How to Focus on Your English Fluency For Confident Speaking

Hello, and thank you for tuning into the Express to Impress Podcast! It’s Kristine here, and I’m thrilled to share some exciting news with you all.

Speaking in an organized way is one of the most challenging aspects of communicating effectively in English, and many of the people I work with have told me that they want to learn this vital skill. So, in August, I’ll be running a special 4-week Organized Speaking Program! You can learn how to speak confidently in many workplace scenarios, receive personalized feedback, and get your hands on my Organized Speaking Guidebook to master the American business English communication style. Stay tuned until the end of this episode for all the details on how to sign up!

Now, let’s dive into my conversation with my lovely guest!

Kristine:

Hello! It’s Kristine here with the Express to Impress Podcast. This week I am excited to welcome Clare Whitmell to the show. Clare and I know many of the same people, and I really admire the work she’s doing. Clare is an English teacher and coach, helping people to speak English more easily and confidently, she also runs a podcast. At smartenglishcoach.com.

Today, we will be talking about English fluency and grammar exercises to become more fluent in English and how to change the way you think about your speaking for more confidence. Welcome, Clare. I’m so happy to have you.

Clare: 

Thank you so much, Kristine, for such a lovely introduction. I’m really happy to be here.

Balancing English Fluency and Grammar Goals

Kristine: 

Wonderful. All right, let’s go ahead and get started. So, Clare, my first question is about English fluency and grammar. Many people want to improve both. So can you tell me: how do fluency and grammar play distinct roles in language learning, and how can learners effectively develop both aspects to enhance their proficiency?

Clare: 

That’s a great question, Kristine, because obviously, both are very important. So grammar helps us to speak accurately and clearly so that the other person can follow our ideas. We need good grammar to avoid misunderstandings, and that’s where it helps communication the most. And obviously, with advanced grammar, you can do many, many more things, so you can be more persuasive. Advanced grammar helps us to speak more formally, and so on, and it’s often always grammar that we. And it’s generally grammar that we focus on most when we start learning English. 

But then, obviously, we also need English fluency. So by fluency, I mean that we can speak without too much hesitation or without pausing too much, and when we are fluent, it makes it easier for the other person to keep listening. So both things are really important. But the problem comes when we can’t focus on both things at the same time because it just takes up too much head space. So we tend to focus on our accuracy; we want to avoid making mistakes. So that means that we focus on our grammar, on using the right vocabulary, and on our pronunciation. But when we do this, we then sacrifice our fluency because we’re concentrating so much on being accurate that we end up hesitating, for example.

And then, if we do it the other way round, if we focus on our English fluency, then we can sacrifice our accuracy. We perhaps forget the right words that we want to use, and we forget the grammar. And this is something that can be really frustrating. When you’re learning English, it’s difficult to focus on both these two things unless, of course, we already are very sure about the information. And in terms of how we develop both of these things, I think grammar, perhaps, is easier to develop, especially if you’re learning on your own. So there are lots of self-study courses, self-study books. You can go online and find lots of grammar quizzes. It’s much more difficult, I think, to find fluency exercises that you can do on your own. But there are things that you can do, especially without a teacher.

Kristine Knutter: 

Absolutely. This is a challenge when learning any language is determining what to focus your efforts on. And so many times, I meet students who want to improve everything, and it is too much to focus on everything all at once. So I love your advice to choose to focus on grammar or choose to focus on fluency so that it’s more manageable.

Clare: 

Yes, I think manageable is a good word to use when you’re talking about learning a language. There are so many different aspects of it.

Activities to Build English Fluency

Kristine: 

So that leads nicely to the next question. Could you share some activities that help learners practice meaningful English fluency?

Please listen to the audio recording above for more of my conversation with Clare!

Organized Speaking Program: August 2023

Now, let’s shift gears and dive into the details of my 4-week Organized Speaking Program! 

This program is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to speak in an organized way, which will be especially helpful if you work with Americans. It offers speaking practice relevant for any workplace scenario, such as introducing yourself to a new colleague, sharing your work accomplishments, telling a story, presenting an idea in a meeting, answering impromptu questions, sharing a project update, providing task instructions, and more! Mastering these skills will help you stand out, leading to promotions and job opportunities. I’m particularly thrilled to offer a new flexible format that suits busy professionals.

Here’s how the program works: Each week of the 4-week program, I’ll send you two speaking tasks. You’ll record yourself completing the tasks and send the recordings to me. I’ll listen to them and provide feedback and suggestions through my own recorded messages. You’ll then implement my suggestions and send the revised recordings back to me, and I’ll continue providing feedback. This targeted approach has proven effective in improving Business English communication skills and addressing unique communication challenges. As a bonus, you’ll receive my Organized Speaking Guidebook, which includes strategies for answering questions confidently and concisely, handling unexpected questions, storytelling techniques, and more.

To ensure high-quality personalized feedback, I’ll be limiting the program to just 5 participants. The introductory rate for this session is $150, and future programs will be priced higher. For more details and to sign up by August 1, please visit my website at express-to-impress.com/communication-skills-training/.

That’s all for today! Thank you so much for listening to the Express to Impress podcast. I hope you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did! If you found this episode helpful, please remember to share it with a friend! See you next time. Bye!