LEARNING TIPS

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPEAKING

When speaking, we express our thoughts and feelings. Speaking is an activity that usually implies communicating with other people. In this skill, what really matters is getting your message through.
Here are some tips to improve your speaking skills in English:

• find someone you can talk in English to: a classmate, a tourist visiting your city, etc.;
• don’t be afraid to ask if the person you’re talking to understands what you’re saying;
• if necessary, repeat what you want to say using other words;
• when you don’t know how to say the name of an object, show it or explain in your own words what you want to say - questions such as How do you say… in English? or What do you call ... in English? can be helpful when you’re communicating;
• don’t feel bad about hesitating when talking or repeating words as these are typical elements of oral language - conversation fillers (e.g. uh, um, well, you know, etc.) give you time to think of what you want to say next;
• if you feel like practicing in the privacy of your home before you speak, record your voice or speak out loud - listening to your own recordings can help you identify any mispronunciation.

One way to improve pronunciation in English is to familiarize yourself with phonetic transcriptions. Phonetic symbols represent distinct speech sounds. They are largely used in dictionaries. Look at some examples of phonetic symbols:
Here are some more tips on how to use music to improve your speaking:

• use the lyrics to your favorite songs to sing along;
• train the articulation of the most challenging sounds;
• practice contractions as they’re very much used in oral language;
• karaoke is also fun and can help you learn English - you can listen to a song, sing it as many times as you want, and even record your performance on video to share with your friends - you can also learn more vocabulary in context - you can sing along and practice pronunciation in a very relaxing way.

Adapted from: BRAGA, J.; RACILAN, M.; GOMES, R. "How to improve your speaking". In: New Alive High. Língua Inglesa, Ensino Médio. Obra específica da área de Linguagens e suas Tecnologias. 1 ed. São Paulo: Edições SM, 2020. p. 19.