Vanessa: I want to be a fluent English speaker. Have you ever said that? Well, I have some bad news and some good news.
I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa. com and the bad news is I do not have all the answers, but I do have some good news. I have searched the internet far and wide for the best English teachers so that they can also help to answer this question, how can I become a better English speaker?
How can I speak English fluently? So today, drum roll. I would like to present to you 15 wonderful, incredible English teachers here on YouTube who will be helping to answer the question, how can I become a better English speaker?
All of these teachers tips are tried and true. Tried and true means they actually work. In fact, I used Lucy's tip when I was learning French and I used Anne-Marie's tip to get a great scholarship into my college or university.
So I challenge you to use these tips. And what's more, I have a free PDF worksheet for you with all of these teachers' tips and ideas plus a link to their channel so that you can continue to learn more with them. You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today so that you can speak better English and go out into the real world and use it.
Are you ready for our first speaking tip? These are in no specific order except that my tip will be at the very end. Here we go with how to be a better English speaker from some of the best English teachers that I know.
Let's go. Bob: Hi, I'm Bob from the YouTube channel Learn English with Bob the Canadian. The technique I think you should be using to improve your English speaking is called narrate your life.
This is when you simply say out loud everything that you're doing as you do it. Here's an example. I am sitting on this park bench.
I am putting on my sunglasses. I am enjoying the day. When you say everything out loud as you are doing it, it not only improves your spoken English, but it helps you to start thinking in English as well.
And of course you're going to want to do this when you're in a place like this where there's no one else around. So start to narrate your life. If you want an advanced version, try talking about the past, the present, and the future.
Yesterday I sat on this park bench. Right now I'm sitting on this park bench. Tomorrow I'm going to sit on this park bench.
So start to narrate your life. Start to talk about what you're doing out loud and it will improve your spoken English. Tiffani: Hey, I am Tiffani from Speak English with Tiffani, and my English-speaking tip is embrace your mistakes.
One more time. Embrace your mistakes. As an English learner, my friend, you are going to make mistakes, but instead of feeling frustrated, instead of feeling overwhelmed, instead of feeling discouraged, I want you to realize when you embrace your mistakes, they will actually propel you forward.
They are showing you the things you need to tweak, the things you need to hone in on, the things that you need to fix in order to be the amazing English speaker you can be. So instead of being frustrated, I want you to embrace your mistakes. Lucy: Hello to all of Vanessa's students.
I'm Lucy and I run the English with Lucy YouTube channel. If you are constantly reaching for vocabulary, you don't have it already in your brain, it stops you from speaking fluently. My tip for improving your English speaking is very simple and it's all to do with vocabulary.
I know that it works because it's the strategy that I used to learn Spanish and I speak Spanish fluently. I kept a simple vocab diary on my phone. I went about my daily life and I started to narrate in my head what was going on in the world around me.
I did this when I was walking, when I was traveling to work, when I was sitting in a cafe, people watching. I narrated in my head in the language I was learning, and every single time that I came across a word that I didn't know how to say, I wrote it down in my own language. Then every single evening before I went to bed, I made a commitment to myself.
I translated all of those words and I reviewed them again the next morning. So I was constantly learning new words that were related to my daily life. They were useful for me.
It was amazing how quickly this strategy made an impact on my language skills. Keep a vocab diary and never miss an opportunity. Make that commitment to yourself.
Onto the next tip. Dori: Hi, I'm Dori. I speak English and French.
Brittany: How old are you? Dori: I'm three. I'm one, two, three.
Brittany: Don't learn to speak English with me. Here are three tips from my child instead. Children copy everything they hear.
Choose a character from a TV series. This is your mom now. Copy everything this person says.
What percentage of the day do English words actually come out of your mouth? All day long, my son talks to his toys, he talks to animals. He makes his toys talk to each other.
He talks to the wall. Is his English perfect? Dori: My english perfect.
Brittany: He makes hundreds of mistakes a day, and that's okay. All of these mistakes will one day make him a fluent English speaker. Dori: Thank you, Vanessa.
Emma: Hi, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish and Hey Lady, a speaking community for women. The best way to improve your speaking skills is to speak, but if the thought of actually speaking to other people in a real English conversation makes you feel a little ill or anxious, I would argue that it's because you do not yet have the space or the people who will help you to feel good as you start speaking English. To improve your speaking skills, you simply need to gain more experience speaking English.
