Many people find that they are comfortable learning from a book or taking quizzes online. They learn a lot of useful grammar and improve their vocabulary. This is an excellent way to learn, but only for reading and writing. Languages are spoken. Much of the meaning in a language comes from the way you say something, and written English is only 30% of a complex living language. Let’s explore why it is important to speak, and why you need to be a little bit brave.

To understand what people say, you can watch YouTube videos, and English TV. You can read books to improve your reading, and you can email people to practice your writing. All of these are excellent ways to improve your English. What about your speaking? You need to practice this as much as any other part of a language. Many people have excellent “technical knowledge” of English because they understand the grammar and have large passive vocabularies. If this information is never sent to your mouth, you will find that you are not able to express yourself how you would like.

By speaking, you practice the physical movements of your mouth that are required to make English sounds such as “th”, “sh”, and “ch”. Depending on your native language you might need to practice the difference between “mm” and “nn”. Learning a language without ever speaking it, is like spending years studying fishing but never trying to catch a fish. Until you use your skills you do not know how they work. There is a lot to learn from putting any skill into action that you cannot learn through theory.

Speaking is the only way to improve your fluency. Knowledge of English in your brain will always be “passive” knowledge until you start to speak it. You use different parts of your brain to create speech. The pathways between your “thinking English” and your “speaking English” need to be strengthened, and the only way to do this is by speaking. Every time you speak English and search for a word, the pathways in your brain are made stronger. The next time you try to say this word it comes more quickly to you. It is a physical biological process that changes the structure of your brain!

So where does the bravery come in? Some people are blessed with the ability to throw themselves practically at anything new. The rest of us are a little shy to make mistakes. This is often why people stay in their comfort zone reading books, and writing emails. We feel a little safer in text. If we make mistakes to someone’s face, we feel like we have failed. Bravery is essential to improving your spoken English and giving you the freedom to really express yourself in English. You cannot email people in a restaurant, or make English friends in a book.

Learn to see these mistakes as an important and helpful part of learning. It is the mistake and the search for the right word that builds the pathways you need to improve. If you stay in your comfort zone you will improve your written and read English but you will never improve your speaking. There is good news though. All that technical knowledge of English does not go to waste. Once you commit yourself to speaking English, all that technical knowledge is already there. All you need to do is allow your mouth to learn how to find it. Your speaking will improve extremely quickly!

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