Here’s how I practice speaking at home (and got a 7 in IELTS Speaking)
First of all, this is not for beginners. This is for those who have a certain level of knowledge in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and chunks but still struggle to speak (they can't activate their knowledge).
(This method uses Artificial Intelligence, so your English should be sufficient to verify the accuracy of the information it provides.)
(When I realized this method worked, I booked an IELTS exam one month out. I forced myself to apply the method for about 4 hours a day. And I scored a 7 in IELTS Speaking. I don't know if this method is already in use, but I couldn't find it online. I wanted to share a technique that brought me success.)
Let's start!
The Setup
- Problem: Having passive knowledge but failing to turn it into active knowledge. In other words, "I understand, but I can't speak."
- Solution: Feedback-driven practice: Forcing yourself to express yourself, and when you can't, being reminded of your passive knowledge.
- Who will remind us? ChatGPT! (Other LLMs might also work. I used GPT.)
Open a new chat in ChatGPT and write the following prompt first: "Translate the sentences I write into 7 different ways of conversational English." (Using a very small number will reduce variety. Using a very high number may cause the AI to give nonsensical results. My preference was 7.)
Now you have a chat that translates every sentence you write into English. (I'll explain why we prefer this over a standard translation tool in a moment.)
How It Works?
1. Find Questions
Forget the classic questions you always answer at the beginning (What's your name? Where did you study? Where are you from? etc.). I was answering IELTS questions, but anything works. Try to cover as many different topics as possible (art, travel, phobias, etc.).
2. Answer
Define a time limit for each answer. For example, you give yourself 15 minutes to answer any given question. Now, during this time, you will try to express yourself sentence by sentence, out loud, in English (Please don't spend too much time on one question, but don't make it too short either).
Set a maximum time limit of 5–10 seconds for each sentence (Adjust this time to fit your needs, but don't make it too long, or you'll waste time; don't make it too short, or you won't force your brain to express itself. Make sure you are challenging yourself enough).
- Please try to express things that challenge your comfort zone instead of simple expressions. The sentences should not be so easy that they flow out of your mouth, nor should they be too difficult for your level. For example, instead of "I love drawing," try something like, "Man, I can't stop drawing, it must be some kind of sickness."
- Sometimes, what you want to express may come out perfectly. But sometimes, you might find yourself avoiding the difficulty by limiting what you want to say to the English words that come to mind at that moment, thereby turning it into a simple, comfortable expression. DO NOT DO THIS! You will only waste time this way. Only push yourself to express what you really want to say. Our goal is not to construct a perfect/correct sentence, but to try to construct it/force ourselves.
- For example: If a hair clip makes you start thinking about your childhood, force yourself to express it. – instead of "This hair clip is nice," try "This hair clip reminds me of my childhood..."
- It's okay if nothing comes out of your mouth, just make sure you have pushed yourself enough.
NEVER think in your native language and translate it into English, think about grammar, or try to construct the perfect sentence! Just try to express what you want to say! Let it be wrong.
Depending on your situation, progress, or mood, make the things you want to express even more challenging/different. For example, if the question is "What is your favorite food?", later on, you can answer by putting someone else as the subject. ("My mom loves soups; this is something her grandmother taught her. So most of the food I've eaten at home throughout my life was that. I guess that will influence my answer. Man, I love soups!").
3. Check and Get Feedback
If you are confident in the correctness of the sentence you constructed and you expressed exactly what you wanted, move on to the next sentence.
If your 10 seconds are up and you couldn't express it, or you are unsure, or you just feel like it, write the sentence in your native language into the chat you set up with GPT (I used speech-to-text to quickly input my sentence into the chat). In this part, don't think about grammar or anything else; just let the GPT result remind you.
- You can write the entire sentence, but I think the best way is to ask GPT the simplest sentence that best expresses only the part you want to ask about, making sure your sentence is easily understood by the AI.
The AI needs to understand the sentence you write well, and the sentence you write should clearly express the part you want to learn. For example, if your native language sentence refers to multiple tenses in English, the AI might not give you the desired results because it doesn't know which one you mean. Therefore, pay attention to the context.
What is the difference between this chat and a normal translator? Variety. A standard translator gives only one translation, and it might not provide the exact word or sentence structure you want to use. This can lead to you having to adapt to the information it gives and not being able to speak as you wish. Or, you might be able to express that sentence in multiple ways, and recalling multiple methods is more efficient for the activity we're doing. The 7 answers that appear on the screen will show you words/chunks/sentences/grammar etc. that are already in your passive reserve (that sound familiar to you) and will enable you to express yourself. The goal here is to recall existing knowledge rather than learning new things. (You may learn new information that helps you express yourself, but if you do this constantly, we will stray from our main goal.)
- Do not take notes or screenshots. Do not get stuck. Recall/learn and move on to your next sentence. The moments when you try to form similar sentences will come naturally because you will be constantly trying to speak, and you will do the repetition there. Trust me, forcing yourself to express yourself this way during that time will teach you more than looking at those notes or screenshots. I also don't recommend re-reading the chat history. If you want speaking practice, you should only force yourself to speak. Also, you will likely accumulate screenshots after a while and never return to them. If you have the information you need to express what you want, move on to the next sentence!
Fossilization
As you can see, GPT will also protect us from Fossilization.
- What is Fossilization? The state where errors made while learning a language become fixed and difficult to correct. For example, if a person constantly uses an incorrect grammar structure, that mistake becomes "automatic" over time, and correcting the error becomes very difficult. (GPT definition)
Others
I believe that if you force yourself to do this for about 3 hours every day, you will see progress even within 1 month.
I think this method reveals whether it is effective within a few days or at most 1 week. Therefore, it is worth checking if it works for you.
There are two things that might discourage you in this learning process: lack of discipline and the unwillingness that comes from pushing your brain this hard. As an ADHD person, I struggled a bit :'). You can work for a more acceptable time, like 1–2 hours a day. You might even be horrified to realize you can't speak at all, but this is the learning process... you have to focus on your progress and embrace it. Everything will be okay.
Conclusion
By using this method, you will move beyond merely being understood while speaking and develop a more natural-sounding conversational English, with correct grammar and appropriate word/chunk choices, spoken more quickly.
Absolutely talk to native speakers whenever you get the chance. But know that unless you are paying, no one will constantly correct your sentences as long as you are being understood, lol. Therefore, I find this method useful for a decent language acquisition, at least for a while.
By the way, if all of this text has confused you, don't forget the option to ask an AI to summarize it for you.
Hope you guys give it a try. Please feel free to criticize.