Why you understand English but CAN'T speak fluently (ACTION PLAN)

Hello my fabulous students.

I have a question for you.

Do you understand English  but struggle to speak it?

Does your mind go blank?

Do you forget your words?

Well, don't worry, because today I'm  going to share five steps to help you  

improve your English speaking so you can  both understand and speak in English.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

Make sure you watch until the end because I'm  

going to share a free resource to  help you practice speaking alone.

Even if you don't have a partner,  you can use this resource.

Now let's get started with step number one.

Learn phrases instead of words.

When you're listening, you don't  have to understand the the entire  

sentence or phrase to understand the meaning.

You can hear individual words within  an idea and understand what it means.

Let's say I have this big long  sentence and all you hear is go store.

Now you will understand the  meaning just with those words,  

but when you're speaking,  that's not really the case.

Sure, you can say go store now,  but you'll sound like an infant.

You won't sound very professional and you won't  feel very confident simply sharing Go store now.

So when you're learning new vocabulary,  it's really important that you learn  

how to use that individual word  within a complete sentence so you  

can communicate that entire idea rather  than just know the word of that idea.

So a student might learn the expression to  run late and know that it means to be late.

But in speaking, you can't just say run late,  you need to share that in an entire sentence.

So you need to study and  practice Sorry I'm running late,  

which is how a native speaker most  commonly uses this expression.

Step 2, Practice different structures.

The example I just shared.

Sorry I'm running late.

This is in the subject I and this is how  most students practice their vocabulary.

And even when I record videos  and I share example sentences,  

I notice that most of my examples  use the subject I I consciously  

have to remember to use other subjects  because it's more common for us to use I.

But you need to practice all  subjects in order to feel confident,  

communicating and improving your speaking skills.

Same with verb tenses.

Most students just practice with the  present simple and maybe the past simple,  

but you need to practice with  the most common verb tenses.

You need to practice question form.

You need to practice negative form as well.

So instead of just practicing, sorry  I'm running late, practice that, but  

also practice other subjects and other structures.

For example, Janice is running late  and then what would normally come next?

Maybe a statement like she'll be here soon.

Notice the future.

Simple.

So you're practicing your one expression  to run late, but now you already know how  

to use it with different subjects  and different verb tenses as well.

Step three, practice writing.

Yes, this video is on how to  improve your speaking skills.

But writing is such an important practice because  

you must write in full sentences and  it gives you the chance to think so.

Writing is your study time,  whereas speaking is the active use.

You're doing it instantly, but if you write  enough and you get comfortable writing,  

practice sentences, different subjects, different  verb tenses, question form, negative form.

If you write all of those examples,  

it will really help your brain remember  them and you practice, practice, practice.

It will give your brain the repetitions it needs.

So when you are in a conversation  and you can't hesitate,  

you need to instantly open your mouth and speak.

You've done the practice by writing,  writing, writing, which helps your  

brain remember that information and use it  instantly when needed when you're speaking.

So practice writing to improve your speaking.

Step four, practice speaking.

So we just talked about practicing your  writing skills, which are extremely important.

But you also need to practice your speaking.

Yes, you can do this alone.

Yes, you can do this when you're living  in a non-english speaking country.

Yes, you can do this any time of  day because you have your mouth.

You can open it and start speaking.

It is a myth that you need someone to hear the  

words that you're saying in  order to practice speaking.

Right now I'm recording this  video and nobody is in this room.

Do you think by recording these  videos week after week after week,  

I'm improving my presentation skills?

I'm improving my ability to communicate  without pausing, without hesitating?

I'm improving my ability to communicate concisely.

I'm improving my body language.

I'm improving so much by recording  these videos every single week.

And guess what?

Nobody is in this room with me.

I am alone.

So you can absolutely practice  your speaking anytime of day,  

no matter where you live, and no matter  if you have a speaking partner or not.

It doesn't matter.

Open your mouth and start speaking.

And don't worry, because in just  a minute I'm going to share a free  

resource to help you when you're speaking alone.

But first, let's move on to step #5.

Focus on the other person.

A lot of students feel very shy and nervous,  very self-conscious about their accent,  

their pronunciation, their  grammar, their vocabulary,  

their mistakes when they're speaking with  other people, especially native speakers.

But do you know what this tells me?

It tells me that during that conversation,  that student is focused on themselves.

They're thinking about their accent,  

their grammar, their ronunciation,  how they look, how they sound.

Isn't this a little selfish?

When we're having a conversation,  

shouldn't we be focused on the other  person, their needs, what they're saying?

Being a active listener, offering support,  Being a good listener, Offering advice?

Being there for the other person?

Isn't that just more polite?

Isn't that a better way to communicate?

Ask your wife or husband and they'll say yes.

You should absolutely focus on the  other person when you're communicating,  

so I want you to try that next time  you're having a conversation with someone.

Put all of your energy, all of your focus on that  other person and then your goal will shift from I  

need to be perfect because now you're focused  on that other person and make it your goal.

Just to say I need to be friendly  and remind yourself that my goal is  

to communicate in a friendly and  polite way and also make it your  

goal to be a great listener to focus  on the other person, not yourself.

Now as a special bonus, I have a free resource to  

help you practice speaking  alone, anytime, anywhere.

All you need to do is Google random question  generator and you will get a lot of results.

I've put a link to my favorite random  question generator in the comments.

So as you can see all you do is go on to this site  and you click and it gives you a random question.

Then you can answer the question and you  click again and you get another question.

And as you can see it keeps  giving you random questions.

So to practice speaking alone, make it  your goal to answer one question a day.

Start small and then once you  get comfortable with that you  

can increase it to one question three times  a day or two questions three times a day.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That would be a great time to practice.

You can do this activity anytime  and you never have to think about  

what am I going to say, what should I talk about?

All you have to do is click a button, you get  an interesting question and you answer it.

And you can do this alone anytime, anywhere.

So now you have 5 steps to help you improve  

your English speaking so you can  understand and speak in English.

And you have that free bonus site.

So I want you to put in the comments.

I'm ready.

I'm ready, so I know you're ready to  start practice practicing your speaking.

Put in the comments.

I'm ready.

And of course, make sure you like this video,  

share it with your friends and subscribe so  you're notified every time I post a new lesson.

And you can get this free speaking  guide where I share 6 tips on how  

to speak English fluently and confidently.

You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.

And this video explains the  most common verb tenses that  

you need for your English speaking,  so make sure you watch it right now.