How to Speak Clearly and Confidently in English

Do you sometimes have to repeat yourself when you are speaking in English? 

Sorry? 

I beg your pardon…? 

Could you repeat that please? 

It’s so annoying when people don’t understand you the first time!

And look, I get it, when you are speaking in a different language, it can take time to get the clarity and articulation right. 

So, to help you speak English more clearly and get results FASTER, I am going to share with you 4 tangible tips for speaking more clearly and confidently in English. 

 

HOT! HOT! HOT!  

1.  Aiming to become the best presenter or public speaker? Let Elisa show you the way… Click HERE to know more. 

2. Want to gain more respect and authority in work & business? Then join our upcoming masterclass.

 

FREEBIES!!!

Wanna win a free copy of one of my best-selling books? 

Simply post a screenshot or video – with you in it – while watching the episode on YouTube, tag me and use #TVOCTV! Looking forward to hearing what you think about this episode!

  

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES: 

 

FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

 

We are going to cover 4 tips on how to gain more clarity and confidence when speaking in English. 

First, let’s look at the 2 biggest mistakes to avoid. These two biggest mistakes I hear my ESL students are making when they first started with me.

Mistake #1: They Tend to Speak Too Fast

They tend to string the words together sloppily which makes it really difficult to understand. This is called Mumbling.

Mistake #2: They tend to over articulate

Which leads to choppiness and too many gaps in their speech. This can be very annoying and hard to follow too. 

So, let’s dive in and see how we can fix this.  

________________________________________

TIP #1:  SLOW DOWN    .

To avoid the dreaded mumble or sloppy speech, the very first more obvious thing we need to do is SLOW DOWN. Just because you can speak in your own language super-fast, does NOT mean you should be speaking in English at the same speed. Especially if you are mispronouncing words and have sloppy articulation. 

The best thing you can do is set a timer on your phone to one minute and read a certain passage from a book aloud into a recording device. Once you know how much text you can cover in one minute, try to read the SAME text again and stretch that one-minute timer out to 80 seconds instead of 60. Make sure you clearly articulate every word as you are reading and take up ALL of the 80 seconds. This will help you become more mindful of the speed at which you speak.

______________________________________

TIP #2:  AVOID OVER ARTICULATION 

Over articulation leads to choppiness. It looks weird, sounds too choppy and can be very annoying to watch and listen to. Many of my ESL students actually have a very good command of the English language but their FLOW is not yet correct. 

Let me explain. 

When we use a smooth flow of air from consonants to vowels in every sentence, the choppiness will disappear. It takes a while to learn, but its super easy once you get the hang of it.

Here is a simple sentence starting with ALL vowels, which can make you sound choppy if you harshly attack those vowels.

The sentence is this: “Am I In America”? 

All of those words have vowels at the beginning which can make you sound choppy if you speak them out incorrectly. 

I can MAKE it choppy by attacking the vowel too harshly or I could actually do the opposite which is called FLOW SPEAK which allows the airflow to ride smoothly from sound to sound.

When you chop everything up and give too many gaps between words, people will switch off. It’s too hard to follow and sounds boring. 

_______________________________________

TIP #3: CHUNKING

Chunking is a really great trick to use if you like speaking fast! 

Instead of speaking EVERYTHING fast and mumble, this involves speaking ONLY simple and common phrases out much faster then leaving a pause at the end of the phrase. 

You can speed simple sentences as much as you like, however, difficult words and phrases need to be articulated slowly and more carefully.  Common phrases that are used every day can be sped up no problem it’s because people are so used to these common phrases, even if it’s spoken a little sloppier and faster, it won’t be misunderstood. So, next time you are speaking at work in English, try this rule for yourself. It works a treat and makes you sound far more interesting and engaging too because of the change of pace between slower and more deliberate and faster and more engaging. 

______________________________________

TIP #4: R TO A VOWEL RULE     .

I love teaching this rule because it’s so common in English, yet people just don’t speak about it. I call it the “R to a vowel rule”. 

Using this rule will really help you sound more fluent, clear and articulate when you speak as well as helping you flow easily from one sound to another. 

You see when you speak the “R” clearly, and ride it into the next vowel, everything becomes more fluid and smoother and connected. When you practice this over and over again, you will become smoother and clearer when you speak and eventually you will be able to speed up and be clear and articulate at the same time. 

Do not forget: Speak up. Speak out. Be ready to be heard because remember: YOUR VOICE MATTERS.