Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on five ways to practice speaking by yourself.
Another way to put this is solo speaking practice. So, in this video, I will give you five things that you can do to help you practice your speaking even though you are by yourself and even though you don't have a speaking partner or you are not in an English class or you don't have a private teacher, just because you don't have someone to speak with doesn't mean that you can't exercise your speaking muscles by yourself. So, that's what we are going to talk about in this video.
And before I start, if this is your first time watching something from my channel, make sure to like the video, share it, and subscribe to my channel. That's all for now. Let's start with number one.
Shadowing. Another way to say shadowing is mimicking or perhaps listening and repeating. So, you can watch videos, you can listen to audio recordings, you can listen to dialogues, you can watch and listen to movies and TV shows, you can listen to what people are saying, and repeat.
Basically, pause, rewind, and repeat. Repeat the intonation, repeat the pronunciation as well. This is a way to help you practice and to see how the language is supposed to sound or if you.
. . Another way to think about it is to think about how you, you, excuse me, how you want to sound.
So, maybe you have found a good role model that you want to emulate, that you want to mimic or shadow. So, for example, if you enjoy the sound of my voice, for example, you can watch some of my videos, pause them, repeat after me, listen. How does my voice sound?
How is my intonation? Am I going up or am I going down at the end of my sentences? So, listen and repeat.
Shadowing. This is a good way to make sure that you are getting a model for how the language is supposed to sound or how you want to speak. Let's go on to number two.
Reading out loud. Pick a book. Pick an article.
Pick a paragraph. Anything at all that will help you to read and to exercise your speaking muscles. Reading out loud is great because it allows you to pay attention to the structure of the language you are studying.
You can slow down. You can learn and practice the correct forms. You can look at, "Oh, okay, what tense is this?
Oh, I can use this word here? Oh, okay. " So, you are forcing yourself to speak correctly if the writing is good, of course.
So, for example, you might pick up a book like this one. So, lately, I have been reading The Art of Living, which is a philosophical book by Epictetus. I mean, it's not in the original Greek.
So, you could pick up a book like this and read, "Okay, nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.
" Good advice. Good advice. So, read out loud.
Practice your ability also to decode words. And let's move on to number three. Visualizing.
So, in this situation, you want to imagine real situations where you would use English. You would practice what you would say in a particular context, a particular situation. So, for example, you can imagine yourself speaking to someone while you are ordering a coffee.
Like, imagine you are ordering a coffee, for example. Or, imagine you are making an appointment with the doctor. What would I say in that situation?
"Oh, okay. I'd like to make an appointment. " Or, "I'd like to make a reservation.
" If you're calling a hotel, for example. "For two nights, please. " Okay?
Even short sentences like this will help you to continue stretching your muscles, exercising your speaking muscles. It's all about practice. So, visualize your situation, put yourself in that moment, and yes, you will feel a little funny, but that's okay.
You will get used to it after a little while. So, I do the same thing in French from time to time. My French still is not great, but sometimes I talk to my walls, you know?
So, "Un verre d'eau, s'il vous plaît. " Yeah. The wall will get me a glass of water, I hope.
Okay. So, visualize your situations and just speak. Imagine that you are in those situations.
What would you say? Next, number four, singing a song or singing a song. Not bad.
Okay. So, I know many people who learn English or who become interested in learning English because they love English music or they love English films, which you can learn with by shadowing. And this is a form of shadowing, but if you sing a song, basically studying, you study it and you memorize the words.
A song you like, preferably, so you're okay singing it. And then sing your heart out with the song that you have learned. Again, you're practicing speaking, you're practicing singing, another skill that you can practice.
And the bonus benefit is that you are also getting exposure to English culture. When you are learning a language, it also helps if you start, like, living the language. And one of the ways that you can really start living a language is by learning about the culture around that language.
Music is a big part of every culture. So, learn some English music, find out what you like, and memorize it, study it, sing it, let it become part of you. And that is another way that you can practice your English speaking and exercise your English speaking muscles.
We only have one more to go. So, here it is. Number five, practicing poems and monologues.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Alex, poetry. Alex, theater.
Okay, number one for the monologues, it doesn't have to be theater. It could be a monologue from a movie. If you google famous movie monologues, you can find videos as well as the transcript for the monologue.
So, for example, now again, I don't actually feel this way. If you've ever seen the movie Taken with Liam Neeson, right, you can memorize the monologue where he says, "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want.
If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you that I don't have money. " Look at that, "I don't have money. I'm practicing the present simple.
" It's beautiful. "But what I do have are a very particular set of skills. " This is more like Batman than Liam Neeson.
"Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it.
" I'm going to read till the end. "I will not look for you. I will not pursue you.
But if you don't, I will look for you. I will find you, and I will kill you. " It's terrible.
Sorry for that last part. Okay, but that's an example of a movie monologue. And just like I mentioned at the beginning of the video, it's another way of shadowing.
My Liam Neeson impression is probably pretty bad, but if you enjoy Liam Neeson's voice, if you enjoy the way he says things, the way his intonation goes, you could try to memorize a monologue like that to help you get a sense of the intonation and rhythm of the language, to practice speaking with emotion so that you're not just reading saying, you know, "I would like to go to Spain. " Like, that's all you're reading, right? Practice speaking with emotion.
"Shadow videos of others reading poems and monologues. " So one of my favorite poems, I think I've mentioned it on this channel many times, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. I used to know almost that entire poem by heart, and I can still say, like, part of it in the beginning, like, "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, suddenly there came a rapping, no, suddenly there came a tapping, no, suddenly there came a rapping, as of someone gently tapping, tapping at my chamber door.
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December. " And it keeps going. I know a little more than that.
But just an example of a poem that you can learn. Maybe not that one, there's a lot of older language in that one, but memorizing poems, memorizing monologues, getting emotion into your English while you were speaking is a great way to help you exercise your English speaking muscles. That's everything, guys.
So let me know in the comments what you thought about this video. Number one, let me know if you have practiced English speaking in one of these ways. And number two, are there other things that I haven't mentioned in this video that you have tried and that have worked for you to help you practice your speaking?
Let me know. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure to like it, share it, subscribe to my channel. And until next time, thanks for clicking, good luck with your English speaking, and go practice.
Go, go.
