Increase Speaking Vocabulary: How to Activate Passive Words and Speak Fluently

How many times have you thought, I study English all the time,

so why can't I find the right words when I'm speaking,

I just feel stuck, or I know this word, I know this idiom,

this expression, so why can't I use it when I'm speaking?

If either of those is familiar to you,

then I can tell you with certainty you're not alone,

and here's how I know I feel exactly the same way,

not only in my second language, but also sometimes in English.

The truth is there are so many words in the English language. In fact,

the Oxford English dictionary has over 170,000

entries for words currently in use,

and that doesn't include all current jargon and slang.

On top of that, according to Lexicographer and dictionary expert,

Susie Dent,

the average active vocabulary of an adult English speaker is

around 20,000 words.

While their passive vocabulary is around 40,000 words,

that means most people understand far more words than they

use when speaking, and that's okay. It's true for all of us,

so it's no surprise that although we may have learned thousands of words,

we tend to stick to the same set of vocabulary,

making it challenging to remember other words that we might use when we

need them the most.

But the good news is there are effective strategies you can use to increase

your active speaking vocabulary.

This means quickly remembering and using the words you've learned previously.

And as you might guess, that is the focus of our lesson today.

Now, before we go any further, if this is your first time here, welcome.

I'm Annemarie, an English confidence and fluency coach.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

If you'd love to discover hundreds of lessons for me just like this one today,

you can find all of them and more at my Speak Confident English website.

Now, before we really get into the details of this lesson today,

I want to be clear about one thing.

We are focused on increasing your active speaking

vocabulary.

That means increasing your ability to use the words you've already

learned.

We're not focused on learning new words without a doubt.

Traditional methods of learning new vocabulary such as using

flashcards or vocabulary apps is valuable and encouraged.

These methods help to build a strong foundation. However,

knowing how to activate that learned vocabulary is

equally crucial for your speaking vocabulary. In fact,

you can think about it like this. Learning is the first step in the process.

Then activation is the second step,

ensuring that you can confidently use these words in real life conversations

when you need them.

So today I have six proven strategies to help you increase your speaking

vocabulary. Before we get to strategy number one,

you need to know about your passive and active vocabulary.

We learned earlier that most English speakers know around 40,000

words, but they actively use around 20,000,

and this really helps us understand the difference between passive and active

vocabulary.

Your passive vocabulary is the vocabulary that you've learned and you understand

it perfectly well when you hear it or read it. However,

when it comes to speaking,

this is the vocabulary that's really hard to remember that you may not be

able to use as quickly or as easily as you'd like.

It's a little bit like knowing the notes or the words to a song,

but if you try to sing it or play it on your own,

it doesn't go so well. Your active vocabulary on the other hand,

are the words you use in speaking and in writing.

These are the words that come to you naturally just like sitting down at a piano

or picking up a guitar and playing a song without any hesitation.

With this in mind,

I want to talk about a common myth I hear among my students,

if I just study enough,

I'll remember the words and be able to use them when I need them.

The reality is studying alone isn't enough.

While it's important to study, to review your vocabulary,

the secret to activating it is to use it.

The more you use a word,

the easier it is to remember it and then use it in those real life

conversations when you want to.

So let's get into the first of our six strategies to help you increase your

speaking vocabulary strategy. Number one,

write in different genres.

Writing is by far one of the best ways to activate your passive

vocabulary. While it's easy to save a great Instagram post,

repeat a word numerous times or type a note on your phone.

Nothing compares to putting your own pen to paper.

Writing activates different parts of your brain,

making it easier to retain or keep that information and making it easier to

recall it, to remember it when you need it.

I want to give you five practical ways to begin writing as a practice

to activate your passive vocabulary.

The first is to start by carrying around a little notebook wherever you go,

and tracking vocabulary. That doesn't mean just writing down the word.

Instead, I want you to create a chart similar to this,

you can write down the word or phrase that you've learned.

Then the definition. Next to that,

I want you to write down the original sentence or context in which you heard

this new word. And then finally,

I want you to also create space for you to include your own example sentence.

A second way to practice with writing is to create a mind map.

Not only is it an effective way to activate words that you've learned,

but it also helps you to create strong associations with synonyms and

antonyms. For example,

your third writing option is to use a reference and then write about it.

So what this means is to select a YouTube video, a TV show,

or a podcast. For example,

spend some time reading or listening to that particular reference.

Take note of the words that you want to use in your speaking.

Spend a few minutes writing down a few key sentences and then write about what

you watched or what you heard.

Share your opinion on it and aim to incorporate that important vocabulary.

Once you've done that, you can begin to expand to different genres.

What this means is if you've become comfortable creating word charts,

for example,

or writing your opinion about something you've heard or read,

then you can expand into creative writing,

writing formal versus informal emails or trying to create your own social

media posts in English.

All of these force you to think about that core vocabulary in new ways.

And finally, in your writing practice, you can incorporate spaced retrieval.

I know that sounds a bit jargony.

Basically what it means is that after you spend time learning some new words,

creating those word charts and practicing writing,

you will of course learn new ones. Over time,

your list of new vocabulary will grow.

Spaced retrieval means you go back and you review what you learned maybe two

weeks ago or a month ago or six months ago,

so that you're getting that important repetition.

But don't just stop at reviewing.

This is a great time to perhaps review that word chart with the word

definition context in your own example sentence at that moment,

review what you put down on paper at that time,

and then maybe add on a new example sentence.

You probably will have a new way to think about that particular phrase or word,

and you'll begin to expand your library of knowledge in using

that word.

The second strategy you can use to increase your speaking vocabulary is to

shadow English speakers. Now, if you're familiar with shadowing,

then you know it involves listening to an English speaker and repeating what you

hear them say immediately.

