Speaking English is the same thing. You need to practice speaking it, hearing the sounds, saying the sounds and trying different words and sentences. Reading about English and writing in English will not make you a good speaker – you have to practice actually speaking.

If you can’t speak to someone and practice, then the next best thing is to speak aloud so that you can practice pronunciation of words and sounds, increase your fluency and confidence to speak naturally. Listening to audios and videos by native speakers is ideal as you can practice copying what they say. Do this everyday and you will definitely get better!

Practise natural english with your own personal conversation coach.

1. Select a passage or monologue from an MP3 or movie (you can easily download free ones from the IELTS free link on samespeak.com ) or scroll down and try the conversation from the Pretty Movie woman on this blog

2. Download a free audio programme like Audacity or simply record onto your phone.

3. Compare your recording to the recording done by the native speaker of English by checking these areas:

- do you sound natural?

- is your pronunciation natural sounding?

- how about the speed and pace…does it sound similar to the native speaker?

This is a quick fun way to get used to your own voice and something you can do by yourself to practice natural conversational English.

1. Find a friend who is interested in speaking English and is the same level as you

2. Find something interesting to talk about that you can look at and refer to – a movie, an online newspaper, a discussion topic (if you are both Samespeak students you can practice off a lesson from the activities box)

3. Don’t try and correct each other. You are wanting to practice speaking fluently so it is important that you just say what you are thinking and not worry about making mistakes.

4. Listen to your friend and let them know if you understand what they are saying “I see, I understand, please keep talking”…

5. Keep the sessions short and frequent. A 15 minute session each day will give you better results than 1 hour a week.

Let me know how it goes!