We hear a lot about grammar, about words. But knowing them does not at all guarantee that we will be able to get along! So how do you learn to speak English and do it yourself at home?
Why learn speaking English alone at home?
Usually the answer to the question of how to learn to speak English seems obvious: one goes to a language school or hires a tutor. However, this is not always a possibility, and not necessarily the best option either. Why?
The problem is that we don’t always have the time, the money and the appetite for such learning.
- Lessons with a live person – whether on a language course or with a tutor – involve serious time constraints. We have to make appointments, we lose the flexibility of the day – if we have any at all in the first place. On the other hand, it often happens that we have a few minutes during the day that we could use to learn English. Unfortunately, learning in a language school or with a teacher does not give us such an opportunity.
- Learning in a language school is not the cheapest (not to mention tutoring costs). Especially if, due to lack of time, it turns out that more often than not we skip the classes. While it is true that once you spend money on an English course it is great for motivating you to learn, if you spend too much, however, you may end up dropping out.
- We also don’t always simply feel like leaving home somewhere else after work. After all, it is more pleasant to study at home than somewhere in the city. Besides, after a hard day at work, we also don’t necessarily feel like meeting other people – even the coolest students or teachers. We would prefer to sit alone at home and relax. But does this mean that it is impossible to learn to speak English in this way – not only on your own but on top of that in your own home?
How can you teach yourself to speak English at home?
If inviting an English teacher to our home is not an option (because it costs a lot, or we don’t feel like letting a stranger into our fortress, or…. we just don’t want to clean up) learning to speak English at home starts to become a tad problematic. As you can see from the joke with the drawn horse above, you can easily pore over some grammar exercises, from a textbook or online, maybe watch a movie in English or read something – but how do you learn to speak English by yourself at home? What can we do so that our English doesn’t look like this underdone steed?
Well, there are several ways to do it!
Read aloud in English
It is always, especially in the beginning, difficult for learners to start speaking English. It is somehow so uncomfortable, we suddenly become shy.
That’s why we need to get used to the sound of our voice speaking English. A simple way to do this, for example, might be good old-fashioned reading aloud.
However, I recommend here to choose some simple text in which you know all the words.
Why?
Because you never know how to pronounce a word in English. The English language is a mixture of many languages and you never know if a word comes from Latin, Viking languages or Anglo-Saxon.
And there is nothing worse than learning something wrong – be it grammar or pronunciation. Unlearning bad pronunciation once learned is much more difficult than learning it once and right!
Repeat dialogues from movies and songs
That’s why it’s also a good idea to learn to speak English alone at home, to befriend your throat with English-language sounds, and to play around, i.e. imitate, repeat sentences you hear in English movies, songs or on the radio. Even if we don’t quite understand what we are repeating!
Our tongue and mouth will then get used to pronouncing new sounds. They gymnastize themselves so that they can produce words pronounced. However, all this requires practice and training.
What’s more, by listening to sentences in English even if we don’t understand them yet, English structures, sentence formation and all the grammar subconsciously enter our heads. As well as vocabulary – note that if you know a song in English and only then see its translation, how much easier it is to remember the meaning of a word we already knew for a long time, just didn’t know what it meant!
Think aloud in English
Once you’ve gotten a little accustomed to speaking English on your own at home by repeating the sentences you’ve heard, it’s time to learn to formulate them yourself!
Since we think about things all the time anyway, why not start thinking in English! This way we can quickly see what words and constructions we are missing. We can then look them up in the dictionary or read about the grammar on the Speakingo blog out of curiosity. And on top of that, there’s a good chance that perhaps our inner commentator will start producing fewer thoughts – which can also be quite healthy and enjoyable!
However, there is a problem with thinking and speaking aloud in English – the same as with reading aloud words we don’t know how to pronounce.
Well, it may be that we learn to speak incorrectly. And here again, there is nothing worse than making a habit of saying sentences that are wrong, because it is difficult to unlearn them later!
Of course, in an actual conversational situation, when we really need to get along with someone, there is no need to worry and get too uptight about mistakes. Even if our grammar isn’t perfect, we’ll get along – which is the point, after all.
However, if we want to learn to speak English properly ourselves at home, it is not worth overdoing the technique. Simple conversational phrases can help us here.
English phrasebook
An English phrasebook is a set of sentences arranged in conversations. Learning from them, we are guaranteed that the sentences we speak are correct. They also often come with recordings where we can hear their correct pronunciation.
They are so much better than dialogues from movies or song lyrics since they are unlikely to have grammatical errors. Moreover, the sentences are constructed to include useful vocabulary and all the grammar.
We can also record ourselves and listen to how similarly we pronounce these sentences to the recordings. But how do we know if our sentences actually resemble the correct originals? And do we really want to learn to speak English with a voice recorder in hand? I once even specifically bought myself a voice recorder for this purpose – and didn’t use it once!
Wouldn’t it be possible to make all this somehow simpler and more enjoyable?
Learn to speak English yourself at home with Speakingo!
In my opinion, the easiest and most enjoyable way to learn to speak English on your own at home is on Speakingo’s online course!
Why?
In Speakingo’s online English course, we get a series of questions and answers arranged by an experienced teacher, a PhD in English, with the help of which we talk to ourselves at home with a computer or phone.
Thanks to modern speech recognition technology, the program understands us and praises or corrects us. We also decide ourselves how much we want him to “pick” on us.
This way we are guaranteed to learn not only correct grammar (and the course sentences contain all the grammar we need), but also the 2000 most popular English words, the knowledge of which allows us to understand 90% of conversations in this language.
Most importantly, however, in this method you don’t just learn impractical grammar theory like in most online English courses, but practice. We do not learn with “eyes”, but with “throat” – we just talk all the time!
That way when we really need to say something in English, we won’t have any language block! We will simply answer the question we are asked correctly!
And all this without commuting, in the comfort of your home, when and how long you want!
Best of all, on the other hand, a whole month of learning to speak English on a Speakingo course – even if it’s just 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – costs as much as one single English lesson with a teacher!
Anyway, you can try this marvel completely free and without any obligation on a free trial week!
And what do you think is the best way to learn to speak English by yourself at home? Share your thoughts in the comments [competitor ads will, as always, be deleted 🙂 ].
Enroll in Speakingo’s online English course!
Do you want to understand the English? Start talking like the English do!
Learn to speak English properly by yourself at home!
