You understand English but can't speak fluently? This is why! (ACTION PLAN!)

- Hello, lovely students.

And welcome back to English with Lucy.

I want to know if you can relate with this.

I can understand English, but I can't speak it fluently.

I receive so many emails and questions from students and the vast majority of them in

one way or another make this same point.

Do you feel that you've spent hours, days, years studying English, but suddenly when

you have to speak you go blank?

The words don't come.

You forget all of your grammar.

You stumble over your pronunciation, and your vocabulary goes down the drain.

To go down the drain is an idiom meaning to disappear.

Well, this lesson is for you.

I am going to help you to break free from your current struggles with spoken English.

And I'm going to help equip you with practical skills to strengthen your confidence in speaking

English fluently.

Now, before I discuss why this happens because we have to know why before we can work to

solve the problem, I also want to mention that there is a free PDF that goes with this

lesson.

It contains the full transcript of the lesson, all of the tips I'm going to give you.

Plus we've highlighted key vocabulary so this lesson won't just improve your English skills.

We can also work on your listening skills, your pronunciation skills, and your vocabulary.

At the end of the PDF, there is a quiz so you can test your understanding.

If you'd like to download that free PDF, click on the link in the description box, you enter

your name and your email address.

You sign up to my mailing list and then the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox and

after that, you've joined the PDF club.

You will automatically receive all of my free weekly lesson PDFs along with all of my other

news, course updates and offers.

It's free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Okay, let's go back to the question.

Why do so many students feel they are able to understand English but they are unable

to speak fluently when the moment arises?

Well, this is mostly related to the fact that understanding a language requires the use

of receptive skills, listening and reading.

Most English learners focus on language input like watching films, YouTube videos, TV shows

all in English.

They listen to English-speaking podcasts, they read books in English to immerse themselves

in the language as much as possible.

This is fantastic.

Lots of us do it and don't stop doing it.

It's a great way to build vocabulary and to gain a better overall understanding of how

the language functions, but, and there's always a but, this doesn't do so much to increase

your fluency when speaking because in contrast, speaking requires the use of productive skills.

You need to take a more active role in your studying and by that I mean practise.

You need to focus more on output using the language rather than just taking it in.

We need to have a good balance between the two but unfortunately, language output can

be much harder to find than language input.

It's not so free and easy to go to an English-speaking country and find a personal English tutor

or find an English-speaking best friend.

This is why I meet so many grammar geniuses, students whose knowledge of grammar is higher

than most native speakers.

However, they just can't speak.

They know all of the theory but when it comes to the practical, they struggle.

Today I have six practical tips for you.

The first one is completely free and that is talk to yourself.

This is something I actively did when I was learning Spanish.

One of the simplest things you can do to increase your output is to talk to yourself and you

can start right now.

It could feel a little bit strange, but it's truly magical how well talking to yourself

works to improve your fluency and fluidity.

Plus, you do it all day long anyway so why not do it in English?

Most of us, not all of us have a little voice in our head when we think.

Some people don't have this but most of us do.

This little voice probably speaks in your native language.

See if you can come up with an English alter ego for your inner voice.

If you can't find that inner voice, you're going to have to speak out loud.

I am watching TV.

I am washing the dishes.

I am picking up the plate.

I am scrubbing it with a sponge.

Hmm, I hope my husband brings home pizza for dinner.

Now, I really recommend speaking out loud because you need to practise creating new

sounds and feeling how words are formed in the mouth but narrating in your head is a

great way to start and it's a good thing to do if lots of people are around you this slight

adjustment can help you significantly increase how much you use English during the day and

it's especially useful if you don't have anyone to practise speaking with and you can't afford

to hire someone to practise speaking with.

Now, I want to make a further addition to this point and this is a way you can supercharge

your vocabulary.

No joke, I used it myself.

This was one of my first videos on YouTube actually was how to drastically increase your

vocabulary because it works.

As you are narrating in your head or out loud, everything you do in your day, watch out for

when there is a specific word or phrase that you just don't know in English.

Keep a vocab diary.

I think back in the day, in my first video, like seven years ago, eight years ago, I told

people to write down in an actual notebook.

