In order to be a good speaker, you need to speak more confidently and make sure your audience understands what you’re saying. If you follow these simple steps, you can avoid all the common mistakes that people make when speaking English.
1. Be Consistent This is the most important rule of the language. If you’re speaking English at work, on the phone, or in class, your goal should always be to make sure you sound the same. Your listeners will always have a better time listening to someone who sounds the same.
2. Practice Speaking is a skill. To improve it, practice. It’s the only way to get better at something. Practice speaking in front of a mirror, in front of friends, or even in front of a teacher.
3. Keep It Short In most cases, your listener has a limited attention span. Don’t fill up their head with too many words. Make sure you keep your sentences short and concise. You can also try using shorter words and sentences to keep your listeners’ attention.
4. Use Simple Words When speaking English, try to use as few words as possible. Simple words are easier to understand. If you’re reading something, your eyes don’t have to move back and forth across the page to make sense of it.
5. Avoid Foreign Language When learning a new language, it’s tempting to use foreign words or phrases. This is fine if you’re talking to someone who speaks the same language as you do. However, if you want to speak English, it’s better to stick to native words. Your listeners will be less distracted by unfamiliar words or phrases.
6. Make Yourself Clear In order to be understood, your listeners need to know what you’re saying. It’s their job to figure out what you’re saying. They can only do this if you make yourself clear. Make sure you pause after every sentence. Use short pauses between sentences.
7. Be Polite Finally, when speaking English, be polite. Don’t make fun of someone’s accent or mistake an English word for a foreign one.