6 exercises to practise & improve speaking English at home ALONE!

Hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy.

In today's lesson, I'm going to show you how you can improve your English speaking

skills alone.

That's right, just you, yourself, maybe a

smartphone or a computer might help too.

Whether you're a beginner just starting

out or an advanced learner looking to level up your fluency, you're definitely

going to get something out of today's lesson.

To help you further, I've also created a

free PDF that has all of the different exercises broken down for you in a really

clear way and there is a list of additional resources that will help you

get the most out of your daily speaking practice.

If you'd like to download that, just

click on the link in the description box, you enter your name and your email

address, you sign up to my mailing list and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox.

And then after that you've joined my PDF

club, you will automatically receive all of my free weekly PDFs along with all of

my news, course updates and offers.

It's a free service and you can

unsubscribe at any time.

Okay, the exercises and techniques that

I'm going to give you today will definitely boost your speaking skills but

if you want a more structured approach to improving your English, you need to

consider LanguaTalk.

LanguaTalk is a brilliant platform where

you can find ideal teachers to help you improve your target language.

That might be English, it might be Spanish, French, Japanese, whatever.

I started using it, and it was so incredible that I became a part of the

company so technically, that means I'm sponsoring myself in this video.

My husband and I are both using LanguaTalk, I'm learning Italian and Will is learning Spanish.

(Lucy speaking Italian)

(Lucy speaking Italian)

(Lucy speaking Italian)

We love both of our LanguaTalk tutors because they don't just have a deep

understanding of Spanish and Italian, the languages we're learning, but they make

our lessons really fun too.

Because the classes are one-on-one, we

get so much personalised speaking practice.

They teach us things that you just

wouldn't learn in grammar books.

If you would like to learn English or

another language in the same way as us using LanguaTalk, I have got a special

discount for you.

You can get a $10 lesson credit by using

the code SPEAKING10.

Your first trial lesson is usually free

and then you can apply that $10 discount

to the next lesson for the first time with

LanguaTalk.

You activate the code by messaging

the LanguaTalk support team after your first

purchase.

The link and the information are in the

description box. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Okay, let's get back to it.

We will begin our lesson with a really

fun yet effective warm-up: tongue twisters.

These are great for practising those more

challenging vowel and consonant sounds and they are perfect for all levels.

They help you to improve your pronunciation by forcing you to repeat

tricky sounds.

The idea is to start slowly and then

gradually speed up as you gain confidence.

This repetition helps to train your

English-speaking muscles and will get your tongue used to making English sounds.

First up, a tongue twister for beginners, designed to help you practise the voiced

/b/ sound and the unvoiced /p/ sound.

Here it is slowly.

Big bears play before painting pictures.

Notice how my lips close to make the /p/

and /b/ sounds.

In fact, the only major difference

between these two sounds is that /b/ is voiced and /p/ is unvoiced.

When a sound is voiced, your vocal cords vibrate.

Another way to check if you're accurately

making these sounds is to put a piece of paper or a tissue in front of your mouth

like this.

We generally expel more air with unvoiced

sounds, so the paper should move more when you make the /p/ sound and stay still

when you make the /b/ sound.

I look a bit strange doing that, don't I?

Okay, now it's your turn.

Try pausing the video and repeating the tongue twister three times, getting

gradually faster.

Okay, are you ready for the next tongue twister?

Pay attention to the /θ/, /ð/, /s/ and /ʃ/ sounds.

This one is tricky.

The sixtieth sheikh’s sixth sheep’s sick.

Whoa.

Pause the video; try saying that 3 times fast.

How did you find it?

These exercises are a great way to warm

your mouth up and get ready for more speaking practice.

Okay, now I'm going to share some of my favourite methods and exercises that you

can start doing today that will greatly improve your English speaking ability.

I'm going to share activities that are suitable for B1, B2, C1 and C2 levels.

I have got a recommendation for A1/A2 learners.

I have put them in the PDF.

I'm focusing on intermediate to advanced learners today in this lesson.

Let's start with B1 to B2, the intermediate exercises.

The first activity I've got for you is explain it like I'm 5.

This is a really unique challenge.

It's all about clear communication using

simple vocabulary.

You have to pick a complex topic, maybe

something related to one of your hobbies or work, and you have to explain it to a

five-year-old.

The goal is to make your explanation as

simple and clear as possible.

As Albert Einstein once said, if you

can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

So here we are, putting this idea to the test.

This exercise is a fantastic way to

practise using straightforward language and breaking down complex ideas.

It also helps in mastering the art of clear and effective communication.

Try explaining a concept like why is the sky blue in the simplest terms.

You might say the sky looks blue because of how sunlight reflects off the air.

You can also record your explanations, and you could even send them to other people

you know who are learning English to check if they understand.

Give it a try with a topic you're passionate about and we can't practise

speaking in the comments section, but we can practise your communication skills.

I would like you to explain something to me like I'm 5 years old in the

comments section.

I'd like you to take a really complex

topic, break it down, make it simple so that I can understand.

That's your homework for today.

Okay, next activity: storytelling with prompts.

This is great for any creative people out there.

In this activity, you're going to use

random images, objects, or online story prompt generators to spark your

creativity and imagination.

