10 Tips On How To Be Confident To Speak In English

Hey. Welcome back.

How are you doing? I hope all of you are in the pink of health. So today, I'm gonna continue from my last entry. If you already read it, you will know what am I talking about. If you still didn't read it, you can spend a little time to read my last entry. It was just a short entry only. For this entry, I'm gonna give you tips on How To Be Confident To Speak In English. There are a lot of tips that you can find on how to be confident to speak in English out there or you can either Google it. I'm just focusing on speaking because we know that this is the hardest part for most of them who is learning English to speak with confident and fluently.

1. Don't Mind With The Grammar

This rule might sound strange to many peoples, but it is one of the most important rules. If you want to pass examinations, then study grammar. However, if you want to become fluent in English and to have confident in speaking, then you should try to learn English without studying the grammar.Studying grammar will only slow you down and confuse you. You will think about the rules when creating sentences instead of naturally saying a sentence like a native.

2. Don't Afraid To Make Mistakes

Sometimes it can be difficult to put all those rules and words together into a simple sentence. Don’t let the fear of saying something wrong stop you from speaking at all. Even if you think you’re making a mistake, keep speaking anyway. Most of the time, people will understand what you’re trying to say, even if you make a mistake. Plus, the more you speak, the easier it gets, and the more quickly the right words will come to mind.

3. Speak As Much As Possible

Learning a language is just about like learning anything else.  The more you practice, the better you get. That’s worth repeating.  Learning a language is just like learning anything else.  The more you practice, the better you get. There, that’s more like it… Maybe you can still remember what it was like to ride a two-wheeler for the first time or to swim your first lap. Stop to think about the first time you got in a car to drive, or when you cooked a favorite recipe. 

• Do you remember how you felt?
• Do you remember when it “just clicked”? 
• Perhaps, you felt a little scared.  
• Perhaps, you were a little doubtful.  
• Perhaps, you even wanted to q-u-i-t! 

But, do you also remember that each time you continued that you got better and better until finally it became a habit? How did you feel then? 

• I bet you felt proud.  
• I know you felt confident.  
• I think you probably wanted to go and do whatever it was, over and over again. 
• You probably even told someone, or maybe more than one person, about it. 

Well, that is the same with speaking another language.  The more you speak, the easier it will be to speak.  The more you speak, the better your English will become. The better you speak, the more confident you will be at speaking a second language.  This will be an incentive to encourage you to speak even more. Before you know it, speaking English will be as natural as riding that bike or swimming a lap, driving a car or skiing down that hill. Let’s think of some of the natural ways you can speak English in your day.

4. Reading Out Loud

Reading fluency is simply the ability to read a book or text clearly. You correct your pronunciation mistakes until you make no errors.

The more you practice fluency, the more confidence you will have because it gives you a safe environment to practise in, increase your reading speed, and to process words faster.

If you are nervous about speaking in front of others, start reading aloud by yourself at home. As you feel more confident, ask a teacher or a native English speaker to give you feedback on more advanced vocabulary.

How to start:

1. Choose a text that is approximately 75-200 words long. Pick something that you think you can read easily, such as a book from one of your English classes, or even a book recommended by a friend.
2. Ask your teacher or someone you know with excellent English if they can read the text out loud while you record them. You can also choose a clip from a movie or TV show to practice with if you prefer.
3. Listen along to the recording while reading the text at the same time.
4. Practice reading with the recording until you are confident.
5. Record your own voice. Listen and compare.
6. Find another text to read and repeat the first 5 steps.

You can develop your fluency by reading even for only 5 or 10 minutes a day at your own pace, and on whatever topic interests you the most

5. Learn And Study Phrases

Speaking English fluently means being able to express your thoughts, feelings and ideas. Your goal is to speak English in full sentences, so why not learn it in full sentences? You’ll find that English is more useful in your everyday life if you study whole phrases, rather than just vocabulary and verbs. Start by thinking about phrases that you use frequently in your native language, and then learn how to say them in English.

6. Don't Translate

When you want to create an English sentence, do not translate the words from your Mother tongue. The order of words is probably completely different and you will be both slow and incorrect by doing this. Instead, learn phrases and sentences so you don't have to think about the words you are saying. It should be automatic.

Another problem with translating is that you will be trying to incorporate grammar rules that you have learned. Translating and thinking about the grammar to create English sentences is incorrect and should be avoided.

7. Chatting With People Online

Find opportunities to chat.  You will use many literacy skills. This is a great way to practice listening and visual attention, speaking and comprehension.

8. Stay Calm And Don't Use Long Sentences

Just because you're speaking to someone in English doesn't mean that you have to try out every word and every grammatical structure you know. 

When you're in a conversation, your first job is just to listen to the other person. If you're listening carefully, you won't have time to worry about your own language problems.

Your next job is to respond to what other people are saying. Your response can be a smile or frown, a few simple words, or a short question. It doesn't have to be complicated.

Don't feel like you have to express every idea that you have in English. Some of your ideas might be too complicated for you to talk about right now. It's OK to save them for later and say something a little simpler instead.

9. Submerge Yourself

Being able to speak a language is not related to how smart you are. Anyone can learn how to speak any language. This is a proven fact by everyone in the world. Everyone can speak at least one language. Whether you are intelligent, or lacking some brain power, you are able to speak one language.

This was achieved by being around that language at all times. In your country, you hear and speak your language constantly. You will notice that many people who are good English speakers are the ones who studied in an English speaking school. They can speak English not because they went to an English speaking school, but because they had an environment where they can be around English speaking people constantly.

You don't have to go anywhere to become a fluent English speaker. You only need to surround yourself with English. you can achieve results by changing what your surroundings are. Submerge yourself in English and you will learn several times faster.

10. Find The Right Technique

Finding a technique that works for you can also help you feel comfortable when speaking aloud. You may find that simple breathing exercises can quickly make you seem calmer. Or you could try visualization techniques that make you feel more confident and positive as you raise your hand to participate in class.

As you can see, those are the few tips that I can give for you so that you can apply in order to be more confident to speak in English. Remember, you can do it.  Say it with me:  I can do it!  You can speak with more confidence. You can learn English and become a better speaker.  Believe in yourself. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, 

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I have the belief that I can do something, I shall acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have had it in the beginning.

So then, make it a goal to start today.Until next time. :)