هفت قدم برای داشتن اعتماد به نفس در انگلیسی

7 Steps to Confident English!

Learning English can be a bit of a roller coaster ride, right? You have moments of “I can’t believe I finally did it!” and “Oh man I’m so over this right now!!” “I’m going to give up!” The longer you’ve been studying, the tougher it gets! Can you remember the last time you got excited about practicing English? Probably not. Today we’re going to find that enthusiasm again. How?

We are going to change the ways that you learn and practice English, to help you get through the dull, warring times and have more WOO-HOO moments! Now, with all of that in mind, here are my seven steps to English confidence. The first one, love your mistakes. Get things wrong. You need to start feeling comfortable making mistakes because it’s the fastest and most efficient way to improve your English.

You need to LOVE your mistakes - when you make one you need to celebrate it! Because there is nothing else in the world, no grammar book, no smartphone app no podcast or video that can teach you better than your own mistakes can. The second step. Find a buddy. This might be an obvious one but it’s often difficult to do. So I want you to make a list of everyone that you know who speaks English or is learning English. If you don’t know anyone, it’s okay! Look for someone online.

So there are heaps of Google+ groups that are so supportive and full of people learning English and want to practice. You can also use places like Craigslist or even some Facebook groups, as well. But there are so many students out there looking for a buddy to practice with! Now this can’t just be anyone, you need to find someone who can meet with you regularly - once a week or once a month - whatever it is. But you also need to find someone who you can trust and who you can relax with and have a good time with.

It’s kind of like a date, you have to find the right person - a good fit. And you need to work on this relationship because what you need is someone that you feel comfortable making mistakes with and you want that person to feel comfortable telling you that you’ve made mistakes. The purpose is to find someone who can help you. The third step is body language. Your body language says a lot about you even before you’ve spoken a single word. If you’re worried that you won’t be understood when you speak English, start with a smile and really great eye contact.

The worst thing that you can do is “Excuse me.. umm.. do you know where the bathroom is?” But if you use great body language, great eye contact and a smile, then the person that you’re talking to will probably be more polite, more willing to help and more willing to listen, which will make you feel more comfortable. Now, your own body language plays an extremely important role in your own feelings of confidence. You can actually make yourself feel more confident with positive body language The fourth step is speak out loud! Do this as often as you can.

Get your mouth and your mind familiar with English sounds, stress and intonation. Have conversations with yourself in the shower or when you’re walking to work or after you brush your teeth at night. Having conversations with yourself is so great because you get to practice asking the questions, answering the questions and thinking of ways to keep the conversation going! Pronounce it right. Pronunciation mistakes can be frustrating and annoying or they can be really awkward and humiliating. Making them is a great way to lose confidence speaking English, right?

Your English pronunciation is affected by your first language or your native language and the English sounds that you find most difficult to pronounce are sounds that don’t exist or are uncommon in your native language. To improve your English confidence, you should take the time to understand the sounds that you have trouble with and to regularly practice them. Step number six is watch English movies, listen to podcasts or audiobooks. I know you’ve probably been told this a thousand times before!

But there’s more to it than just watching the movie. Make sure you choose an audio or a video that is at your level of English. The worst thing that you could possibly do is go and find an audio or a video text that is too difficult for you to understand. It makes learning hard work, it ruins your confidence because you can’t understand much of it at all. You need to grade your videos or your text to your level of English so it would be more fun and more interesting!

You’ll be able to understand more of what’s going on and if that means watching kids shows, do it! Who cares? And make sure that it’s something that you’re interested in. So, it’s easy - way easier to watch stuff that you’re interested in rather than things that you feel like you have to or you should watch to practice your English. So choose things to do with hobbies that you like and skills that you have or maybe to do with your workplace. And lastly, plan your practice.

And remember to keep things interesting by mixing them up! Practice pronunciation for a few days then do some imitation exercises, then practice with your buddy. Make sure that your English practice is something that you look forward to. If you need more help with English conversation confidence then I would love you to come and learn and study with me!