Conquering the macro-skill of speaking is arguably the greatest desire of language learners. How well you can understand the interlocutor -and make yourself understood- is demonstrates the competence of the learner in the target language. Yet whilst the ability to speak is highly sought after, it is incredibly difficult to master, and doing so in English is no exception. How can we make speaking easier for our students? Here are four tips you may find useful:

More fluency, less grammar

This may sound somewhat strange; I myself am a grammarian and recognize that accuracy of language is vital. However, focusing too much on syntax, verb forms and tenses can compromise fluency and natural speech. Even worse, students may become terrified of making mistakes, a normal part of language learning, and avoid speaking altogether.

When engaging in freer practice exercises, teachers need to decide what they want students to achieve- accuracy or fluency. It’s not always possible to do both. If it’s fluency, let the learners speak uninterrupted. Make a note of any persistent or obvious mistakes and correct at whole class level at the end of the exercise.

Learn and study phrases

If you desire to speak English accurately, then you need to do more than just learn words, you must learn phrases and lexical chunks. In first language acquisition, children progress from using isolated words to chunks of language. ‘Home’, becomes ‘go home’. ‘Sit’, becomes ‘sit down’. ‘Sleep’, grows to ‘go to sleep’. Students should make a conscientious effort to do the same. For example, when teaching the meaning, pronunciation and use of the adjective ‘content’, make sure students know that this word is followed by the preposition ‘with’.  Learning prepositions and other collocations that surround vocabulary improves accuracy in spoken English. It will also prepare students who intend to take the higher exams in the Cambridge Suite.

Speak, speak, speak!

During first language acquisition, babies first listen to language spoken, and then produce it themselves. Reading and writing come much later. So the natural order of learning is listening, speaking, reading, and then writing.

Yet many schools require that students spend much of their classroom contact time looking at the target language in texts, and then producing written responses and answers. As a result, many people’s receptive skills become quite strong because that’s all they practice. But in order to speak English fluently, you need to practice speaking. Teachers do well to dedicate a good portion of their classroom time to speaking practice.

Submerge yourself

We’ve all successfully mastered our L1. How? This was achieved by being around that language at all times. In your country, you hear and speak your language constantly.

How does this relate to learning English? Being in an environment where the language learner can be around English speaking people constantly is an invaluable opportunity. Spending time on a study holiday in a native country is a great help, and happily, most of you do this. What can you do when you return home though?

Encourage your students to make rules with classmates/friends that they will only speak English for a specific length of time each day. Carry around an iPod and listen to English sentences or music. Watch English TV programmes and films. Install an app, which enables English radio to be listened to. As you can see, you can achieve results by changing what your surroundings are even in your own country. Help you learners appreciate that if they submerge themselves in English and they will learn several times faster.

Happy speaking!

Daniellar Amoah-UK Academic Manager