6 exercises to practise & improve speaking English at home ALONE!

hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy in today's lesson I'm going to show you how you can improve your english- speaking skills alone that's right just you yourself maybe a smartphone or a computer might help too whether you're a beginner just starting out or an advanced learner looking to level up your fluency you're definitely going to get something out of today's lesson to help you further I've also created a free pdf that has all of the different exercises broken down f

or you in a really clear way and there is a list of additional resources that will help you get the most out of your daily speaking practice if you'd like to download that just click on the link in the description box you enter your name and your email address you sign up to my mailing list and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox and then after that you've joined my PDF Club you will automatically receive all of my free weekly PDF along with all of my news course updates and offers it's a

free service and you can unsubscribe at any time okay the exercises and techniques that I'm going to give you today will definitely boost your speaking skills but if you want a more structured approach to improving your English you need to consider langua talk langua talk is a brilliant platform where you can find ideal teachers to help you improve your target language that might be English it might be Spanish French Japanese whatever I started using it and it was so incredible that I became a

part of the company so technically that means I'm sponsoring myself in this video my husband and I are both using langua talk I'm learning Italian and will is learning Spanish the gardening we love both of our langua talk tutors because they don't just have a deep understanding of Spanish and Italian and the languages we're learning but they make our lessons really fun too because the classes are one-on-one we get so much personalized speaking practice they teach us things that you just wouldn't

learn in grammar books if you would like to learn English or another language in the same way as us using langua talk I have got a special discount for you you can get a $10 lesson credit by using the code speaking 10 your first trial lesson is usually free and then you can apply that $10 disc account to the next lesson for the first time with langua talk you activate The Code by messaging the langua talk support team after your first purchase the link and information are in the description box

I hope you love it as much as I do okay let's get back to it we will begin our lesson with a really fun yet effective warm-up tongue twisters these are great for practicing those more challenging vowel and consonant sounds and they are perfect for all levels they help you to improve your pronunciation by forcing you to repeat tricky sounds the idea is to start slowly and then gradually speed up as you gain confidence this repetition helps to train your English-speaking muscles and will get your

tongue used to making English sounds first up a tongue twister for beginners designed to help you practice the voiced B sound and the unvoiced P sound here it is slowly Big Bears play before painting pictures notice how my lips close to make the p and B sounds in fact the only major difference between these two sounds is that b is voiced and P is unvoiced when a sound is voiced your vocal cords vibrate another way to check if you're accurately making these sounds is to put a piece of paper or a

tissue in front of your mouth like this we generally expel more air with unvoiced sounds so the paper should move more when you you make the P sound and stay still when you make the B sound PB p b i look a bit strange doing that don't I okay now it's your turn try pausing the video and repeating the tongue twister three times getting gradually faster okay are you ready for the next tongue twister pay attention to the f v s and Sh sounds this one is tricky the 60th Shake sixth sheep sick whoo pa

use the video Try saying that three times fast how did you find it these exercises are a great way to warm your mouth up and get ready for more speaking practice okay now I'm going to share some of my favorite methods and exercises that you can start doing today that will greatly improve your English speaking ability I'm going to share activities that are suitable for B1 B2 C1 and C2 levels I have got recommendations for A1 to A2 Learners I have put them in the PDF I'm focusing on intermediate t

o Advanced Learners today in this lesson let's start with B1 to B2 the intermediate exercises the first activity I've got for you is explain it like I'm five this is a really unique challenge it's all about clear communication using simple vocabulary you have to pick a complex topic maybe something related to one of your hobbies or work and you have to explain it to a 5-year-old the goal is to make your explanation as simple and clear as possible as Albert Einstein once said if you can't explain

it simply you don't understand it well enough so here we are putting this idea to the test this exercise is a fantastic way to practice using straightforward language and breaking down complex ideas it also helps in mastering the art of clear and effective communication try explaining a concept like why is the sky blue in the simplest terms you might say the sky looks blue because of how sunlight reflects off the air you can also record your explanations and you could even send them to other pe

ople you know who are learning English to check if they understand give it a try with a topic you're passionate about and we can't practice speaking in the comment section but we can practice your communication skills I would like you to explain something to me like I'm five five years old in the comment section I'd like you to take a really complex topic break it down make it simple so that I can understand that's your homework for today okay next activity storytelling with prompts this is grea

