Mastery of spoken English entails the effortless and natural delivery of every thought without the likelihood of significant interruptions in verbal expression due to the pausing or even haphazardly searching for terms. Unfortunately, many students of the language hardly speak fluently despite having a good command of grammar and new vocabulary. A lack of practice and self-consciousness often coupled with uncertainty about the language structures normally account for the hesitation.
Fortunately, developing fluency is possible through specific practice. In this article, we'll address practical tactics that may assist learners in speaking more fluently and easily in the language by reducing the amount of time they take before they respond or how long they take while speaking.
Avoiding the use of the Mother Tongue and translation if Necessary: Use English
Hesitating when speaking, especially during conversations involves numerous factors, among them speaking in one's mother tongue and then tracing the english counterparts equivalent, particularly in the case of Second Language English speakers. Such processes take time which at times make it very difficult to engage in a conversation or argue. If you do select the option of thinking before speaking and speaking English only which implies you do not use other languages to cross reference.
Tip: Think about your day in English, even if it is only in your mind. For example, instead of just staring blankly in the kitchen you may engage with the enthralling thoughts of pouring yourself a cup of coffee by saying to yourself ' I am pouring water' or 'I need to add more milk.' This is the best way to achieve English fluency, as negating the slightest thought process in your native language makes communication easier.
Vocabulary Enhancement
Being able to fluently converse in English means knowing a lot of words, however, if you are learning words without any context, then it won't aid you in developing fluency. There is a far better method to help yourself use vocabulary in a better manner. For that you should first learn the word formation. This would help you understand the meaning behind constructing the word into a sentence thereby broadening the number of use cases for that word.
Tip: Use 'collocations'- words that naturally go together such as make a decision and take a break. This is true, as learning language in pairs or short phrases makes retention easy. To do this, it is advisable to memorize the use of these collocations and use them often. In doing so, you will be able to recall a number of ready made phrases that can help your speech be far more fluid and natural, instead of trying to remember and find out which word works best.
Deliberate Speaking Activities in Studying a Language
The enhancement of fluency is attributed to the well planned and regular oral practice. Repetition assists in the learning of the appropriate phrase structures and expressions, thereby, diminishing the pauses that are caused by having to think about the grammar in the middle of a sentence. The designed activities form that familiarity, especially where one has no frequent chances for speaking.
Shadowing
Using a native speaker as a model for shadowing practice fosters fluency development. In most cases, this involves listening to a native and repeating each thing she says at once. By attempting to imitate the content and the way the speaker speaks, one practically overrides the skill of the so-called 'English grammar'.
Tip: Use short segments, news articles or podcasts. Practice by listening to a single audio with a single sentence, then pausing and repeating afterward. Pay attention to the timing, rhythm, and the words you use to repeat the sentence. Shadowing allows your brain to learn to speak English without stopping, making it sound smooth and native-like.
Storytelling
Telling a story is another good practice in which you relate an event that occurred in the past or you write a simple story into English. Storytelling requires you to come up with a particular order of events and this order makes it easy for you to link new ideas in such a way that transitions from one idea to another are not difficult.
Tip: Choose an easy event to narrate. You can talk about your last vacation or a recent experience. Do it focusing the story in a specific way, so you won't pause forever after each sentence. In case you froze for too long, recount the story again and again but this time round try to pause less.
Use Filler Words to Your Advantage
Even among native speakers, there are those who would need a filler simply to buy themselves time to think. These are words such as: "well," "you know," and "I mean," they allow you a chance to compose yourself, without having an awkward silence. However, to put a disclaimer, excessive filler words are enough to make speech sound uncoordinated, but when apply strategically it helps one articulate during conversations.
Tip: Giving practice statements, fill words should be inserted to add life in places where there are pauses that should be addressed. Rather than saying and waiting... Well, I can think... a change should be employed instead at.. I can say. These changes make a vast shift to how one sounds.
Record and Listen to Yourself
Recording yourself speaking or reading can be a useful tool in identifying the specific instances where you tend to pause or hesitate. Forsythe, Lawson and Cooney have argued that an objectively perceived speech of a learner could be used as a measure of fluency and perhaps give the learner directions on areas that need improvement. It is also an efficient technique for assessing oneself and boosting moral in the quest for fluency.
Tip: Select a topic, take a one or two minute medium timer and try to talk on that topic as continuous as possible. After this, review the material and pay attention to the phrases or words that caused you to digress. Afterward, try out the exercise again, but this time aim to lessen the number of periods that you digressed. You will most likely hear less and less pauses on each subsequent recording of yourself.
Build Confidence through Small Conversations
It is also worth noting that to be fluent does not simply mean to speak fast but rather to speak with confidence. Once people become involved in small casual chats, it becomes easier to talk spontaneously. Conversational interactions allow you to use different kinds of sentences, forms, and answers which add up to fluency.
Gradually Risk Broadening the Outline of Discussion
As an individual who has a hard time articulating his words on an entirely new subject, it is wise to first concentrate on topics which are easy for him. Remaining in the comfortable sphere of cherished topics reduces the chances of a pause or hesitation.
Tip: Prepare some topics like hobbies, work, family, or daily routines that are often discussed and that one can practice speaking on these topics. After that, go to current events or abstract ideas which are not that familiar. This approach builds one's confidence while practicing fluency on multiple subjects in the process.
Look for "Rapid Fire" Engaging Practices
One of the techniques is called rapid fire improv where one is advised to try out answering questions that have been offered without overthinking or taking time. This allows for imagining how it would be in real life where there wouldn't be much time for someone to draft a perfect response.
Tip: Approach a friend or a language partner and ask them to ask you questions on various topics. Set a timer, say 30 seconds, for each question and try to answer them all. Just talking without taking a step backwards is the objective. Even if the answer you give isn't perfect, the aim is to be able to communicate fluently in English.
Visualizing Enhances the Linguistic Abilities
Envisioning before commencing enables one to minimize the level of hesitation. While envisioning you are giving yourself an opportunity to learn and elaborate on lexical items without specifically searching for them. In this way, you are directing your attention to the objects translating them into the language automatically as you proceed.
Tip: Process of selecting an object or a scene and describing it out loud. For example, imagine a coffee mug sitting on your desk, and describe its form, color and patterns for a better observation of that cup. For one minute, let yourself describe it as detailed as possible without any sentences cut off. In that way, you make sure that at the right moment you will grasp the necessary flow without the need to speak any slower.
Speaking fluency, which is not an overnight phenomenon, can be acquired through consistent practice together with some mechanisms to control the level of tensile hesitation. Each exercise focuses on one particular aspect that could be practiced to later enhance one's spoken English language greatly.
