Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. This is a listening resource for intermediate to advanced-level English learners. My name is Anna and today we're going to be looking at five ways to improve your English-speaking skills. How is your English speaking? How does your English speaking compare to your listening or to your reading and writing in English? Whenever we take on a new fluency student, I always do an onboarding session and ask them this question. I ask them to rate their skills, each one on a scale of one to five, one being completely unconfident and five being very happy, very confident. And so, what I find is the majority of students say that they're relatively confident in writing and reading. They are a little less confident in listening. That's typical. And they are most unconfident with speaking. Speaking is usually the skill they want to work on the most. And I think this is pretty universal for language students of all languages, whether you're learning Arabic or Portuguese or Polish or English, I think speaking is the one skill that's not practised enough and is harder to practise than the other skills, but also maybe some people find it more intimidating to practise their speaking. And so, it's the one thing that you really need to focus on from a very early stage in attaining a language. So, today I'm going to jump into five ways that you can improve your English speaking skills. And these will range from things you can do on your own for free to things that you might need to invest in and do with other people. So, let's dive straight in. The first thing on the list is to watch and mimic other people. Now, you can do this very easily with movies, a series, ideally something that's quite dramatic, where people use the language in more dramatic circumstances because then the language is going to be quite expressive. You could also use YouTube videos, or even simple audio material like podcasts. But anything where you can actually watch how people are using their body language, their facial expressions alongside the language is going to be really beneficial for you to learn how to use the language in a more expressive and natural way. So, it's not just about pronunciation, it's about flow of language. It's about the sense. It's about the message that's behind the language. Because we all use more than just words. Our tone, our speed of speech, what our body is doing, whether we're smiling, especially in British English, we have a very high level of sarcasm in this country. So, we can say things, that we don't literally mean, but we're trying to do something else with what we're saying. So, we might say,"Oh no, I don't want a cup of tea." And actually, we really do want a cup of tea. But with saying,"I don't want a cup of tea," we might actually be pointing out that you were so rude not to offer me a cup of tea. So, we might be using that line, that phrase to tell you off, to have a go at you for not asking us. We might be using it to have a joke with you with our very odd humour. So, it's really important to understand how language is used in different contexts and body language, facial expressions, all comes in and all plays a part in general communication. So, what can you do? Choose some material and really start to mimic. I would have one caveat to that. I would be careful when mimicking people in the room with you. So, if you're listening to someone having a conversation, this is called eavesdropping. If you're eavesdropping, listening to two people having a conversation on the bus, don't start repeating what they're saying because they'll think, what on Earth are you doing? This is so rude that you're listening to me and now you're mimicking me. They might take it the wrong way. So, be careful doing that. But if someone is on the TV or on your device, then that's absolutely fine, of course. So, find a couple of phrases, listen to how they're being delivered and repeat them. Now, here's an example. So, I might write down the question,"What are you doing? What are you doing?" Question mark. But, when I come into the room and see that you're doing something interesting, I'll come up and say,"What are you doing? What are you doing?" Now that's very different to, what are you doing? It's, what are you doing? What are you doing? I'm saying it with a smile and you'll hear how the words are run together to make very different sounds. First, we have, what are ya? What are ya? So, the T becomes flapped, it almost sounds like a D. What are ya? What are ya? And the you obviously that vowel completely changes into ya what are ya. And"doing" the ng, which is normally formed with the back of the tongue, high, ng, becomes"in" with the front of the tongue high to make a n sound"doin'". What are you doing? What are you doing? And because I'm saying it with a positive and light tone, with a smile on my face, it's expressing interest, it's saying, that looks interesting, I'm interested to know what you are doing. What are you doing? Now, this might change, of course, if I'm coming in and finding you doing something that I completely disagree with, in this sense, I might come in and say,"What are you doing? What are you doing?" So, I'm going to do a little exercise with you. I want you to repeat after me these two variations of this phrase. So, repeat after me."What are you doing? What are you doing? And,"What are you doing?""What are you doing?" Can you feel the difference? So, mimicking really helps you to get the feel of the language, which communicates so much more than just the words. Here's another one. The words are,"It was insane. It was