Introduction:

Speaking is usually the #1 weakness for all Arabic learners. This is a common issue among language learners everywhere. The reason for this is obvious: When language learners first start learning a language, they usually start with reading. They read online articles, books, information on apps, and so on. If they take a class, they spend 20% of their time repeating words, and 80% of the time reading the textbook, doing homework, or just listening to a teacher. So, if you spend most of your time reading instead of speaking, you might get better at reading but your speaking skills never grow. You get better at what you focus on.

So if you want to improve your speaking skills, you need to spend more of your study time on speaking. Here are five tips to help you get started

• Readout loud

If you’re listening to a lesson and reading along, read out loud. Then re-read and speed up your tempo. Do this again and again until you can speak faster. Try your best to pronounce the words correctly, but don’t obsess about it. Read swiftly, emote and put some inflection on the sentences. Reading aloud helps to train the muscles of your mouth and diaphragm to produce unfamiliar words and sounds.

• Use shadowing (repeat the dialogues as you hear them

Shadowing is an extremely useful tool for increasing fluency as well as improving your accent and ability to be understood. Shadowing helps create all the neural connections in your brain to produce those words and sentences quickly and accurately without having to think about it. Also, as mentioned in tip #1, shadowing helps develop the muscle memory in all the physical parts responsible for the production of those sounds. Depending on what your primary and target languages are, it’s quite likely that there are a lot of sounds your mouth just isn’t used to producing. Shadowing can be done, for example, when watching TV shows or movies or listening to music.

• Review again and again.

This is the key to perfection, and we can’t emphasize it enough. Most learners don’t review! If you review and repeat lines again and again, you’ll be speaking better, faster and with more confidence.

• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

You’d be surprised by how many people try to avoid talking! The more you speak, the faster you learn – and that is why you’re learning Arabic. Practice speaking every chance you get: whether it’s ordering coffee, shopping, or asking for directions.

• Elements of Speaking proficiency

Before going over the steps to improve your Arabic speaking skills, let us first identify the elements or criteria that make you a good , average or bad speaker of a language.

• Vocabulary: It is about using the right words with the necessary accuracy to express our ideas to the listeners.

• Structure: A speaker needs to use correct grammar and syntax and maintain a cohesive speech with logical flow of ideas.
• Pronunciation: Speaker needs to speak clearly to be understood by the listener. Mispronounced words can result in changed meaning. Accents do not count here.
• Fluency: The speaker needs to speak at a reasonably smooth pace without frequently pausing to look for  words. Students should not confuse fluency with speaking proficiency. A speaker can show fluency but oftentimes it is at the expense of grammar and pronunciation.

Now that we got it out of the way, let us go over the recommended steps to improve your Arabic speaking proficiency. Note that most of the bulk of these seven steps revolve around improving the four elements of speaking proficiency that is mentioned above:

• Have the right attitude!

Be positive about your learning effort and accept the fact that you are a student. Never let anything demotivate you. 

Be disciplined and curious.

Be uninhibited. If you are shy or introverted, make an effort to come out of your shell. Put yourself in a vulnerable position where you have to speak Arabic. Take your learning experience as a game and don’t take yourself too seriously. It is not as bad as you may think. Take it from me. I am an extremely introverted person, who, thanks to his multilingual skills, managed to speak in front of crowds in the hundreds. 

Be bold. When the teacher asks for a volunteer to come up front to speak, raise your hand without hesitation

• Set specific objectives.

You will need to know how much you want to improve your Arabic speaking by a certain date. Set specific, realistic, and pertinent goals.

For instance, say “in three months I should be able to speak Arabic well enough to talk about myself and family. In four months, I need to be able to talk to my class about my favorite hobby, photography.”

For long-term objectives, say,  “In two years, I’d like to be able to speak Arabic fluently enough to obtain a job with the State Department or my country’s foreign ministry.”

Setting objectives helps you define your learning track. The path to learning Modern Standard Arabic is more difficult than a regional dialect. Conversely, mastering MSA is more rewarding personally and career-wise. Consequently, speaking proficiency in MSA requires a different strategy and more effort.

• Listen to Arabic content.

Basic on linguistic theory, as a learner of Arabic, beginner or advanced, you need enough input (reading and listening) to be able to generate language output( Writing and speaking). 

Doing plenty of listening first is very important. Incorporate listening to Arabic content into your daily routine as you are commuting to school or work or during your daily walk. 

By using some apps, the website you can improve Arabic speaking like – Multibhashi 

You can definitely go for this website, it’s amazing you can learn easier and improve your Arabic speaking  Highly qualified language experts. Choose from a wide range of highly qualified and dedicated language experts. Customized Curriculum & Personal Training, No universal curriculum for all learners! Everything is customized according to a learner’s needs and fluency level.