hi everybody welcome back to top words
my name is alicia
and in this lesson we're going to look
at 15 ways to improve
your speaking skills let's get started a
really quick reminder before we start
there is free stuff for you to download
from the link below the video check the
youtube description to get these
there are free pdf cheat sheets that you
can find to work on your vocabulary and
your conversation skills
i thought that these would be really
good for this lesson this one is the
making a phone call cheat sheet
this one is 24 hour survival phrases
that includes lots of conversational
expressions you can use
so you can find these and more from the
link below the video check it out
okay let's get to the video okay the
first tip is
learn words through phrases so learn
words through phrases what does this
mean
this means instead of studying one
vocabulary word at a time
and having that be your only way to
study vocabulary
it means study entire phrases study a
group of words at a time
so for example don't study like
morning only study good morning or
how was your morning those kinds of
expressions so you're not just studying
one word at a time and thinking about
how you need to link
that word to other words instead set
yourself up to know
how to put those words together by
studying a few phrases
at a time okay the next tip is to watch
your favorite video with subtitles
so when you do this choose a video or
maybe a movie that you like
and turn on the english subtitles for
that movie
so while it might be difficult to catch
everything that's happening in each
scene
you can at least check the subtitles you
can check the information
as it's being said so if you can't catch
everything by listening
you can at least read the words on the
screen and understand these as kind of
units or as sentences that you can study
so again you're not looking just at one
word
or maybe even two words together but
you're studying things
as a phrase or as a question or as a
sentence
okay let's go to the next tip the next
tip is to
think in the language you want to learn
this is a really really tough one
especially when you're starting out and
it will take time so don't worry
if you can't do this right away but this
means as you go about your day as you
wake up and eat food go to school go to
work whatever
try to think spend some time thinking in
english
think in the language you're studying so
this can be really really boring stuff
like thinking about what you're doing
how could i express that in english so
think about those sorts of
everyday actions and activities and try
to express them
in english you can do this out loud to
work on improving your speaking skills
okay let's go to the next tip okay the
next tip is to use
available learning applications use
available learning applications
so that means if you have a favorite
application
and app that you like to use to study
make sure you
use that so maybe you've downloaded our
application for example
thank you you can use that to work on
your speaking
you can do that by reading dialogues by
trying to
shadow conversations that you hear you
can also
just use your phone's recording function
and record yourself
and then listen to it later that might
sound like a really simple tip but it
can help you a lot
so we sound very different when we're
talking and we often don't hear that
unless we kind of step outside our body
a bit and listen to ourselves from
outside
and recording your voice is a really
really good way to do that
so make sure you check out the apps and
the functions that you have on your
phone or your computer to do that
the next tip is to expand your
vocabulary by
reading expand your vocabulary by
reading so a common complaint from
learners
is they say i don't feel like i have the
vocabulary i need to express
myself i know lots of basic words but i
don't feel like i can say the things i
want to say
when the time comes in a conversation so
one way to do this is to work on
building your vocabulary
reading is a really great way to do that
so choose
things to read that you have a
connection to
they're related to your hobbies to your
work to your studies whatever
choose things that are relevant so like
they're connected to your life
and read those things and find the key
vocabulary words that people use
within your daily life activities and
try to remember those try to make those
the vocabulary words that you study and
practice so that you're able to use them
when you speak in conversations
the next tip is to talk to yourself talk
to yourself
like talking to yourself sounds a little
bit crazy sure
but this is a great way to practice
speaking when there's nobody around
you can just practice making the sounds
that you're working on you can practice
saying sentences and questions you can
practice talking about your day
so for those of you that maybe don't
have
somebody to practice with this can be an
excellent tip
and again as you talk to yourself you
can also record yourself and listen back
and i know a lot of people say i hate
the sound of my own voice i hate the
sound of my own voice
it's only you you're the only person who
is going to listen to that recording
and it's to help you study and it helps
a lot actually this is something that i
do
when i need to improve my own speaking
skills so i highly recommend
this tip if you want to work on speaking
and improving your speaking so talk to
yourself
sounds weird but it helps okay next tip
is to
listen to recordings and repeat listen
to recordings and repeat
another word for this is shadowing
shadowing
so that means basically you listen to a
lesson for example like if you want to
listen to this video or you want to
listen to one of our lessons
you can listen to it and then quickly
try to say
the same thing that the speaker is
saying right after them
so if you're using this video for
example it just means you try to repeat
the same things
i say now in just a moment so
shadowing like this the point of
shadowing like this
is to try to match the intonation and
the rhythms of the speaker in addition
to the pronunciation
so this can be helpful if you're having
trouble like linking words together
on your own if you're having trouble
building your own sentences
by shadowing after a native speaker you
can kind of get
a better feel sometimes for the rhythm
of how a language is supposed to sound
and how you can produce that language
yourself the next step is to prepare for
daily routine situations prepare for
daily routine situations
so that means like think about your day
and think about the things you need to
say
in your day and how you would express
those things in
english so for example when you greet
your co-workers or you greet
your fellow like classmates or whatever
how do you greet them how would you
greet them in english prepare something
for that
or when you want to ask about dinner how
