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How to Speak English Fluently (Complete Beginners Guide)

What's the secret to learning how to speak English? Well, it's not exactly a secret anymore since we've revealed a 12-step guide.

How to Improve English Speaking Skills

Looking to learn how to speak English fluently? You’ve come to the right place.

English is one of the most popular languages in the world, spoken by over 1.5 billion people globally. If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need much convincing on the benefits of learning English. The real question is, how do you improve your English speaking skills faster?


Biggest obstacles to improving your English speaking

The first step to improving your skills is to recognize the obstacles that are in your way. No, it’s not your ‘age’ or ‘natural language acquisition talent.’ These are simple barriers that you can overcome, including:

  • Little resources – Getting started is always difficult, especially if you don’t have any previous experiences learning English. Where do you start? Which English learning method should you pursue?
  • Lack of time – We all have busy lifestyles, with a full-time job and family/friends to carve out time for. Even if most of us want to learn English, finding time is the tricky part.
  • Lack of accountability – When we do find the time and gain some momentum, motivation may fluctuate from time to time. Those of us learning by ourselves will likely feel this more than those who have a conversation partner or teacher.

We created Rype to solve all three of these barriers. As a member of Rype, you can learn to speak English online anywhere you are, anytime of the day. Each English teacher on Rype has been pre-interviewed and handpicked, offering you only the best. Best of all, compared to learning via a traditional language school, you’ll spend a fraction of the time learning by learning on your own time.

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Benefits of speaking English fluently

The advantages of being able to speak English is boundless. From being able to make more money, build stronger relationships, gain your confidence, to making travel easier. You may value one benefit more than another, but we’ll give you a rundown of the major ones:

  • Improve your income – Research shows that learning English can help you make more money. This could be because knowing how to speak English will allow you to work in places like the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom with strong economies. It could also be because you can become more valuable at your local organization since they likely have English speaking clients (or are planning to expand).
  • Open up new career opportunities – As we mentioned, given how much demand there is in reaching English speakers, you’ll be able to explore new job opportunities. Whether it’s in your local city or abroad.
  • Improve your confidence – If you’ve ever felt self-conscious or even froze up when you’re speaking English, you won’t have to deal with this issue once you improve your English skills.
  • Build new and stronger relationships – You’ll encounter English speakers from around the world. Even if you understand English right now, being able to speak it fluently will significantly improve the strength of your relationships.
  • Traveling – Want to travel to the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, etc.? You’ll have a much easier time by being able to learn how to speak English fluently.

12 Tips on How to Speak English Fluently

Here are some simple language tips that you can implement as early as today.

1. Change all of your devices to English

This may not be directly tied to your speaking skills, but research has shown that improving one’s reading and writing comprehension can transfer to oral skills. Given how much time we spend on our smartphones and lab tops, the time (5 seconds) to benefit ratio is a no brainer! Before you know it, reading in your native language will seem weird!

2. Focus on flow, not perfection

It’s a common habit (and error) to focus on speaking with perfect grammar rules and vocabulary. Truthfully, this doesn’t matter nearly as much as we think, and most of it is in our heads. What matters when your goal is to speak English fluently is the flow and the pattern of your conversation, not that you used perfect grammar rules.

3. Speak outloud (even if you look foolish)

Ideally you can do this when you’re alone, but speaking outloud is a great way to practice by yourself. It’s kind of like shooting a basketball by yourself on your time to prepare for the big game with others involved. Practicing your English speaking skills can be looked at the same way. The best way we’ve found is to be listening to a podcast or watching a movie, and simply repeating what the speaker is saying (or responding). This way, it feels natural and you don’t have to come up with your own content.

4. Find an English teacher (or conversation partner)

This one is critical. The reality is, all the knowledge we ever want is already here online. There’s infinite knowledge about how to make more money, but how many of us are millionaires? Very few. There’s limitless information out there on getting a six-pack, but there are tons of overweight people in this world.

The same goes for language learning. Just because there’s methods on learning English online, it doesn’t mean we have the accountability, willpower, and guidance to succeed. We all need a coach that can get us there faster and pick us up when we’re feeling unmotivated. Of course, that’s why we created Rype.

5. Listen to English conversations on-the-go

Instead of daydreaming or thinking about what you’ll eat for lunch, you can make the most of your idle times. You can listen to English conversations via podcast or the radio in the car, while you’re waiting in line, or exercising! We emphasize the word ‘conversations’ because this is the most natural way to learn English conversation skills, not via a traditional English learning program.

6. Get rid of the ‘mistake fallacy’

This will be hard at first, but it’s a must. We all need to get rid of this mistake fallacy, thinking that the world’s going to end if we make a mistake. The sooner we can overcome the notion that nobody really cares if we make a mistake in English, the faster we can start improving our English conversation skills. Go out there and start speaking!

