7 Steps to Become a Confident English Speaker

- How can you become a confident speaker of English?

Let's find out.

(cheerful music)

Listen, there's a myth going around about confidence.

Yeah, confidence, well, you either have it or you don't.

And if you are shy, bad luck.

And that is nonsense. It's just not true, right?

I am a very shy person, really,

but I can do some things really confidently.

I can teach online confidently.

I can speak Spanish confidently. Why?

Because I believe confidence is a skill you can develop.

It's a skill anybody can develop.

Oh yes, and who are you?

Oh yeah, by the way,

I'm Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy,

and this YouTube channel, English Speaking Success.

So listen, how then do you develop

your confidence when speaking English?

Well, let me ask another question.

Why do people lack confidence in any situation?

Either because you are in a new situation,

so you lack experience in that situation,

maybe 'cause you are not well prepared,

often the challenge is too big in a new situation,

and also you may not have the tools

you need to handle nerves,

which make you also lack confidence.

So in this video, I'm gonna show you seven specific things

you can do to build your confidence as an English speaker.

Ready? Let's go.

(air whooshes)

Practice. Okay, so we've said confidence is a skill.

So you can build experience by continually practicing.

Practice speaking.

You can practice on your own with family, with friends,

with classmates, with speaking partners.

If you like, you can practice with a teacher.

You can jump onto a platform like Preply and find a teacher.

If you are in the GOLD course,

you know we have the breakout rooms every day

where students can practice with each other,

so you can practice with other students.

One tip is practice first one-on-one

to build your confidence and then practice in small groups.

It's more difficult with more people, right?

Also, to build your confidence

when speaking with other people, practice with people

who are just below your level of English.

Helps you build your confidence.

If you wanted to build your vocabulary,

then practice with people just above your level.

But to build confidence,

practice with those below your level.

And when I say practice,

I don't actually only mean practice speaking.

Also practice your mindset, right?

Think about being confident.

A big problem I think for many students

who come to me as they say,

"Oh, Keith, my English is so poor, my English is so bad."

And I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, stop,

change your mindset, your English is not bad.

Your English is weak, and that's fine, but it's not bad.

There's nothing wrong with that.

You need to change the words,

we need to change the words we are using

and change the mindset."

But it's not just you think,

"Oh, I'm confident," and you are confident.

No, you need to practice thinking that you are confident.

Practice it more and more.

Practice your mindset as well as speaking.

You know what?

There's another myth out there,

which is that you only become a confident speaker

when you are an advanced speaker.

And again, that is so frustrating

'cause it's nonsense, right?

You can be an A1, beginner,

and still be a confident speaker.

Really, I'm gonna show you

or give you an example very, very shortly.

For now, let's move on to number two.

(air whooshes)

Number two, be prepared.

So when you're gonna face a new situation,

it's always good to be prepared

and that will bolster your confidence.

It can be anything from reviewing some vocabulary,

thinking about what you're going to say,

have some ideas, any kind of preparation,

get your mindset ready.

Here's an example, right?

And this goes back to the myth

about confident speaker being an advanced speaker.

I literally speak about three words of Italian, right?

I can say hello, goodbye, and thank you.

I'm really an A1 level, if that, of Italian.

Last week, the other week I was in Italy on holiday.

My daughter got sick.

She had a cold, which she then gave to me,

but, so we had to go to a chemist

or a pharmacy to get some medicine.

So I was going to the pharmacy, right?

And before I walked in, I just stopped and thought,

"Can I do this in Italian, right,

with the little Italian I know?"

I mean, I love Italian, right?

I listen to Italian...

I watch Italian TV shows, TV series.

I watch Italian films. I love listening to Italian.

So I've got a lot of kind of background knowledge,

but I just can't speak.

So I got prepared.

Before walking in, I checked the word

on Google Translate, a cold, (speaking Italian).

Okay, that's... And then I checked a sore throat.

(speaking Italian) Okay.

And I got my first sentence ready

and I walked into the shop, right?

Luckily, there was no one else in.

I was first in the queue.

And I just went up and said (speaking Italian).

"Hello, do you speak English?"

And she went, "Mm-mm."

(Keith speaking Italian)

And she goes and she starts saying (speaking Italian).

And then I said (speaking Italian).

She was like, "You are Italian's brilliant."

And it wasn't, it was rubbish,

but I was confident, I was so confident.

And I got through this conversation,

getting the medicine that we needed for my daughter

all because I did some preparation.

So that's it.

But imagine if I hadn't prepared,

imagine if I just walked into the shop

and began, "Oh, do you speak English?