This is most often used for sharpening your pronunciation skills. However,

it's also effective for developing fluency and increasing your active

vocabulary.

Shadowing forces you to process or understand and produce

language rapidly. Now,

I know there are many wonderful videos for practicing this shadowing technique

online if you've never done it before. Here's a quick three step process. First,

choose a short video or audio clip with clear speech. Second,

listen to a sentence, pause and repeat that sentence out loud,

matching the speaker's speed and intonation. And then number three,

gradually increase the length of the clip that you listen to as you get more

comfortable with this practice.

Strategy number three is to teach and explain.

Teaching new vocabulary to someone else not only reinforces your own

understanding, it also helps you to activate that passive vocabulary.

Now, if you're not sure how to do that, here are three suggestions. First,

you could try peer teaching.

That means highlighting a new word or phrase that you've learned,

providing the definition and helping someone else understand how to use it by

sharing an example sentence. A second option is with online forums,

you could join in, participate,

an online forum where you have the opportunity to explain new

vocabulary to others in your writing.

And option three is a study group you could join or create a study group

where you teach what you know and discuss those new words with others.

This is something I love so much about my Confident Women Community.

Not only is it possible to join real conversations,

practice vocabulary and get feedback,

but our members are also able to host their own conversations,

allowing them to teach others things on which they are passionate about or have

expertise. By doing that,

they are using important vocabulary on those topics and locking that

vocabulary into their active speaking vocabulary.

Strategy number four is to use new vocabulary in multiple contexts.

What that means is if, for example,

you learn a new idiom at work during a business meeting,

you can follow the steps we've talked about so far to not just learn it,

but add it to your active vocabulary.

And then once you feel comfortable with it,

try using it outside of the workplace. Change the setting,

use it when you're out to dinner and joking around with friends.

This allows you to expand your ability to use that new expression

and make it easier to recall in future conversations. Now,

if you're thinking, Annemarie,

I don't really have very many opportunities to practice speaking English,

then I've got two suggestions for you to help you implement strategy number

four. First,

you can have your own structured speaking practice with a speaking journal

habit. Now, if you've never heard of this before,

I've got a full lesson on this topic.

I'll leave a link to that lesson down in the notes below.

But here's what you can do. Create an opportunity to record yourself speaking,

and if for example, you again, learn an idiom at work,

you can spend a little bit of time later that day talking about your day,

what did you do? Who did you see?

Who did you talk to and aim to use that idiom while

talking about your day.

A second option is to join an online conversation community and then join

discussions where you have the opportunity to use new

vocabulary that you're reading about or listening to. Alright,

strategy number five for how to increase your speaking vocabulary is to engage

in active reading and listening. Now, two important things here. Number one,

I know I said that reading and listening leads to increased passive

vocabulary, but we can use those in a way that activates what you're learning.

The second thing that's important to know is that active reading and listening

is different from reading a book just for fun or

listening to a podcast just to enjoy it.

If you're reading a book for fun,

you don't want to stop multiple times during one paragraph to

practice using words that you've read. You just want to enjoy it and you should.

However,

there are also times when you can use reading in a more intentional way to

increase your active vocabulary. To do this,

there are three steps you can follow. First, select a text or an audio clip.

Make sure it's on a topic that interests you, whether it's a blog post,

a podcast, or a newspaper article. Then choose a short segment,

so it may be one paragraph of a newspaper article or a short

segment of an audio clip while you read or listen,

highlight new vocabulary, and then third,

use that new vocabulary immediately. You might, for example,

write it down in your vocabulary notebook using that chart that we talked about,

or perhaps you will record yourself speaking,

sharing a brief summary of what you read or heard.

In both cases, the goal is to reuse the vocabulary that you've just learned.

This process of immediately using your new vocabulary helps to transition

it from passive to active knowledge. And finally,

strategy number six is to have real conversations in English.

The more you repeat your target vocabulary in real conversations,

the easier it's going to be to use them again and again without

hesitation in your future conversations.

Here are three great ways you can do this. First,

start conversations with people around you, whether it's a coworker,

a neighbor, or another parent where your child goes to school.

If you're not comfortable starting conversations with strangers,

you could also join an online community that is focused on giving you

conversation practice. Second, you could find a dedicated speaking partner.

If you go online,

there are an endless number of forums available where you could reach out to

others to find a conversation partner,

or you could join an online community like My Confident Women Community,

where we help find conversation partners. For you,

a committed speaking partner contributes toward a consistent conversation

practice with someone you trust and feel comfortable with,

making it easier to practice new vocabulary.

And option number three is to start a speaking journal habit. Now,

I already mentioned this briefly and I do have a full lesson on how to begin

a speaking journal habit. Again,

I'll share a link to that lesson in the notes below. So now,

now that you know that it's completely normal,

that it's totally okay to understand more words than you use,

and now that you know it's also possible to increase the words that you

use your speaking vocabulary, now it's up to you.

It's your turn to use one of the strategies we've talked about today to begin

increasing your speaking vocabulary so that you reduce those

situations when you feel stuck or unsure and frustrated,

trying to find that perfect word. Instead,

you'll have more and more conversations where those words come to you naturally,

and you can use them confidently to express yourself the way you want in

English. I'd love to know which strategy you're going to try out first.

If you found today's lesson helpful to you,

I would love to know and you can tell me in two simple ways. Number one,

you can give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube, and while you're at it,

make sure you also subscribe to my Speak Confident English Channel so you never

miss one of my Confident English lessons. And number two,

you can share a comment down below or visit me over at my Speak Confident

English website. And while you're there,

get my free confidence training called How to Get the Confidence to Say What

You Want In English. Thank you so much for joining me,

and I look forward to seeing you next time.