5 Ways to Practice Speaking English Alone

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on five ways to practice

speaking by yourself. Another way to put this is solo speaking practice. So, in this video,

I will give you five things that you can do to help you practice your speaking even though you

are by yourself and even though you don't have a speaking partner or you are not in an English

class or you don't have a private teacher, just because you don't have someone to speak with

doesn't mean that you can't exercise your speaking muscles by yourself. So, that's what

we are going to talk about in this video. And before I start, if this is your first time

watching something from my channel, make sure to like the video, share it, and subscribe to my

channel. That's all for now. Let's start with number one. Shadowing. Another way to say shadowing

is mimicking or perhaps listening and repeating. So, you can watch videos, you can listen to audio

recordings, you can listen to dialogues, you can watch and listen to movies and TV shows, you can

listen to what people are saying, and repeat. Basically, pause, rewind, and repeat. Repeat the

intonation, repeat the pronunciation as well. This is a way to help you practice and to see

how the language is supposed to sound or if you... Another way to think about it is to think about

how you, you, excuse me, how you want to sound. So, maybe you have found a good role model that

you want to emulate, that you want to mimic or shadow. So, for example, if you enjoy the sound

of my voice, for example, you can watch some of my videos, pause them, repeat after me, listen.

How does my voice sound? How is my intonation? Am I going up or am I going down at the end of

my sentences? So, listen and repeat. Shadowing. This is a good way to make sure that you are

getting a model for how the language is supposed to sound or how you want to speak.

Let's go on to number two. Reading out loud. Pick a book. Pick an article. Pick a paragraph.

Anything at all that will help you to read and to exercise your speaking muscles. Reading out loud

is great because it allows you to pay attention to the structure of the language you are studying.

You can slow down. You can learn and practice the correct forms. You can look at, "Oh, okay,

what tense is this? Oh, I can use this word here? Oh, okay." So, you are forcing yourself to speak

correctly if the writing is good, of course. So, for example, you might pick up a book like

this one. So, lately, I have been reading The Art of Living, which is a philosophical book by

Epictetus. I mean, it's not in the original Greek. So, you could pick up a book like this and read,

"Okay, nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will

is always within your control." Good advice. Good advice. So, read out loud. Practice your ability

also to decode words. And let's move on to number three. Visualizing. So, in this situation,

you want to imagine real situations where you would use English. You would practice

what you would say in a particular context, a particular situation. So, for example,

you can imagine yourself speaking to someone while you are ordering a coffee. Like, imagine

you are ordering a coffee, for example. Or, imagine you are making an appointment with the

doctor. What would I say in that situation? "Oh, okay. I'd like to make an appointment." Or,

"I'd like to make a reservation." If you're calling a hotel, for example. "For two nights,

please." Okay? Even short sentences like this will help you to continue stretching your muscles,

exercising your speaking muscles. It's all about practice. So, visualize your situation,

put yourself in that moment, and yes, you will feel a little funny, but that's okay.

You will get used to it after a little while. So, I do the same thing in French from time to time.

My French still is not great, but sometimes I talk to my walls, you know? So, "Un verre d'eau,

s'il vous plaît." Yeah. The wall will get me a glass of water, I hope. Okay. So, visualize your

situations and just speak. Imagine that you are in those situations. What would you say?

Next, number four, singing a song or singing a song. Not bad. Okay. So, I know many people

who learn English or who become interested in learning English because they love English music

or they love English films, which you can learn with by shadowing. And this is a form of shadowing,

but if you sing a song, basically studying, you study it and you memorize the words. A song you

like, preferably, so you're okay singing it. And then sing your heart out with the song that you

have learned. Again, you're practicing speaking, you're practicing singing, another skill that you

can practice. And the bonus benefit is that you are also getting exposure to English culture.

When you are learning a language, it also helps if you start, like, living the language. And one

of the ways that you can really start living a language is by learning about the culture around

that language. Music is a big part of every culture. So, learn some English music, find out

what you like, and memorize it, study it, sing it, let it become part of you. And that is another way

that you can practice your English speaking and exercise your English speaking muscles.

We only have one more to go. So, here it is. Number five, practicing poems and monologues.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Alex, poetry. Alex, theater. Okay, number one for the monologues,

it doesn't have to be theater. It could be a monologue from a movie. If you google famous

movie monologues, you can find videos as well as the transcript for the monologue. So, for example,

now again, I don't actually feel this way. If you've ever seen the movie Taken with Liam Neeson,

right, you can memorize the monologue where he says, "I don't know who you are. I don't know

what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you that I don't have money." Look at that,

"I don't have money. I'm practicing the present simple." It's beautiful. "But what I do have are a

very particular set of skills." This is more like Batman than Liam Neeson. "Skills I have acquired

over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my

daughter go now, that'll be the end of it." I'm going to read till the end. "I will not look for

you. I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you. I will find you, and I will

kill you." It's terrible. Sorry for that last part. Okay, but that's an example of a movie monologue.

And just like I mentioned at the beginning of the video, it's another way of shadowing. My Liam

Neeson impression is probably pretty bad, but if you enjoy Liam Neeson's voice, if you enjoy the

way he says things, the way his intonation goes, you could try to memorize a monologue like that

to help you get a sense of the intonation and rhythm of the language, to practice speaking

with emotion so that you're not just reading saying, you know, "I would like to go to Spain."

Like, that's all you're reading, right? Practice speaking with emotion. "Shadow videos of others

reading poems and monologues." So one of my favorite poems, I think I've mentioned it on this

channel many times, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. I used to know almost that entire poem by heart,

and I can still say, like, part of it in the beginning, like, "Once upon a midnight dreary,

while I pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

suddenly there came a rapping, no, suddenly there came a tapping, no, suddenly there came a rapping,

as of someone gently tapping, tapping at my chamber door. Ah, distinctly I remember,

it was in the bleak December." And it keeps going. I know a little more than that.

But just an example of a poem that you can learn. Maybe not that one, there's a lot of

older language in that one, but memorizing poems, memorizing monologues, getting emotion into your

English while you were speaking is a great way to help you exercise your English speaking muscles.

That's everything, guys. So let me know in the comments what you thought about this video.

Number one, let me know if you have practiced English speaking in one of these ways. And number

two, are there other things that I haven't mentioned in this video that you have tried

and that have worked for you to help you practice your speaking? Let me know. And if you enjoyed

this video, make sure to like it, share it, subscribe to my channel. And until next time,

thanks for clicking, good luck with your English speaking, and go practice. Go, go.