5 Tips to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

Have you listened to this week's listening lesson yet? Crazy English, a fairly crazy method for practicing English speaking, but effective for the following reasons:

- It removes the fear of making mistakes. According to Li Yang, being afraid of making mistakes is a huge barrier to speaking English, and the method he aims for is to make speakers get used to making mistakes. Once you start making mistakes, it means you're trying, and that's the first step on the road to success. And with this method you have to make mistakes and be laughed at by lots of people, but that doesn't matter. Because your future will be different from that of the people who laugh at you.

- Actually speak English, and speak loudly, like shouting. Saying each English word or sentence out loud is very important, because you'll be able to tell whether you're saying it correctly, whether it sounds like a native speaker, and where the mistakes are. Only then can you fix them. If you don't speak, or just think it in your head, or mutter it under your breath, it's often very hard to spot your mistakes. Especially once it becomes a habit, it takes a lot longer to fix.

So try considering this Crazy English method and see whether it suits you. Apply this method along with a few tips below:

1. Practice pronunciation in small steps

Pronounce word by word -> phrase -> sentence -> paragraph. Say it out loud. Don't mutter it under your breath — speak in your normal voice, you don't necessarily have to yell like crazy.

2. Practice every day for at least 10 minutes

Remember: 5 minutes or 10 minutes, and don't skip practicing for more than 2 days, because you're building momentum. If you skip more than 2 days, you'll lose your momentum and it'll take much longer to get it back.

3. Find a practice buddy.

Having someone to be "crazy" together with is easier than being "crazy" on your own, right? If you can, find someone whose speaking is better than yours — that would be wonderful.

4. Find a suitable speaking-practice app

• If it's hard to find a practice partner, try turning to apps instead. WELE Learn https://wele-learn.com/ lets you practice pronunciation and dictation, and also practice speaking with AI after you finish a listening lesson. I sometimes speak along with the recording while transcribing it at the same time. This is a pretty good way to do it, because you only say one short segment, but at the same time you can check right away whether you can actually hear it, by repeating back exactly what you just heard. Pretty easy, right?
• You may also already know of a more professional pronunciation-practice app. That's ELSA Speak. The app designs a practice roadmap for you from basic to advanced. From individual syllables to words, phrases, stress patterns, etc., and it corrects your pronunciation for you. Right now ELSA Speak Pro has ca promotion of up to 85% off for WELE members. The price is very good — you can check it out at this link: https://vn.elsaspeak.com/affiliates-vnaff_no/?ref=1431

5. Think about the real reason you want to speak English well

Whenever you feel discouraged about something, think about the first reason you wanted to start. You want to study abroad, you want a better job, or you want to have a foreign boyfriend, etc. Whatever the reason is, it will be the motivation that keeps you going. So every time you feel discouraged, think about the reason why you want to speak English well!