We hope that you have a lot of information about English conversation courses and that you can choose the right one for you. But even if you find a good conversational English course, self-study is the only way to reach your goals quickly. Here’s our best advice for speaking foreign languages with confidence.
1.Practice with a conversation partner as often as possible
Conversational English is one of those skills that can only be learned through conversation. All the apps and websites that offer tips on how to speak well are no substitute for a real conversation partner. Finding someone to practice your English conversation skills with is never easy.
2.Start with a phrasebook and work your way through
If you can read articles in English but can’t hold conversations, buy an English travel phrasebook. It may sound simple, but phrasebooks contain all the “survival” phrases that are sometimes missing from academic textbooks and courses.
3.Learn some filler words and conjunctions
Have you ever had to transcribe an audio recording of an impromptu conversation? If so, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of talking doesn’t really mean anything. A high percentage consists of filler words that give speakers time to think, such as E.g. “um…”, “ah…”, “…” and “so…”. Another large part consists of connecting phrases that don’t really mean anything, such as “well, to be honest”, “ultimately” and “I don’t know about you, but…”.
Mastering a few of those meaningless phrases native speakers use will instantly make you sound more fluent—and you can buy time while you’re thinking about tricky verb conjugations!
4.Perfect your phonemes
Even if you speak perfect English, sometimes native speakers don’t understand you properly. This is really frustrating! If this happens to you often, you might want to work on your English pronunciation .
It’s often most efficient to go back to basics: you need to make sure you’ve mastered all the basic sounds of the English language. That doesn’t mean you have to relearn the alphabet. It’s about testing whether you can pronounce all English phonemes clearly.
We hope that you now feel empowered to decide which English conversation course is worth your time and money!
