Learning to Speak the English Language

When you speak in your native language, you don't have to think about the grammar or the words you use. Correct sentences seem to just come to you. Your brain uses sentences you've already seen or heard. If you want to learn to speak the English language fluently, you have to learn it the way you learned your native language, by reading and listening.

Reading and listening to the English language will help you develop English language intuition. Learning the English language is all about putting lots of proper sentences in your head. Your brain can then imitate them and produce similar English language sentences to express the meaning you want. When you read and listen to the English language a lot, paying close attention to useful English vocabulary, you will soon start to use new English language words and phrases in your speaking and writing. Not only that, but you will develop English language intuition. You will start to feel what sounds good and what sounds incorrect in the English language, just as you do in your native language.

To get a good feeling for the use of articles in the English language you need to read lots of sentences and analyze them closely. It seems like it would be easier to read a unit on English language articles in a grammar book, but it takes lots of time to build a sentence when you have to think of all of the English language grammar rules. When you talk to someone, you don't have time to do that. The input-based approach may seem to be more demanding, but it's the only way to achieve fluency.

If you have ever attended English language classes, you have probably been asked to read a text and then complete a task connected with it. Most teachers encourage students to read very quickly, just to get the main points out of the English language text. You might think that this way you will improve your English, but it's the other way around. Reading in such a way isn't very useful; it could even slow down your progress!

When you read in your native language, you read for content. Your brain focuses on key words that convey the meaning of the text. This way you are able to read faster. But this is the wrong thing to do when reading in the English language. You want to concentrate on the grammar, too. You should analyze the sentences closely. When reading content in the English language, try to notice interesting things in every sentence you read. It could be a useful phrase or an expression that you could have written wrongly. In this way you can learn how to use the English language more correctly, faster.