To get better at speaking English, the best thing to do is to speak English. Easier said than done. Not all of us have an English-speaking friend on hand to chat to every day, and many of us have very busy lives, so we don’t have the time or the money to dedicate to looking for conversation classes. Talking or singing to ourselves is the best alternative we have. Here is how.
Talking to yourself give you a daily dose of fluency practice
When I was learning Spanish, one of the things I found useful was talking to myself in Spanish. I would narrate my way through the recipes I was cooking. I would have imaginary dialogues with George Clooney. I would describe the room I was sitting in. Or I would simply explain to my cat the life stories of my friends and family. I usually did this when there was nobody home, for fear of people thinking that my behaviour was a little strange. It was only my confused cat who was a captive audience.
Talking to myself gave me a daily dose of fluency practice. It was a non-threatening way to practise my Spanish. I could really explore the language that I knew and talk about whatever I wanted, or whatever felt useful to me at the time. Although this may have been a fun activity for me (and maybe also the cat), was it useful in terms of language learning?
When you are speaking, you’re engaging in what’s known as the productive use of language. Unlike reading and listening, which are all about soaking up information (receptive knowledge), speaking and writing push you to actively produce the language. If you are an English language learner, this means that you are not just understanding English but instead creating and using the language in real time.
Producing the language takes more mental effort and tends to be a slower process than understanding. This is because mentally and physically we have to do a lot more: we have to access our internal language, figure out which bit to use, remember the grammar construction, focus on the pronunciation, do some gymnastics with our tongues, and get the words out in the right order. Phew! This takes so much more mental effort than simply reading a sentence or listening to someone else speak.
Talking to yourself in the language you are learning is a fantastic way to practise speaking, and the best thing is, you can do it whenever and wherever you want! Luckily, there are many scientists looking into this, so let’s have a look at some of the science behind it.
The science behind it
Studies have shown that if you imagine yourself doing a specific activity for only ten minutes per day, like a specific judo move or a new swimming stroke, you can improve your ability to perform it. This is because our brain uses similar processes whether we are physically doing something or just actively imagining doing it. When you talk to yourself (even if you are not actually talking out loud) your brain lights up in the same way it would if you were having a real conversation with a real person. You’re essentially practising your conversation skills even if the only person you are talking to is yourself!
Think of it as mental rehearsal. Just like athletes visualize their performance before a game, you can do lots of things to improve your speaking skills. You can imagine dialogues, ask yourself questions, explain your life story and even interview your favourite film star – all in your head. All this mental practice strengthens the neural pathways associated with speaking, helping you become more fluent.
Let’s break it down a bit more. When you engage in self-talk, you’re working on several key aspects of language:
- Pronunciation and Accent
By saying words out loud, you get to practice the sounds of the language. You might not get immediate feedback, but you’ll start noticing how to shape your mouth and position your tongue for those tricky sounds. - Vocabulary and Grammar
Constructing sentences spontaneously forces you to recall and apply the vocabulary and grammar rules you’ve learned. The more often you ‘pull the words out of the hat’, the quicker you will get. - Fluency
The more you practise speaking, the more natural it becomes. Over time, you’ll find that words and phrases come to mind more quickly, reducing those awkward pauses and “ums” and “errs”. - Confidence
Speaking out loud, even to yourself builds your confidence. It reduces the anxiety of making mistakes in front of others because it’s just you (and maybe your confused dog!). This confidence can translate to smoother conversations when you do speak with others.
So next time you’re walking your dog, driving to work or just at home relaxing, don’t hesitate to strike up a conversation with yourself (or an unsuspecting pet). Describe your day. Narrate what you’re doing. Debate with yourself about what to have for dinner. Do all of this in English. This will really help your fluency. My only word of caution would be to keep the dialogues internal when there are other people around!