How to be a better speaker

What speakers do

In some ways speaking is the most difficult language skill. Every time you speak you have to do many different things but you have very little time to do them. Imagine, for example, that the teacher has asked you a question in class. Here is a list of the things you have to do when giving an answer.

You have to:

• understand the question
• think what answer you want to give
• find the words that you need
• make sure the grammar you use is correct
• try to get your pronunciation and intonation right.

To make things more difficult, you have to do all this with everyone else in the class looking at you and listening to you!

Practicing speaking

Speaking is a skill like learning to swim. The more you practice, the better you will become, until finally you can do it without needing to think much about it. Here are some ways that you can get as much speaking practice as possible:

• ask and answer questions in class
• try to answer all the teacher’s questions silently in your head
• if you work in a group with native speakers, don’t let them do all the talking
• ask to sit next to a student who is not from your country
• try to make some friends who don’t have the same language
• join a lunchtime club or do an after-school activity
• talk English with your German neighbours
• talk to your parents in English; e.g. to summarise a story or science experiment
• talk to your teachers after class and at lunchtime or after school

Practicing pronunciation and intonation

If you have problems with your English pronunciation or intonation, you could practice these too. For example, you could listen to stories or watch videos with people talking to each other, and try to repeat the phrases and sentences they say.

More information to help you become a better speaker

Here is a list of more things to think about or strategies to try in order to improve your speaking skills:

• Do not worry about making mistakes! Everyone who speaks makes mistakes. Even native speakers make mistakes when they talk, because speaking is such a complicated skill. It doesn’t matter if your spoken English is not perfect. What is important is that you can communicate what you want to say.
• Keep talking! If you don’t know a word, use gestures or mime. Or try and explain what you want to say using other words. Or draw a picture. Ask the person you are speaking to help you. If you are not sure whether your grammar is right, it doesn't matter. Keep talking!
• Learn some useful phrases that you know you will often need to use; and use them! If you do this, you will have more time to think about the rest of what you want to say.

Knowing some common expressions will also help you to take more part in conversations. Most students will not wait patiently in the middle of an interesting discussion while you plan exactly what you want to say. But, if you are ready with an expressions like: Well, in my opinion .. or Do you know what I think?, they will at least stop and wait for you to continue. (Just don't keep them waiting too long, and remember again: It's ok to make mistakes!)

• Prepare answers at home. Often teachers ask students to talk about their homework. For example, you may have to say how you solved a math problem; or you may be asked to give your opinion about a story you read. If you think about the likely questions at home - you could even say the answers to your parents -, you will be ready to raise your hand in class.
• If you know you will have to talk to someone about something, then plan what you are going to say. For example, maybe you know you will have to tell your teacher why you were absent from school, or you want to explain to the nurse why you can’t do PE. Look up the words you know you will need, and maybe even write out the exact sentences you want to say. Practice saying it at home.
• If you talk to people, they will talk back to you. Usually, they will simplify their speech so that you can understand better. This gives you good listening practice, too.
• Try to think in English! Don’t think in your own language and then translate it.

How to do well in tests

Preparing for tests

Here is some advice that should help you prepare for your end of term tests. If you follow the suggestions below, you will have the best chance to show your teachers what you know and understand of the subjects you are learning

• Keep on top of the work in progress

This means that you do the work as it is set (and make up what you missed if you were away). You also make sure that you understand what you are doing, or ask for help if you don't.

• Find out what you will be tested on

Most teachers will give you a review sheet so that you can be pretty sure what to study for the tests. You could also find out which part of the test carries most marks.

• Work out a review schedule

Make sure you know the test schedule, and make a plan listing the subjects you are going to review in the evenings leading up to the exams.

• Review your work

There are many ways to study for exams. The best method will depend on the subject and the kind of questions you are going to be asked in the test. In every case, however, you will remember more if you do something active. This means that you shouldn't just read through your work again and again; you need to make study notes!

There are different kinds of study notes. For example, if you have to learn the important vocabulary of a topic, you could write the word on one side of a small card. On the other side you could a definition or examples of the word. The cards are now your study notes

If you have to review a large and complicated topic like the French Revolution, your study notes could be an outline of the main events or a mind map of the important causes.

When you have finished your notes, you can ask someone to test you on them. You can also review them again at the last minute before the exam.

• Relax and get enough sleep

A little anxiety before an important test is a good thing, but some students get so nervous that they don't perform as well as they could. Of course, one way to avoid being nervous is to be well-prepared, for example by following the advice above. Another good thing to do is to make sure you get enough sleep. And don't spend all your time just working; you will study more effectively if you take time off to be with your friends or do some sports.

• Use effective test strategies

There are things you can do in the test itself to help you to get the best possible score. For example, you can ensure that you manage your time carefully. Don't rush into the first question. Look over the whole test and decide on the order in which to do the answers. Most students do the questions they find easiest first, and leave the harder ones until the end.

Another good test strategy is to make sure that you read the question carefully to understand exactly what you need to do. For many questions, it's helpful to spend some time thinking about how best to answer and making an outline.

Learning from tests

Whether you got a good or a bad grade in your test, it is important you learn from it so that you can do a better job next time. Here are some of the ways that you could have gone wrong, followed by suggestions on how you can avoid the problems in the future.

• You never did (or understood) the work in the first place

Obviously it's important to keep up with the work in progress in your subject classes. If you don't understand something, make sure you ask your subject teacher or ESL teacher at the time. It's certainly not a good idea to wait until just before the exam to try and catch up with work you missed or didn't understand.

