When I first went to France – in 2007 – I thought I could speak French. I’d done my homework before going – I knew the grammar, my vocabulary was pretty good, I was reading novels in French and even translating poetry from French into English at university!

But when I actually got there and was suddenly confronted with real French people, I realised that I wasn’t as good as thought I was! I didn’t really know how to speak…

Well, I was good at giving presentations about climate change, and the pros and cons of living abroad because that’s the kind of thing I’d be doing for my university course.

But having real conversations with real people? I mean, the kind of conversations where you just chat down the pub about what series you’re binge-watching at the moment, a new trendy café you went to at the weekend, or a nice new jumper you only just bought and it’s already shrunk in the wash. No – I was definitely not prepared to have those conversations!

Over the years, though, I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I’ve now got some tips for you that you can use to make sure you’re ready for your first conversation with real native speakers.

First, let me say this – speaking is not just about speaking. Confusing, right?

What I mean is that speaking is about two different things. It’s about speaking and listening. Communication is a two-way thing. You need to be able to speak but also understand, and respond and react to what the other person is saying. When I was studying French at university, I was good at speaking but I was also bad at speaking. Like I said above, I was good at giving lectures about topics, setting out the pros and cons of various things, and so on. But I wasn’t good at communication.

So, I’m about to share my top tips with you for how to get better at speaking with native speakers. Let’s start with the speaking part!

Practise syllable pronunciation

Often when people face challenges when speaking with native speakers, it’s because either their pronunciation is not good enough and they’re actually not understood, or they’re not confident enough because of their pronunciation, which affects overall communication.

If you want to make sure people understand you and that your conversations flow, do some pronunciation practice. What I recommend is that you focus on syllables rather than full words. This will give you a little bit more focus and help you master the details of how words are pronounced.

Find a piece of listening material, play it, pause it very frequently and repeat syllable after syllable.

Learn phrases you use frequently in your native language

Often when people learn a foreign language, they will learn random phrases that are suggested by the textbooks they’re using. Or they will rely on reading material to identify the phrases they should learn. This is useful but it has its limitations.

If you want to be a confident speaker, you need to learn and practise the phrases that you use, not just the ones that are used in books. They way you speak is particular to you. You want to be yourself when you speak a foreign language in the same way as you are yourself when you speak your native language. You want to retain your individuality.

So, I recommend that for a couple of days, you go about your day and pay attention to the phrases you use during conversations in your native language. Write them down, and after a few days you will start noticing trends. You will begin to see which phrases you use the most and they’ll be the ones you should learn and practise in the language you’re learning.

Practise conversation topics specific to you

This tip is the same as the one above, except it’s not about phrases but about whole conversation topics. What are the things you tend to discuss during your day, when you’re with friends, out and about in the shops, or at work?

Write them down for a few days and, again, you will begin to notice trends. These will be the topics you should be practising whenever you practise speaking in your target language. There’s no point practising random topics if you won’t be using them. Focus on the ones you really need and use, for the most impact.

Be confident

Easier said than done, right? It’s crucial to learn to be confident, though, if you want to speak fluently when speaking with native speakers.

My biggest tip is that you should understand that the other person is there to help you. They’re not there to judge you or to point out your mistakes. They’re there to get to know you and have a good chat with you. They’re interested in you as a person and in what you’re saying.

Acknowledging this will automatically make you more confident and help you speak more fluently.

Listening

Now that we’ve covered the tips related to speaking, let’s move on to listening. Like I said, listening is a crucial part of the speaking process.

I’ve got lots of tips on how to understand native speakers in my YouTube video below, so make sure you check it out (and subscribe to my channel!). I’ve got a couple of extra tips I want to cover in this blog post as well, though, so read on if you’re interested!

Listen out for phrases, not words

My first tip relates to listening out for phrases, rather than words whenever you’re listening to your target language. When you listen in a way that focuses on individual words, you might get stuck when you encounter a word that you don’t know and don’t understand.

When you listen out for whole phrases, on the other hand, you’re more likely to understand the gist of what somebody else is saying. There might be a word you don’t know in the phrase, but at least you’ve got the phrase so you can figure out the gist or the context of what they’re talking about.

This will help you get more relaxed about speaking and having conversations.

Listen to fast conversations

When you’re learning a foreign language, a lot of listening material you use is simplified for your level. This is helpful because when you’re a beginner there’s no point listening to advanced material because you won’t understand anything and get put off quickly.

However, when you’re past the pre-intermediate stage, there is some value in listening to real, fast conversations, instead of simplified listening material. That’s because real people don’t tend to speak slowly or in a simplified way. You need some exposure to real, fast language to get used to it. It will be difficult and possibly quite overwhelming to start with but you will eventually get better and better.

I hope you found my tips useful! Make sure you sign up to join my language learning community and receive my top advice by email. Fill out the form below to sign up!