How to speak English more fluently & fluidly

Hello, everybody. My name is Emma; and in today's video, I'm gonna talk to you

about how to become a more fluent and more fluid speaker. Before I begin

talking about this lesson, I just wanted to thank my friend, Eduardo, from

www.teacheremma.com. Eduardo recommended this video idea, and I think it's a

great one, so thank you for this recommendation. So, what do I mean by:

How to speak more "fluidly" or "fluently"? What do I mean by those

words? Well, when I'm talking about "fluid", I'm talking about the flow of

English. English should sound almost like how water flows; language flows.

So, we're talking about the speed of the language. Am I speaking English too

fast? Am I speaking English way too slow? Maybe there's a lot of pauses, or

moments where I don't say anything. Maybe I don't pause enough. Maybe I

don't breathe when I'm speaking; I try to get everything out as quickly as I

can. Maybe I use words, like: "um", "ah", way too much. So, these all impact

the fluidness or the fluency of our language. So, I'm going to teach you

some tips in order for you to become a more fluid speaker. This will help the

people who listen to you speak understand you better and make it easier

for them to understand your message. So, let's get started with some of my

favourite tips.

The first tip happens to many learners of English. When they're talking,

they're trying to think of a word in English and they can't remember the

word. So, what do they do? Well, sometimes they pause and they say: "Hmm,

what's that word?" And they stop talking. And they become so focused on

remembering that English word that the listener might get annoyed or bored, and

the person just tries to think, think, think — it's not coming. So, this

impacts our fluidness, as well as our fluency. So, what can we do in order to

speak more fluid? Well, if you can't think of a word, describe it. So,

imagine I can't think of the word: "knife". What would I do? I might say:

"Oh, well, it's the thing you find in the kitchen, and you cut vegetables with

it. A lot of the times it has a handle and a silver blade. Oh, I know the word:

'knife'." So, you see what I just did? I talked about what it is used for. I

talked about where we might find this object. I said: "It's in the kitchen".

Thinking about these things can really help you to remember the word, or maybe

the listener will know what you're talking about and will be able to tell

you the word, and guess what it is. So, this is one way to help you when you get

stuck on a word. Sometimes you might be stuck on a word, and this doesn't work.

You might just want to move on, then. Okay? Think about: "Is this word really

that important to this conversation? Can I still get my message across, even if I

can't remember this word?" A lot of the times, it's better to just continue

talking than to get stuck on the word. My second tip is: If you make a mistake

in English, it's okay. Native speakers make mistakes all the time. What a lot

of students do or learners of English do is they get stuck on the mistake.

They'll say, for example... they'll be trying to use the present perfect, and

they might say: "I have got the book. Oh, wait. Is it 'got'? Is it 'gotten'?

Oh", and then they become very focused on the mistake they made, and then they

forget what they're talking about, and the listener sort of stops listening or

is not able to follow the conversation that well. So, if you want to improve

your fluency and your fluidity of English, it's okay to make mistakes. The

main thing is: If it's a little mistake that you can fix really quickly — fix

it. But if it's something that's going to take some time to fix or you need

time to think about how to fix the mistake — just keep talking; leave the

mistake and move on. This will help the listener understand you better. So, if

you make a mistake — continue; or if it's a small mistake that you can

quickly fix — fix it and continue.

My third tip is probably the hardest tip on this list — at least it's hard for me

— and that is: Think before you speak. So, a lot of the times our fluency, or

our fluidity, or our flow of the language... we don't have a good flow,

because we don't know what we want to say. We start talking, and then as we're

talking, we realize: "Oh, I don't know what I'm trying to talk about. I don't

know what I'm gonna say next", and then we start hesitating; we start saying:

"Mm, um, ah". We need to backtrack sometimes; we get confused. So,

sometimes it's a good idea to just take a breath, and think about: "What do I

want to say? What's my main idea?" This will help you with your fluency and

fluidity. Although, I understand — it is hard to do this for some people, like

myself. I also wanted to point out that I used this word: "before". I've written

just a "b" and a four. This is what we use in text messaging. This means:

"before". The reason I put this is I wanted to tell you that sometimes, if

you are doing an interview, or maybe a presentation, and you need to speak...

speak fluently, you might want to take some notes on what you're going to say.

