Learning different speaking strategies

After the short introduction to speaking, I want to give you now some helpful strategies to enhance your speaking skills.

First of all, consider the following Do-Nots:

• Do not translate everything from your native language into English.
• Do not be nervous or stressed, this makes you speak very unnatural.
• Do not try to look for the exact word; if you forget one word, try to describe it.
• Do not only communicate in class; look for conversation partners outside the classroom.

To enhance your speaking skill, you need to do one thing: speaking! Therefore, try to interact with others. Look for opportunities to speak English. There are various ways:

(source: http://ciudaddepuebla.olx.com.mx/
curso-de-speaking-para-estudiantes-de
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• Join an English group at the university or school.
• Skype with native speakers.
• Try to travel to English speaking countries.
• Get a private tutor and have conversation classes.

Of course it is difficult to find conversation partners who speak English as their mother tongue or are very well in speaking the language.

In that case, you can work on the “theory” of speaking.

You can study standard phrases, which are needed in a conversation. That means that you will need to learn to greet another person and how to talk about certain topics. For example, you would not talk about money problems with a stranger whereas you do not need to call your friends “Sir” or “Madam” while talking.

Moreover, you can read and listen to dialogues, to learn about the intonation, content and also stress in a conversation.

Another opportunity is to practice your English speaking skills online. There are some homepages which will help you to practice your English. Here, you have a homepage where you can find people to speak English to from all over the world: http://www.englishbaby.com/ .

Just remember, you need to keep practicing in order to improve your speaking skills!