No? Oh, okay.

So daughter, how do I say daughter?

Oh no, what's the word for cold?

Achoo. Oh you..."

And it would be a disaster.

I would lose all confidence.

The person in the shop would lose confidence in me

to be able to communicate, and who knows?

And it's the same when you are speaking English, right,

even when you're doing IELTS.

So in conversations, be prepared.

But for IELTS, be prepared, right?

Be familiar with the topics that are gonna come up.

Get some basic vocabulary that you're going to need.

Be familiar with some strategies that can help you.

Be prepared.

And now, number three.

(air whooshes)

Number three, set small goals.

One of the biggest reasons

I think that students lose confidence

is that they have these huge goals, right?

The biggest mistake students make is they say to me,

"Keith, I want to be a native speaker.

Or I want to be like a native speaker."

That's a ridiculous goal and an unnecessary goal.

Why do you want to be like a native speaker?

You really don't need to be.

And very, very few people, very few

are going to reach that goal.

What will happen to most people

is they get demotivated, they lose confidence

'cause they can't even get close to that goal.

It's like some students who say,

"Well, I wanna go from a band 5 to a band 7 in one month."

It's not gonna happen.

Set yourself small goals

because confidence comes from having a goal,

reaching the goal, being successful,

and moving on to the next one,

and doing this repeatedly, again and again and again,

and you get more confident.

So when it comes to your English speaking practice,

what you could do, right,

is have some very small, simple goals.

Let's say the first goal is I'm gonna join a speaking group,

for example, in the GOLD course, our breakout rooms.

I'm gonna join the breakout rooms.

Number two, I'm gonna participate for one minute,

but I'm only gonna listen.

That's fine.

Next goal, I'm gonna participate for a few minutes

and I'm actually gonna introduce myself.

And then the next goal.

And you make these little goals for yourself

and that's how you build confidence.

Right? Let's move on.

(air whooshes)

Number four, have tools to handle your nerves.

Being nervous is one of the biggest crushes of confidence.

And you need to have tools to handle your nerves, right?

Several things I do.

The first one is what I call the strong first line,

is whenever you're gonna speak English

or be in a situation where you speak English,

have your first line ready.

I always tell my IELTS students, in IELTS Speaking Part 2,

when you have that minute to prepare

and you're about to begin speaking,

have your first line prepared,

'cause that will really boost your confidence.

Do you remember in the Italian shop, in the chemist,

and I walked in and I said (speaking Italian),

I had that first line ready.

I did not walk in the shop and go eh, eh, um, um, no.

And the confidence starts to build

as you carry on like that.

The other thing to do is, well, is to accept your nerves.

The problem is for most people, when they feel nervous,

their exams coming or they're gonna speak

to other students or to an examiner, they feel nervous,

and then that nervous makes 'em anxious and they feel bad,

"Oh no. Oh, I feel nervous.

Oh no, it's all going wrong."

And that makes the nerves grow bigger.

And it's a vicious cycle going down.

The difference between successful people

is that they accept the nerves.

You don't fight against them, because the truth is,

and having presented for a long, long time,

the nerves never go away.

Ask any actor or presenter.

The nerves are always there.

It's how you handle them that makes the difference, right?

Accept your nerves.

So when you start feeling nervous,

just go, "Okay, I can feel nervous.

My stomach, there are butterflies in my stomach.

Okay, that's okay, that's fine."

And see what happens.

Just be in the moment and feel your nerves.

Allow them to be. Don't fight them.

It can make all the difference, right?

The other thing you can do

is what people call positive self-talk.

And it's basically changing the words

that we use to talk about yourself.

So as I mentioned before, some people say,

"I'm bad at English or My English is so bad,

I can't do this."

When you notice this negative talk,

just change it to something positive, right?

Change it to something like, maybe I can do this.

I'm going to enjoy this.

This is going to be exciting.

Whatever happens, it's okay.

And this more positive self-talk

is just another way to handle your nerves.

Remember, the nerves don't go away,

so just let them be and get on with it,

so to speak, enjoy it.

Right, good, let's move on to the next one.

(air whooshes)

Focus on communication, right?

Forget about perfectionism.

So many students when they speak English,

they try to speak perfect English to get everything right,

and then of course they don't.

Of course you're gonna make mistakes,

and then you feel disappointed and then you lose confidence

'cause you're making mistakes, right?

Forget about that perfectionism.

Focus on communication when you are speaking.

Focus on communicating your idea,

your personality, your emotion.

This is what language is for, right?

Really it's about communicating who you are to other people.

Focus on that communication.

