How To Improve Speaking In A New Language

It’s very common for language learners to say that speaking is the most difficult part and it is usually the area they want to improve the most.

The reality is that we are usually weakest in this area as we do not practice it enough. It is a lot easier to listen or read a language, but we tend to shy away from actually speaking it, which means we never master this aspect.

The only way we can really improve is to start speaking more. I will go through some ways we can start practicing and improving our speaking skills in our new language.

Why Do You Need To Improve Your Speaking Skills In A New Language?

Most people start learning a new language so they can communicate with other people. Communication is a two way street, where you need to be able to send and receive messages.

This can be in the form of actual text messages, but speaking is the oldest form of message sending in communication.

When you first start learning a language it can be very input heavy, which is great as you will be able to start understanding things and be able to receive messages, but this is only half the language.

At some point you will need to start sending messages out yourself, in the form of speaking. If you make no effort to do this, you will never be able to master the language as you will only have half the skill set required to use it.

If you want to communicate effectively, you are going to have to start doing some output, which means being able to send your message out for someone else to receive in the form of speech.

(You can read more about – What Are The Benefits Of Practising Your Speaking Skills In A Second Language?)

Put The Time Into Practicing

The best way to actually improve your speaking is to do more of it! It really is that simple. The only way you will get good at speaking is to do a lot of it.

Speaking is simply a skill and more time you put into practicing it, the better the results will.

Sadly there is no magic bullet to make this any easier. It is going to be tough and it is going to take time, but the reality is that if you speak more, you will improve.  

Think about how much you speak in your native language and think about how you have done this for years. This is why you are so comfortable with it. Words just flow out of you automatically as you have done it a million times. If you want to be at this level in your new language you will basically need to do the same. Put the time into practicing your speaking and you will see improvements.

Just Speak More To Improve

As I just discussed you need to practice more. I will go through some different ways you can practice. It doesn’t really matter what way you do it, so long as you do something. It can be fun to mix things up and try all the different methods, but really all it comes down to is getting your mouth moving and start speaking. The more you do this, the sooner you will see improvements.

Speak To Yourself In Your New Language

In the beginning you might find it less daunting to speak to yourself. You can literally talk to yourself out loud in the language you are learning.

You don’t need to make this complicated, even just saying single words, or short phrases at a time will really help. As your skills grow you can start to say more and more words together until you are forming simple sentences.

All you want to do here is get your brain thinking about words and then producing them out loud. This is how speech works and since you are not proficient at this yet, you can just say single words.

This is kind of like how a baby talks and really you are a baby too. Of course you have the huge advantage that you can comprehend things a lot easier, but really you need to go through the motions like a baby for a while.

The good thing is that due to your adult brain you will fly through this fairly quickly, but you do need to learn to crawl before you can walk as such.

Just get your mouth moving and start saying the words. Your confidence and skills will improve once you start practicing.

(You can read more about – How To Practice Speaking A Language On Your Own (Without Mistakes))

Use Shadowing To Help You Improve

If you are worried about the lack of feedback when you are talking to yourself, you can try shadowing.

This is simply when you copy a native speaker. You just need to listen to some audio and they try to copy it exactly. This is going to help you to get your mouth moving and get you used to speaking. You also do not need to worry about mistakes, as you are just copying something.

It can also be a good idea to record yourself, to see if you are sounding like the native speaker. I know everyone hates the sound of their own voice, but you don’t have to show it to anyone else. I know its cringe, but it can be very helpful and you can delete it straight after.

Listen to your own recording and see how you compare to the audio that you are copying. You need to be honest with yourself and assess yourself to see how you did and try and work on it if necessary.

(You can read more about – Is Shadowing Useful For Language Learning?)

Practice Pronunciation

One of the easiest ways to quickly improve is to focus on pronunciation. Every language has different sounds and while they may be similar to our own, they will be different enough to make things difficult.

Being able to pronounce things better will increase your knowledge, but it will of course make you be able to better use what you already know. Really it is quite cosmetic and you are only polishing up your skills, however, this can make a difference.

Just think about anyone who can speak your language, but is not a native. It’s usually their poor pronunciation that makes them difficult understand. Good pronunciation can really make a difference.  

(You can read more about – How To Improve Pronunciation When Learning A New Language)

Speaking To People Will Help You Improve

You might have realised by now that the only way to improve your speaking is to speak.

Speaking to yourself only goes so far so at some point you are going to have to speak to someone else.

This is really going to get your brain firing as you are going to have to come up with a response fairly quickly to keep the conversation going. This is tough, but it’s what you need, doing this over and over will get you comfortable with the process and you will start to get good at it.  

I know it’s scary, but speaking to someone  is going to improve your skills.

Get A Tutor

Speaking to a tutor is going to be an easy way to have a conversation. The environment is going to be very controlled and safe and the tutor is always going to be there to help you and guide you.

Investing in a tutor can be one of the best things you can do for your language and you will gain a lot from them.

They will help you build your confidence and skills and you can quickly improve. They really are worth it  

(You can read more about – Should You Use A Language Tutor?)

Get A Language Partner

One of the best ways to talk to native speakers is to find a language partner, which can be easily done through language exchange apps.

A language exchange is simply where you talk to a native speaker in their language, but they are also trying to learn your language, so they talk to you in your native language.

I find this is one of the best places to speak to people as they are going to understand that you are learning and they are also going to have the exact same fears and insecurities as you. 

You can really make some good friends through these, as well as improve your skills.

(You can read more about – What Are Language Exchange Partners?)

Find Other Learners

It can also be useful to find other learners of the language you are learning. This can be in real life or online. While they may only be at a similar level to you it can still be good to meet up and practice with them.

Obviously both of you are learning and neither of you are native or even close to fluent, but you can still practice some basics and help each other build on what you already know and just generally support each other.

This will probably seem a little strange at first and you might feel a little unsure if you are doing things right, but just go with it.

Your confidence will grow and you will both become more comfortable practicing together.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Speaking In Your New Language)

You Will Struggle, But It Will Not Be Forever

When I started learning I found it very hard to speak. Forming full sentences were impossible and it took me a long time to make real progress.

When I was messaging my language partner it would take me a while to respond. I needed to write my sentence out in English and then slowly translate each word one at a time, then read it out as an audio for them. Just trying to open my mouth and speak was too much at the beginning.

One simple voice message would take me 10 minutes to make, but this is totally fine, after a lot of practice I can just respond normally now.

Just take your time and slowly try and say a few words one at a time until you have put together what you want to say. It’s painful at the start, but the more you practice the quicker it will come and the quicker you will be able to say what you want to say.

This is why you need to practice on your own, out loud as well as speak to other people. It will all really help you when it comes to real life conversations.

(You can read more about – How Do You Get Faster At Speaking A New Language?)

Conclusion  

There is no magic bullet or special hack for getting better at speaking. You really just need to speak and keep speaking until you get good at it.  

Hopefully now you can see there is a number of ways to practice. Just put the hours in and the results will come.

(You can read more about – Signs You Are Making Progress In A Language)