Perhaps the top question that people ask me is, “How can I improve my speaking?” Ideally, hiring a tutor that can help you with your pronunciation is one of the best methods. Even 1 or 2 sessions can help you tremendously.

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BUT…if you are unable to do that, here are 3 things you can do to improve your speaking all by yourself.

1. Speak to yourself.

Tell yourself about your day, how you are doing. Describe things around your house, your clothes etc. Pretend to order food from a restaurant, check out at the supermarket, or buy movie tickets. It may seem silly, BUT you will gain more confidence and speak more smoothly when you actually do speak to someone in real life.

2. Read out loud.

Ideally try to READ something that also has the audio. That way you can listen to the audio to hear the correct pronunciation of words. Record yourself and then try to listen. Make corrections with your pronunciation as needed. Check out my books for learning English which also have the audio. It costs a LOT less than a tutor. For just a few dollars you will learn 100’s of new vocabulary words in context. 🙂

3. Shadow technique.

I’ve mentioned this before and I do find it useful. Find an accent that you like and then try to imitate the accent and words that they are saying as they are saying them. This is ideal to try on a YouTube channel that has subtitles in English. So put your headphones in, press play with the subtitles activated and go for it. Try repeating the SAME video more than once for best results. All of these techniques CAN and WILL help you to improve your speaking skills all by yourself. If you’re looking for videos to shadow and like my accent, check out my YouTube channel. 🙂