Methods to Enhance Spoken English Fluency

Aug 9, 2024

Improving Spoken English: Natty's Methods

Introduction

  • Natty's background: Struggled with spoken English, found ways to improve fluency while living in Thailand.
  • Focus of the presentation: Methods to improve spoken English at home.

Key Concept: Unconscious Knowledge

  • Definition: The ability to perform a task automatically without conscious thought.
    • Examples: Riding a bicycle, playing a musical instrument, speaking a native language.
  • Importance of unconscious knowledge for fluency in English.

Difference Between Knowledge Types

  • Unconscious Knowledge: Automatic, not thinking about grammar, focuses on natural speech.
  • Conscious Knowledge: Requires thought, involves focusing on grammar rules, non-automatic.
  • Fluency requires a balance of both parts of the brain: conscious for content, unconscious for grammar.

Learning Methods

Unconscious Learning

  • Definition: Learning happens outside of awareness, like listening to conversations.
  • Effective for acquiring grammar, vocabulary without trying to memorize or understand rules.

Two Main Methods to Build Unconscious Knowledge

  1. Listening

    • Regular listening is essential for becoming familiar with the complexity of the language
    • Types of content to consume: YouTube videos, podcasts, audiobooks, movies, TV shows.
    • Focus on content that interests you to avoid feeling like a chore.
    • Ideally, subtitles should be in English, not your native language.
    • Time commitment: Listen as much as possible, integrate listening into daily activities.

  2. Input-Driven Speaking Practice

    • Importance of practicing speaking with input from native speakers.
    • Imitation Technique:
      • Find audio/video of native speakers.
      • Familiarize with speech before attempting to imitate.
      • Repeat after the speaker, copying rhythm, pronunciation, emotion.
      • Adjust difficulty as proficiency increases (from word/phrase repetition to full sentences).
      • Practice expressing meaning in your own words if you forget exact phrases.

Conclusion

  • To improve spoken English: Focus on a lot of listening and speaking practice.
  • Avoid grammar-focused content to maintain natural speaking ability.