Hi! I'm a newbie here. I'm a 19-year-old Filipino, taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English. I want to know ask how can I speak English in class without making mistakes. I'm not yet fluent in speaking English but my teachers force me to speak in our class. They're always say that speaking is the best way to learn the language.
Speaking English in Classroom
You are meant to make mistakes in class -- if you never made any mistakes you wouldn't need to be in one, right? But if your teachers can hear your mistakes in spoken English, they can correct them before they become habits, and you need the practice. It's usually a lot easier to write correctly (taking your time and puzzling out the right conjugations and word order) than it is to speak correctly and actually think on your feet -- they're like two different skills. Be glad for the opportunity.
Just ensure your teachers won't go easy on you. You won't know it if they let you develop bad habits. A good idea would be to conduct some anti-moon level input while you take the class, so you have a reference point to work from.
My teachers are not native speakers of English and some of my teachers aren't that good in speaking. They also have bad pronunciation.
Here's what I would do:
Find an English-speaking pal as soon as possible -- someone who understands the need to avoid mistakes. This can be another student.
Meet with this person to practice your speaking skills. Speak slowly, use simple grammar, talk about the stupidest things ("Is the sky blue?" "Yes, the sky is blue.".. you get the idea). Don't focus on getting your great insights across. Don't focus on the topic at all. The topic is secondary. Focus on grammatical correctness. You can speak very slowly (1 minute per sentence is OK). You can stop in the middle of a sentence to look up phrases as you need them. You can ask your pal language questions ("How do I say this?). Break all the rules of normal conversation.
Write down your mistakes and add corrected sentences to SuperMemo or Anki to "overwrite" your bad habits.
I assume your pronunciation is good, i.e. at a minimum, you can pronounce all the English sounds understandably and you know the pronunciation of most basic words. If not, you need to make it your priority. You don't want to reinforce bad pronunciation through speaking.
Do this for 40 hours, slowly introducing more advanced grammar that you get from your input. You're done.
Find an English-speaking pal as soon as possible -- someone who understands the need to avoid mistakes. This can be another student.
Meet with this person to practice your speaking skills. Speak slowly, use simple grammar, talk about the stupidest things ("Is the sky blue?" "Yes, the sky is blue.".. you get the idea). Don't focus on getting your great insights across. Don't focus on the topic at all. The topic is secondary. Focus on grammatical correctness. You can speak very slowly (1 minute per sentence is OK). You can stop in the middle of a sentence to look up phrases as you need them. You can ask your pal language questions ("How do I say this?). Break all the rules of normal conversation.
Write down your mistakes and add corrected sentences to SuperMemo or Anki to "overwrite" your bad habits.
I assume your pronunciation is good, i.e. at a minimum, you can pronounce all the English sounds understandably and you know the pronunciation of most basic words. If not, you need to make it your priority. You don't want to reinforce bad pronunciation through speaking.
Do this for 40 hours, slowly introducing more advanced grammar that you get from your input. You're done.
Trying to speak as much English as possible in a classroom with a bunch of other lousy English speakers like yourself is the lousiest way to learn English. You'll waste a lot of time and money and end up being a lousy English speakers.
Exactly, and not to forget hopeless mistakes such as an incomplete sentence "and make horrific mistakes such as 'being a lousy English speakers'. "
Making mistakes when speaking in general and in class room in particular is one of the things that speakers/learners can't ovoid- It's one part of learing process. We shouldn't feel too embarassed or even ashamed when making mistakes in speaking. The most important thing is that we must clearly be aware of the needs to speak better and more correctly. We should find some effective strategies to speak better such as finding someone who can help us correct mistakes, showing them our needs to change ourselves- Noone can help us when they don't know what we need.
I agree with the poster Ngnam09-making mistakes in the classroom is unavoidable. In fact, it's a good place to make mistakes. To speak well, you need to listen a lot. You could try listening to a radio station in English while you wash up, make your bed etc. You can listen to cassettes and CDs in English, podcasts, etc.; the main thing is to get some reinforcement of what you read or do in class.
Speaking is helpful because it helps to put in action what you have learned. Thinking of what you might say in certain circumstances is also helpful. Copy down and practice phrases that you might actually use someday.
If you don't have access to a native speaker, see if you can make friends with a good speaker of English. If you have to barter for conversation practice, do it. For example if you have some skill that you can trade for an hour of conversation practice, offer that skill for English.
Speaking is helpful because it helps to put in action what you have learned. Thinking of what you might say in certain circumstances is also helpful. Copy down and practice phrases that you might actually use someday.
If you don't have access to a native speaker, see if you can make friends with a good speaker of English. If you have to barter for conversation practice, do it. For example if you have some skill that you can trade for an hour of conversation practice, offer that skill for English.