Tips for those who are nervous speaking English

Do you feel nervous speaking English? Do these symptoms sound familiar?

You feel sick, your palms are sweaty, you find it hard to breathe and you feel like running out the closest exit…

If you do, you wouldn’t be alone…millions of people find speaking a foreign language nerve wracking. Some people are lucky and have no worries and are happy just to splash around in the language until they learn how to swim. Most people are afraid to speak in English because they are afraid of making a mistake and looking silly. 

Either way, here are some tips to help…

Don't try to be perfect. 

Fear of speaking often stems from a fear of imperfection. No one ever gets it perfect and neither will you. Just be yourself. If you find that you are getting too worked up over speaking English, you will find it harder and the words won’t come out fluently like you would like them to. Take a break and relax. Stress will cause your brain to freeze and the words will get stuck. 

Do your homework 

The more you know, the more confident you will be

Engage your audience

Ask the person you are talking to for assistance if you need it. Remember that the other people are human too. Make eye contact with the people you are talking to as well - it will connect you with them more and along with your body language and gestures, will help you get your point across and say what you want to say.

Breathe

Deep breathing from your stomach rather than from your chest will help calm your nerves

Visualize your success

Before you start, imagine yourself speaking clearly and with confidence. Try and picture all the details - include details of things you can see, smell and hear. Make the picture in your mind as clear as possible. How do you feel? When the time comes for you to speak in real life, you will feel like you have done it before and have more confidence in the the outcome. 

Watch your body language

When we’re nervous, we tend to bend over, stoop to make ourselves seem smaller and less obvious. We may cross our arms over our chests in a defensive or protective way. Standing tall takes some practice, but we come across much more confident if we stand up and push our shoulders back.

 Practice speaking on your own

You can practice speaking in front of a mirror, or a selfie video with your phone. Listen to how you sound (be aware, nobody likes the sound of their own voice!) and possibly ask a friend or colleague to listen to you and give you some feedback.

Speak Slowly

There are several reasons to slow down when you are speaking. One is to give you more time to speak, it will set the pace for the other speaker - they won’t want to speak quickly if you are taking your time. You will find that you are more confident speaking slower as you will probably make less mistakes. Also, people tend to trust a person who takes the time to consider what they say before they say it. 

Even when speaking in our mother tongue, we pause and repeat, utter strange words and noises and make mistakes. It’s never perfect

Also,  don’t be afraid to ask other people to slow down their speaking. Most people have experience of learning a foreign language, so will understand how it feels to be learning a language. 

Make sure you are listening

Make sure you listen to what the other person is saying. When the other person is talking, make sure that you are listening carefully to what the other person is saying and not working out what your answer will be when it comes to your time to talk. 

Also, the more you listen to native speakers speaking English, the better your recognition of words and pronunciation will be. Listen to audiobooks and read along too on an ebook. This way, you can see how the words are spelt and pronounced too. 

Speak, speak and speak some more

The best way to improve and feel less nervous is to practice at every opportunity you can. Find a conversation partner, join an online English chat room, find a native speaker and invite them for a coffee! Ideally, find a place to chat where there isn’t too much noise and where there aren’t too many people speaking at the same time. You want to make it as easy on your ears as possible!

The advantage of joining an online chat forum is that you can begin to chat but using writing, so you can type/converse at the pace that suits you and you can see how the word or sentence looks before sending it. Everything is at a slower pace and can give you the confidence before you go out and speak to others. Plus, you don’t have to see the person face to face, which can help sometimes if you feel awkward or embarrassed. 

Ask questions

This is a great way to get to practice your English, but without having to join in a conversation in the middle. You can practice asking your question beforehand and feel more confident, and you are also asking the other person to take over talking, so the emphasis is changed from you to the other person who will give you the answer. This is great if you are feeling shy but still want to join in and chat. 

Learn vocabulary for popular topics

Whether you are speaking English as part of a conversation with friends or taking a speaking exam, there are certain topics that always come up again and again. 

Whilst it’s never a good idea to learn structured conversation off by heart, it is a good idea to make sure that you are familiar with the vocabulary that you will need when talking about those topics. 

Examples could be - family and friends, your home country and culture, hobbies, countries you have travelled to, food and going out,  sports, current world events. 

Also, make sure you know how to start and end conversations, how to ask for further clarification and words and sounds to make to encourage conversation to carry on.

 Visit an English speaking country

It’s absolutely amazing how this works…but it does, and it has happened to me several times. There is something magical about being surrounded with people speaking the language of the country you are in. It helps unlock the knowledge that you have in the depths of your brain and you will find yourself talking in the language in no time at all - even if you thought it was impossible - like I did when I visited France with just my school girl knowledge of the language. 

We found ourselves in a tricky situation where we had to speak French in order to get ourselves out of the difficulty that we found ourselves in. As if from nowhere, I started speaking French and although I am certain that it was far from perfect (far far far from perfect!) I managed to make myself understood and we could carry on with our journey. Yay! Just dive in and see what happens. Some people may prefer to drive to the beach and slowly dip their toe into the water and gradually head into the water for a swim. Others love to dive off the high diving board. In the end, it doesn’t matter which way you chose. Chose whichever suits you. Both ways you end up in the water and swimming anyway!

When will I get over feeling nervous speaking English? Probably you will never get to the point where you feel 100% calm when speaking English. But each time you take the plunge and do it, you will feel just that little bit less nervous. Keep on doing it - again and again. Most public speakers will tell you the same - it never becomes easy, but it does get easier each time they do it. Or maybe they just get used to the feeling of nervousness and it becomes a new normal for them - who knows?! As a famous motivational coach says - Feel the fear and do it anyway! (Susan Jeffers)

Remember….no one cares!

We often think that everyone is looking at us and watch our every move (or mistake!) But, in reality, unless you are at a job interview or exam, nobody really cares what you are doing or how you are doing it. People are too busy thinking about themselves and how they come across to others to care or mind what you are doing or saying! 

At school, when we learned languages, we were told that we had to have all the grammar in order and that we shouldn’t speak unless we knew what we were saying was correct. We now need to rewire our brains and forget reaching for the unattainable  - we need progress and not perfection!

You’re usually better than you think you are too! You can be our own worst critic. Give yourself some credit for how far you have progressed. Remember ‘Why’ you are learning English and what it will do for you in the future.