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(relaxing music)
- Hello everyone and welcome back
to English With Lucy.
Today I'm going to give you 10 tips
for practising your speaking and hopefully
they will make you improve
in a very short amount of time.
Also, in case you didn't already know,
I've started a second channel.
This is a personal channel called Lucy Bell Earl.
I've linked it down below.
On this channel I'm sharing personal things,
things that you request like hair,
beauty, Q and A's,
videos with Will,
Vlogs, anything really.
So make sure you check it out
and if you like it then you can follow it.
Right, let's get started with the lesson.
Number one is practise tongue twisters.
Now, tongue twisters are really fun anyway
but they are an amazing way
of practising individual sounds, individual phonemes.
There are lots of phonemes that are really hard
for people from specific countries
or that speak specific languages.
The only way that you can train your tongue
to make these sounds is to practise the sounds
over and over again, repetitively.
Tongue twisters are your best friend.
So for example,
if you're struggling between the difference
with eh and E,
which I know a lot of people struggle with,
especially speakers of Spanish
because you only have the E sound,
you don't have the short eh sound.
Well, if that's the case for you,
you could practise this one.
I slit a sheet.
A sheet I slit.
Upon a slitted sheet I sit.
Be careful, it might make you swear.
(laughing)
I have left a link in the description box
to loads more tongue twisters.
But really, all you have to do is search
on Google, tongue twisters for practising English.
If you would like me to make a video
on some of the most difficult tongue twisters,
a video that you can practise along with
let me know in the comments down below.
I'll definitely do that because I love tongue twisters
and I think they're amazing
for practising pronunciation.
Number 2 is lessons with natives.
And this section of the video is sponsored
by Lingoda and the Lingoda Language Marathon.
This section could be really,
really important for you if you were
to practise your speaking every single day.
So Lingoda is an online language academy
where you can learn English,
French, German,
Spanish and Business English at any level
and they run a very special event called
the Lingoda Language Marathon.
So what is it?
Well, you study every day unless you take
the half marathon where you study slightly less.
And if you complete the marathon you get
a 100% refund on your classes
or a 50% refund if you do the half marathon.
This marathon starts on the 27th of May
and finishes on the 24th of August.
You have to participate in an agreed amount
of classes each month in order to succeed.
That's 30 classes a month for the full marathon
and 15 classes a month for the half marathon.
You can take only one class per day, every day.
So how do you participate?
Well, you sign up for the marathon
before the 13th of May.
After paying the entry fee that secures your spot
in the marathon you automatically sign up
to a three month subscription.
I however, have a special discount for you
and you don't have to pay that entry fee.
All you have to do is click on the link
in the description box and use this code
when you sign up for a 100% discount
on your entry fee.
To get the refund you'll need to show up
on time for the classes that you book
and actively participate.
If you book a class and miss it
or fail to book a class at all
you can still finish the marathon
but you won't qualify for the refund.
Remember that places in the marathon are limited
so you need to reserve your spot now
to avoid disappointment.
Also make sure that you check the terms
and conditions and familiarise yourself
with the rules.
Previous marathon graduates have said
that this is the key to getting the refund.
The Lingoda Language Marathon
is an incredible opportunity to take your language
to the next level fast.
Alternatively, if you don't think that the marathon
is for you you can check out Lingoda
and all of their flexible subscription packages
and book a private trial class for free.
If you do fancy the marathon click on the link
in the description box and use my code.
Right, now let's discuss tip number three.
Tip number three is sing along to English songs.
Now, this tip is especially useful
if you want to practise an American accent.
The reason for this is that many British singers
actually sing with a slight American accent.
So sometimes songs sung by British singers
aren't actually a true representation
of their own accent.
If you listen to,
I don't know,
One Direction or a British boy band
they'll often sing with an American accent.
Even Ed Sheeran does it sometimes.
Someone who does sing
with a very strong British accent is Lily Allen.
She does not go into the American territory at all.
So she's a good one to listen to
and sing along with if you want
to practise speaking or singing in this case.
Music can be a really,
really great way of practising every single day
because it's so enjoyable.
It doesn't feel like it's a chore when you do it.
It's a great way to learn lots of slang,
lots of colloquial language as well.
It's also a really good idea to look up
the meaning of song lyrics.
That way you can really find out
if they've used bad grammar,
because sometimes they do to make
it fit in with the rhyming,
if they've used idioms or slang
and it's just really nice to know
what you're singing about?
But singing along with English songs
is a fantastic way of practising your speaking
and it will help you become more fluent.
Tip number four could be slightly controversial
but I think it's a really good tip
and I always used to tell my students
to do it in London.
So lots of students struggle to meet
and find native speakers to practise with.
They often also have a hard time actually talking
to natives 'cause they're so nervous
or they take a little bit longer
to understand what they say.
I would say that a great step to precede talking
with natives is eavesdropping on natives.
To eavesdrop means to listen in
on someone else's conversation.
So if you're in an English speaking country
or you know there's a specific bar
or restaurant where English speakers tend to go,
maybe try going there with the intention
of just overhearing other people's conversations.
If they say something you don't understand,
search it on your phone.
Just drink in the atmosphere and you'll just take
in a lot of vocabulary