Nowadays, there are apps for that.

You can use your notes app you could programme your smartwatch to take in your voice.

For example, what if I'm walking down the street and I realise that I don't know the

word for traffic light in Italian, the language I'm learning.

I would do something like this 'cause I love using my smartphone.

First, I would ask Siri to write it in my notes.

Hey Siri, write traffic light in my notes.

- [Siri] Done.

- Easy as that.

Then I'll ask it to set a reminder at 6 PM for me to go through my new vocabulary.

Hey Siri, set a reminder at 6 PM tonight to translate and review my new vocabulary.

- [Siri] Okay, I've added it.

- Beautiful, so tonight at 6 PM when I've got home, I'll get a reminder to go through

the new vocabulary I've added today.

I haven't had to type a single thing.

It's been such low effort, but I know that every day I'll be expanding my vocabulary

with the words around me that I'm actively noticing that I do not know in English or

whichever language you're learning.

After that, you need to practise using these in sentences out loud.

Okay, that's my free super accessible way of increasing your English output.

Now, let's move on to tip number two.

Talk to a tutor, but this one is incredibly important.

Why is talking to a tutor better than talking to yourself or talking to another English

speaker?

Three things, in my opinion.

You can say to a tutor how you would like the conversation to go and you can reenact

situations in which you felt you failed in the past.

Maybe someone at a networking event asked you what you did for a living and you stumbled

over your words, got flustered and just gave a really oversimplified version of what you

do, a version that did you no justice.

When you hire a one-on-one tutor, you can run through those exact situations so you

never have to struggle like that again.

The next two points are really important too.

Corrections.

You want someone who fully understands the English language, who can accurately correct

you when you make mistakes.

That might be your grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or more importantly, whether you are speaking

clearly and naturally.

I don't recommend aiming for absolute perfection.

Instead, you want everyone to understand what you're saying.

and number three, you're in a safe space with a tutor to request feedback, to make mistakes.

You're not going to be ridiculed, you're not going to feel embarrassed.

A personal tutor is someone who experiences mistakes with English learners all the time.

It's literally their job and because of all of that experience, they can give you targeted

advice to make quick improvements.

Now, let's think back to our school days.

We all had a teacher that we didn't like.

We didn't like them, they didn't like us, we didn't get on.

I had multiple teachers like that.

Some of them absolutely should not have been teaching children when they so obviously hated

children.

So for many students, the fear of finding the wrong tutor gets in the way of actually

finding the right one because unlike school, this is something that you are personally

paying for.

You're making an investment, so to spend an hour with a teacher that you end up not liking,

that's an expensive mistake.

Now, here's where I think I've got a really good solution for you in more ways than one,

two ways actually.

Have you ever heard me mention LanguaTalk before?

This is a company that I liked so much I decided to become a part of it, so technically I'm

sponsoring myself here.

I truly think that LanguaTalk is the best online language tutor platform and this is

how it relates to this lesson.

When you first start browsing through the English tutors on the platform, firstly, you

can rest assured that they are incredible quality.

LanguaTalk has an incredibly strict screening process.

Well below 10% of applicants get accepted onto the platform.

Then you can filter by their availability, the country they're based in for time zone,

the price per hour to make sure it fits with your budget, and also your motivation, whether

you're learning for your career because you're moving to a country, because you want to pass

a specific exam.

Then you'll see all of your suitable tutors appear and every single one of them has a

video.

So you can go through your own filtration process and make sure that it's someone that

you will connect with.

Then you will see this button here and this is really important.

Nearly all of the tutors on LanguaTalk offer a free trial session, so you can make sure

you're right for each other.

That completely eliminates the risk of paying for a session with someone that isn't right

for you.

Then if you want to be extra sure, I'm giving you a $10 lesson credit for free.

To claim that, all you have to do is book your first paid class and then message their

support team with the code 10LUCY.

This code is valid for anyone signing up for their first class from today.

To visit LanguaTalk, to view all of their tutors, to claim your free trial session and

get $10 less in credit for free, click on the link in the description box.

Okay, tip number three involves writing.

One of the best ways to get yourself prepared for speaking in any situation is to write

down what it is you would like to say before speaking.