insane." Now, insane here is often used to mean that something is really good or extremely popular, overwhelming, more than I expected. It was insane. So, if I go to a concert and I don't really expect it to be a sold-out concert, I think it's going to be mediocre, but it's completely packed. Every seat is taken and everyone is a superfan and the audience is just electrified. Then I could describe that concert as being insane. If there are some special effects and pyrotechnics and a guest artist comes on the stage, like Taylor Swift suddenly appears as a guest artist or Ed Sheeran, then you'd be like,"Whoa, this is so much more than I expected." This is insane. So, that's how we would use insane in this context. So, rather than saying, it was insane, I might run it together and say, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, rather than it was, it was, it was. And then we tend to almost break this word up. So insane, we tend to say in sane. As if we are breaking that into two words. Insane. And that's just to be really emphatic, to really emphasise how crazy and amazing it was. It was insane."Hey Anna, how was the concert?""It was insane! It was insane." Okay, now the reason I actually mentioned this is because I was at the theme park yesterday, had a family day out and we're standing in the queue and I heard a young girl behind me. She must've been in her early teens. So, maybe about 13 years old. And she was there with what I assume were her two younger brothers. And one of the younger boys was ducking out of the queue and kind of disappearing away from where she was. And she was screaming at him to come back. And she was screaming at him in such a way that you could just tell that she was mimicking exactly the tone and the words that her mother or father would normally use. It was actually quite funny. I mean, it wasn't pleasant. It's never pleasant witnessing someone being screamed at, but it was actually quite funny because this young girl was just behaving in a very odd manner for a 13-year-old girl and shouting these commands that you wouldn't normally hear from a 13-year-old in the way that she was delivering it. And children do often mimic their parents or their teachers. It's like having a mirror held up to you as a parent when your child starts repeating back to you the things that you say. For example, my three-year-old suddenly started saying,"In a minute, in a minute," when I'd ask him to do something. And I was like, oh, that's an unusual phrase for him to come out with. He doesn't even know what a minute is. So, it's strange for him to be saying in a minute, in a minute, in a minute. And then I realised that actually he's mimicking me because whenever he asked me to do something, which is pretty much all the time, he's always asking me to do something. I'm normally in the middle of a task, and so, I usually say to him,"In a minute, in a minute, I'll do it in a minute." And so he's just parroting back,"In a minute, in a minute." So he's learning how to use these phrases in context, and not just copying the words, but copying the tone and the manner in which these phrases are delivered. Let's try one more. So, here we have the phrase, if you have got to go, then you have got to go. So it's like you've said to me,"Anna, I'm really, really sorry. I know I said I would stay for the whole party, but I really have to go. I've got a doctor's appointment." And I say to you,"Well, it's okay. If you have got to go, then you have got to go. You know, there's nothing I can do about that. You must go. Go." But rather than saying, if you have got to go, then you have got to go, we would normally deliver this phrase as, if you've gotta go, you've gotta go. If you've gotta go, you've gotta go. If you've gotta go. You've gotta go. So you'll hear the contractions there of you have, they'll always be contracted, almost always be contracted in spoken English. If you've gotta, we're going to put words got to together to make gotta, if you've gotta, if you've gotta go, we'll take away then, so we leave if you've gotta go, you've gotta go. If you've gotta go, you've gotta go. And you'll hear that pattern every time. If you've got to go, you've got to go. If you've got to go, you've got to go. Alright. So, watch and mimic. Really enjoy trying to copy the delivery of phrases and words that you hear, especially if they're dramatic. If they're dramatic, they're more fun. And like language learning is, it should be. Language learning should be a fun experience. Okay. Number two on my list of how to improve your English-speaking skills is narrative practice. So, something that you should do in order to make sure that you are improving vocabulary that you would use day to day is to narrate what you're doing. Now you can do this also for dreaming. So, you can wake up in the morning. This is quite a useful activity outside of language learning, but wake up in the morning and quickly jot down in your own language, your dreams. If you are a prolific dreamer, then you'll have lots to write. If you rarely dream, this might not work as well for you, but you wake up in the morning and you write down your dreams. And then at a point later in the day, try to translate that into English and then speak out loud what you dreamt about last night. Last night I had a dream about walking along a beach and bumping into an old friend, we had a lovely conversation. Now, the flip side of this, other than doing your dream journalling is to journal your day. You can either literally journal your day, so, at the end of a day, open your journal and write down what you've done that day, what you've been