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I feel uncomfortable striking up a random conversation with a random stranger on the Internet. So I am thinking of using monologues to improve my speaking.

The obvious strategy that crossed my mind was sit down every evening and describe my day in the target language. The problem with that approach is, after a while it's going to get very repetitive ("I got up at 6.30 and brushed my teeth..."). Not that many exciting things happen in my life everyday.

The other alternative is to just sit down for 30 minutes, and say whatever comes to my mind in the target language. This might result in some unfocused effort as I struggle to think what to think next.

Questions:

  • Any other ideas to implement a systematic way of practising monologues for a dedicated period of time every day?
  • If I struggle to find a word in my TL, should I carry on nonetheless, say it in my native language for the time being, note it down for later,...?
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  • I find this question as too broad. You have three separate questions which could be answered by themselves as separate questions especially your last question. Your title is also very, very broad and opinionated at best.
    – Anthony Pham
    Dec 25, 2017 at 13:42
  • @AnthonyPham I'd only move the last question to a new question, so the current question focuses on how to use monologues and another one would focus on whether this strategy works.
    – Tsundoku ♦
    Dec 25, 2017 at 17:52
  • There are multiple skills involved: (1) pronunciation, (2) vocabulary recall, and (3) grammar processing (inflection, irregular verbs etc). So you need to be up-to-speed with all of them separately to use them together.
    – Peter M. - stands for Monica
    Jan 11, 2018 at 23:13

2 Answers 2

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The first strategy you thought about is a good one (you can do some practice and become more fluent when talking about your day). As for the second one, it is good in terms of spending a certain amount of time (in this case 30 minutes) to speak in your target language, but as you already mentioned, you’ll struggle to think about what you could say and strain yourself too much.

Therefore, I suggest you try to think in your target language as much as possible during the day instead of reducing it only to a limited amount of time. As for practicing monologues for a dedicated period of time every day, in addition to describing your day, you can describe your future plans (for tomorrow, next week and so on), your hobbies, some past anecdotes, a movie/book/tv show you like or hate (you can review them). Try to speak like you would do when you chat with a friend.

As for your possible struggling to find a word in your TL, try to see if you can communicate what you want to say even without mentioning that word (you can try to describe what the word is about… beat about the bush!). If you can’t and that word is essential for your speech, then note it down in your native language and search for it later so you can repeat that part of your speech with the right word and memorize it.

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Monologues are particularly good if you already have a high level in your target language. For example, when I was learning English, I downloaded this ppt from busyteacher https://busyteacher.org/12947-talk-for-a-minute.html. And filmed myself talking for 1 minute.

When you're speaking live, you can hear yourself making mistakes, but the key is to persevere. When you look back at the recording, then you can practice your accuracy.

Do this for 15 minutes everyday and you will be so much better in 3 months

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