Lesson Transcript

Why is speaking the number one weakness for most language learners?
Some time ago, we sent out a survey to find out a little more about you. We asked about what you like, what you don’t like, your strengths, and your weaknesses. One question asked you to rate your abilities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Over 70% of people surveyed answered that their biggest weakness is...speaking.
In this video, you'll find out why speaking is a common weakness. You'll also learn 6 ways you can start improving your speaking skills right now.
This is a common issue for language learners. But why is speaking the #1 weakness for most learners? It's pretty simple when you consider that you get better at what you focus on.
You get better at what you focus on. When people start learning a language, they usually start with reading. Most learners start with textbooks. Learners taking their first class probably spend most of their time doing homework and reviewing information in their textbook⁠—spending maybe only 30 minutes a week or so repeating words in class.
If you spend most of your time reading, you'll get better at reading, but your speaking skills won’t grow.
It’s like exercising just one muscle. That single muscle will get stronger, but the other ones (which are ignored) stay small. This is why speaking is such a common weakness for learners. If you want your speaking skills to improve, you need to spend more time speaking. Here are 6 ways you can start right now.
Number one: Get a native speaker tutor to practice with
A common issue is most people don’t have access to teachers or native speakers (or they just don’t have the time to meet with one).
But with our Premium PLUS plan, you get your very own on-site teacher. You can practice speaking by recording yourself and having them review it. One popular tactic is to talk about your day. To do this, send 3 recordings; one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night. Your teacher will review your recordings and then give you corrections and feedback.
Number two: Get conversation-based lessons in the lesson library.
If you visit your lesson library, you can sort lessons by Conversation, Reading, Writing, Vocab, Grammar, or Culture. So, select "conversations" and you’ll see the lessons that expose you to conversations and get you speaking the language.
Number three: Read out loud
While you're listening to a lesson and reading along with the notes, try reading out loud.
Then re-read and speed up your tempo. If you’re reading out loud, you’re practicing your speaking skills. And by increasing your speed, you’ll also be able to talk faster and with confidence. Do this again and again until you can speak faster.
Number four: Prepare things to say ahead of time.
Most learners, especially beginners, run out of things to say. But, if you prepare lines ahead of time, you won’t run out of things to say.
Start speaking with prepared lines from our 3-Minute Video lessons, Top 25 Questions lessons, Survival Phrases lessons, and other lessons that you’ll find in the lesson library.
Number five: Shadow conversations.
This means you should repeat the dialogues as you hear them.
In every lesson, you learn a new conversation. So try to shadow the conversation line by line. Premium and Premium PLUS users, use the dialog tool with this method and you’ll master conversations faster.
Number six: Review again and again.
Regular review is essential to mastery. Many learners don’t review! If you review and repeat lines again and again, you’ll speak better, faster, and with more confidence.
To get all of these resources that will get you speaking, check out our complete language learning program. Sign up for your free lifetime account by clicking on the link in the description. You'll get tons of resources that will have you speaking in your target language. And if you enjoyed these tips, hit the "like" button, share the video with anyone who's trying to learn a new language, and subscribe to our channel. We release new videos every week!
I'll see you next time. Bye!

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