doing, and then either start by writing it in your native language and then translating or try to write straight away into English. It depends what level you're at or what you're more comfortable doing. So, journal your day and speak it out loud. What you'll find when you're doing this is there are gaps in your knowledge."Oh, I, um, I made a special dish today, uh, for my family, but I don't know what the word for this dish is. Or I was knitting today, but I don't know what the word knitting is in English." So, you'll find where your gaps are and then you can research and find the answers to fill those gaps. And this language that you're then focused on and building will be beneficial because it's the language that represents your daily activities. And when you're out and about or doing things around the house, speak out loud and narrate what you're doing."I'm just looking for a picture pen. Where has that pen gone? I'm looking in the drawer and now I'm going to take a look upstairs because I've just remembered actually I took it upstairs to write in my dream journal this morning and now I'm looking in the bedroom and there I found it on my bedside table just where I left it. Now I'm going to head back downstairs and make a cup of tea. I'm turning on the kettle. I'm waiting for the kettle to boil." So narrate what you're doing as you're doing it. You might feel a bit uncomfortable doing this out and about when you're in front of people. You know, if you're walking down the street talking to yourself, people might think you're a little odd. One way around this is to plug your earphones in to your phone and put them in your ears and then talk to yourself and people will assume you're on a phone call and so, they're not going to think you're strange and that might make you feel fine. So, narrate your day. Do remember to always have a notebook with you while you're doing this, so that you can make a note of gaps, things that you don't know how to say, and then you can research them later to find the answers. Okay. So, that's the second way that you can improve your English speaking. The third option I'm going to offer to you is the use of some very modern technology. So some people find advancements in technology a little bit daunting and they shy away from change. Some people are very traditional and prefer to stick to the old ways of doing things, but I would always recommend experimenting with new innovation and dipping your toe into the latest fads, the latest developments, the latest technology. Now, one of the most recent developments in technology, of course, has been the uprising of AI with the introduction of the famous chat GPT changing the world. AI is the talk of every technology forum at the moment. Everyone who works online or interacts online is discussing ways that they can use AI to their advantage, and it's no different for the education space. AI is already being deeply implemented within education. Now we have all been using apps for a long time to assist us in language learning, but up to now, those apps have not really hit the mark when it comes to practising English speaking or speaking any language until recently. Now the very exciting news is there is a new app in town, a new app that actually has allowed me to be cloned. Yes, that's right, I am a clone and this app allows you to speak to my clone in pretty much real-time. There's a slight delay, but ever so slight. And you can speak to my AI clone, have a really great conversation without any of the downsides that come with having a human teacher. For example, there's no booking needed. You don't need to go back and forth trying to arrange a suitable time where you don't have to worry about cancellation fees or cancelling the lesson. You don't have to worry about any of that. You just open the app at the moment that you're ready. The moment you decide to open it, it's there, ready. AI Anna is ready for you. And it's also a fraction of the cost of what you would pay to speak to a human teacher. You can access it at any time. You can use it for as long as, or as little as you need to. For example, if you've got five minutes while you're waiting for your soup to warm on the stove, you have five minutes, you can open the app and have a five-minute chat with me. How exciting is that? AI Anna can also talk to you in your language while helping you with English. So, if there's something that you need to say in your native language in order to understand the concept, or you need to ask a question, then I can talk to you in your language. I'll also record all of our vocabulary, passive and active, and you could download that all at the end of the session and keep a record of all the vocabulary covered. So, for those of you who like to be super organised, it's all there done for you. And a very practical advantage of speaking to an AI tool rather than a human is it really reduces that anxiety that comes with having a face-to-face conversation with a real person. Many of us feel anxious when working in a different language and, you know, it puts pressure on us to perform. Whereas when you're speaking with technology, when you're speaking with AI, you don't have that anxiety. So, for those of you who are at a lower level, or for those of you who really struggle with confidence when speaking, using apps like this is a perfect solution. Now this technology is super advanced. Clone Anna can correct you if you ask her to. She can answer your questions if you have any specific questions. She can offer you advice on anything, really. And she can talk to you about anything you'd like to talk about. In fact, let me play