Lots of people ask me how to practice spoken English. I’m a student at Cool English with 14 months of learning experience. I used to take 6 months of offline group classes with no progress, later I took 25-minute one-on-one foreign teacher classes every day, now I can chat with overseas clients for half an hour without getting stuck frequently.
01Step 1: Spend 10 minutes on pre-class cards, never attend class unprepared
I went to the first 3 classes without any preparation, half of the 25 minutes was spent looking up words in a daze, which was a total waste of money. Later I learned that the pre-class cards of the Karen Method are customized for each class theme, so you don’t have to spend time finding materials yourself.
Frankly speaking, I thought pre-study was a waste of time at first, isn’t it better to spend the 10 minutes scrolling short videos? After trying it twice I found that going through the content beforehand can at least double your class efficiency.
You don’t need to do too much for pre-study, just 3 things:
- Read the 5 core theme-related words until you are familiar with them, no need to memorize, just recognize them when you see them
- Write a 10-character Chinese draft for the 3 guiding questions on the pre-class card, no need to translate into English
- Mark 1 small question related to the theme that you want to ask the foreign teacher most
02Step 2: Speak as much as possible during the 25-minute class, don’t just take notes
Many adult English learners have this bad habit: they copy grammar and write down phrases madly in class, but never dare to open their mouth to speak. I used to be the same, until my foreign teacher pointed out that the notes you take in 25 minutes can be found in 5 minutes by checking a dictionary after class, but the time you spend speaking can never be made up by others.
My foreign teacher Liza told me at that time: "You come to spoken English class to speak, not to be a dictation clerk. I will correct you if you say something wrong, but if you never speak, you will never get it right."
Cool English's Filipino foreign teachers are all very patient, they will wait for you to finish even if you speak word by word, they will never rush you. Later I changed my habit, I never take notes with my head down unless it is a very important expression, I say whatever comes to my mind, even if it is just single words. I used to make the mistake of being afraid to speak, until I read 6 Years in Corporate Training: 3 Common Mistakes 90% of People Make When Learning Spoken English I realized that fear of making mistakes is the biggest obstacle to learning spoken English.
03Step 3: Understand the core of spoken English practice: don’t be lazy in the 5 minutes after class
At first I closed the page directly after class, and made the same mistakes in the next class, which meant I learned nothing. Later I developed the habit of doing a 5-minute review after class, and my progress became much faster.
For example, May, a cross-border e-commerce worker who took classes with me, used to pronounce "discount" as "count" all the time. She wrote this mistake in her phone memo every time after class, glanced at it during her commute, and never made the mistake again after remembering it 3 times.
I personally recommend setting the wrong expressions you made in class as your phone lock screen wallpaper, you can see it more than a dozen times a day, which is much more efficient than setting aside special time to memorize.
Actually, how to practice spoken English is not that complicated. You don’t need to spend two or three hours studying hard every day. Just follow these steps, spend 40 minutes a day (10 minutes pre-study + 25 minutes class + 5 minutes review), and you will see obvious progress after 3 months of persistence. If you are interested, you can book a free trial class to feel the rhythm first.
