“I want to know how to speak English fluently(流利地). What can I do?”
Many students often ask me this question. My first question to the students is how much English they speak every day. Often they will answer, “Only in my classes”, or “When I’m at school”. The first thing I will say is, “That is not enough!”
If you want to do anything well, you have to practice. It is the same with speaking English. The most important thing you can do to improve your fluency(流利) is to practice. Speak to friends, classmates, teachers, people on the Internet, people in stores, even strangers. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will be.
I usually ask my students how they feel about speaking English, and they often say “nervous”, “scared” or something similar. The second most important piece of advice I can give is to relax. Don’t worry about making mistakes. Fluency does not mean perfection(完美)! If you can’t think of the right word or tense(时态) to use, don’t worry about it. Just say anything people can understand.
Speaking English fluently isn’t just about practicing your speaking. It is also important to listen to as much English as possible. This is easy with the help from the Internet, movies, TV and radio. If you listen, even if you are not paying all your attention to what you are listening to, you will start to learn the language and will start using words and sentences without thinking about them.