Best way to improve English speaking skills?

ticklethegooch1 · 2017-12-06T15:02:28+00:00

Actually, I think your English is bloody good!

I, for example, am also a non-native and my comma and tense mistakes bother me a lot. Also, my lack of vocabulary is annoying me. So what I do is, I browse Reddit a lot, read English books and watch movies in English. I am also living in a dorm where people only speak English or I listen to National Public Radio. Plus I lived in Canada for six months when I was about 27 years old.

I don't have to think (translate) anymore in my native tongue and directly can "think" in English. Still, I feel the limits of my vocabulary especially when it comes to adjectives.

Since you were looking for an advice, here are my two cents:

Speak, read and write a lot in English It helps if you have a favorite topic like Women, Sex, Fitness, Crime, Poker, Games, NBA or whatever because then you just suck in the vocabulary that you need
Use the Internet, there are great apps for your phone out there like grammar and vocabulary builder
Live/Take a vacation in the country the language you want to learn and join clubs, events, sports, getting friends (don't fall into the trap of "they don't like me" because this will lead to seeking your cultural peer groups)
Get an English pen pal, Skype buddy etc.
Read this free PDF from the word brain
Do you have a reason other than "improving" for learning English? Find one, because it keeps you enthusiastic
Get Grammarly for your browser
Get a print of The Elements of Style there are also free PDF floating around somewhere but there are legal free copies and illegal ones out there, you have to judge for yourself what to download and what not
Start small
Enjoy the struggle :)

I hope it helped.

Edit: sentencing

SirKolbath · 2017-12-06T13:59:03+00:00

What is your primary language?

What you wrote here was grammatically correct and easy to follow for the most part. There were a couple comma mistakes, but it was definitely readable. I've known some native English speakers who could not do half as well.

fnordsnord · 2017-12-06T15:29:00+00:00

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[deleted] · 2017-12-06T16:00:36+00:00

Digest English media, read English books, watch English TV shows. I'm trying to learn French, and all the experts I've looked into say this. It's also very good that you're on TRP since everyone here talks in English

LordThunderbolt · 2017-12-06T22:55:38+00:00

The first part about learning to effectively speak a new language is learning how to properly move the mouth and tongue to make the correct sounds corresponding to syllables in words. The secret is in how you shape your lips and move your tongue. That's why people have accents. It's because they're so used to a certain language's mouth movements, they fail to learn the new movements of the new language and instead use the old movements for the new language.

Once u get the accent out of the way, learning to speak is fairly easy. Listen to music, repeat the words, sound for sound, pause for pause. Watch a movie, repeat the words, sound for sound, pause for pause. Your goal shouls be to mimic the sounds you hear. That's literally all there is to it. I also recommend you read a lot in english, whether its comic books, non fiction books, articles online (doesn't matter what kind, just read), and as you're reasing, keep a dictionary and a thesaurus page open so u can look up words. Then u will practice your writing skills, by using the new words you hear in sentences. So join message boards, post comments on YouTube etc.

McVaghunter · 2017-12-06T14:18:28+00:00

Watch movies with english subtitles. If it's not in english, don't watch it, listen to it or read it.

Title	Best way to improve English speaking skills?
Author	WideawakeMind
Upvotes	3
Comments	6
Date	December 6, 2017 1:34 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/7hy1n6/best_way_to_improve_english_speaking_skills/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/best-way-to-improve-english-speaking-skills.119571 https://theredarchive.com/post/119571

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