Take time to write out all of the sentences you plan to say and then practise saying them

aloud.

Now, I don't expect you to carry a notebook around with you and write down everything

you want to say before speaking.

That's just impractical but this is an exercise that can be added to your daily English practise.

The best way to approach this is to think about situations and potential conversation

topics, especially those that interest you because learning English should be fun.

Also, think about questions or opportunities you get frequently.

In English, we use the term an elevator pitch, so this refers to trying to sell something

to someone that you've met in an elevator, that's American English.

It would be a lift in British English.

You've only got a limited amount of time, so you've got to get the message across quickly

and efficiently.

Try to think of elevator pitch versions of your most frequently received questions.

I'm thinking ones like, where are you from?

You might say something like, ah, well, you can probably tell that I'm not from here.

I was actually born in Italy but then I moved to France at the age of four.

I went to college in the US, which is why I speak with a slight American accent.

Write it down, practise it because you know you're going to get asked a lot.

Another one is, what do you do for a living or how did you learn English?

You can begin with simple conversation questions and gradually increase the difficulty level.

This will help to build your confidence and improve your fluency over time.

See, I'm not very good at giving strong opinions so sometimes if I'm going to an event where

I know I'll be asked about a hot topic that's quite divisive, I do prepare in advance.

It helps me to feel more relaxed or less anxious.

I'm not somebody who can just give an eloquent opinion piece straight off the bat.

Straight off the bat means immediately with no preparation.

Hence why we need preparation, written preparation.

It's also a great idea to prepare these written answers and then present them in a tutor session

to ask for their feedback.

So many of my students have come to me with things that they frequently have to defend

almost, like why they are fasting during Ramadan.

That's one question that my students got a lot.

Same with why they wear a hijab, why they are vegan and choose not to consume animal

products, why they chose to leave their country when they love it so much.

There are loads of really difficult questions that you might want to take a step back and

think about to be able to give it a true answer that you're really proud of and comfortable

with.

The biggest one, the one I get most frequently is, of course, self introduction and I have

an entire video about this that I will leave below in the description.

In that video, I explain all of the necessary steps for preparing notes to introduce yourself

confidently and fluently.

Okay, number four, this is something I've said time and time again and I wholeheartedly

believe that it is the correct way forward.

Focus on fluency, not perfection or not accuracy.

Fluency over accuracy every single time.

You need to be understood, not applauded as a grammar genius.

To me, this means that you need to start to feel comfortable making mistakes.

If you avoid speaking with people out of fear of making mistakes, you're going to have nothing

to learn from.

You're starving yourself of opportunities.

No one wants to make mistakes.

It's embarrassing and it can cause us to lose confidence.

Learning and speaking in another language is a very personal, sensitive topic but getting

out of your comfort zone and making mistakes while speaking is genuinely one of the best

things you can do to improve your fluency and if you can, not everyone can, but if you

can, try to have a sense of humour about it.

See this as an opportunity to laugh with yourself, not at yourself, with yourself.

Some of my best anecdotes in Spanish come from the mistakes I made whilst learning Spanish.

I love those stories.

They're so special to me.

They're great ones that I can get out at any dinner party when speaking in Spanish and

I can have the entire room laughing.

I chose not to be embarrassed in the moments where I made those mistakes I chose to take

a step back and laugh at the hilarity of the situation.

Now, I understand it's not that way for everyone.

I learned Spanish because I wanted to learn Spanish.

I liked Spanish, I like learning it, but lots of people learn English because they feel

they have to.

They cannot progress in their life until they have acquired the skill of speaking English.

So I understand how it's a bit harder to laugh at yourself when you don't even want to be

learning the language in the first place.

So at the very least, see it as an excellent learning opportunity, and the good news is

that most English speakers and other English learners are usually pretty willing to help

when you need it.

You just have to ask.

If I talk to a non-native speaker and they make lots of mistakes, I will not correct

them unless they ask me to.

So if you do want those corrections, you can say, "By the way, if I make a mistake, you

can let me know."

And then to go back to point one, I really suggest that you keep a notebook or your smartphone

ready to take notes whenever you receive a correction or just after you receive the correction

so that you can review the information later.

