Hello, everybody. My name is Emma; and in today's video, I'm gonna talk to you
about how to become a more fluent and more fluid speaker. Before I begin
talking about this lesson, I just wanted to thank my friend, Eduardo, from
www.teacheremma.com. Eduardo recommended this video idea, and I think it's a
great one, so thank you for this recommendation. So, what do I mean by:
How to speak more "fluidly" or "fluently"? What do I mean by those
words? Well, when I'm talking about "fluid", I'm talking about the flow of
English. English should sound almost like how water flows; language flows.
So, we're talking about the speed of the language. Am I speaking English too
fast? Am I speaking English way too slow? Maybe there's a lot of pauses, or
moments where I don't say anything. Maybe I don't pause enough. Maybe I
don't breathe when I'm speaking; I try to get everything out as quickly as I
can. Maybe I use words, like: "um", "ah", way too much. So, these all impact
the fluidness or the fluency of our language. So, I'm going to teach you
some tips in order for you to become a more fluid speaker. This will help the
people who listen to you speak understand you better and make it easier
for them to understand your message. So, let's get started with some of my
The first tip happens to many learners of English. When they're talking,
they're trying to think of a word in English and they can't remember the
word. So, what do they do? Well, sometimes they pause and they say: "Hmm,
what's that word?" And they stop talking. And they become so focused on
remembering that English word that the listener might get annoyed or bored, and
the person just tries to think, think, think — it's not coming. So, this
impacts our fluidness, as well as our fluency. So, what can we do in order to
speak more fluid? Well, if you can't think of a word, describe it. So,
imagine I can't think of the word: "knife". What would I do? I might say:
"Oh, well, it's the thing you find in the kitchen, and you cut vegetables with
it. A lot of the times it has a handle and a silver blade. Oh, I know the word:
'knife'." So, you see what I just did? I talked about what it is used for. I
talked about where we might find this object. I said: "It's in the kitchen".
Thinking about these things can really help you to remember the word, or maybe
the listener will know what you're talking about and will be able to tell
you the word, and guess what it is. So, this is one way to help you when you get
stuck on a word. Sometimes you might be stuck on a word, and this doesn't work.
You might just want to move on, then. Okay? Think about: "Is this word really
that important to this conversation? Can I still get my message across, even if I
can't remember this word?" A lot of the times, it's better to just continue
talking than to get stuck on the word. My second tip is: If you make a mistake
in English, it's okay. Native speakers make mistakes all the time. What a lot
of students do or learners of English do is they get stuck on the mistake.
They'll say, for example... they'll be trying to use the present perfect, and
they might say: "I have got the book. Oh, wait. Is it 'got'? Is it 'gotten'?
Oh", and then they become very focused on the mistake they made, and then they
forget what they're talking about, and the listener sort of stops listening or
is not able to follow the conversation that well. So, if you want to improve
your fluency and your fluidity of English, it's okay to make mistakes. The
main thing is: If it's a little mistake that you can fix really quickly — fix
it. But if it's something that's going to take some time to fix or you need
time to think about how to fix the mistake — just keep talking; leave the
mistake and move on. This will help the listener understand you better. So, if
you make a mistake — continue; or if it's a small mistake that you can
quickly fix — fix it and continue.
My third tip is probably the hardest tip on this list — at least it's hard for me
— and that is: Think before you speak. So, a lot of the times our fluency, or
our fluidity, or our flow of the language... we don't have a good flow,
because we don't know what we want to say. We start talking, and then as we're
talking, we realize: "Oh, I don't know what I'm trying to talk about. I don't
know what I'm gonna say next", and then we start hesitating; we start saying:
"Mm, um, ah". We need to backtrack sometimes; we get confused. So,
sometimes it's a good idea to just take a breath, and think about: "What do I
want to say? What's my main idea?" This will help you with your fluency and
fluidity. Although, I understand — it is hard to do this for some people, like
myself. I also wanted to point out that I used this word: "before". I've written
just a "b" and a four. This is what we use in text messaging. This means:
"before". The reason I put this is I wanted to tell you that sometimes, if
you are doing an interview, or maybe a presentation, and you need to speak...
speak fluently, you might want to take some notes on what you're going to say.
And so, if you're writing notes down, just write the key ideas, and that will
help you speak more fluently, too. So, if I was writing notes, I might use
short forms, like this; instead of writing the full word. So, now let's
look at some other tips that can help you with the flow of your English and
will help you speak more fluently.
Okay, so I just mentioned about how it's good to think about what you want to say
before you say it. My next tip has to do with this. The next tip I wanted to talk
about is the importance of using words, like: "Well, let me think about it",
"That's a great question". We often use these when we're talking, because they
give us time to think. The whole purpose of these three: "Well, let me think
about that", or "Let me think about that for a moment", or "Hmm, that's a great
question" — it allows us to think before we speak. So, I would recommend
memorizing some of these expressions and practice using them. They will give you
more time to think, and then you'll be able to speak more fluently. Saying
something like this is better than just standing there silently. Using these is
also better than just jumping into the topic, and then realizing: "Ah, I don't
know what I'm going to say", and then really confusing what you're trying to
say. So, these expressions are really good to use. My fifth tip is: It's a
great idea to learn common expressions well. Like, memorize the common
expressions. Know them so well that they just automatically come out. By having
language come out automatically, you don't have to think so hard about what
you're trying to say, and that gives you a chance to think about your message.