Experience in different conversations with different people talking about different topics. The best thing that you can do to improve your English-speaking skills is not to learn more words or to study more. It's to put yourself into more speaking opportunities where you can use the thousands of English words that you already know and learn through that real experience.
If you don't have a supportive space where you can regularly speak English, make that your priority. Hadar: Hi everyone. My name is Hadar from Accent's Way English with Hadar, and thank you so much Vanessa for inviting me to share my advice with your audience.
And what a great idea, by the way. So my piece of advice for you is to learn and practice pronunciation to improve everything about your English. Let me explain.
We're used the thinking of pronunciation work as a way to just improve your clarity and your accent, which is true, but it's so much more than that. Working in your pronunciation can help you improve your listening skills because by repeating words and phrases and reductions, it makes it easier for you to recognize it when other people speak. Repeating common words and new vocabulary and new grammatical structures will help you learn those structures and words subconsciously, making it automatic for you to use them.
Therefore, you're improving grammar and vocabulary simply by practicing pronunciation, not to mention the confidence boost that you're going to get by no longer avoiding words and sounds that you're not sure of how to pronounce. So with all that, I believe that learning pronunciation can level up your fluency and your confidence in English. This is why I'm passionate about it and I hope you will be too.
Thank you so much and good luck. Veronika: Hi, I'm Veronika from Veronika's Language Diaries, and today I want to share a powerful mindset shift with you. The words you use when you talk to yourself have a tremendous impact on your language learning journey.
If you constantly think, "I'm just not good at English. I can't get past this beginner stage," then you're setting up mental barriers that hold you back. This negative self-talk can trap you in a cycle of frustration and keep you from achieving your English goals.
Every time you tell yourself, "I'm stuck at the intermediate plateau. " You are actually reinforcing that belief and you make it even harder for yourself to move forward. What if instead of focusing on what you can't do, you start focusing on what you can achieve.
For instance, instead of saying, "I'll never understand native speakers. " Shift your language to, "I'm improving every day and soon I'll understand more and more. " When you start telling yourself, "I'm capable of becoming fluent," your actions will start aligning with that belief.
You'll find yourself more motivated to practice, more open to making mistakes and learning from them. My native language is Russian and I know firsthand how daunting it can be to learn a new language. I used to have the same doubts and the same fears, but I made a conscious decision to change the way I spoke to myself.
I believed in my ability to improve and I took consistent action to make that happen. I've been where you are and I've made it to the other side. If I can do it so can you.
Anne-Marie: Hey, I'm Anne-Marie with Speak Confident English. And first, a big thank you to Vanessa for this opportunity. If you're feeling shy, stuck, or too nervous to speak, here's my favorite strategy to improve speaking skills.
Give yourself the gift of clarity. Clarity to know what you're doing well and what you want to improve, plus the certainty to know that you can make those improvements. This is a strategy I use time and time again for myself, and it's perfect for getting unstuck, refining small talk, prepping for job interviews and gaining confidence to share your thoughts.
And here's how. Choose a specific topic or question like an upcoming meeting topic or a conversation starter. Next, record yourself speaking naturally, just like in a conversation.
Then listen back and evaluate your pronunciation, clarity, vocabulary, and grammar. Take note of what you've done well and what you want to improve. Finally, record again, focusing on those improvements.
As you repeat this process, you'll notice your speaking skills becoming sharper and more confident. Bez: Hello. Laura: Hello.
We are Laura and Bez from Smashing English. Bez: Our tip for improving your English speaking is this. Laura: Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
We teach students every day and they are so focused on being perfect and making perfect sentences that they just stay in their comfort zone. Bez: And they use the same words and sentence structures again and again and again. Laura: They are so worried about not sounding like a native speaker, that they don't challenge themselves and try new words and phrases.
Bez: This is how vocabulary and speaking skills get stuck. You will never improve if you say the same stuff over and over and over again. Laura: So when you are practicing either on your own or with a teacher, take risks.
Say something even if you think it might be wrong. Bez: Practicing is not the time to be perfect. It's the perfect time to make mistakes.
Laura: Think of it like training at the gym. You are not supposed to look good at the gym. You're supposed to look sweaty and red-faced.
Learn to appreciate your mistakes because they're the things that help you. Greg: Hello, I'm Greg from the English with Greg YouTube channel where I teach British English pronunciation and grammar. And one piece of advice that I always give to my students is when you're speaking English, don't focus on everything that you don't know.
