Questions tagged [speaking]
Questions about developing, improving or maintaining oral skills.
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Free app/website for learning Japanese
I want to learn Japanese using a completely free (iOS) app or website. I’m currently using Duolingo (very low knowledge level right now), but any simple web search will explain why Duolingo is bad at ...
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Why do people have an aversion to practicing speaking foreign languages by themselves?
I can't think of any other skill than speaking a foreign language where people (despite having no non-mental obstacle to doing so) often choose not to practice by themselves.
This doesn't apply to ...
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How can I go from "I can express myself" to "I can express myself in multiple ways"?
Most of the time, I can express myself appropriately in Chinese (speaking and writing). The catch is, my language would sound more fluent if I were able to say essentially the same thing in multiple ...
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How can I practice speaking English by myself?
Currently I'm learning by myself with videos but mostly with textbooks. I have no much people to speak with and I'm trying to find some ways to practice conversation. Do someone have any hint?!
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Are there effective ways to improve oral English or a platform which emphasizes students' improvement?
Am I the only one who feels that these English-teaching websites are just a way for teachers to make a few bucks here and there?
It seems that the majority don't really focus on the intricacies of ...
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How can a YouTuber demonstrate that they are actually fluent in a language?
There's a bunch of YouTubers nowadays who claim to speak fluently in some second language. Some can; some can't but pretend to. I've noticed some YouTubers use a lot of techniques to inflate their ...
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Is studying speeches by e.g. Kevin Rudd especially beneficial for improving one's Chinese speaking skills?
On YouTube you can find speeches in Chinese by former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd (Chinese name 陆克文), such as this and this and this. Now I'm tossing up whether or not this (or some similar ...
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After 6 months of studying German, I still struggle to speak; how do I make progress?
So, It has been 6 months since I started my Journey with German. It's been really fun, and I really like the language, but I am starting to feel like all this time that I have spent isn't giving me ...
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Learning German for everyday situations
I already have a C1 level in German (Goethe C1); however, it is still very difficult for me to express myself in everyday situations. I suppose it has more to do with my lack of vocabulary.
What could ...
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Q: What do I do after I can read kanji, katakana, and hiragana?
I'm starting to learn Japanese but I'm wondering what I do after I can read (know katakana, hiragana, and kanji) and (probably) write Japanese? How do I understand what people are saying and say it ...
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Fairly big (passive) vocabulary but awkward sentences (English)
English is my SL.
I posses a fairly decent vocabulary, but the sentences I produce in everyday interactions tend to be a bit awkward. My sentences are unnatural, I say things that normally you would ...
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How to make my English conversation fluent?
I can read/write English well but a problem arises when speaking and listening. I am not a native English speaker. I know English; my vocabulary is strong enough to speak but I get stuck when speaking ...
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How to improve someone's “sprachliche Genauigkeit”?
How can I improve someone's "sprachliche Genauigkeit" (these nuances).
For example, in a speaking lesson, someone always makes "the same" grammar mistakes when speaking. Or ...
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Are some languages inherently easier to learn than others?
It's fairly clear that depending on your native language, some languages are easier and some are harder to learn.
It's also evident that some languages' orthography is easier or more difficult ...
user9600
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How do I improve my English listening and speaking skills?
I am 17 from Egypt have been learning English for like 15 years so its supposed to be similar to my native spoken language (Arabic-Egyptian dialect).
During those 15 years, I've been somewhat good at ...
Mario
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I would love to make my English conversational
I've been self studying English and I'm pretty good in reading and listening. I do have a good pronunciation, but well I have to pause a lot when speaking.
Not because I don't know what to say or what ...
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How to help a beginner with speaking?
I am going to help a student with speaking in my native language who is at beginner level.
How would we have the conversation such that the student can take the most out of it?
Some points I made up ...
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What are some effective methods for improving one's accent?
I am a non-native English speaker. I've started learning the language roughly ten years ago, and have been practicing it ever since, be it through exposure to English-spoken content (movies, music, ...
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How to find other people to improve English speaking ability?
I'm an intermediate student of English. I would like to improve my speaking skills. How can I join an online group to speak with other students?
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How do you practise a language when native speakers seem uninterested?
I've been learning Korean since the beginning of May and have been really strict with myself every day instead of succumbing to procrastination. For this reason, I would say my reading and general ...
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How to improve my English skills while using it daily with people who are not proficient in using it, without absorbing their mistakes?
I'm not a native English speaker, and I have been speaking English for 5 years (the university I went to was an English-medium university). Since then, I have been using it for all my academic work.
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Approaches to conversational practice
I am a intermediate-advanced student in Spanish, B2 ish.
I found some really amazing C1-C2 grammar books and I am using that in class with a teacher to study and review topics in order and it's great....
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Learning Hindi as a speaker without first learning the writing system
My girlfriend is Indian and Hindi-speaking and I would like to learn some Hindi so to be able to talk with her using basic sentences and improve through speaking.
I have been trying using Duolingo (...
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How can I prepare for a discussion involving pre-specified Chinese words with my teacher?
Like a lot of learners, my Chinese reading and writing abilities far exceed my speaking and listening. As a result, my teacher says I should study a certain page (高级口语（I） p.8) in a textbook, and be ...
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Can Siri be used for foreign-language speaking and listening practice?
Siri seems to understand my Chinese, so I'm wondering if it's possible to talk with her in order to get speaking and listening practice. Currently, all I ever do is ask her for the weather. But it ...
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How important is to find language exchange partner?