you a little clip of me talking to Clone Me and you'll get a feel for what it can do. Here we go. Hi Anna, are you okay? I'm good, thanks. How about you? How are you feeling today? I'm feeling good, but my youngest son is poorly today. Can you give me some idioms to describe feeling unwell? Sorry to hear your son's not feeling well. Here are a few idioms for feeling unwell. One, under the weather, means feeling ill or sick. Two, feeling off. Not feeling like your usual self due to illness. Three, out of sorts, similar to feeling off, not quite well. I hope your son feels better soon. Is there anything special you do to cheer him up when he's sick? Yeah, we normally let him watch his favourite TV programme for a while and often give him an ice lolly or something to reward him for taking his yucky medicine. That sounds like a lovely way to help him feel a bit better. Watching a favourite show can be very comforting and an ice lolly is a sweet treat that also helps with a sore throat. So, that gives you a little taste. So, there's nothing to worry about when speaking to Clone Anna. The only thing you need to worry about is deciding what to talk about. And I've got that covered for you. I have put together a prompt sheet of 100 Conversation Starters that you can download just by clicking on the link in the show notes. And I'll also send you the link to find out more about how to have a conversation with my clone. So, click on the link and I'll send you everything that you need. If this new technology tickles your fancy, if it excites you, just use that link. So, that's number three, using technology to your advantage. Number four is a very practical way to improve your speaking skills, and that is language immersion. So, completely submerging yourself in the language by travelling to an English-speaking country. Now I realise this isn't available to everyone. It depends on your circumstances, your commitments and your budget. But if you are able to, and it's something that you really want to work on, then going on a language retreat or participating in some sort of workshop in an English-speaking country. Then you are going to have such a fantastic experience because you will be constantly surrounded by the language and you'll have plenty of opportunities to speak English. Now if travelling to an English-speaking country is out of your reach, then there are other ways to try and immerse yourself in the language by finding local groups or workshops or courses that are being run in the English language. So I'm sure you'll be able to find some form of English-speaking groups in your country. Of course, the other option is to find something online, but it's not the same as being in a country where the language is all around you. But I would also add to that that many of my students who come and join the fluency programme do actually live in the UK and have done for many years, but still find that they struggle. And this is because they get themselves stuck in their home environment where their native language is spoken because they're with their family or friends, and they stay in that comfort zone and they stop going out and taking the opportunities available to them. They don't interact. They don't get involved in the community. They learn the bare minimum that they need to get by at work and they don't do anything other than that. And this can lead to them feeling very isolated and stuck in their little bubble, as it were, like they're within a little safe bubble and they're scared to go outside of that because they're stuck. They feel like they can't progress and they can't fit in and they can't participate. And that's when they usually come to me and join the fluency programme and we help them to burst that bubble, to get outside of their comfort zone and to grow in confidence and achieve fluency. So, if you do take the plunge and go to an English-speaking country, whether that's for a short holiday or on a retreat, or you go and relocate for a specific period of time, make sure that you are prepared to really make the most of it, to get involved, to interact and enjoy that time. Read all the signs, listen to the local radio, watch the television, talk to every person that you get an opportunity to talk to. Don't be scared. Just go for it. So the last piece on today's list is to join a speaking club. Now this is a middle-of-the-range option. You can do this for a relatively low price. It can be one of the best ways to practise your English speaking on a regular basis with real people. So talking to yourself, journalling and speaking out loud is great. Mimicking is good, but doing things on your own, it's not the same as interacting. Now, interacting with AI is fantastic because you have that back and forth, but it's not the same pressured experience as actually speaking to a human being, which is essentially what language is for. So you can do a lot on your own. You can do a lot with AI, but at some point you need to take the plunge and actually speak to people. real people. And so if you can't go to an English-speaking country, then going and joining a speaking club is the next best thing. Now we have our equivalent, which is the Conversation Club. And these clubs all offer a structured and supportive way to participate in conversation. So for example, in our Conversation Club, you join for a small monthly fee. And then every week there are four to five classes available for you to join. And you have pre-reading available a few days before each class. And that pre-reading will dive into the topic that's set. It will give you some resources to consume a video to watch or an