Improving Fluency

by Gabriel
(Asuncion)

I would like to ask, how I can improve my fluency in English. I have learned so much basic vocabulary and expressions, but I noticed that I can’t speak fluently; I cannot order the words in my mind, or I think too much before speaking.

Do you have any suggestions? What do you recommend I do to increase my listening skills?

Sorry if I have mistakes in this message.

Thanks and congratulations on your website, it is great!!

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Hi Gabriel,
To answer your question there are many things that you can do to improve your fluency but the most important is to decide to improve your fluency and agree to do anything and ALL that it takes to do it.

Many people want to have better fluency but don't want to work to get it. I wish it were easy to become fluent but it isn't in most cases.

If you live in an English speaking country you will become fluent faster, if you make an effort to speak to others and to listen and use your English. This can be hard and frustrating as people will not understand you at first and visa versa.

If you do not live abroad you are faced with the issue that you don't have many opportunities to practice or use your English. This can be frustrating and can make the process much slower.

No matter which is your situation you need to remember that it is YOU that controls how you learn. If you decide and promise to study for 30 minutes everyday...and do that for a year...that is 180 hours of studying! It adds up.

If you do something small...regularly and for an extended period of time then you will notice a difference.

I don't want to offer you (can't offer you) a quick fix miracle for fluency but here are some tips and facts.

1) Speak in English and learn from your mistakes. Mistakes are ok but you need to use them to help improve. Learn from them.

2) Listen to English daily. Listen to the radio, watch English DVDs and really LIVE English. It will be hard in the beginning but I promise that it will get easier.

3) Read! This is a great way to improve fluency and your vocabulary. Read things that will interest you and you will start to build your vocabulary day by day.

4) Think positive? This may seem a bit silly but if you view improving fluency in a positive way, you will probably speak better. When you are positive you are not worrying about your mistakes or if you are saying something correctly and this allows you to speak more freely.

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