And so, if you're writing notes down, just write the key ideas, and that will

help you speak more fluently, too. So, if I was writing notes, I might use

short forms, like this; instead of writing the full word. So, now let's

look at some other tips that can help you with the flow of your English and

will help you speak more fluently.

Okay, so I just mentioned about how it's good to think about what you want to say

before you say it. My next tip has to do with this. The next tip I wanted to talk

about is the importance of using words, like: "Well, let me think about it",

"That's a great question". We often use these when we're talking, because they

give us time to think. The whole purpose of these three: "Well, let me think

about that", or "Let me think about that for a moment", or "Hmm, that's a great

question" — it allows us to think before we speak. So, I would recommend

memorizing some of these expressions and practice using them. They will give you

more time to think, and then you'll be able to speak more fluently. Saying

something like this is better than just standing there silently. Using these is

also better than just jumping into the topic, and then realizing: "Ah, I don't

know what I'm going to say", and then really confusing what you're trying to

say. So, these expressions are really good to use. My fifth tip is: It's a

great idea to learn common expressions well. Like, memorize the common

expressions. Know them so well that they just automatically come out. By having

language come out automatically, you don't have to think so hard about what

you're trying to say, and that gives you a chance to think about your message.

So, which expressions should you try to learn automatically? Well, that's a

great question. Oh, look, I just used this one — to give myself more time to

think. So, what...? Like I was saying, what are some great expressions? "That

reminds me" is a good expression to use. "If you ask me" — we use this one when

we want to give our opinion. "If you ask me, I think blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. Dogs are better than cats", for example. "As far as I'm concerned" —

again, this means: In my opinion. By memorizing this expression and getting

used to it, it just comes out naturally, and it will become a lot easier to speak

fluently. Here's another expression: "Speaking of". So, there are many

functional expressions in English that we use a lot in conversation. I

recommend choosing some of these expressions, and learning them well so

you can use them when you speak.

Okay. My sixth point has to do with pace. What do I mean by "pace"? Well,

I'm talking about the speed of the language. For this point, I think it's

really important to know yourself. Do you speak too fast? Many students

from... I've noticed many of my students who speak Spanish, Italian, Portuguese —

when they speak English, sometimes they speak faster than native speakers. Or

then I might have students from other countries where they speak very slow.

So, it's a good idea to think about: Do you speak too fast, or do you speak too

slow, or just right? It's also a good idea to know: Is your language choppy?

What do I mean by that? I'll give you an example of "choppy language". I like

pizza. Notice that's choppy; it sounds like I'm cutting each word. Versus: I

like pizza. That has a nice flow to it. So, it's good to know what your language

sounds like. Another point with this is also: Do you have a lot of music or

rhythm in the way you speak, or does your voice sound very flat? Does it

sound like a robot when you talk? It's good to know these things about

yourself, because once you know this, then you can find ways to fix these

issues. And by fixing these issues, you will improve the flow of the language,

your fluency, and your fluidity. Okay. And this is another point: Pausing. It's

also good to know: Do you pause too much or too little? Some people, when they

speak, they don't breathe enough. So, what they do is they take one breath,

and then they try to talk a lot. And then it's hard because they're not

getting enough oxygen, and we need oxygen when we speak. So, are you

pausing too much or too little? That's another question to ask yourself. If you

don't know the answer to these questions, I recommend recording

yourself. You can use your phone and listen to how you sound. So, now, let's

look at some other tips on how to sound more fluid.

So, like everything in life, the way to get better at something is to practice.

