One habit every English learner must adopt is – Self Talk – it can be a great way to practice as well because for this you don’t need anyone and we all are continuously having chats with ourselves.
So how to do that?
First thing: You don’t have to be fluent to start speaking English to yourself. You don’t need to know a lot of words or grammar to start learning English?
Here’s how to start with Self Talk
First of all, talking to yourself means talking about what’s going on in your mind. You can do that almost anywhere when you are alone. Because self-talk in public is weird right? So, just find a place where no one can hear you and just start speaking.
Now, you may wonder – What should I speak?
My answer is – Anything that you love talking about.
Maybe your recent crush or your dream destination.
The beauty of self-talk is there are no dos and don’ts. You can be yourself and express your thoughts just the way you like in English.
Self-talk for beginners
If you are a beginner, the first thing you should do is train your mouth to produce the sound of your target language, i.e, English. You need to practice the pronunciation, the usage of common English words and learn to frame them into sentences.
Just like you did when you were a child. You imitated your parents and people around you and that’s how you picked up the language.
Right now, English words may sound unfamiliar to you, so the best way to get accustomed to the language is to watch and listen to people in English. And whatever you listen to, just repeat after them.
Once you can pronounce the sounds in that language you can take some time to look around yourself, like your apartment, your office, or places you visit, and just call out names in English that you see.
Another idea could be – Describe what you are doing right now? Are you working at your desk or are you gardening, cooking? Just elaborate on the activities that you are doing and speak it out.
If you want to talk about the past, you can speak about – How was your week and what are the things that you learned?
Or, if you want to talk about the future – You can just elaborate on your goals for the year or what you will do in the coming week.
The third way to do self-talk is to give yourself imaginable situations. Like how would you start a conversation if you have to order something? Or, how would you take an appointment in English? What would you do if you meet your favorite celebrity?
If you dedicate at least a few minutes to this activity every day, you’ll be able to take up a conversation in English with anyone even if you have fewer phrases and words. You’ll be able to pave new ways to learn English.
Self-talk for advanced learners
If you have words and phrases but you just need practice, narrating personal stories is the best way to do self-talk. Mark my words – the more real and emotional your story is, the faster you will be able to get words and phrases.
You can talk about –
- One of the biggest achievements in your life
- Who has inspired you most in your life?
- What would you like to do if you get a fully paid 1-year leave?
- When was the last time you met your cousins & what was it like?
- If you could help someone today who would that be & what would you do?
I have a separate blog on topics that you can pick for self-talks – 30 Interesting Topics to practice English
A fun self-talk activity
Take up a situation where you wanted to win an argument but couldn’t. This is the best time for you to recreate that situation and think of an angle & vocabulary/phrases that could have helped you make your point better and potentially win that argument.
This will help you aim for two birds at the same time – Win an argument in English and enhance your English word bank too.
So, are you ready to take up the habit of self-talk? If you have any questions, ask me in comments below.