Dear counsellor,

I study at a good secondary school, and my whole family is educated. However, I have failed to improve on my spoken English. On some of occasions I stay silent so that I don’t make mistakes and people laugh at me. How can I work on my English proficiency?

Yours Beatrice

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The only way you can overcome the anxiety of making speech mistakes in any language is by going ahead to speak the language. Most people who learn a second language would like to master enough of that language to be able to engage in basic conversations when meeting people in social settings, however, it’s important to note that; you will never speak a language fluently without speaking a broken version of it first. It may be frustrating to feel like you are making mistakes, but this will ultimately be outweighed by the pleasure of using the language more and more.

You need to first work on overcoming the fear of speaking English. Anxiety about speaking faulty English usually boils down to fear of failure or fear of being negatively evaluated. View this stage as a health and average stage of learning that will elevate you to the next level of complete fluency. The sooner you start talking, the sooner you will reach a conversational level. This can be achieved through determination and hard work.

Start by looking for new ways to gain exposure and expand your network. This can be achieved if you get involved in extracurricular activities at school like debates, music dance and drama, sports and games.

Find yourself a cartel of English learning buddies to give you both the opportunity to learn and practice together. Check local listings for English-speaking events in your school. If there are not any, then start your own group. English-speaking groups meet on a regular basis and have discussions only in English. If you participate in such activities, start your talk with boldness to appear more interesting and focused. Boldness eliminates obstacles in your speech and gives you presence to keep you in a relaxed mode but be sure you do not sound overly formal or stiff in your speech.

Working on your listening ability with English TVs movies, radio programs or public speakers will always help you develop English proficiency. Find an online language acquisition programme and imitate the speech. Once you attain some average level of ability, celebrate over your speaking fear and observe any milestone achieved by going ahead to discourse intelligently on a multiple school platforms. You will soon gain complete English fluency.