How to speak like a native English speaker

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I just wanna speak like a native English speaker.. Can you give me some ways on how to get that goal?

commented

Hello! Thank you for interest. I’d like to try to compare it to my previous experience of learning English through Skype on online classes. I did around 10 conversations over Skype with a native speaker from http://preply.com/en/english-by-skype. And I was pretty satisfied with their Quality. I think they have a strong teaching quality. Following their course curriculum now I can speak English like a native. But I Want to try another option.

commented

I would like to speak like native speaker

commented

Yes, I would like to speak like a native speaker
.

44 Answers

9votes

Master 7320

To speak like a native you have to speak a lot (especially with native speakers). If you live in an English-speaking country, pay attention to the English conversations around you. If not, you can use this facebook application to contact people - https://apps.facebook.com/speak-in/

Select the language you want to learn and your native language.
Click on "Speak (Learn Together)", and start speaking.
Also you can click on "Language Exchange" to communicate with native speakers.

commented

Speak-in is a good FB application, but it is hard to speak to the same person repeatedly. You just cannot find him next time, and I think it is slightly inconvenient.

commented

You can. Click 'Calls' and you'll find all of them. If he is online, you can connect with him. If not he'll receive a request.

commented

Thanks. I didn't know.

commented

contact me https://www.facebook.com/diegoalejandro.daza

7votes

Rabie Bendjeda 290

THE BEST WAY IS TO LIVE IN AN ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY FOR A WHILE. THERE YOU CAN HEAR NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS AND THEN SPEAK THE SAME WAY THEY SPEAK.

7votes

ahenus 11540

if you don't have the chance to live in a native environment, u can still get your hands on different materials (tv-series, films, videos on the net, mp3 recordings, etc., the list is endless). the more you listen and try to repeat what you hear, the higher chances you'll have to lose your accent. however, i'm definitely sure that if someone is not a native speaker, they'll never be able to speak like a native. but there's no problem with that, is there?

5votes

Alber Jose Liscano 240

It is impossible to speak like a native speaker of any language unless you grow up in those environments . The only thing you can do is to have an aproximate perfect pronunciation, but it's never gonna be the same as a native. The best way to have the best possible pronunciation is by learning the sound system (manner and point of articulation) of the target language first of all.

commented

Agreed, but learning of the sound system of English properly is nearly impossible as well. There are two ways how to try. The first is to find a teacher who is a native speaker. But, sorry, it doesn't work with beginners, and believe me I know what I say. Each language has got its system and you cannot learn it until you understand that system, which can significantly differ from the system of your mother language. For beginners there is often no other way than learning by heart, and it can take years to understand the logic as the language system mirrors the way of thinking, and everybody thinks in the system of his mother language. The second way is to go deeply into phonetics and phonology, which can be really hard for a person who is not a philologist.

commented

There are many tools actually. We can make use of the technology available which unfortunately wasn't in our hands before and now it's a lot easier in that respect. I can tell you from my own experience that you don't need to be a philologist or a linguist to go deeply into phonetics and phonology because that's the approach I used for learning. I started with the believe that I could reach some kind of native proficiency and in so many years just trying to do that, I've come to realize that is not possible at all. But it still is possible to reach a very acceptable proficiency.

4votes

RAFAEL

fOR me the best way to learn and speak is watch movies without legends , listening and sing the music e try speak whith another person , because you learn new words every time.

4votes

Astheart 2940

Living in an English speaking country or talking to English native speakers will improve your speaking skills, definitely. But, you will never ever get the native accent. That's impossible.

2votes

stephanie diaz 180

I study English but is difficult speak with other people. I need help?

2votes

Jennifer

A good starting point is to learn the basics of English pronunciation. The software I'm currently working on gives you the opportunity to do exactly this, check it out http://saundz.com/free/

Of course, you need to practice a lot, and use spoken English whenever you can. This goes for your classes as well - if you still attend school where you have English classes you must make sure you're actively participating in all the class discussions and activities :)

commented

It is okay, Jennifer, but not useful for everybody, sadly. During the years I have been teaching I met mostly students who cannot learn the right pronunciation not being corrected by somebody. The reasons are following: 1)It's a big difference in the way you hear the sounds that surround you and the way you hear your own voice. It is because you hear yourself not only by your ears, but also by your skull, and the result is different from reality. Think of the surprise you heard yourself recorded for the first time. That's why students mostly aren't able to correct themselves. 2)To be able to reproduce sounds you have not to "be tone-deaf". Just like for a lot of people it is nearly impossible to sing a heard melody; with new sounds it is similar. I know lots of people who speak English fluently without any hesitation, they lived and worked in an English speaking country, and still their pronunciation is really bad. And, I myself have a few students who are just not able to pronounce correctly a word though we practice it a lot. Some people are just not talented...

1vote

tishotch 160

Yes, certainly you will never ever get the native accent but it's not necessary on the whole, I think. Moreover, even in the different English-speaking countries are used different accents.

1vote

Jennifer

I agree with you that some people find it easier to imitate native-like pronunciation than the others and that it's usually the major reason why they have problems with pronunciation. Also, from my own experience, correcting students doesn't always work well. A good option is to record their voice, as this is the easiest way for them to spot their own mistakes, which is why we introduced this feature in Saundz too. It lets students record their voice, which is later compared to native speaker's pronunciation. Plenty of our students said that this was helpful precisely because they never had an opportunity to do this before.

commented

When I say correcting, I mean telling a student his pronunciation is not right, asking him to repeat the expression and in the moment he makes the right sound saying "Now it is ok!" The thing is that most people cannot correct themselves even after hearing themselves recorded. It is like lots of people cannot say this tone is false... They just don't hear the difference...

commented

You're right, of course, not all the students can learn the same way. I worked with people who had lots of problems with their pronunciation but they managed to make improvements through constant practice. For some it takes shorter, for some longer and some may never do that. It's usually a matter of will and practice :)

commented

I am one of the happy and satisfied users of Saundz (http://saundz.com) and I am so glad that somebody else knows about it, too. I am on lesson 24 now and cannot wait to finish the entire program. I have in fact set up an experiment - I recorded a random paragraph of text before I started with Saundz and I will do it once when I'm done.

In bigger cities all over the world, people understood everything I was saying, because many of them had accents, too. Before I had spent some time in Midwestern US, I had no clue that my pronunciation is a problem.

You need to understand a couple of things before you start working on your pronunciation:

You will NEVER speak like a native speaker, because you are not a native speaker. Slight accent is OK, as long as you pronounce every word and sentence in a manner that everyone could understand you without any additional effort.
Pronunciation practice is annoying, shameful and boring. You need to put in a lot of effort in order to reduce your accent. That is why I prefer learning it privately.
As a radio reporter and presenter, I had the opportunity to realize how a recording can help you determine your accent. Before I started working, I was unaware that I had a regional accent in my native language. Recording myself and comparing the recording with somebody else's vocie helped me reduce that, I don't see why I cannot do it with English as well, and Saundz has so far proved itself to be a great and affordable tool.

commented

Thanks for your comment, leeenka! It's always nice to hear that :)

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How to speak like a native English speaker