• You did and understood the work, but you didn't study before the test

You can't expect to do well in a test if you don't review your notes. If follow the advice in section 1 above, you can be sure that you have done everything possible to prepare yourself properly.

• You understood the work and studied for the test, but you didn't understand the question

If it is allowed, ask the teacher to explain what the question means. If you cannot ask, finish the questions you do understand before coming back to the difficult ones. You may now find that you understand what you have to do. If you are still unsure, make an intelligent guess on what your teacher is asking. Believe it or not, teachers do not set questions to trick students! They try to ask questions that test students' knowledge and understanding of the work they have been doing in class. Show the teacher what you know in your answer, even if you do not fully understand the question.

• You understood the question, but didn't know how to answer

The advice is the same as in the previous paragraph. Leave the question until you have done all the others you are sure about. Then make an intelligent guess on how to answer.

• You understood the question and knew how to answer in your language, but couldn't answer in English

Try to give some sort of answer in English. In most cases your teacher is interested only in seeing what you understand of the subject; the quality of your English is not nearly so important. If you really can't write anything in English, write your answer in your own language, and ask the teacher after the exam if he or she will allow another student to translate what you have written.

• You knew how to answer in English but you didn't give the right answer (or you didn't give the full answer)

Listen carefully when the teacher gives back the test papers and discusses the answers. Make sure you understand where you went wrong, or what you left out. If you don't understand why you got a low score on the test or a particular question, ask the teacher!

• You didn't check your work carefully

It is easy to make silly mistakes in the pressure of exams. That's why you need to give yourself enough time at the end of your test to check through your work. It's a shame to lose points through carelessness rather than lack of knowledge.

How to learn grammar

Introduction

Grammar is an aspect of language about which learners have different opinions. Some learners are very interested in finding out or learning grammar rules and doing lots of grammar exercises. Others hate grammar and think it is the most boring part of learning a new language. Whatever opinion you have, however, you cannot escape from grammar; it is in every sentence you read or write, speak or hear. Grammar is simply the word for the rules that people follow when they use a language. We need those rules in the same way as we need the rules in a game. If there are no rules, or if everybody follows their own rules, the game would soon break down. It's the same with language; without rules we would not be able to communicate with other people.

So you cannot escape from grammar, but the key question here is: what is the best way to learn grammar? You can learn the rules of a game by simply playing the game. You will certainly make mistakes; you may even get hurt. Eventually, however, you will know how to play. Of course, the rules of a language are very much more complicated than the rules of any game, but in fact this is exactly how you learned your own language. Nobody taught you the rules of your mother tongue as you were growing up but now you never make a grammar mistake.

It is possible to learn a second language in the same natural way, if you have enough time and you live in the right place. For example, if you are a Korean boy and you move to Russia at age 6, attend a Russian school, play every day with Russian friends, you will probably learn all you need to know about Russian grammar by the age of 15 without ever having a grammar lesson or reading a grammar book.

Most people learning a new language do not have so much time and such an ideal situation; So what IS the best way to learn English grammar? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to the question. There are just as many different opinions about teaching grammar as there are about learning grammar. Many teachers believe in the importance of grammar lessons devoted to a study of language rules and lots of practice exercises. Other teachers feel that grammar is best learned by doing different language activities without focussing so directly on the rules. Whatever your opinion about grammar, and whichever is the way you are taught, here is some advice that may help you to learn grammar more effectively.

What you can do

• Be aware of grammar. Think about grammar. Notice the aspects of English grammar that are the same as or very similar to those in your language. (The use of the articles in German, for example, is similar to their use in English.) Notice also the way that English expresses an idea differently to how it is done in your language. For example, English uses the present perfect to express a period of time that started in the past and continues in the present (e.g. I have had this watch for 10 years). Many other languages use the present tense to express the same idea; if you notice grammar similarities and differences, you will probably learn the rules more quickly.
• Read a lot of English books - this may sound strange but in fact all the time you are reading English (and also listening to English), you are taking in models of correct grammar that will help you in your own writing and speaking. It will help you when you express your ideas and when you come to check your work. Of course, it is even better if you can read with the grammatical awareness discussed in the last paragraph. By this I mean that you say to yourself from time to time: Ah, so that's how you do this in English!
• Concentrate on the aspects of grammar you personally find most difficult. (If you don't have any idea what aspects of English grammar cause you most problems, ask your teacher!) Particularly in your writing you can focus on these aspects for special care and attention when editing your work. It is more difficult in speaking, of course, but even here you can sometimes take a fraction more time to try and get that particular element right. For example, if you are retelling a story in the present tense, you could keep reminding yourself that you need an -s in the 3rd person singular.
• If you don't like to do grammar exercises or to be taught grammar, then it's more important that you follow the advice in the paragraphs above. You should try to work out the patterns and rules of the language for yourself.
• If you do like to do grammar exercises, then go ahead. But being good at grammar exercises does not mean you will not make mistakes in your own work. You could be like someone who has learned how to play tennis by reading a book, but once he is on the tennis court, he can't hit the ball properly. If you decide to do grammar exercises, try to go beyond just filling in gaps or doing multi-choice answers. Write out some sentences of your own that follow the same rule that you are practicing.
• Learn the common irregular verbs

If you can use these verbs automatically, it will give you more time to concentrate on other aspects of what you want to say. They are easy to learn if you say them to yourself many times.