Public Speaking: cómo hacer una exposición oral en inglés

A Speak Up reader recently wrote to us with the following complaint. ‘I’m really motivated to learn English. I desperately want to learn it. I’ve done several courses but I never seem to improve and when I find myself with a mother-tongue speaker I go blank and can’t say a word.’ 

THE PERFECT PROBLEM

The main cause of this common problem is a fear of saying the wrong thing or sounding stupid in public. It most often seems to affect perfectionists, people who usually have a good academic ability, are good at their jobs, and express themselves very well in their own language. When they take English classes, they are often the ones who don’t say very much, even though their grammar is good. If you’re a specialist in your field and people often come to you for advice because you know your subject well, it can be extremely frustrating to suddenly find yourself in a situation where you no longer have full control over what you say. It’s the fear of not sounding as eloquent as you normally do that causes the problem.

A MUSICAL EAR

My partner is Italian and his grasp of Italian grammar is shaky to say the least. He has no understanding of English grammar at all and says it’s too much trouble to learn. And yet, whenever we visit my home in the UK, he always makes himself understood and his accent is surprisingly good. What’s the secret? Well, in my partner’s case, it’s definitely music. He’s a musician and spends hours listening to and playing cover versions of English bands. His repertoire is huge. Our kids think it’s really funny every time we’re talking in English and their dad will suddenly hear a word or phrase he recognises and quote a line from a song. 

For example:

Daughter: ‘I think I’m gonna go to the library after school.’
Dad: ‘I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today...’
Mum: ‘Girls, go to bed! It’s nearly midnight.’
Dad: ‘It’s close to midnight, and something evil’s lurking in the dark.’ 
This sounds comic, but actually it’s evidence of a huge language resource: complete sentences memorised with the correct pronunciation and intonation.

MEMORISE AND MASTER

So what should you do next? Get your headphones on, download the lyrics to your favourite songs and learn them by heart. Then you should sing them whenever you have an opportunity. In your car, in the shower, while you’re walking to work or college. Try hard to imitate the original, it will help you to memorise and master those unfamiliar sounds and to put words together in the same way a mother-tongue speaker would.

GRADED READERS

Alternatively, try reading aloud. You need to buy a graded reader - that is a famous novel written by an English mother-tongue author that has been simplified to your level. Look for one with a CD so that you can listen to the story while you read. Choose something you’ll enjoy, then listen to a few lines and try to read them out loud. Imitate the speaker as much as you can. You should practise this and then record yourself on your phone. If your version is very different, try to identify which sounds you are getting wrong so you can improve.

PLAY A PART

You will need to practise this a lot, because the only way of mastering your fear of speaking English in public is by doing it. Make the most of your English lessons. Whenever there is a role play or a discussion in class, make sure you are the one who contributes the most. If ever you meet an English mother-tongue speaker, make a point of speaking to them. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the answers at first, you will. Because the other secret is, the more you use English out loud in public, the more your knowledge of the language will pass from your passive to your active memory. Those difficult words will stay on the tip of your tongue and suddenly, you’ll find you’ve made a huge improvement.