Don't worry about that. Don't feel embarrassed or blocked just because you don't know the word for something. But instead, focus on the grammar and vocabulary that you already know and use that to describe everything else.
If you are at work and you need to say that something is in the warehouse, but you don't know the word warehouse, you can say it's in the big building where we keep all the products. Easy. And when you do this, you soon realize that you are able to talk about advanced topics with quite basic English.
So change your mentality and don't think, "Ah, panic, I don't know a word. " Instead, think, "Wow with a bit of imagination, I can say anything in English. " And the best thing is that when you do this and people understand you, you feel great.
It fills you with confidence and isn't that what you want? To speak English confidently. Anna: Hi, my name's Anna from English Like a Native, and my speaking tip for you is to value all practice regardless of where you get it and of the level of the person you're talking to.
I'm a great squash player, but the majority of my playing time has been practicing with people the same level, a little bit higher, but mostly lower than my level. I've had a few hours of coaching, but I'm a great squash player because I've practiced for thousands of hours with people at all different levels. When you speak, it doesn't matter if you know the vocabulary and the grammar, you have to practice the recall of those lessons.
So practice, practice, practice. It's all valuable and it will all serve you. Good luck.
Luke Thompson: Hello, I'm Luke Thompson from Luke's English Podcast and my advice for improving your speaking in English is actually to do more listening. Do loads of listening in English because if you think about it, how can you expect to learn how to speak this language if you don't know what it sounds like? So doing lots and lots of listening helps you to get a natural sense of the speech patterns of this language, the pronunciation, the intonation, the sentence stress, the connected speech.
Basically, just get used to hearing how this language is spoken by people when they're communicating spontaneously and naturally. Also, it exposes you to lots of vocabulary and grammar. Basically, listening a lot really feeds your speaking.
It really kind of helps your speaking, inspires it and allows you to find something that you can kind of copy. It leaves an imprint on you so that when you open your mouth, hopefully the right words and structures will come to you because you've inputted so much. That's the basic idea.
What do you listen to? Well, of course, listen to podcasts for learners of English. So I'm Luke Thompson, and that is my advice.
Hannah: Hey everyone, I'm Hannah from English Fluency Journey, and first of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Vanessa for giving me this amazing opportunity to share my wisdom with her audience. The best tip I can offer to improve your English-speaking skills is to find the method that works best for you. The only way to improve your speaking skills is by speaking.
So use every opportunity to practice English, but to be more specific, I'd say that shadowing is one of the most effective ways to improve your speaking skills on your own and for free. Those of you who know me know that I rave about it all the time. Shadowing is like playing a fun game of copycat with English.
And here's how it works. You listen to someone speaking English, it can be from a podcast or your favorite TV show or Vanessa, and then you try to repeat what they say as accurately as possible. But you're not just mimicking words, you're also matching their speed, intonation and accent.
And the magic of shadowing is that it helps you improve your pronunciation, rhythm, listening skills, vocabulary, and even grammar, all while getting you used to the natural flow of the language. Plus, it's a great way to feel more confident speaking English, even if you're just talking to yourself. And remember, no matter what method you choose to improve your speaking skills, the key to success is consistency.
Speaking English has to become part of your routine and everyday life. If you manage to incorporate English into your daily routine, your improvement and success are inevitable. Brent: Hello, my name is Brent from American English with Brent, A huge thank you to Vanessa for allowing me to share my tip on how to speak better English.
Over the last four months, I have been lucky enough to travel to three different countries, Brazil, Poland, and Turkey. I've spoken to many non-native English speakers and the first thing they said to me was, "I'm sorry for my English. " My tip to you is be confident in your English.
If you're speaking to a native English speaker, chances are they only know one language, you know at least two. If it wasn't for you, the two of you wouldn't be able to have a conversation. Don't be embarrassed about your accent.
We all have accents. If I went to England, they would think I had an accent. So my tip to you is be confident when you speak English.
It's probably better than you think. Patti: Hello, Patti here from English with Patricia. Vanessa, thank you so much for having me.
Today we're talking about speaking. I know how it feels because I am not a native speaker. I am Brazilian.
But when I was in England, I learned that I had to listen and I had to copy what people were saying. So I heard someone saying that they were eating something and they said that it was delicious. So I came home, grabbed myself a yogurt, I swear to you and did the same.
Delicious. I started to copy people and really hear my own voice speaking. I was at school and everyone around me said, "See you later.
" And I always said, "See you tomorrow. " And one day I was like, "Hold on a minute. Everyone's saying see you later, I'm going to do the same.
