You are a beginner, and you want to speak English fluently and confidently. But you don’t know what to do and how to achieve fluency in English. So this is the blog post for you to help you learn how to speak English fast as a beginner. Here is the 4 easy steps to master speaking English effortlessly:
Table of Contents
1. Early production vs late production:
Early production means you literally want to speak English instantly. For example, you started learning English today and want to speak from today. Exactly, School does with you; they force you to do that immediately, which causes a negative view of the English language. You feel so difficult and you quit.
Here is the truth: According to Dr. Stephen Krasen ‘To be able to speak English, you have to reach the “feel ready” moment’. Don’t be confused with Richard Branson’s advice: “Start doing it before you feel ready”. This advice is great and so true. Don’t think so much, just start learning English today; pick up a podcast or audio lesson, and start to listen to it over and over. But to speak English, you have to train your brain to do it. So, how can you train your brain to speak English? Here is the solution:
- Enough comprehensible input: A typical American baby learns English within 720 hours of input from their parents, siblings, and neighbors. Mostly from their parents’ slow and understandable English. The parents talk to their baby according to the baby’s level of understanding and maturity. And after a long silent period, the baby starts to speak basic English with errors/mistakes. Over time they become more sharp in speaking English through practice and daily life use. But you are an adult, you need much less time than a baby because of your maturity and real world understanding. Now, the question is when will I feel ready to speak English? The answer is you need around 300 to 350 hours of slow, understandable English input (through listening and reading) to reach the “feel ready” stage to speak English. Our brain takes time to form or acquire a language. So, be patient and trust the process.
- Shadowing + TPRs technique: After you completed your 350 hours of comprehensible input, you can start shadowing the podcast, or any listening material you are interested in. Now, what is shadowing? Shadowing is copying or imitating the speech of an English speaker continuously. For example, download a podcast, listen and shadow it. Additionally, you can apply Dr. James Asher’s TPRs technique or Total Physical Response to get the fast result in your speaking English. What is TPRs technique? TPRs technique is you use your body based on the meaning of English words and sentences. For example, you listen to the podcast and you shadow it + now you express the meaning through your body language. So, the simple formula is: Listen + Shadow + TPRs technique = Fast Speaking English.
2. Lower the pressure:
Don’t put unnecessary pressure on your learning English by expecting to speak English immediately. Just let everything be as it is. For example, you can not sleep until you let your body and mind do it. If you think and overthink constantly and move your body frequently, you will have trouble falling asleep. Similarly, if you force your brain to speak English without any prior comprehensible input, nothing will happen. So, first input enough English through listening, reading, and watching, then start practicing speaking English. In that way, you will learn to speak English effortlessly. (3) practical tips for lowering the pressure:
- Choose interesting topics: whatever the topic you choose to listen, read or watch, always choose something that is interesting to you. For example, I was interested in self-improvement and personal development, so I would listen to podcasts on these topics. I love fiction stories and I used them to learn English through listening and reading.
- Choose funny English: make the English learning enjoyable and fun to feel that you are playing with English language. If you don’t do that it might feel heavy and overwhelming, so make English learning light so that you can stay and last long on the process and not quit.
- Choose relatable English: one of the easiest ways to learn english is choosing relatable english. Relatable means something you feel familiar or you have familiar experience or interest. For example, I upload “Childhood Memory Series” on my YouTube Channel because childhood memories are so relatable to us because we all went through it. Additionally, they revive our childhood funny incidents and stories that will help us to learn English effortlessly. The specialities of the childhood memory stories are relatable, interesting, and funny, with easy short sentences, useful vocabularies, and conversational.
3. Fall in love with boredom:
Mastery requires repetition, and repetition is hard and boring. If you look at every great achiever and performer in the world, you will find one thing in common: ridiculous amounts of repetition of the same action. From athletes to writers, musicians to painters, employers to entrepreneurs, everyone who achieved mastery in their craft practiced the same action, method, or principle countlessly. Similarly, if you want to master speaking English, you have to repeat the same actions (listening to the same podcast, reading the same fiction book) over and over.
4. Don’t Chase Perfection to Speak English:
Don’t chase perfection to speak English confidently and accurately. If you already understand English or have invested 300 hours of English input, then pick a topic and talk about it for 5 minutes, don’t judge anything, just think about what you are saying, not how you are saying. Exactly, the baby does the same thing; they don’t care how they are saying, they care what they are saying. They don’t give a fuck what mistake they make; they care about expressing to their parents what they want. That’s it.