t for any creative people out there in this activity you're going to use random images object objects or online story prompt generators to spark your creativity and Imagination your challenge is to create and narrate a short story allowed using these prompts you should focus on adding Rich details vivid descriptions and Lively dialogue to build a complete narrative this is like the opposite of the previous activity I don't want simple anymore I want complex and creative this exercise enhances yo

ur creative thinking and helps you focus on on creating sentences in narrative tenses which is really good if you want to share anecdotes you also get a wonderful vocabulary boost I've got a great resource for generating story prompts and I put that in the PDF so make sure you download that I will give you a quick example let's say the prompt is a mysterious letter in the mail imagine who sent it why and what happens next narrate your story incorporating the descriptions of characters their feel

ings and some settings if you want to make this exercise a bit easier you can write a few notes on what you'd like to say before you speak and then say your story loud to make it slightly more challenging you can set a timer for 1 to two minutes to give yourself time to think before you speak if you want to make it super challenging start speaking immediately with no prep I find this hard in English I really do so it is a real challenge the next exercise is actually my favorite one in this secti

on I strongly recommend mend keeping an audio diary there are so many benefits and let me explain how it could work first it's as simple as making a cup of tea or coffee sitting down and having a relaxed chat with your phone I know it sounds a little odd but stick with me on this talk about your day talk about your thoughts or experiences it shouldn't be a stressful exercise it's about practicing your English in a conversational way on WhatsApp you can send messages to yourself I send whatsapps

to myself all the time when I want to remember something each day commit to sending a one minute audio to yourself it can be really nice to look back over too as you narrate your diary if you stumble upon a word that doesn't come to mind in English jot it down in your native language at the end of your entry look up the words using an online dictionary tool my favorite is the Oxford Learners dictionary and pay attention to their pronunciation usually they show both British and American versions

of the pronunciation which is awesome then you can just try your sentence again with the new English word another interesting thing that you can do that can check how easy you are to understand is to use something like your notes application click on the little microphone icon and your speech will be dictated in written form while you're recording it and this will give you immediate feedback on your pronunciation look it's not going to give you pronunciation feedback but it will give you an indi

cation as to whether you are speaking clearly or not if the phone can understand you that's a good sign but remember don't worry if it doesn't understand you too well I love this activity because it's all about integrating English into your daily life actively using new vocabulary and expressing coherent fluent thoughts it's practical it's reflective and it's really beneficial for enhancing your spoken English after a few weeks of audio entries it will become a habit and something you kind of lo

ok forward to each day and the really cool thing is that if you are recording it on WhatsApp or something like that you can track your own speaking progress you'll be able to listen to your entries from 1 two or even six months ago and see how far you've come let me know if you try this method and how you find it okay let's move on to C1 to C2 more advanced activities first up I want to explore the world of podcasts this is an increasingly popular medium for for storytelling and sharing ideas an

d I would like you to create your own podcast episode imagine you've been invited onto a podcast to discuss a topic you're passionate about prepare some questions you expect to be asked about this topic then record yourself answering these questions as if you were in a live interview this exercise allows you to practice articulating your thoughts clearly on subjects that you're already enthusiastic about and the important thing is to listen back to your speech alter alternatively you could find

a podcast on a topic you really enjoy and you can listen carefully to the interviewer's questions pause after each question and answer it as if you were the interviewee this tests not only your comprehension but also your ability to respond thoughtfully in real time it's a good thing to practice in your own language as well then hit play and listen to the actual response my final exercise of the day is an advanced version of the explain it like I'm five activity I call it teach it think about a

hobby or skill that you're proficient in and imagine that you have to teach this to someone else but entirely in English it could be anything you do on a regular basis cooking a specific dish playing a musical instrument practicing yoga the key is to break down your skill into teachable understandable segments I used to do this all the time when I was actively learning Spanish you would not believe the amount of Spanish cooking shows that I have hosted in my kitchen with no one watching I sincer

ely hope when you teach something you have to understand it deeply and be able to explain it and doing this in English will not only expand your vocabulary related to your hobby but it will also improve your fluency and your ability to convey complex ideas clearly it's an awesome way to apply your English skills in a practical real world context and the best thing to do is to record yourself teaching it's hard to watch back sometimes but no one else has to watch and you really catch errors that

you don't even know you're making okay that brings us to the end of our session today I hope I gave you some food for thought on how to practice your speaking alone I've only touched on a few exercises today I've included a lot more in the PDF including some lower level activities and some more at C1 and C2 I've also got that list of resources and links for you to use just click on the link in the description box to download that in the description box you also have all of the information on how

to access langua talk and claim your $10 discount I will see you soon for another lesson [Music] m