Studying a Language: Speaking

Speaking. At times daunting even in your native language, it can be all the more challenging and at times terrifying in a foreign language, especially during the beginners stages. This post provides some ideas of how to practice speaking in the foreign language, in order to improve fluency, accuracy, pronunciation and, above all, confidence.

1. It may go without saying, but practice speaking the language as much as possible. Even if you vocabulary is limited to asking for someone's name and telling them how old you are, do so at every opportunity you get! Practice not only makes perfect, but builds confidence in speaking as well.
2. Expose yourself to as much spoken (and written) language as possible. Make note of key expressions, words that usually go together and pay attention to intonation and pronunciation. Listen to music, watch interviews or TV or films, arrange to meet up with a native speaker to have a conversation and pay attention to the locals speech if/when on holiday.
3. Speaking practise does not only mean practising spontaneous speech. Any speaking will do. Whilst in the earlier stages of language learning, you can practice speaking by simply reading aloud so try getting hold of some poetry, short stories, easy texts or even dialogues from movies or plays.
4. Further to that last point, if you can get hold of an excerpt of a play or a dialogue (or even write your own and get it checked by a native speaker!), practising acting it out with classmates or friends will really help. You can practise pronunciation as well as gestures and intonation which also form part of speaking a language (think of all the non-word sounds in french 'fouf' 'ben' 'euh' 'pfff' or the Mexican 'esteee'!)
5. Try set up a tandem partnership (ideally one that's both written and spoken) either with someone you meet face to face or even online using Skype or other video chat programs. As you may feel self-concious trying to speak the your tandem partner's native language, remember that they probably feel equally self-concious speaking English (or whatever your mother tongue may be), which may make the exchanges easier on both of you.
6. Try look out of groups of words around likely topics. Most IGCSE, GCSE, A-level, IB etc. classes already provide functional vocabulary, for example words such as Holiday, Beach, Relax, Travel, Airport, Tourist, that can all be used when talking about Tourism. Make use of vocabulary lists and learn to pronounce the words or expressions correctly.
7. Think up some key sentences about topics you usually like to talk about and practice holding short conversation with a classmate or friend who's also learning the language. Imagine you are in the country that speaks the language and you are trying to get to know someone so think of what you would ask them and what you would say about yourself if you were speaking your native language, and find ways to say it in the target language. If your feeling ambitious, you can ask a native or more advanced speaker to listen to your conversation, and provide feedback on pronunciation or perhaps give you some easier or more idiomatic ways of saying things.
8. To acquaint yourself with cadence, intonation and pronunciation, learn some songs in the target language. Listen to a song through with its lyrics and then learn to sing it. This is especially handy if your language has sound that you are unfamiliar or unused to making (such as the rolled R in Spanish and Italian, the sharp or rounded U sounds in French or the gutteral H in Arabic). Practise singing the song (to yourself, or someone who likes your singing voice!) and you'll be surprised at your progress in fluency...
9. Its worth investing some time in learning to read phonetic script, as this can help you at times when there are no native speakers handy and you have to look up an unfamiliar word in the dictionary. However, please don't lose any sleep if you find you are unable to understand phonetic script, many people (including myself) can't and manage to get by just fine!
10. Record yourself speaking or singing or reading out loud and play it back making note of areas to improve such as pronunciation or any hesitations...
11. When you manage to build up some fluency in the spoken language, pay attention to your non-word utterances. In English, for example, we often infer the word 'like' when we are between thoughts or trying to find the right word. We also use the sound 'umm' or 'uh' when thinking. Try think of these equivalents in your target language and use them when speaking. They are often in line with the vowel sound of the language, for instance the Spanish 'e' or 'y' is often used as an 'umm' whereas many eastern European languages use an 'mmm' sound. Details like this will really give you the edge in sounding more like a native speaker, and also help you to disassociate one language from the other, leading you to actually think in the target language when you are speaking it, rather than just translating from your mother tongue in your head before you talk.
12. It may be the first sign of madness, but I would advocate talking to yourself! Have debates with yourself, or discuss essay ideas or plan your day outline in the target language. If you feel self-concious, or there are people around you may disturb (on more than one level!) try do so when you are in the shower, or doing the dishes or hoovering, where the noise can drown out your voice so you don't feel self-concious.
13. Speak the language when abroad. It may seem daunting and you may feel ridiculous but most people will appreciate that you are making the sort of effort that the stereotypical tourist wouldn't. Be warned, however, that you may encounter people who think so highly of their language that they would want it spoken by only native speakers rather than have it mangled by tourist. In cases like that, try speak to someone else, or do what I do and insist on speaking to them in the language until they cooperate or leave! (not always advised but often a good laugh!)

Try invest as much time in practising the language, however self-concious you may feel, as it is the only way to build confidence. Remember that at the end of the day most people's goal in studying languages is to be able to say they "speak" the language...and there is invariably only one way to achieve that- by actually speaking it!