One of the most difficult tasks for students when learning a new language is speaking it confidently. Many believe that speaking English fluently is a simple task. However, this is far from the truth; as there are many factors that contribute to how well someone speaks a language.
One’s attitude towards and beliefs about English plays a significant role in how comfortable one is with this language. Many a time we are afraid of making mistakes and only we can identify the reason behind that fear. To move past one’s fear and inhibitions in learning English one needs to become a child again and explore anew. Being child-like again will give you the freedom to drop your fears, make many mistakes and enjoy the learning process.
Once you have your approach sorted here are a few tips to assess your level and recommendations on steps you could take to acquire the fluency you desire.
If you do not know English
If you do not know English at all, start learning words of things you can see/hear/sense/feel/taste. Identify everything around you with English words. The next set of words you need to learn are words of action. If a person moves fast from one point to another, the action is called “Running”. Then, start knitting these words together. Labelling your world and using English to get day-to-day tasks done is where you could start as a beginner.
If you know some English but not nearly enough
As you practice, you enter the second stage of mastering English. In this stage you will become aware that your pronunciation is not ok, your sentence structures could be better and you do not feel confident that you can ever speak well.
The good news is - Understanding that you are making mistakes is a step up. If you understand what mistakes you are making, that is even better.
As you have already learnt your first language, learning a second or a third language can be intimidating because you will be that much more aware of how incompetent you are. Do suspend that and do not compare. The key to developing competency lies in your enjoyment of its acquisition. Didn’t get that? It means having fun while learning because you will learn better that way.
You can manage day-to-day communication but you are still not upto the mark
You reach the third stage of Spoken English mastery when you start consuming content in English for entertainment be it music, motivational videos, movies etc. This improves your ability to acquire English multi-fold. It gives fodder so that you could produce English through talking and writing. Reading helps build your vocab and syntax usage while listening helps you understand how words sound. Both reading and listening help improve your comprehension.
Comprehending content that is coming your way in English, whether written or spoken, is critical. You need to understand what is being said/written before you can respond. When you respond through writing you have time, however, errors are not forgivable. However, when you speak, errors are more easily overlooked as long as you can communicate effectively.
You do not understand varied accents and colloquialisms even if your English is quite good
If you understood the last sentence (of the last para) your receptive language is already in stage four or going towards it. Here you are comfortable in familiar situations but struggle with speaking in unknown situations. This is a good phase to check in with your language fundamentals.
Sometimes, when we lack the right training at the onset of our language-learning journey, we get stuck at this stage. Our language is good enough, but not exceptional. No matter how hard we try we are unable to progress in further mastering English. Such being the case, our fundamentals need to be revisited and fixed where necessary for us to progress further.
You do not worry about the words anymore, but can focus on people and the meaning of the text
This is a golden age of language acquisition because you have moved past getting stuck on words and are able to focus on the meaning and the nuances words represent. This is the time to enjoy the rich world of stories, ideas, experiences and the worlds only words can paint. You can move past sensorial-ly comfortable audio-visual medium to text. The world of prose, poetry, instruction, experience sharing, communication, contemplation, and philosophy becomes open to you. The experiences of these worlds begin to enhance your world.
It is a metaverse that only human minds can create through the web of words.
While you are dipping yourself in a sea of words, correcting your syntax (word order or grammar) is a good idea. This is not to impress others, but to give an accurate representation of your inner world using words. After all, words are your vehicles that will create bridges from your world to that of others.
Practising communication at this phase can be exciting. You get a wonderful opportunity to learn about others and their worlds by listening and asking questions. This could change the way you understand things and your world as well.
Changing value systems and acculturation
What starts off as a quest for mastery of English becomes a sauntering exploration of the world around you. It becomes a medium to connect to people from different parts of the world and become open to opportunities that were never accessible before.
At some point, you may notice that you are no longer worrying about whether you are right or wrong. You are not looking at whether people are judging you or not. You may not notice, that English has become a vehicle for you to get things done, make new friends, or inquire about the next vacation you wish to take. It is just another day for you, till someone asks you “Please tell me how to be as confident as you when speaking English.” And you think to yourself “Is there such a thing?”
What your expectations are, and the reality painted in this blog article is for you to assess. This will give you a sense of the next step you could take for yourself in your journey to become a confident speaker of English. Realistically speaking.