Practice Speaking English: Tips for ESL/EFL Learners | ESL Speaking

If you’re looking to get some practice speaking English, you’ve come to the right place! You’re going to get five solid tips for how to improve your English speaking, as well as a link to even more speaking English awesome. Are you ready to improve your English skills?

Maybe your motivation is being able to travel the world confidently. Or perhaps you want to improve your score on the TOEIC speaking test. Maybe you want to date some foreigners in the country that you live in. Perhaps you want to immigrate to an English speaking country for work. Maybe you want to study abroad. There are certainly a lot of reasons for wanting to practice speaking English.

Whatever the case, these tips will help you improve your English speaking. Keep on reading for the tips below. Or, if you’re looking for more detailed information about the IELTS speaking test, then you’ll need to check out:

Top 5 Tips for the IELTS Speaking Exam

Tip #1: Learn How to Open a Conversation

Many ESL/EFL students are a little bit awkward when having a conversation in English. This is often because they don’t know the “unwritten” conversational rules for each culture. Things like what topics are acceptable and which are not. Or, signs that someone is interested in talking to you, or signs that someone is not.

There are also rules for how to open a conversation. Check out this article for a few different scenarios, such as at a business meeting, when asking for information, or if you have something in common. Finally, there’s a tip for how to open a conversation in English if all else fails. It’s guaranteed to work.

Check out the article here:

Speaking English Tip #1: Learn How to Open a Conversation

Tip #2: Learn How to Close a Conversation

Learning how to close an English conversation is just as important as knowing how to open one. I’m sure you’ve had plenty of awkward conversations at work, school, or a party when your conversation partner didn’t take the hint that you were finished talking to him. Don’t be that guy! Learn how to close the deal in style.

This article gives you tips for different situations such as at work, with close friends, on public transportation, or at a party.

Check it out here:

Speaking English Tip #2: Learn How to Close a Conversation

Related: English Speaking Tips for ESL/EFL Learners

Tip #3: Don’t Forget about Studying Vocabulary

If you’re interested in speaking English fluently, then you’ll need to study vocabulary. Studies show that knowing the 2000 most commonly used English words will enable you to understand 95% of what you read or hear. You’ll also be able to participate in almost any conversation about a general topic.

However, if you know fewer than 2000 words, you’ll find that you’re struggling to express what you mean easily. It’ll be hard to speak fluently when you don’t have the word you need on the tip of your tongue. This problem will be even bigger if you know less than 1000 words.

Be honest with yourself. Maybe you already know enough English vocabulary words. Just review what you already know. But, maybe you really don’t know some basic vocabulary that you should know. You’ll need to study!

Check out this article for some of our top tips for doing that. Don’t waste your time when studying English vocab, do it the efficient way!

Tip #3: Learn more Vocabulary to Speak English Fluently

Tip #4: Study Language Chunks to Improve your English Speaking

If speaking English more fluently is your goal, then you’ll need to consider studying language chunks. A language chunk is a group of words that are closely associated. Some examples are:

Collocations: I want to buy two CARTONS OF MILK please.
Phrasal verbs: Run away, break up, call back (see: phrasal verb ESL activities)
Idioms: Sick as a Dog
Sentence frames: Whales HAVE lungs, BUT fish HAVE gills.
Sentence starters: The first thing that happened was … After that, …. Finally, …
Conversational routines: A: Thank you. B: You’re welcome.

It’s best to memorize common chunks together, instead of each individual word. If it can become automatic in your brain, you’ll be able to speak English more fluently. Check out our advice for how to study language chunks here:

Tip #4: Study Language Chunks

Related: English Speaking Tip-How to Close a Conversation

Tip #5: Use YouTube to Learn English

One of the best resources for speaking English practice is YouTube. There are a million and one free resources that are entertaining, useful, and interesting. However, it’s really, really, really easy to waste a lot of time on this site. I’m sure you’ve had that experience already. You go to YouTube to watch one little video, and then two hours have passed and you have no idea what happened.

Here’s how not to waste your time when using YouTube for learning English.

Tip #5: Learning English on YouTube

Need More Tips for Speaking English Fluently?

Did you find these tips useful? I hope so! If you need even more tips for learning to how speak English fluently, then you’ll need to check out this book over on Amazon, 71 Ways to Practice Speaking English: Tips for ESL/EFL Learners. These five tips are directly from that book.

You can get the book in both digital and print formats. The digital one is cheaper than a cup of coffee and you can easily read it on any device with the free Kindle reading app. Smartphone, tablet, Kindle, Mac or PC will all work. Head on over to Amazon to get the book today. Better English speaking is in your future.

Last update on 2020-10-31 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API