How to improve your English speaking : 5 secrets from an ESL learner

With China’s economy growing fast, some might think that they must study Mandarin to excel in the job market. While speaking Mandarin may be an advantage, evidence suggests that English will continue to dominate many, if not all, areas of life, such as business, economy, and education.

English will maintain and grow its dominance, moving from a “marker of elite” in years past to “a basic skill needed for the entire workforce”. – Dorie Clark, Marketing Strategist, Professor, and Writer

According to British Council, English is spoken at a useful level by almost 1.75 billion people worldwide – that’s one in every four! 2 billion people were forecast to study English last year, with even more taking up English this year.

So, why is it important to speak English these days? Well, for one, if you speak English, you can easily integrate with international teams at work, trade with partners, and improve your chances when searching for a job in Canada and all over the world.

On top of that, a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit states that executives in multinational companies, such as Heineken, Samsung and Renault believe that in the near future, over 50% of their workforce will need to speak English.

If your goal is to live, study, and work in Canada, English is a must for you. 75.4% of Canadians speak English, while only 22.8% speak French.

Image source: https://www.clo-ocol.gc.ca/en/statistics/canada

English fluency can’t be mastered overnight. But don’t get easily discouraged. We’ve all been there. I learned to speak English from scratch, too. Just like you! So, here are 5 secrets of how to improve your speaking skills fast.

If you take intensive English courses in Canada, you will also be able to practice while learning English!

Best Ways to Learn English Speaking

#1 Memorize useful words and phrases and learn to pronounce them correctly

When learning English, I often felt frustrated with the number of new words and phrases I had to learn daily.

Well, you can’t really express your ideas well if your vocabulary is poor, can you? When reading or watching something, note down the new words and phrases.

Try to remember them in a certain context and associate them with your experiences. If you don’t know how to pronounce the words correctly, don’t guess!

There is a bunch of online dictionaries where you can easily look up the words and listen to their pronunciation. Here is a couple of our favorites:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/

https://www.merriam-webster.com/

There are many apps you could use to learn English words daily! Our choice is the Memrise app for free and learn new vocabulary with colorful flashcards.

It’s also equipped with the speech recognition feature, which will allow you to practice your pronunciation, too. Fun, isn’t it?

#2 Read and listen, then reflect

When I was an ESL student, I thought that playing some English songs or movies in the background while doing something else in the meantime would actually help me improve my basic English speaking.

Not really! To benefit from reading blogs, articles, as well as watching and listening to podcasts you must actively listen!

By that, I mean that it’s important that you write down new words and expressions, look them up in a dictionary and, most importantly, engage with the content.

You could discuss a video, an article, or a podcast with someone or simply record yourself retelling what you’ve read or heard and expressing your opinion on the matter.

Our favorite app to practice English reading, listening, and speaking for both beginner and advanced learners are EWA.

You can download it for free and unlock over 1,000 books and 40,000 words that you can translate in just one tap. It is super fun and up to date. Enjoy!

#3 Practice daily conversations in English with native speakers

Studying English in Canada gives you a great advantage, as you can chat with native speakers anywhere: in stores, banks, restaurants, or coffee shops.

You can speak like a real Canadian pretty soon! There is so much you can learn from them about the language and culture.

What if I don’t have English-speaking friends? No problem! There are so many apps and websites that you can use to meet them.

One of our favorite language exchange apps is Tandem which you can use to meet with native speakers all over the world.

You can download and use it for free! It’s only 6.99$ to upgrade to Pro if you like.

#4 Take an English course

You may feel a little awkward making a conversation with someone who speaks English way better than you, and it’s understandable.

I felt more at ease practicing with other English learners and my teacher in the past.

Learn more about our flexible English courses or speak to our International Team to find out more about your options.

We also built a Youtube channel only for you to start improving your English skills.

Follow the button below to get a lot of English tips from our fabulous English teachers.

#5 Don’t lose momentum, keep going

At some point, you may feel like you’ve had enough, and you have very little or no progress at all.

Remember that your learning journey is more of a curve rather than a straight line, so ups and downs are inevitable! Don’t quit!

Spend some time learning English every day, and you’ll notice how steadily your speaking skills will be improving over time.

Speaking English is one of the most essential skills in 2021.

It seems like it might take ages to speak English fluently or at least on a good level, but in fact, if you practice for some time daily independently, with a partner, or using technology, you can boost your speaking skills very fast.

Don’t lose hope! Keep going.

Cornerstone College is here to help. Reach out to our International Team for support or tell us about your experience learning English in the comments section under this post (we promise we will reply to everyone!)