Your challenge is to create and narrate a

short story aloud using these prompts.

You should focus on adding rich details,

vivid descriptions and lively dialogue to build a complete narrative.

This is like the opposite  of the previous activity.

I don't want simple anymore.

I want complex and creative.

This exercise enhances your creative

thinking and helps you focus on creating sentences in narrative tenses, which is

really good if you want to share anecdotes.

You also get a wonderful vocabulary boost.

I've got a great resource for generating story prompts, and I put that in the PDF,

so make sure you download that.

I will give you a quick example.

Let's say the prompt is a mysterious letter in the mail.

Imagine who sent it, why and what happens next.

Narrate your story, incorporating the descriptions of characters, their

feelings and some settings.

easier, you can write a few notes on what you'd like to say before you speak and

then say your story aloud.

To make it slightly more challenging, you

can set a timer for 1 to 2 minutes to give yourself time to think before you speak.

If you want to make it super challenging, start speaking immediately with no prep.

I find this hard in English, I really do, so it is a real challenge.

The next exercise is actually my favourite one in this section.

I strongly recommend keeping an audio diary.

There are so many benefits and let me

explain how it could work first.

It's as simple as making a cup of tea or

coffee, sitting down and having a relaxed chat with your phone.

I know it sounds a little odd but stick with me on this.

Talk about your day; talk about your thoughts or experiences.

It shouldn't be a stressful exercise, it's about practising your English in a

conversational way.

On WhatsApp, you can send messages to yourself.

I send WhatsApps to myself all the time when I want to remember something.

Each day, commit to sending a 1-minute audio to yourself.

It can be really nice to look back over too.

As you narrate your diary, if you stumble

upon a word that doesn't come to mind in English, jot it down in your native language.

At the end of your entry, look up the words using an online dictionary tool.

My favourite is the Oxford Learner’s 

Dictionary and pay attention  to their pronunciation.

Usually, they show both British and American versions of the pronunciation,

which is awesome.

Then you can just try your sentence again

with the new English word!

Another interesting thing that you can do

that can check how easy you are to understand is to use something like your

notes application.

Click on the little microphone icon and

your speech will be dictated in written form while you're recording it.

And this will give you immediate feedback on your pronunciation.

Look, it's not going to give you pronunciation feedback, but it will give

you an indication as to whether you are speaking clearly or not.

If the phone can understand you, that's a good sign.

But remember, don't worry if it doesn't understand you too well.

I love this activity because it's all about integrating English into your daily

life, actively using new vocabulary and expressing coherent, fluent thoughts.

It's practical, it's reflective and it's really beneficial for enhancing your

spoken English.

After a few weeks of audio entries, it

will become a habit and something you kind of look forward to each day.

And the really cool thing is that if you are recording it on WhatsApp or something

like that, you can track your own speaking progress.

You'll be able to listen to your entries from one, two or even six months ago and

see how far you've come.

Let me know if you try this method and

how you find it.

Okay, let's move on to C1 to C2, more

advanced activities.

First up, I want to explore the world of podcasts.

This is an increasingly popular medium for storytelling and sharing ideas.

And I would like you to create your own podcast episode!

Imagine you've been invited onto a podcast to discuss a topic you're

passionate about.

Prepare some questions you expect to be asked about this topic,

then record yourself answering these questions as if you were in a live interview.

This exercise allows you to practise articulating your thoughts clearly on

subjects that you're really enthusiastic about.

And the important thing is to listen back

to your speech.

Alternatively, you could find a podcast

on a topic you really enjoy and you can listen carefully to the interviewer's questions.

Pause after each question and answer it as if you were the interviewee.

This tests not only your comprehension but also your ability to respond

thoughtfully in real time.

It's a good thing to practise in your own

language as well.

Then hit play and listen to the actual response.

My final exercise of the day is an advanced version of the

explain it like I'm 5 activity.

I call it teach it!

Think about a hobby or skill that you're proficient in and imagine that you have

to teach this to someone else, but entirely in English.

It could be anything you do on a regular basis, cooking a specific dish, playing a

musical instrument, practising yoga.

The key is to break down your skill into

teachable, understandable segments.

I used to do this all the time when I was

actively learning Spanish.

You would not believe the amount of

Spanish cooking shows that I have hosted in my kitchen with no one watching,

I sincerely hope.

When you teach something, you have to

understand it deeply and be able to explain it.

Doing this in English will not only expand your vocabulary related to your

hobby, but it will also improve your fluency and your ability to convey

complex ideas clearly.

It's an awesome way to apply your English

skills in a practical, real-world context and the best thing to do is to record

yourself teaching.

It's hard to watch back sometimes, but no

one else has to watch, and you'll really catch errors that you don't even know

you're making.

Okay, that brings us to the end of our

session today.

I hope I gave you some food for thought

on how to practise your speaking alone.

I've only touched on a few exercises

today, I've included a lot more in the PDF, including some lower-level

activities and some more at C1 and C2.

I've also got that list of resources and

links for you to use.

Just click on the link in the description

box to download that.

In the description box, you also have all

of the information on how to access LanguaTalk and claim your $10 discount.

I will see you soon for another lesson.