Ways to Learn to Speak English Well

Millions of people work on learning English every day. Especially in Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, and China, children go from their regular school to English classes at private academies to learn English. Thousands of Hispanic adults attend community colleges in the United States to improve their English. The more you speak, read and listen to English, the easier it will be to speak it well.

Watch TV

1. Watch TV in English. It is tempting to watch television in your native language rather than trying to understand people who talk fast in English. However, watching TV in English helps to hone your listening skills and learn how English is actually spoken. In addition, watching news programs keeps you abreast of news developments. If you have the captions on, you can increase your reading ability by reading all the words that show up on the bottom of the screen.

Listen to Audio Materials

2. Listen to tapes or CDs to learn how English is pronounced and spoken. There are many cassette tapes and CDs for sale both on the Internet and in bookstores. Listen while you drive to hone your conversation skills, and listen at home when doing the dishes or working around the house.

Check Out Reading Materials

3. Read books and magazines. Even though you are not speaking English when you read them, you are improving your vocabulary and seeing sentence structure, which is important for learning to speak English well. After you do some reading, talk with someone in English about what you read.

Take a Class

4. Take a class in English conversation; even in some rural areas, churches, community colleges and other organizations provide these classes. Taking a class will help you learn in an structured way because you can practice speaking English with the students and the teacher. If you want to learn from the comfort of your home, you can learn English through the Internet (see Resources).

Practice

5. Practice speaking English every chance you get. If you are taking a class, go out to have coffee or a meal with the other students and practice speaking English. If you live at home and your family speaks both English and another language, set aside time each day to speak in your non-native language. Too many families from other countries speak only their native language at home, and this will not help you learn English. Speaking English together will improve everyone's English.