Number five is not for everyone but it works really well for some students, and I've seen

it in action and it's awesome.

It's shadowing.

Shadowing means copying other English speakers.

It's imitation.

When you are purposefully learning new words or just casually watching a video, repeat

what you hear.

You don't need to be thinking about sentence structure or verb tenses or grammar in general.

Just repeat the words and sounds.

By repeating the words and phrases, you're activating your mind so that you can obtain

new information, understand the speaker more easily, improve muscle memory for forming

words and practise natural word stress and pronunciation.

I've noticed a few of my students involving me in shadowing.

They take videos, normally the short one-minute videos I post on TikTok or Instagram and the

video is of me but it's their voice in the background.

They listen to the video and then they try to repeat exactly what I say in the exact

way I said it.

Again, it's not for everyone but it's really effective if you do want to try it.

It's a big topic, so let me know if you would like a lesson on shadowing or I can guide

you through it and I'd be more than happy to put that together for you.

Just let me know.

If there's no interest, I won't bother.

And number six, this one is fantastic.

It's something I make all of my students do at the start of our pronunciation courses.

It is to record yourself speaking.

Have you ever heard a recording of yourself speaking in your own language and felt really

surprised at how you actually sound?

I had this, I used to make radio shows when I was a child recording onto tapes, so vintage,

and then CDs.

Yeah, CDs after, and I was amazed at how different my voice sounded.

I always thought I sounded much posher than I felt and this disassociation with your own

voice and the way you sound is really important when learning another language.

I hear my voice all the time now because I'm constantly making YouTube videos and recording

course videos and audios.

The first couple of times hearing and watching myself back, I felt so embarrassed, and I

cringed a lot at how formal and so British I sounded, but now I feel really confident.

I know exactly what I'm gonna sound like.

It's no surprise to me.

I also sometimes review my videos and think I was speaking a bit quickly there or I was

speaking far too quietly or I mispronounced this word without realising it.

I really think it's important for you to record yourself so that at the very least, you start

to become comfortable with how you sound.

Then you can also start noticing things that you can improve on.

Additionally, it's a fantastic benchmark because where you are now is hopefully going to be

the worst you'll ever be.

Your English will only get better as you study more and more.

Hopefully in a year's time, you can play the recording that you'll surely take after this

lesson and think, oh my word, bless me.

I was trying so hard, but I've improved so much since then.

In my pronunciation programme, we invite the students to read a text featuring the majority

of the sounds in English and the features we teach in the programme.

They record, they can post it in the group or they can keep it privately, and then they

record again at the end of the 12-week programme to notice the difference.

And this is so important because sometimes you improve just simply without realising

it.

So this is my little challenge to you and it includes point three actually, which involves

writing down your frequently asked questions.

Choose a frequently asked question, probably your self-introduction or what you do for

a living.

Record yourself reading it, save it somewhere where you know you'll be able to access it

again and then set yourself a reminder for one year from today.

In one year's time, I'd like you to record that same text again and see how much you've

improved.

Then will you promise me one thing?

You will come back to this video in one year's time and let me know whether you noticed a

difference.

Okay, that is it for today's video.

That was a long one so don't forget to download the free PDF, which contains the full transcript.

You can use it for your listening practise.

We highlight all of the key vocabulary.

We give you the definitions, examples and the pronunciation, and we also have a quiz

at the end.

Very important for testing if you've truly retained what you've learned.

And don't forget about that LanguaTalk offer.

Click on the link in the description box.

You can browse all of the amazing English tutors, watch their videos, find out if they're

right for you.

Then you can book in your free 30-minute trial session and you can claim your free $10 lesson

credit on your first paid lesson by messaging the support team with 10LUCY.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.

I've got my Instagram, I've got my Facebook and I've got my website Englishwithlucy.com

where I've got loads of extra lessons, written lessons and I've got my free pronunciation

tool.

It's an interactive phonemic chart where you can click on the phonemes and words that contain

the phonemes and hear me pronounce them.

It's a lot of fun.

I've also got all of my courses, including my B1 programme, my B2 programme and my C1

programme comes out on the 15th of May.

I'll see you soon for another lesson.

Mwah.