" So remember, do lots and lots of copying and one day you'll be ready to create. Wes: Hey everyone, my name is Wes from Interactive English. And when it comes to improving your speaking skills, I often hear people tell me that, "Well, whenever I try to express a thought, opinion or idea, I just get stuck and I lose my train of thought.
" So if this has ever happened to you, then one suggestion would be to use a speaking framework. And there are many of them. So you could use the PREP framework.
It stands for point, reason, example, point. So I'll give you an example right now. I think that you should try to use this speaking framework because it's going to help you structure your speech and you'll be able to get your point across easily.
For example, if you are in a meeting at work and you want to share your idea, you'll be able to do so easily and quickly. And for this reason, I think you should try to use this speaking framework. Point, reason, example point.
Give it a try. Ariannita la Gringa: Hey everyone, I'm Ariannita la Gringa and I'm a native English teacher. As you know, this video is about how to improve your English-speaking skills.
Well, from my own experience learning a second language, the fastest way for me to improve my Spanish-speaking skills was by practicing with native speakers. So I started making friends who spoke Spanish and I hung out with them everywhere. After a couple of months, I realized how much my Spanish had improved.
So you can apply the same method to learning English. And if you're wondering why, well, I feel like speaking English won't feel like homework or a chore when you're with your friends. You'll naturally pick up common phrases and expressions and you'll feel more comfortable to speak around them since they're your friends.
For example, my friends who made English-speaking friends have improved much faster than those who didn't because they can practice real-life English outside their English course, outside work, etc. So for me, this is one of the best ways to improve your English-speaking skills in a natural way. But remember, this is only one way to improve your speaking skills.
So follow this tip and other teacher's tips too to help you improve your English-speaking skills. Thanks for watching. Bye.
Ethan: Hey guys, I'm Ethan from RealLife English and my tip is called practice like you play. When any professional athlete goes out for game day, it's not the first time that they are playing. They've done tons and tons of practice beforehand, so they're prepared when it really comes time to perform.
However, most language learners will just throw themselves into a conversation hoping that things will go well based on what they've already learned. So in language we practice like we play using scripts. You can write a script for any sort of situation.
If you've not had many interactions speaking English, then a great place to start can be with an introduction of yourself because this is something you're going to need to do with anyone that you meet. So in your script, you're going to write out everything that you need for the situation that you're preparing yourself for, and then comes time to practice it. So you'll practice it on your own at first, and then you can actually record yourself, listen back and think of ways you can improve it.
And then finally, it's game day. It's time for you to actually go use it in an English conversation. And I promise you, if you've done all of this preparation, all of this practice, you're going to feel so much more natural and confident when you actually have that conversation.
All right? So I hope it helps a lot. Good luck.
Vanessa: Thank you so much to those wonderful English teachers for your great tips about how to be a better English speaker. Now it's my turn. How can you speak better English?
Well, the number one thing that I tell my students is that I highly recommend that you speak in English with another person for at least 30 minutes per week. When you set up this appointment to speak with someone else, you will have instant motivation to speak better English because nothing is more motivating than knowing that you have a deadline and you need to do it. So as humans, I think we are naturally procrastinators.
We wait till the last minute, we put things aside that we don't want to do or that are too hard or we feel worried about. So when you know that you are going to speak in English on Mondays at 8:00 PM well that whole week or at least a few days before, you are going to start preparing, you're going to study English, you're going to be thinking about your conversation. You might even use some of these teachers tips like shadowing, recording, listening to English.
You will start to prepare because you know you have a deadline coming up. You're going to be speaking with someone else at that time. And when you do it every week, you're going to be building on your English skills each week.
And after a few months, you'll be amazed at how much your English skills and your confidence grow. If you're not speaking with someone once a week, at least for 30 minutes, I highly recommend starting that now. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me and all of these wonderful English teachers.
Yes, there are many more wonderful English teachers on YouTube. Most of them I reached out to. Some of them were not available to participate.
So if there's someone you love who is not in this video, it is not because they're not great, they were just not available. Well, don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet for today's lesson. It will include every single teacher's tip, ideas, and a link to their channel so that you can continue learning English and speaking better day by day.
You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today. A big thank you to all of the teachers who have participated in today's lesson, and I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.
But wait, do you want more? I recommend watching this video next where you will practice speaking with me specifically about if you are a guest at my house for multiple days, what kind of conversations would we have together? Well, you can practice in this video here and I'll see you there.