5 English Conversation Tips | How to improve your communication skills*

hello and welcome back to english with

Lucy today I wanted to talk to you

well actually I wanted to have a chat

with you just a casual informal

conversation about how to improve your

conversation skills so I recently asked

all of my students on facebook and

instagram what sort of videos they'd

like to see in the near future because i

have had a little bit of a rest recently

but I'm back in the game now and most

people wanted to see more grammar videos which

will definitely be coming soon more

vocabulary videos and also tips on how to

improve their spoken english and also

their listening skills now I've

already done a video on listening which

you can watch just up here but I haven't

done a video on conversation yet so

that's what I'm going to do today but i

am going to provide you with some real

vocabulary and some very useful grammar

so I've squished everything that you

wanted into one video alright let's get

started with tip number one number one

is be aware of the sounds that you make

when you think if you want to sound more

native when speaking and not offend

anyone when speaking then you need to

think like an Englishman when I was in

Spain I was quite surprised when i first

had proper conversations with people

because they would be talking to me and

then suddenly say eeeeeeeeh and I would think what was that

that's quite loud mouth right open eeeeeeh and

in the UK it's considered impolite have

your mouth open in somebody's face so

when we think about what we're going to

say next in a conversation we tend to

say ummmm or hmm

so we tend to hum with our mouths closed

so try practicing at home if you see any

interviews of British celebrities and

personalities check to see what sort of

noises they make when they are thinking

about how to respond to a question

the next tip is be aware of

interjections now what are interjections

well they are short little expressions

that express how you are feeling so if I

say something like oh it means i'm

interested maybe I haven't heard that

before

maybe on a bit surprised oh and if I say

something like hmm it could mean I don't

quite believe you

the people from the UK of less inclined

to tell you exactly what they think and

more inclined to tell you through

interjections and body language if you'd

like more information on interjections

like oh right yuck eww then i can

definitely make a video all about them

it really is good to know them because

it will help you understand what speaker

thinking and also convey what you are

thinking as well tip number four (three) is

learn to use question tags properly now

what are question tags they are short little

questions that go at the end of

sentences things like you're not married

are you?

or he didn't go did he? or you like tea

don't you?

now they can mean two different

things they can be a genuine question or

they can be almost a request for

confirmation of something that the

speaker already knew

you're very tanned you've been on holiday

haven't you

I know that they've been on holiday

I'm just asking for confirmation now

question tags are very simple to form and

use if you have a positive statement you

are coming then you'd add a negative

question tag on the end aren't you you

are coming aren't you

and if you have a negative sentence she

didn't say

that then you add a positive question

tag at the end did she she didn't say

that did shee right now we've spoken a

little bit about noises a bit of

vocabulary and a bit of grammar that you

can use to improve your conversation

skills

well now I'd like to talk about some

real hardcore practice so when I was

working as a private English teacher a

lot of people wanted conversation

lessons and they would come in and say I

just want to talk which is great but I

had a small handful of students that

really knew how to improve their

conversation skills and I actually

learned from them i had a couple of

students come in and say I want

conversation lessons but I want to practice my

story and this was great they would come

in with a handful of stories that they

would tell on a daily basis maybe where

you're from

why you're living in London something

funny that happened to you onholiday

something that they like to tell they

like to be interesting they like to be

funny in group situations it's good to

have a few stories up your sleeve

well they would come to me and i would

ask to practice them and perfect them

so they could tell their stories

fluently and efficiently and make people

laugh and make people feel interested

and make people enjoy their company so i

really really recommend that apart from

practicing your conversation you

practice your stories you go over them

again and again and again until you have

them sorted until they're perfect and fluent

and natural more than anything

now you guys already know that I work

with a company called Lingoda if you

haven't seen my review video for Lingoda

you can find it just up here and this is

a website that i really would

recommend if you want to practice your

conversation because every single one of

their lessons encourages speaking you

sign up on a monthly basis and you have

a mixture of group lessons and private

lessons and the great thing about it is

with the private lessons you can choose

the topic that you want you can say

right today I want to practice my

stories and they will organise that for

you

so they've given me another discount

voucher to offer you you can get 50 euros or

fifty dollars off your first

month at Lingoda if you're interested

in that offer click on the link in the

description box now my final tip for you

is reflection

it's all very well going to a language

exchange and speaking and speaking and

speaking but if you don't reflect on

your mistakes you're never going to

improve so after every single

conversation that you have in a language

that you're trying to learn

make sure you take some time afterwards

to think back and ask yourself where was

i lacking and there could be a multitude

of answers I didn't know enough

vocabulary to properly express myself or

my listening skills weren't strong enough

to fully understand my partner or I was

telling a story and I wasn't comfortable

enough with the past tenses to tell it

accurately so make sure you analyze and

reflect and then do some research about

it so you can practice what you lacked

in in the last conversation now the

world is your oyster here on YouTube you

just have to type in question tags

interjections past tenses and there will

be some lovely person teaching you

exactly how to use it

you have just got so many dictionaries

apps online schools there is everything

that you need to help you here online

so make sure you take advantage of it

that's it for today's lesson I hope you

enjoyed it I hope you learnt something

don't forget to connect with me on all

of my social media you've got my Instagram and

my facebook where I host a free live

pronunciation lesson every sunday at

four thirty gmt more information on the

facebook page i will see you soon for

another lesson i've got lots of grammar and

vocabulary videos coming out soon

I can't wait to show you them mwah!