1. Use English in your daily life as much as possible.
Few people realise that speaking in English is not based on hours and hours of study but on frequent usage. Take for example, the case of doing well in exams. What’s better a regular hour of study everyday or learning up everything just before the exam? Similarly, speaking in English for a few minutes every day is better to improve English speaking skills than studying for an hour only once a week. At inlingua students are encouraged to only speak in English on the premise. The students can participate in group activities and get an opportunity to speak in English with students at other levels. As a result, the more you practice, the faster you improve your English speaking skills. Speaking in English for an hour every day enables people to practice with the language and improve English speaking conversation.
Here are a few suggestions for making English part of your daily life:
• Listen to English especially about topics you enjoy as you drive to work or while travelling on the bus or metro. When you hear a person speak in English, you are able to grasp common patterns in sentence formation and listen to how words, expression, exclamations are all used. You are also able to listen to the pace and use intonation to stress on important words.
• Practice thinking in English while you are doing housework or exercise.
2. Don’t think too much about grammar and don’t worry about mistakes.
Many people feel that knowing grammar means fluency in English speaking. If that was the case, wouldn’t we have learnt speaking English fluently in our schools? One of the biggest “mental blocks” for English learners is being nervous or afraid to make mistakes – or embarrassed if they don’t speak in English perfectly. But isn’t communication much more important than perfection?
Here’s an example:
• Imagine someone says, “Yesterday in office I eat apple.”
• This sentence is incorrect; it should be:
“Yesterday I ate an apple in the office.”
However, even with the errors, it still communicates the message successfully! Communicating is the key to improving English speaking skills.
At inlingua the main aim of the instructors is to get the students talk in English in a friendly, informal environment, the rest is taken care of by the methodology which gradually takes care of accuracy, thereby improving spoken English. Grammar is not important, speaking in English is!!
3. Learn to think in English
This is one of the biggest keys to English fluency – but how can you learn it?
There’s a step-by-step process you can follow:
1. First, beginning to think with individual English words
2. Then progressing to thinking in English sentences
3. Finally imagining entire conversations and stories in your head in English
You can practice thinking in English anytime, anywhere. No need for a textbook or classroom. The earlier you begin the habit of thinking in English, the easier it will be to speak fast. You will be amazed to see how at different levels of inlingua words become sentences, and sentences become paragraphs.
4. Get a regular speaking partner
I have many times heard people say – We have taken several language courses but none have helped. Will inlingua be any good? We sometimes feel that doing a course, for that matter any course is the definite way of speaking fluently in English. But honestly, just studying a language and being present in the class is not the way to improve spoken English, the important thing is to use the language which is done at inlingua through a series of interactive, communicative English speaking activities. You can make friends at inlingua to speak in English as often as possible.
5. Understand that there is no “magic bullet.”
There is no secret and super-effective way to guarantee speaking English fluently very fast.
Yes, there are different methods, and some are more effective than others. Some students can pick up English easily from informal conversations; other students prefer a more organized and structured method. What hasn’t been perfected through years of learning may take some time, but speaking fluently in English is a long term process and needs patience, practice and real time feedback – all three of which are available in abundance at inlingua.
Sherin D'Souza, 24 July, 2017 (10:21 AM)
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