7. 80/20 of conversation

Now, the normal ettiquette for a conversation is to spend 20% of your time listening and 80% of your time talking. We encourage this in almost every setting, except when you’re trying to improve your English skills. Put yourself in situations as much as possible, where you’re speaking more than the other party. This could be at a flea market, public speaking class, or simply a friend who’s wiling to listen! Remember, the more reps you get, the better you’ll be.

8. Forget subtitles, dive in deep

Love Netflix? Ditch the subtitles and just watch it the way a normal English native speaker would. Now this may depend if you’re just in the infancy of learning English, but as long as you’re a beginner-intermediate level, we recommend that you dive deep. Also, focus on watching TV shows or movies that you would normally watch anyways!

9. Find and sing along to your favorite English songs

C’mon, all of us have at least one favorite English song. It could be from the 70’s, 80’s or even from last week! Instead of trying to learn 5 or 7 different songs, just choose the one you like best. Preferably one where you wouldn’t get sick of listening to over and over again. Learn the English chorus and start practicing in the shower, in the car, or while you’re karaoking with friends 😉

10. Study the most common situations

The traditional English classroom will try to teach you almost every situation there is to learn. But it’s a waste of time if you don’t plan to ever be in those situations. What’s more effective is to analyze the most common situations that you’ll encounter in your daily life. This may include:

  • Going to a restaurant (ordering food)
  • Shopping for new clothing (asking for prices, etc.)
  • A first date (questions to ask, compliments, etc.)
  • and more

Once you start to feel more comfortable in these situations, you’ll quickly gain the confidence that you need to apply this in other situations too.

11. Stop being an English ‘student’

Let’s stop being a student, and start being a conversationalist. To be a great English speaker doesn’t require you to be reading textbooks, studying grammar, or finishing your homework assignment. It’s about having the mindset of building relationships and interesting conversations in English, like any normal human would. So get rid of the ‘student’ mindset, and start focusing on being a conversation master.

12. Find your English tribe when traveling

Lastly, surround yourself with other people that speak English. As Jim Rohn said, you are the average of the five people around you. This applies to your wealth, health, and yes even languages. It may not feel comfortable at first, but you’ll get used to speaking English that the benefits will outweigh the initial fear you have. Trust us!

Tools and Methods to Improve Your English

Ok, so we’ve given you a rundown of 12 actionable ways to learn how to speak English fluently. Now, we’re go over some various different tools and methods you can take advantage of today.

Private English teachers

Research has shown time and time again that live immersion learning is the most effective way to learn anything. It can be up to 5-10x more powerful than traditional lectures. But finding a teacher that can help you learn English is more than that. Not only will you benefit from higher retention, but you’ll get the right guidance to shortcut your learning curve, and accountability to keep you motivated over a long period. Learning a new language is a marathon, not a sprint, and having the right coach is the best way to ensure you reach the finish line.


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English learning apps

In addition to working with a private English teacher, you can use language apps as a complementary tool to help you. We’ve written about a few including our Babbel Review and Duolingo Review that you can check out. But overall, these are a good tool to use in addition to working with your teacher, not to be solo dependent on for improving your English speaking skills.

Audio courses and programs

Audio CD programs and software has been around for decades. The main upside is to be able to self-study on your own time, but these won’t help you with your speaking skills either.

Conversation exchange partners

We wrote an extensive post on conversation exchanges which you can also check out. We’ve found these to be useful if you have the time and patience to find the right conversation partner to meet your needs. Keep in mind that you will have to also teach your partner your language, so you’ll spend 50% of the time teaching, and 50% of the time learning.

Learn to Speak English Online with Rype

Rype can help you learn how to speak English fluently faster, on your time. With research proving the effectiveness of learning with a private teacher, we’ve been able help 10,000+ members speak a new language, around their busy lifestyle. Best of all, we offer a rate that’s significantly more affordble than a language school, for more value. Here’s a highlight of the major benefits we offer to our language students:

  • Gain exclusive access to handpicked and pre-vetted English teachers that have been interviewed live via 1-on-1 video
  • Book and enjoy English speaking lessons from anywhere you are in the world (no commuting)
  • Learn English online at anytime of the day, any day of the week
  • Pay a fraction of the cost you would pay at a traditional in-person language
  • Improve your English speaking skills faster (and retain more information)
  • Join an exclusive community of fellow English language learners and ambitious go-getters


If you still have any questions about how Rype works or want to share any feedback, feel free to reach out at help@rypeapp.com. Activate your risk-free trial now and start learning English online today.

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