How to Learn English Speaking | Speaking Skills Tips

In language learning, speaking is one of the four core skills, along with writing, reading, and listening. Lessons and courses typically include activities designed not only to present and practice vocabulary and grammar but also to practice “doing” one or more of these skills.

If your goal is to improve your English speaking skills, focusing only on vocabulary and grammar isn’t enough. To build English speaking fluency, you need English speaking practice—opportunities to actually use what you know in meaningful ways as part of spoken interaction.

How to learn English speaking at home

To develop speaking skills, learners of English need opportunities for spoken interaction. Teachers can provide this in the classroom, but learners can also do things as part of their self-study at home to support the process.

English speaking for beginners

At the complete beginner stage, useful activities that learners can do on their own to prepare for English speaking include:

• Practicing saying new words aloud while studying them (e.g., by recording them), not just writing them
• Doing listening activities that focus on understanding the key messages being communicated in spoken interactions (rather than serving only as a method for learning or practicing vocabulary or grammar)
• Learning fixed phrases for everyday situations (e.g., “Excuse me,” “Can you help me?” “I’m from …”) without worrying about their grammatical features

English speaking: low levels

When learners reach the stage where they can take part in very simple spoken interactions, such as answering short questions, useful additional activities they can do at home to continue developing their speaking skills include:

• Recording and practicing their own versions of dialogues that they have already studied in class, personalizing them with information about themselves
• Recording and practicing short monologues on simple topics, such as their daily routines
• Extensive reading (reading a lot for enjoyment), which has been shown to support the development of all four language skills, not just reading—even at very low levels, learners can use simplified books called graded readers (which often include audio versions they can listen to while reading)

English speaking: intermediate learners

At the intermediate stage, when you can already communicate effectively in a wide variety of situations, your goal often shifts toward becoming more fluent and authentic-sounding. In addition to the activities described above, useful things you can do on your own to improve your speaking skills include:

• Listening extensively: Just like extensive reading, listening and watching widely in English also benefits your speaking, because you need a lot of meaningful “input” (messages that you understand) to improve in a language. Choose English language resources like podcasts, videos, and shows that genuinely interest you.
• Taking advantage of opportunities to speak in English: Whether at work, in your studies, or during free time, any chance to use spoken English is valuable. Even interacting with people who have a lower English level than you is beneficial: it will help turn the vocabulary and grammar you understand into language you can actively use in speaking.
• Chatting and posting in English: The language used in text messages, online chats, and forums closely reflects spoken English, so using these platforms will expose you to expressions that can help develop your speaking skills.

Frequently asked questions about how to learn English speaking

How do I find a conversation partner for English speaking?

You can find a conversation partner to help learn English speaking by joining an online language exchange platform.

These platforms connect people who want to practice English with others who want to practice your language. Typically, you’ll spend part of the time speaking in English and part in your language, so both partners benefit.

If your goal is to speak with a native English speaker, it may be difficult to find one who’s learning your language. However, a conversation partner doesn’t have to be a native speaker; what’s important is that they speak English to a high level and meet other requirements (e.g., patience, clear communication, reliability, or shared interests) that make them a good conversation partner.

Choose a platform with strong safety policies. If you’re a young person, make sure you meet the platform’s minimum age requirement and only participate with the permission of your parent or guardian.

You can simulate speaking in English by enabling text-to-speech on your device and having a conversation with QuillBot’s free AI chat.

How can I improve my English pronunciation?

A good way to efficiently improve your English pronunciation and English speaking is to concentrate on pronunciation difficulties that are affecting your intelligibility—that is, the sounds or words that you are pronouncing in a way that can make you difficult to understand.

This involves:

• Noticing occasions when your pronunciation has caused a communication breakdown
• Identifying exactly what caused it (e.g., the sound or word that you mispronounced)
• Listening to and practicing the problem pronunciation feature

For instance, you are a German speaker, and you notice that someone didn’t understand you when you said, “We don’t have enough staff.” You therefore have to explain what you meant to your conversation partner, who tells you that they heard the word “stuff” instead of “staff.”

You then decide to practice hearing the difference between the vowel sounds in these two words by searching for “stuff” and “staff” on YouGlish, and repeating some of the sentences.

Including lots of listening in your English learning activities will help develop your pronunciation.

QuillBot’s Translate is a powerful tool that can help English learners with their self-study.