“I just need to talk more.”
Sound familiar?
“In school we only studied grammar and took tests. We never spoke. Now I know the rules but I have trouble speaking. Therefore I just need to talk more.”
Makes sense.
Very logical.
And it’s something I hear all the time.
Students think it’s the magic cure to all their English problems.
“If only I could just speak more…”
But there’s a problem.
It’s not true.
It’s a myth.
Some people believe catching a unicorn will make their wishes come true.
Others believe in the magic of “just talking.”
And while none of the unicorns I’ve caught could speak English (they’re worse than Americans at learning second languages), I have met many students who were just focused on speaking.
And the results are usually the same.
They do improve. Mainly, they learn to speak faster. And maybe their confidence also increases.
But they don’t learn to speak better.
Instead, they make the same mistakes again and again. (But faster and with more confidence.)
How To Speak And Improve
Here’s an example from golf.
Imagine you need to improve your swing. So you get a bucket of balls and go to the driving range.
You start hitting the balls. You’re getting lots of practice. And that’s good.
But here’s the problem: Every time you hit the ball you close your eyes.
Did it go left? Right? Straight?
You don’t know.
It’s like you’re hitting every ball into the dark.
There’s no feedback.
And for the student who is only focused on speaking, he’s usually not listening. Instead, he’s focused on what he’s going to say next. And so there’s no feedback.
He speaks, but his ears are closed.
He doesn’t listen and he doesn’t correct.
It’s like he’s speaking into the dark.
So that’s Step One: Listen.
Now on to Step Two…
Imagine you’re standing at the mouth of a cave and you yell “hello!” A second later the “hello” comes back to you.
That’s an echo.
And if you echo what someone says you simply repeat / copy them.
Here’s how it works in conversation.
A CONVERSATION WITHOUT ECHOING
Me: How was the meeting?
Jan: Good. But we were only five.
Me: There were only five of you at the meeting?
Jan: Yes, we were only five.
Did Jan hear me?
Kind of.
Did he hear his mistake?
Definitely not.
Will he make the same mistake again?
Probably.
And this is what happens when your main focus is just on speaking.
There’s no room for listening.
And if you’re not listening – I mean really listening – you don’t hear the difference between your words and the native speaker’s words.
Here’s the same conversation but with Jan listening and then echoing.
A CONVERSATION WITH ECHOING
Me: How was the meeting?
Jan: Good. But we were only five.
Me: There were only five of you at the meeting?
Jan: Yes, there were only five of us.
Much better!
In my point of view i think that english schools sometimes help us to know how do we speak i mean has taught us the rules needed when you,re speaking because without grammar there’s no english. But they dont give us time to express ourselves.
True
I found that learning only grammar or rules without practice is a great handicap, I started learning English more than ten years ago. But until now i cant speak fluently if i find native speaker it will help me.