So, if you want to become better at speaking fluently, you need to practice

this. So, how can you practice? Well, here's my tip for this: I think it's

very good when students time themselves speaking. So, for example, you can take

a topic — maybe you want to talk about your family or a movie you saw — and

once you choose a topic, what you can do is take your phone and time yourself for

30 seconds. For those 30 seconds, you need to keep talking. You can't stop;

you have to just keep going and going, and say whatever you can on the topic.

Once you're able to do 30 seconds, you can start to try to increase the time

you talk for. Maybe the next time you will talk for 45 seconds, and then maybe

you can do a minute. So, you can start small, and work your way up to more

time. If you're trying to figure out where you can find topics for, you

know... to help you think about things to talk about, you can go to

www.goodluckielts.com. If you click on the "Speaking" tab, they have many

different topics that are on the IELTS, but that are also interesting topics

just to talk about in general. So, I recommend practicing and speaking for

periods of time where you try not to stop, and you really focus on being

fluid in your speech. My seventh tip is related to this. It can also help to

practice speaking in front of a mirror. I think that when you actually watch

yourself speak, sometimes this can make it easier. It's also important to focus

on your body language. Sometimes when we're hunched, like this, and our head

is down — we're more likely to make mistakes and to feel uncomfortable, and

to not speak as fluidly. Versus when we're standing up tall and straight, and

our shoulders are back and we have a good posture — it's easier to speak

fluidly. And part of that is because we're helping our lungs get out more

breath, which helps with speech; but it's also... standing up tall makes us

feel more confident. So, that can help you with the flow of your language as

well.

My next tip is the importance of thinking about: What do you talk about a

lot in English or your own language? Once you think about this, you might

realize: "Hmm, every day I talk a lot about the weather". Or: "I talk about

school, or my family, or my pet dog, or my job, or my plans for the weekend".

Once you start really thinking about: "What do I talk the most about?" you can

focus on building your vocabulary in that area. This will give you a very

focused goal. And by doing this, it will help the flow of your language because

you won't get caught on words or you won't get stuck trying to think of a

word. You'll know the word, because you'll have practiced and you'll have

thought about what you can talk about about the subject, so it will help you

with your flow. My final tip is: Know yourself. What do I mean by this? Well,

when I'm talking, I find that I speak best in the morning. So, anytime I

teach, I try to pick the hardest part of what I need to talk about and I try to

do that first in the morning, because I know that's when I am the most fluid.

That's when I can speak the clearest and the best. Now, after lunch, I know my

English goes down. Okay? After lunch, I'm tired; I start making a lot of

mistakes with what I'm trying to say; I can't think straight. The time I'm the

worst at talking is three pm. I found this out, because I'm always the most

tired around three pm. This is the time I really need a nap. So, if I need to

talk to somebody on the phone fluently, I'm not going to call them at three pm

because I know that's when I'm going to make a lot of mistakes, and I'm going to

say: "Mm, um, ah" a lot. So, I might save those calls, or those

presentations, or whatever it is — those speaking tasks — for when I know I'm

going to be more alert, and when it's easier for me to speak. This also...

nervousness or anxiety can also impact or affect the flow of how we speak. When

we're really nervous about something, we tend to hesitate a lot more; we tend to

say: "um, ah, uh" a lot more frequently. So, one thing you can do is you can

learn how to be less nervous about something. There are different

strategies to help you with being nervous. So, I have other videos on this

topic, and I highly recommend you check them out. But knowing that you get

nervous at a certain time, even with an interview, for example — again, practice

makes perfect. So, that might be a way to help you speak more clearly in those

situations. Sleep. It's important to get a good night's sleep — that will also

help the flow of your language. When we're well-rested, it's easier for us to

speak.

So, thank you so much for watching. You can take our quiz on this topic at

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lot of different resources on all sorts of different topics related to English.

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join my club. So, thank you for watching; and until next time, take

care.