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The 4-Step System To Practise Speaking English

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Practice Speaking English - The Speaking Success System

If you want a way to practice speaking English that is fun and engaging, and will not only boost your fluency, but also help you remember vocabulary as you are learning it, then try the Speaking Success System.

This is your secret to success in developing your English speaking skills.

Below, I will show you what it is and how to use it.

#1 TRY

  • Take a question and try to answer without any preparation.

#2 DISCOVER

  • Watch or listen to a proficient or native speaker answering the question.
  • Identify useful chunks of language.

#3 PRACTICE

  • Practice repeating the chunks.
  • Practice again giving your answer for the question in step 1.

#4 BUILD

  • Give different answers to the same question from step 1. 

The Speaking Success System: In Use

Topic: Money

Question: Do you prefer to spend or save money?

#1 TRY

  • Without preparing, try and give your own answer to this question.
  • Speak out your answer for about 15 seconds (the average length of an IELTS Speaking part 1 answer).

#2 DISCOVER

LISTEN TO THIS ANSWER 

 

I definitely prefer spending money, 

I love splashing out on things 

that I can’t really afford.

I know I should mange my finances better, 

but I am just not very good at 

putting money aside like that.

IDENTIFY USEFUL CHUNKS

  1. I definitely prefer ______ = I prefer _______ for sure
  2. I love splashing out on ____ =  I love spending a lot of money on ___
  3. I should manage my finances better = I should organise my money better
  4. I’m not good at putting money aside = I’m not good at saving money

#3 PRACTICE

PRACTICE CHUNKS

There are several different practice activities I use.

Here are 4 common ones.

  1. Repeat
  2. Change a word
  3. Say the opposite
  4. Change the tense

Let’s practice them. This is best done with the audio file below. 

CHUNK ONE: I DEFINITELY PREFER 

  • REPEAT

Prefer 

I definitely prefer 

I definitely prefer spending money 

  • CHANGE A WORD

I definitely prefer spending money

I definitely prefer saving money

I definitely prefer investing money

  • PUT IN THE PAST

I definitely prefer spending money

I definitely preferred spending money

saving money

CHUNK TWO:  TO SPLASH OUT ON 

  • REPEAT

Splash out on

Splash out on a holiday

I’m going to splash out on a holiday

  • CHANGE A WORD 

I’m going to splash out on a holiday

I’m going to splash out on a new phone

I’m going to splash out on a new computer

  • SAY THE OPPOSITE

I’m going to splash out on a holiday

I’m not going to splash out on a holiday

I splashed out on a new phone

I didn’t splash out on a new phone

  • PUT IN THE FUTURE

I always splash out on new clothes

I will splash out on new clothes

I’m going to splash out on new clothes

  • GIVE YOUR ANSWER AGAIN

Finally, practice giving an answer to the original question

Do you prefer to spend or save money?

Your focus is not to memorise the answer word for word, but just to try and use one or two of the chunks you have practiced. 

You may get something like this 

I prefer to spend money actually, 

I often splash out on holidays and new clothes, 

probably more than I should 

I guess I am just not very good at saving.

#4 BUILD

Build your flexibility by giving different answers to the same question in step 1. 

  • Do you prefer to spend or save money?

You may get something like this:

I prefer to spend money

I do love going round the shopping mall

at the end of the month when I get paid 

I tend to blow all my money on clothes 

Yeah, I am not very good at saving

And the second time, something like this

I prefer to spend money

I have this habit of spending most of my salary

so there’s nothing left at the end of the month 

I know I should save, my father tried to hammer it into me

that I should save money

but I never get round to it

The key is not to memorise this answer, but to memorise chunks and use them flexibly.

This is the Speaking Success System and it can work for anyone who wants to improve their fluency and pronunciation whilst building their vocabulary.

Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Keith O'Hare

Trinity Dip TESOL, MSc Digital Education (UK). Helping more than 40,000 students worldwide with my online courses. A lover of languages, teaching and lasagna!

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