So, which expressions should you try to learn automatically? Well, that's a
great question. Oh, look, I just used this one — to give myself more time to
think. So, what...? Like I was saying, what are some great expressions? "That
reminds me" is a good expression to use. "If you ask me" — we use this one when
we want to give our opinion. "If you ask me, I think blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah. Dogs are better than cats", for example. "As far as I'm concerned" —
again, this means: In my opinion. By memorizing this expression and getting
used to it, it just comes out naturally, and it will become a lot easier to speak
fluently. Here's another expression: "Speaking of". So, there are many
functional expressions in English that we use a lot in conversation. I
recommend choosing some of these expressions, and learning them well so
you can use them when you speak.
Okay. My sixth point has to do with pace. What do I mean by "pace"? Well,
I'm talking about the speed of the language. For this point, I think it's
really important to know yourself. Do you speak too fast? Many students
from... I've noticed many of my students who speak Spanish, Italian, Portuguese —
when they speak English, sometimes they speak faster than native speakers. Or
then I might have students from other countries where they speak very slow.
So, it's a good idea to think about: Do you speak too fast, or do you speak too
slow, or just right? It's also a good idea to know: Is your language choppy?
What do I mean by that? I'll give you an example of "choppy language". I like
pizza. Notice that's choppy; it sounds like I'm cutting each word. Versus: I
like pizza. That has a nice flow to it. So, it's good to know what your language
sounds like. Another point with this is also: Do you have a lot of music or
rhythm in the way you speak, or does your voice sound very flat? Does it
sound like a robot when you talk? It's good to know these things about
yourself, because once you know this, then you can find ways to fix these
issues. And by fixing these issues, you will improve the flow of the language,
your fluency, and your fluidity. Okay. And this is another point: Pausing. It's
also good to know: Do you pause too much or too little? Some people, when they
speak, they don't breathe enough. So, what they do is they take one breath,
and then they try to talk a lot. And then it's hard because they're not
getting enough oxygen, and we need oxygen when we speak. So, are you
pausing too much or too little? That's another question to ask yourself. If you
don't know the answer to these questions, I recommend recording
yourself. You can use your phone and listen to how you sound. So, now, let's
look at some other tips on how to sound more fluid.
So, like everything in life, the way to get better at something is to practice.
So, if you want to become better at speaking fluently, you need to practice
this. So, how can you practice? Well, here's my tip for this: I think it's
very good when students time themselves speaking. So, for example, you can take
a topic — maybe you want to talk about your family or a movie you saw — and
once you choose a topic, what you can do is take your phone and time yourself for
30 seconds. For those 30 seconds, you need to keep talking. You can't stop;
you have to just keep going and going, and say whatever you can on the topic.
Once you're able to do 30 seconds, you can start to try to increase the time
you talk for. Maybe the next time you will talk for 45 seconds, and then maybe
you can do a minute. So, you can start small, and work your way up to more
time. If you're trying to figure out where you can find topics for, you
know... to help you think about things to talk about, you can go to
www.goodluckielts.com. If you click on the "Speaking" tab, they have many
different topics that are on the IELTS, but that are also interesting topics
just to talk about in general. So, I recommend practicing and speaking for
periods of time where you try not to stop, and you really focus on being
fluid in your speech. My seventh tip is related to this. It can also help to
practice speaking in front of a mirror. I think that when you actually watch
yourself speak, sometimes this can make it easier. It's also important to focus
on your body language. Sometimes when we're hunched, like this, and our head
is down — we're more likely to make mistakes and to feel uncomfortable, and
to not speak as fluidly. Versus when we're standing up tall and straight, and
our shoulders are back and we have a good posture — it's easier to speak
fluidly. And part of that is because we're helping our lungs get out more
breath, which helps with speech; but it's also... standing up tall makes us
feel more confident. So, that can help you with the flow of your language as
well.
My next tip is the importance of thinking about: What do you talk about a
lot in English or your own language? Once you think about this, you might
realize: "Hmm, every day I talk a lot about the weather". Or: "I talk about
school, or my family, or my pet dog, or my job, or my plans for the weekend".
Once you start really thinking about: "What do I talk the most about?" you can
focus on building your vocabulary in that area. This will give you a very
focused goal. And by doing this, it will help the flow of your language because
you won't get caught on words or you won't get stuck trying to think of a
word. You'll know the word, because you'll have practiced and you'll have
thought about what you can talk about about the subject, so it will help you
with your flow. My final tip is: Know yourself. What do I mean by this? Well,
when I'm talking, I find that I speak best in the morning. So, anytime I
teach, I try to pick the hardest part of what I need to talk about and I try to
do that first in the morning, because I know that's when I am the most fluid.
That's when I can speak the clearest and the best. Now, after lunch, I know my
English goes down. Okay? After lunch, I'm tired; I start making a lot of
mistakes with what I'm trying to say; I can't think straight. The time I'm the
worst at talking is three pm. I found this out, because I'm always the most
tired around three pm. This is the time I really need a nap. So, if I need to
talk to somebody on the phone fluently, I'm not going to call them at three pm
because I know that's when I'm going to make a lot of mistakes, and I'm going to
say: "Mm, um, ah" a lot. So, I might save those calls, or those
presentations, or whatever it is — those speaking tasks — for when I know I'm
going to be more alert, and when it's easier for me to speak. This also...
nervousness or anxiety can also impact or affect the flow of how we speak. When
we're really nervous about something, we tend to hesitate a lot more; we tend to
say: "um, ah, uh" a lot more frequently. So, one thing you can do is you can
learn how to be less nervous about something. There are different
strategies to help you with being nervous. So, I have other videos on this
topic, and I highly recommend you check them out. But knowing that you get
nervous at a certain time, even with an interview, for example — again, practice
makes perfect. So, that might be a way to help you speak more clearly in those
situations. Sleep. It's important to get a good night's sleep — that will also
help the flow of your language. When we're well-rested, it's easier for us to
So, thank you so much for watching. You can take our quiz on this topic at
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join my club. So, thank you for watching; and until next time, take
care.