What Are The Benefits Of Practicing Your Speaking Skills In A Second Language?

Speaking in a new language is usually something we try and put off, as it’s scary, but it can actually be very beneficial to practice this skill.

I would still suggest you focus on immersion as a beginner and build your understanding of the language, but as you start to get comfortable with things, you should start speaking.

Speaking really will raise your level and I will go through some reasons why it can be so beneficial for your progress in the language.

Speaking Makes You Use The Language

Speaking the language is actually going to get you to use the language. You actively have to think and then move your mouth, so you are going to have to actually have to do something.

A lot of time spent learning a language can be input, especially if you are doing a lot of immersion, so it can actually be quite beneficial to switch this up and do something a little more active.

Speaking will force you to use the language and this feels very different than just sitting there absorbing things and understanding what is in front of you. It is a lot harder and it will push you, which will only make you get stronger, so practicing your speaking can really do a lot for your language skills.

If You Are Speaking, You Are Talking To People

For the vast majority of the time, when you are speaking, it will be to another person. I know it can be scary, but actually speaking to another human being is actually beneficial for you, and not just for language learning.

Speaking with people can actually be very good for our mental health. We are social creatures and while we may not realise it at times, we do crave social interaction and a simple conversation in our new language can help fulfil this, even if the all the fear and anxiety at the time doesn’t make us feel like it.

However, have you ever noticed the feeling after you have a conversation, you quickly forget your mistakes and just feel really buzzed and happy that you spoke with someone in their language, it just feels good to have a nice conversation and it feels even better as we did it in a language we are not really that good at.

(You can read more about – How To Practice Speaking A Foreign Language)

Speaking Can Allow You To Make Friends

Speaking can actually allow us to use the language to communicate with real people, which is also going to allow you to build connections and hopefully make real friendships.

Language learning can be really lonely at times; especially if you constantly have your nose in a book so having the chance to actually make some friends while practicing your language at the same time is always great.

Having a friend who can speak the language is really beneficial as it gives you someone to practice with and just keep your motivation levels high when things get tough.

(You can read more about – What Are The Benefits Of Having A Language Exchange Partner?)

Speaking Will Allow You To Feel Like You Are Making Progress

It can be very easy to feel like you are making no progress in your new language. It does feel great when you start to notice you can understand some things when you are listening or reading and it can feel like you are finally getting somewhere.

However, speaking will really help with this feeling and it is can be really beneficial for helping you making you feel like you are actually making progress.

Once you actually start talking you can really feel like “I am doing this”. The language you have worked so hard on is actually coming out of your mouth. All those hours where you felt nothing was working finally actually feel like they have paid off.

Speaking Will Speed Up You Processing Ability In The Language

The act of speaking actually requires your brain to work at a pretty fast pace. You need to gather all the words you need and assemble them in a grammatically correct order to form a coherent sentence before you even open your mouth and for a beginner this process can be challenging.

Just think about the first time you tried to speak in your new language, there were probably huge pauses between your words as you tried to process what you wanted to say and how to do it.

This is totally normal as you just don’t have much experience with the language yet. By simply speaking more you are going to get better and better at this until you are speaking at a normal speed. Your brain is going to become very good at processing what it wants to say and how to say it, simply from practicing your speaking more often.

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

Speaking Will Allow You To Hear Better

Speaking will allow you to hear better …which sounds ridiculous, but it is true and just to be clear, it doesn’t actually affect your ears.

The more you speak, the more you will be used to certain words and patterns of sounds, which then in turn make your ears more in tune to hearing this when someone else speaks, so in a way your ability to hear increases.

You can see this happen in your own language all the time. Think about the last time you didn’t quite hear someone and you go to ask them to repeat themselves, but in that split second …you work out what they said.

You didn’t hear what they said again, but you somehow where able to now understand them and this is simply because your brain is able to take the limited information it could get and compare it to your own database of language and predict what was probably said. Basically your brains says “in this situation I would have said X” and this is where it usually clicks and you realise what was said.

Speaking in your new language will really help you pick up on what other people are saying, simply as you have the words and phrases in your own database and you will just recognise them much more easily as you have personally used them too, which is going to be very beneficial for your progress.

Speaking Will Point Out Your Weaknesses

One of the great benefits of speaking is that it will instantly point out any of your weaknesses.

If you want to say something, you are either going to be able to do this or not …and if you can’t, well, you have just identified an area where you are lacking.

This is annoying at the time, but it is very beneficial as this points out exactly what you need to go away and learn.

The chances of you wanting to say the same thing again are going to be pretty high, so actually taking the time to go and strengthen this weakness is going to actually benefit you and your gains in the language are actually going to be relevant to how you want to use the language. It’s not some obscure word you are trying to learn …its words you actually want to say and use. 

(You can read more about – Why Is Speaking A New Language So Difficult?)

You Can Get Instant Feedback When You Speak

Speaking is also beneficial for your language learning as it allows you to get instant feedback. You are more than likely going to be speaking to someone, which means they are going to have to respond to you there and there. There is no waiting around for feedback.

They don’t even need to critic you and point out your mistakes …you will just know instantly if you are doing things right or not.

If they look at your confused …you are not speaking well. If they just reply to you and carry on the conversation …you are speaking well.

Of course they can actually provide you more detailed feedback than this, but I find just looking at how the conversation is flowing as a pretty good indicator of how things are going.

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

Speaking Will Help With Your Writing Skills

Speaking in your new language is also very beneficial for you writing skills.

If you look at speaking and writing, they are very similar. A lot of the same areas of the brain are needed for both of these. You need to process things in the exact same way; you need to be able to formulate what you want to say and decide how you are going to go about it.

The only difference is of course the end stage, in speaking you open your mouth and with writing you move your hand, but everything before this is pretty much the same.

This means that speaking will help you with the same processing abilities that you need for writing. You will still have to train your hand to write more, but you will see the benefits from speaking transfer over into the initial stages of writing.

Conclusion  

As you can see, speaking in your new language is going to be very beneficial for your progress.

As soon as you are able to start to understand the basics and feel comfortable with your listening skills, you should try and start to talk. I know it’s scary and you are worried about messing up, but you need to get over the fear and start speaking so that you can receive all the benefits it can bring you and your language skills.  

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