article to read. And then you'll have some vocabulary related to that topic and the vocabulary will be explained to you. And then you'll be given a set of questions to consider. I always encourage my Conversation Club members to prepare their answers in advance and so they're ready with their answers, feeling confident about what they're going to talk about in the class. And then the class starts and everyone comes together, the topic is introduced, and then everyone's separated out into smaller groups. And those groups then will start to tackle the questions. Now in our Conversation Club, which may be different to others, halfway through the session, the groups are changed so that everyone gets a chance to mix and find new people to talk to. And at the end, it's all then brought back together, a little discussion as a group before the session is wrapped up. Now, the members of my Conversation Club, many have been with us for a couple of years now. People find it becomes a part of their life, just like going to the pub after work or heading down to the local tennis club on a Wednesday morning to partake in the social tennis that goes on. Our Conversation Club becomes a part of people's routine and my students make friends and they enjoy having a chat about all the different interesting topics, which allows them to expand their vocabulary and interact with people from all over the world, which is very similar to many international companies. So if you're working in an international company, you are probably working with. English speakers from all over the world. So it's no good just learning British English or just learning American English, because the chances are you're going to have to interact with English speakers from all sorts of different places, native, non-native, different varieties, different accents, different dialects. So practising that in advance or alongside getting a job in an international company or traveling to an English speaking country is going to help you feel much more confident in those situations. Okay. Oh, and I will leave a link to my Conversation Club, if you're interested, in the show notes. So let's recap. The first item that I suggested was to watch and mimic. So taking movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, or even podcasts, really mimicking the way that language is used, not just the words, but how it's delivered in tone, whether any gestures accompany those phrases. I'm really getting a feel for how this language is communicated. So mimicry is one of the foundations of language learning that we have. We all mimic when we're first learning. So mimic as an adult. Then we had narration, narrative practice, practice narrating your own life, your own activities, your thoughts, and your feelings. This is very useful for helping you to understand where your gaps are. One thing that I didn't mention that you could do is if you're writing out your activities, you could then check your work by asking ChatGPT to correct it, or you could pop it into an app like Grammarly. Is this correct? And see what that offers you. The third option that I suggested involved technology and I spoke about the app that has cloned me, where you can speak with me 24/7 for as long as you like, for an absolute bargain price. And this is a really great way to build your confidence, to get lots of regular practice and it's offered in multiple languages. So you don't just use it for learning English. You could use it for learning French, Arabic, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, whatever. You can learn many languages using this app and I will put a link for you to get your 100 conversation starters along with access to this app for you to check out. The next option is to actually go to an English speaking country. This isn't available to everyone, but it is a really great option. But it comes with the warning that you will waste your opportunity if you live inside a bubble while in an English-speaking country. You have to make the most of your opportunity. You have to be bold. You have to get out and speak as much as you can. And then finally, considering joining a speaking club. There might be a speaking club close to where you live, where you can literally go and get face to face with other learners or teachers to interact within a speaking club. But if you can't, there are plenty of speaking clubs available online, offered by all sorts of different schools and teachers, including of course, my very own Conversation Club. And these are all really great options. And if I were you, I would be incorporating all of them as much as I can. It might be that you take a short summer trip to London or to Cambridge or Manchester, Liverpool, somewhere in the UK. And you're also going to be using the app speaking to Clone Anna and tell Clone Anna about the day that you've had because you've already practised journalling and narrating your day. So you check it with Clone Anna on your app to see if you have made any mistakes and to find out some great synonyms or idioms that you could use. And you have membership to a conversation club. So a few times a week you join a class and talk live with other people, and then you make a habit of watching films or a TV series every weekend. You catch up on your episodes and you mimic one of your favourite characters. So I highly recommend doing as many as, if not all of the items that I've covered today. As always, I thank you for giving me your ears. I do hope you found today useful. I will leave the links of things that I've mentioned in the show notes. But until next time, take very good care and goodbye.