Currently, with all social networks and internet, it seems that everybody suggest [citation needed] that the primary way to learn a language is to find a language exchange partner.
Beyond the obvious ...
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When two people each speak one another's first language as a second language, in which language will they communicate?
Let's take an English-speaking Norwegian and a Norwegian-speaking Englishman as an example. What are the most and least influential variables that influence how they will communicate outside of a ...
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How can one find a conversation partner for a language that is scarce on language exchange websites?
Suppose, for example, that you are a native English speaker who would like to learn Icelandic. There are no Icelanders where you live and the only ones you come across on Italki, Language Exchange and ...
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Looking for the best speech trainer capability for Spanish
I'm trying to find the best app (mobile or desktop) with Spanish oral testing capabilities that allow for custom content. I've found that Rosetta Stone's speech recognition is pretty good but there's ...
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How can I learn to speak in SOV when my L1 is SVO?
I have been learning Hindi for almost 2 years, and my mother tongue is English. I find that I can understand things in Hindi that I read or hear, and I have a working vocabulary, but I struggle to ...
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Which spoken Arabic dialect is the most understandable across the entire Arabic-speaking population?
The Arabic-speaking population is spread across many countries and a couple continents, from Morocco all the way to Oman. There are many spoken Arabic dialects, which are nearly as different from each ...
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Way to prevent speaking fluency of acquired language to be lost or possibly enhance it further
In general fluency, there was a related question: How can I prevent myself from forgetting a language? which suggest speaking to yourself a lot. But how about your general speaking fluency? I have a ...
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Should I correct my grammar mistakes or just ignore them while practice speaking?
While practice speaking a foreign language, I often find myself make a mistake during the speech and correct it immediately. The mistakes usually come from grammar, which I rarely do in writing. For ...
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How to learn the building of sentences?
Understanding a large number of words, either spoken or written, is one thing, but producing a sentence in a target language is another.
I am not referring to understanding how to read/hear a ...
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How can I avoid the huge gap between paper and oral skills?
I learned four foreign languages but all of them have one thing in common; reading is the best and writing follows it, and then after the huge gap come listening and speaking. My reading and speaking ...
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Learning japanese, 1 month progress (Tokyo)
I am a Japanese Language student here in Tokyo. I don't know if I'll get a downvote for this question, but might as well try. I've been studying Japanese for about a month now here in Japan using a ...
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What is the proper etiquette for a nonnative speaker who wants to practice Mandarin at a Chinese supermarket in the US?
There is a Chinese supermarket in the US I often shop at. I often hear the staff speaking Mandarin or Cantonese, and occasionally Hakka or Fujianese, amongst themselves and to Chinese customers. I can ...
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How to learn the pronunciation of mathematical formulae in Norwegian?
Another question concerns acquiring mathematical vocabulary: Acquiring mathematics vocabulary in Norwegian
However, mathematics also includes plenty of formal expressions, such as f(x, y) = (4^x - y^...
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Does memorizing French verb conjugations with the sound of English characters have negative impact in the future?
I'm struggling to memorize the verb conjugation in French as different conjugations are pronounced the same but the characters are different. For example, I tend to write the following sentence:
Nous ...
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The "gaps" between words in English
I am currently learning a language that does not have "gaps" in between words (Telugu).
What is a "gap"?
Many Telugu speakers, and Spanish or Italian speakers, perceive gaps or stops in between the ...
user4982
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Using he/she when speaking quickly
I am reasonably fluent with English and can express arbitrary thoughts by using it. However, when speaking fast, I often use the wrong pronoun (from "he" or "she"). I am also aware of "they", which I ...
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How to use a speaking partner?
There are two types of speaking partners that you can use. The first type is just a regular person who is learning your language, and the two of you speak to each other for, say, 30 minutes in one ...
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Can passive speakers of a language gain native level fluency when learning it in their teens?
Many immigrant kids grow up understanding a language fluently, but unable to speak it. This is known as being a passive speaker, as far as I know.
If they decide later to actively begin learning to ...
user4982
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Is thinking speech just in brain less effective than speaking aloud, to improve speaking skills?
I'm struggling with improving speaking right now, which is far inferior to my reading and writing skills. The language is Mandarin Chinese and I live in China and attend language school.
But the ...
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Is it possible to archive L2 speaking skills as good as the native speakers?
First, let me restrict the scope to those who started to learn after becoming adult (about 20).
Being a native Japanese, I have never met any single non-Asian who is as fluent as an average native ...
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How can I improve the listening and speaking skill as a self-learner?
I learn any languages mostly alone, without any school or tutors (as it is insanely expensive and also quite inflexible). I learn it mostly online, starting with apps like Rosetta Stone and Memrise as ...
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How valuable can feedback from software be when learning foreign languages?
I'm interested mainly in a learner acquiring the spoken language. I know about grammar and style checkers.
Could self-taught foreign language learners benefit from feedback coming from a computer? ...
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Learning language by singing songs?
Learn languages by memorizing rhymed poems is about pro/cons of using poems to learn a language.
What about using songs? Songs might use more modern language, avoiding the cons mentioned for poems.
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How important are tones in tonal languages?
As a native speaker of a Slavic language, I know about foreigners trying (and sometimes failing) to use proper case for a situation, or using wrong gender declension, or an adjective non gender-...
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What should I focus on if I only have 10-20 minutes a day, with speaking practice once a week?
I have a friend who is willing to help me speaking a relatively rare language here in the U.S. (Afaan Oromo) once a week over the phone. When I was calling him regularly several months ago, I would ...
user4443