would you ask for dinner in english
so think about these things you know
you're going to do
in your day and just prepare them ahead
of time it will save you time
and it will also make the other person
feel more comfortable right because
they'll be ready for a natural question
the next tip is to try to practice your
speaking with a native
speaker try to practice your speaking
with a native speaker
this is challenging for many people i
know because they don't have a native
speaker in their community
or they don't have a native speaker to
connect with online
it might take some time to find that
person but
this is of course a hugely important
thing to do
so a native speaker does not mean a
teacher so just because a person is a
native speaker does not mean that they
are a teacher
in fact most native speakers probably
don't know
all of the rules of grammar and they're
not prepared to answer all of your
questions which is fine
but a native speaker does know what
feels
and sounds natural so they can help you
to make more natural choices with your
speaking
they can also help you to address any
questions that you might have about
pronunciation or maybe like vocabulary
choices
within a specific region so it's
important to remember
that not every native speaker is a
perfect speaker but
they can help you a lot in helping you
sound more natural
the next tip is know your audience know
your audience so what does this mean
to know your audience means to think
about the person
to whom you are speaking so that means
don't just think about you think about
the other person like
when you're talking to someone else what
are they looking for in the conversation
are they talking to you to get
information are you study partners are
you co-workers
are you classmates what are their needs
so how do you meet their needs
how do you match their manner of
speaking so
please try to remember to think about
the other person in the conversation
as well the next tip is to ask for
feedback and reflect on it ask for
feedback and reflect on it so try to
think of someone in your community that
you can ask for
feedback about your speaking skills if
you don't have a teacher
you can check out the online options
that we offer of course or maybe you
have
an online exchange buddy that you can
practice with but make sure to ask for
feedback
and when they give you feedback don't
take it as criticism
so if someone says for example oh your
pronunciation of this
sound needs some work don't feel
offended like
that feedback is intended to help you
improve so when you receive feedback
like that
think about how you can focus your
energy on improving those points so that
means please reflect
on that feedback and think about what
you can do to
integrate it so to integrate it means
how do you put that feedback
into your mind and put your energies
towards
improving that point all right the next
tip is to avoid
reading directly and try to use an
outline
avoid reading directly and try to use an
outline so
this tip is specifically if you need to
give a presentation
or if you need to like share some
information like a report
in a classroom so instead of just
printing a piece of paper and reading
directly from the piece of paper
like this in a classroom setting or if
you're giving a speech or a presentation
try to print just an outline of your
main points
and then practice talking about those
things before
your speaking presentation before
whatever presentation you need to do
this will help you sound a lot more
natural it's really
unnatural and it's not very much fun or
and it's not very interesting
to watch someone just read a report in
front of a classroom or to read a report
in a business presentation so instead of
doing that try to refer to an
outline throughout your presentation so
your outline
might be something like introduction uh
main points i want to talk about
and then you move on to the detailed
points you want to talk about and just
write a few words so that you can
remember the things that you want to
make sure you share with your audience
so again this goes back to that point
about knowing your audience in our
earlier tip
think about their perspective too the
next tip is
shadow language cds and then repeat what
you heard
shadow language cds and repeat what you
heard so
very very similar to the earlier tip
about repeating quickly after a native
speaker like when you're watching this
kind of video
if you're not comfortable using a movie
or using a video like this one
you can try using language learning
audio so maybe you have cds or maybe
you have podcasts or other lesson
content
that is at a slower pace and that is
easier for you to understand
you can practice shadowing with these
things too
you don't have to practice with a native
speaker that's
talking at fast pace you can also use
these slower
practice cds and practice audio files to
do your shadowing exercises so don't
feel like you have to speak
super super quickly to practice your
speaking efficiently
practicing slowly is also okay keep
practicing regularly otherwise your hard
work will be wasted
keep practicing regularly otherwise your
hard work will be wasted so this one i
think is pretty clear
but it's important for all aspects all
parts of learning a language
keep practicing regularly so that means
practice your speaking a little
bit every day if you just try to speak
for like an
hour one week it's way too much so try
to practice speaking like one minute
today and then a minute and 10 seconds
tomorrow so keep building
keep working on things every single day
and you'll see much better results in
the long term
all right let's go to our last tip the
last tip is don't give up and stay
positive
don't give up and stay positive so that
means
please be kind to yourself so if you
make a mistake in a conversation it's
not the end of the world if you forget a
word or if you say something funny
that's fine it's all part of the
learning process
please don't worry about those sorts of
things you'll get over them and you'll
learn how to
improve so make sure that you always
continue moving forward and you keep
a positive attitude all right so those
are 15
tips that you can use to improve your
speaking skills of course if you know
some other
tips you can please share them with us
in the comments that will be very
interesting
if you have any questions or other
comments or maybe if you want to
practice making some example sentences
please feel free to do so in the
comments section of this video
also don't forget to click the link in
the description and get some free
pdf cheat sheets that you can use to
practice improving
your conversation skills thanks very
much for watching this lesson don't
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thanks very much for watching this video
and i will see you again soon
bye great work here's a reward
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