short on time. Whatever timescale you choose to work on, the important thing is that you speak. 

Whether it’s 20 minutes a day or 2 hours every weekend, create a space to practice your speaking skills, and then keep showing up and taking the steps. Move from the grammar game apps and textbooks to speaking a language. Before you know it, you’ll be speaking courageously!

SPEAK BUILD CONTRIBUTE

Used sources:

Thalluri, J., O’Flaherty, J. A., & Shepherd, P. L. (2014). Classmate peer-coaching: “A Study Buddy Support scheme”. The Journal of Peer Learning, 7.