Introduction:

There are many languages around to be learned and acquired.  It is a specific and entirely human capacity for acquiring any language and using it to communicate with each other. Language as a part of the communication system is thought to be fundamentally different from country to country. It may be quite difficult for one to learn a new language that greatly differs from his first language, especially in terms of pronunciation or spoken part. Speaking is usually considered a weakness for all French learners. This is a common hurdle among language learners all around the world. The reason for this is quite obvious: In a usual practice while learning any language, learners first start with practicing reading. They read online articles/blogs, books, information on apps, and so on. If they take a class, they spend half of their time repeating words, and the rest half of the time reading the textbook or any other resource, doing homework, or just listening to a tutor. So, if you spend most of your time reading instead of focussing on speaking, you might get better at reading but your speaking skills may take a back seat. You get better at what you focus upon.

Acquiring and building up your French conversational skills is one of the hardest parts of the learning process. So if you want to improve your speaking or colloquial skills, you need to spend more of your study time on speaking practice too. Here are a few tips to help you get started on this.

• Time to speak up:

Speaking up about what you are learning will certainly help in acquiring speaking skills quite fast. Do not get discouraged by the fear of getting judged by the people around when speaking anything in that language. Speaking any foreign language involves emotions, as it gets you out of your very comfort zone by making you feel sensitive to judgment. Let it be! Don’t bother!

After taking care of the emotions part, the first step towards speaking is to make sure that your French pronunciation is good enough so that people can actually understand you and once the pronunciation has been dealt with, you need to then focus upon having enough knowledge of vocabulary and basic grammar. You can attend French community meet-ups, whose information is available on many events portals, also once can chat online with native speakers. The Idea behind this is to build speaking habits and gradually increase the level of difficulty.

• Reading it out loud:

Reading aloud helps in improving your fluency of the language. Reading aloud gets the clarity in your voice thus enabling you to clearly convey the intentions/ideas. Reading out loud helps you in maintaining a base level of practice for your vocal cords even if you don’t get enough opportunity to speak on some days. It may also act as a base for practicing other components of your speech delivery like giving a pause, attention to intonations, your pace, and so on.

• Preparing yourself beforehand:

Sometimes it happens when we run out of words, if planning to practice speaking in French, try to have yourself prepared before. If you prepare phrases or lines ahead of time, you won’t face a loss for words while in conversations. Many of the daily use conversational questions/ statements in French can be revised prior to your conversation. This practice will help you in saying the right word at the right time.

• Listen more to speak

It is required for you to listen to the language audios. It is important to have comprehended well while trying to speak. It is a big problem with the language learners that they are trying to speak without focusing on the comprehension part. They might get understanding uttering simple sentences but may not understand what is said back to them in turn. The more you understand/comprehend, the more you will be able to speak. An Important tip put in simple words is, a way to improve your conversational French is to listen to the French language.

Be it speaking, listening or reading, it is always good to get feedback on your work done. Feedback from others, especially any native speaker allows you to spot on your mistakes faster than you could on your own. Thus helping you to correct them faster and more efficiently. 

Imbibe practicing speaking in every chance/opportunity you get, don’t let it go to waste. 

Enjoy speaking French!

Tous mes vœux (Best wishes)