To learn spoken English, you must use different strategies. Traditional study methods will not help you speak easily- and fast. You need a different way of learning.
This is one of the reasons that so many students fail to master spoken English.
In school, you learned English analytically. In fact, you never learned to speak English at all. Rather, you learned to analyze English, talk about English, and translate English.
I have observed many English classes, in many different countries, and they are all the same. For the most part, students in these classes learned with their eyes.
Traditional classes focus almost entirely on a textbook. There may be short “communication exercises”, but the entire class is defined by and driven by a textbook. If your goal is to get a degree in English from a University, this is a great way to study.
Spoken English Mastery
However, if your goal is to master spoken English, you will fail with traditional methods.
You must break with tradition. You must forget everything you learned in school. You must have the courage and intelligence to follow a different path.
The first and most obvious change you must make is to learn with your ears. It’s obvious, isn’t it? If you want to master spoken English, you need audio input… not text.
The dynamics of spoken English are completely different than the written language. The grammar is different (we rarely speak in complete sentences). The vocabulary is different (a lot more idioms and slang are used in speech).
And most importantly, the speed is different. Speech is fast. Super-fast. So fast that you have no time to think about translations, or grammar rules, or textbook lessons.
There is no time. Your conscious brain simply cannot analyze, translate, and organize real speech. This is the reason your speech is so slow. This is the reason you can’t understand two native speakers talking to each other.
To perform at real speaking speeds, you must turn off your conscious brain and let your subconscious do it’s job. To do that, you must use methods which awaken your subconscious. You must learn holistically, intuitively, and naturally.
Primarily, this means listening to lots of English speech… and doing it repeatedly. As you listen, you quiet your conscious mind and just allow your brain to understand the whole meaning of the words. You don’t try to pick out individual words. You don’t worry about the few words you don’t understand.
You relax and you let the meaning wash over you. Your mind is open and quiet.
And then, when you speak, you just let the words come out. You don’t struggle. You don’t analyze. You don’t think about rules. You don’t think about translations.
You just let the words pour out of your mouth effortlessly. Learn English effortlessly.
This is true fluency, and this is the only way to master spoken English.
