Want to Speak English Fluently?

In Sri Lanka there are lots people who want to speak English. After learning English as a second language in school for more than a decade, most of them still find it impossible to speak the language even at a basic level. So, after leaving school, they start looking for a book or course that will teach them to speak fluent English.

     
If you happen to be one of them, my sincerest advice to you is not to expect any single book or course to make you fluent. Your situation is typical of a lot of Sri Lankans due to the wrong approach they adopt in learning a language. Please don't get me wrong; I'm not saying it's your fault - it's the wrong way people are made to learn a second language in this country in general. (Sorry if this sounds a bit condescending.)

Though I don't claim to have a magic bullet to fluency, as someone who has learned to speak a couple of languages fluently I'll try to give you some tips that might help you.

1. Try to express your ideas in English whenever possible. If you can find others who are already fluent to practise with, so much the better. Or else, at least finding another learner with whom you can have regular chats will give you a chance to use what you already know theoretically. Regular practice is essential to fluency. Don't be afraid to make mistakes as you definitely will make mistakes while practising. Find a setting that lets you make mistakes without feeling embarrassed. You'll learn to correct your errors as you get more familiar with good usage by following the steps below.

2. Try to think in English sometimes. This will also make you find ways to express yourself - at least in your thoughts. Don't overdo this though by forcing yourself to do so all the time, as it would be quite an effort initially; things will start coming more easily to you as time goes by.

3. When learning English, always try to  learn in chunks. Don't just learn individual words; always learn whole phrases or sentences that are used to express some idea. This will make it much easier for you to use such expressions when you need to say something similar yourself.

4. Read as much as possible, especially stories where you find real-life situations. This will give you the much-needed exposure to everyday language, which will come handy in your own speech. As I said earlier, make it a point to pick up whole expressions rather than just words.

5. Watch movies and TV serials that have true-to-life storylines. You can pick up lots of useful expressions from them too. But be aware that some expressions you hear in such shows may be typical of certain communities or age groups and they may not be considered acceptable in common usage. Also keep in mind that the pronunciation of certain words you hear, especially in the American movies that we generally find, may be a bit different from how they are pronounced here in Sri Lanka.

Please remember that this list is by no means comprehensive and it's not meant to be THE right way to learn to speak a language. But I do hope that some of these steps will help you in some manner. If you wish, you can also go to the external links below and see if you find anything interesting there.

1. How to Speak English Well: 10 Simple Tips for Extraordinary Fluency
2. How to Speak Fluent English: Top 10 Tips
3. Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" (video)

Image credit:  Ron Mader

 

Moving Beyond the Intermediate Plateau

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages divides the linguistic skills acquired by language learners into six levels: A1 (beginner), A2 (elementary), B1 (intermediate), B2 (upper-intermediate), C1 (advanced) and C2 (proficient). Out of these six levels, A1 and A2 are reached relatively easily as so many language courses on the market are geared towards those who are just starting out; after all, that's where you find the biggest market segment. Even getting up to B1 or B2 shouldn't be too difficult if you go at it in a regular and methodical manner. However, once you've reached these intermediate levels - where you're able to handle the familiar everyday situations fairly well but find yourself on less firm ground when it comes to more serious matters - it may look like you've reached a plateau. You may not seem to be making much progress any more.

One major reason why you don't necessarily notice any more progress has to do with the nature of the language learning curve. The most common 3000 words of the English language are said to cover about 95% of common usage. While you're learning them in the initial stages, you're able to perceive rapid advancement. By contrast, the average active vocabulary of an adult native speaker is around 20,000 words while their passive vocabulary may be around 40,000. As all these extra words cover only about 5% of general usage, it's no wonder that you hardly notice any betterment, due to the diminishing returns, while you're learning them at the higher levels. What's more, advanced language studies involve picking up lots of new collocations (combinations of words generally used to express an idea) involving known words, which might not register at all in your mind as learning something new. 

What is common to most learners of English (or maybe any other language) at intermediate levels is some self-doubt about the knowledge and skills they already possess and, above all, a certain lack of clarity about how to go about improving their English to reach proficiency. In my experience of learning a few languages myself and helping others improve their language skills (aka teaching) over the years, I’ve found that this type of confusion is quite normal at these stages. 

You may get to the B1 or even B2 level with certain books and courses, but moving beyond that usually requires a lot of exposure to authentic usage. Care should be taken to follow good usage (which fortunately can be done today relatively easily with the help of various media like books, magazines, newspapers, websites, audio books, podcasts, radio or TV programmes, movies etc). A good understanding of finer nuances like context and register (that is, in what type of situations particular expressions and turns of phrase are appropriate) needs to be acquired. It’s important that you seek out material with modern usage because choosing books containing archaic (outdated) language popular in a bygone era - or written in an exceedingly complicated or academic style - may lead to frustration, however esteemed those books may be. (Studying such literature can safely be deferred until after you’ve acquired a confident command of modern usage, I presume.) If you seek instruction from a teacher, you’ve got to make sure that the teaching covers good contemporary usage at an advanced level, with all its complexities regarding collocations, idioms and so on.

Rather than learning individual words with their meanings, learning collocations is what you should focus on. In looking up new words or collocations, an advanced learners’ dictionary will come in handy as they provide various meanings of words in different contexts, together with the most common collocations and idioms containing those words. However, not every unknown word needs to be looked up if there are too many of them; the meaning of some can be assumed from context and this type of informed guessing (within reasonable limits, of course) is part and parcel of following usage. 

Spaced repetition (where you revise what you’ve studied at increasing intervals – in two days, then in one week etc.) has been suggested as a way to refresh memory. Techniques like shadowing (where you speak out loud what you’re listening to) and back translation (where you study something in English together with its effective translation in your mother tongue and then, after some time, try to translate it back from your language into English yourself to see how you fare) are promoted in famous language learning methods like Assimil, held in high esteem by many polyglots (those who have learned many languages).

Difficulty understanding native speakers from other countries occurs due to differences in the way words are pronounced as well as unfamiliar stress and intonation patterns. Colloquialisms and slang may add to the problem. Mainstream British, American and Australian accents are worth getting used to, but some regional accents may still be way off. The UK is notorious for having lots of regional accents and some African-American accents are also hard to follow; even their own countrymen sometimes have trouble following the speech of people from some other areas or ethnic groups. One way to get used to foreign accents is to watch movies and other videos with English subtitles (not subtitles in your mother tongue). That way you get the chance to read in real time what you’re listening to and you’ll find that it’s quite often just simple language spoken in a different way. Over time you’ll get better at capturing most of it without such aid. 

Every opportunity to practise what you’ve learned should be used because language skills, especially speech, depend largely on practice. Even speaking in English with your fellow students can make for good practice if there are no proficient speakers to talk to. Expressing yourself effectively in a second language becomes increasingly easier as you keep on getting exposed to good usage and practising what you’ve picked up.

Another vital point to remember is that regular learning - if possible done even for a short time every day - produces far better results than occasional long sessions of study. Regular exposure will go a long way towards helping you internalize the language.

(NB: This is not a definitive guide to language learning, but just a few observations and suggestions based on my experience.)

Further reading:

Reaching a Plateau in Language Learning – How to Get Out of It?

3 Reasons Why You’re Still an Intermediate Level Language Learner

How to get over a plateau stopping you from making progress: how I’m doing it with my Chinese

Image credit: Brenda Annerl