As we say in English, get your idea across.

That is gonna help you build your confidence,

'cause as you communicate, well, you'll see that it's easier

for the other person to follow you,

it's easier for them to understand you

and interact with you.

And you'll feel the conversation just getting better

and that you'll feel more confident.

Whereas the student who's trying to be perfect

and is taking much longer and much more hesitant

and annoyed when they make mistakes,

the communication just rockets right down.

So focus on communication, forget perfectionism.

(air whooshes)

Number six, like your mistakes.

I don't mean like Facebook like.

I mean like as in accept or embrace or love your mistakes.

Mistakes are a natural part of language learning, okay?

So it's okay to make mistakes.

Similar to the last point about communication.

When you're communicating,

don't worry if you make one or two small mistakes.

And when you do make mistakes, notice them,

but just say, "It's fine, it's okay."

Don't get angry with yourself.

Be kind to yourself, yeah?

But also, it is important,

don't carry on making lots of mistakes.

Don't think, "Well,

Keith says I can make mistakes, it's okay."

This is not what I mean.

Of course you're gonna try to improve

to make fewer mistakes.

Of course, don't just accept lots of mistakes, notice them.

Maybe you'll self-correct, maybe not.

If the person you're speaking to,

they will tell you if the mistake is big, right?

If they say, "Listen, I don't understand

what you're saying," there is too many mistakes, okay?

So notice your mistakes, take on board the feedback,

and over time strive to get better and better.

But in the moment, don't worry about your mistakes,

just let them be.

Love them, embrace them.

It's a natural part of language learning,

and this is gonna help build your confidence as well.

Great. Let's move on to the last but not least.

(air whooshes)

Okay, finally, guys, don't compare.

The guaranteed way to destroy your confidence

is to compare yourself to other people.

You don't need to do it. It doesn't help you, right?

So maybe, I don't know,

some students will look at other students and go,

"Oh, they've already got their band 7.

Oh, they're so good.

Oh, they speak so clearly. I'm so bad.

And why am I not like them?"

You know, and then you get people on Facebook saying,

"I got a band 8 with two weeks preparation."

Don't believe everything you read.

It's not that they're lying,

but maybe they're not telling you everything.

Maybe they're not telling you that they've lived in America

for four years before they took the test, right?

So you don't know other people's situation.

Everybody's language learning journey is unique

to you, to that person,

so it's futile comparing yourself to others.

And what's more, it doesn't help you.

Compare yourself to you,

yesterday, last week, and last month,

and look at the progress you're making.

Be blinkered, right? Put these blinkers on.

Don't look at anybody else, just focus on you,

'cause at the end of the day,

that's the only thing you can change.

You can't change anybody else,

you can only change you, so focus on you,

compare yourself to yourself in the past and the future.

That's the way to do it.

That's how you can build up your confidence

and become a confident English speaker.

So there you have it,

seven tips or ideas on how to build your confidence

and to be a confident speaker of English.

In fact, I think you can use these ideas

to do anything confidently,

not just speaking English, right?

Whether you wanna present, speak in public,

buy medicine in an Italian pharmacy,

or do the IELTS test, whatever it may be,

I hope these can help you.

Let me know in the comments below which tip

or idea you found to be the most useful for you.

And I'd love to hear more about the challenges that you have

when you are speaking English

and trying to speak more confidently.

So that's it.

You may have noticed in this video

sometimes I talked about the breakout rooms

and the GOLD course.

Well, if you are preparing for the IELTS Speaking test,

the GOLD course is a course I have on my website,

the Keith Speaking Academy.

And it's a course that is designed

to help you develop your speaking skills in a fun way

so that you can face the examiner with confidence

and ace the IELTS Speaking test.

A lot of students on the course

are actually not taking IELTS,

but because the course is focused

on developing speaking skills,

it's open to absolutely anybody.

All you need is an intermediate level of English

to begin the course.

The breakout rooms are daily sessions

where two or three students just meet together.

It's all organized.

They meet without me,

and they practice speaking to each other.

And they tell me, it really does help build their confidence

'cause they get to do something they don't normally do

and they get to speak to people from across the world.

And just they're learning this cultural,

mutual understanding, as well as great communication skills.

So that is something I have.

It's a part of the GOLD course.

If you wanna find out more about the course,

just follow the link below.

You can find out all about it.

And that's it. I hope you've enjoyed this video.

Do leave me a like, subscribe,

if you want to find out about upcoming videos.

And I will see you, well, in the next video

coming along just around the corner.

Thank you so much for watching.

Take care my, friend. Bye-Bye.

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