Tips from Erica Ray Language

Here is Erica's websiteL https://ericaraylanguage.com/

Here are my 10 best tips to help you overcome your fear to speak.

1. Focus on pronunciation - Clear pronunciation will make you more confident and better understood. Learn the phonetics of the Spanish language and practice the individual sounds. Listen carefully. Notice how they differ from English. When you are corrected on your pronunciation, pay close attention. It's important.

2. Read out loud every day along with audio - Reading fluency is a springboard to speaking fluency. When you read out loud, you don't have to think about what to say, but you are still working your tongue and brain and getting them used to speaking Spanish. When you're first starting out and until you're completely comfortable with pronunciation, use audio as you read out loud and mimic or shadow in order to get used to the sounds and intonation of the language.

3. Focus on a topic & practice multiple times - Whenever possible, focus on a certain topic while speaking. Practice the same topic multiple times. This will help you develop your vocabulary of that subject quickly and the repetition will help you retain it. You'll also feel more confident speaking on that subject next time.

4. Prepare & Practice (but don't overdo it) - If you know the topic ahead of time, take just a few minutes to look up some words that you know you'll need in order to respond to questions (and ask some!). But there's no need to write down an entire script unless you'll be presenting a monologue. Leave room for spontaneity so that you don't become overwhelmed with your preparation process. After all, you never know just how a conversation will go!

5. Embrace your mistakes and learn from them. - Mistakes are part of learning, so appreciate the corrections you receive, dust yourself off, and make notes when you are corrected. Keep those notes organized by topic (remember you were speaking about a topic?) so that they are easier to review later.

6. Develop a circle of speaking partners - Make friends and become comfortable with your speaking partners, whether these are teachers, friends, or other learners. When you're genuinely interested in knowing more about a person, you'll soon forget you're speaking a different language.

7. Be regular and disciplined - In order to improve you must speak Spanish as often as possible and be consistent. Speaking once per week to a tutor is not enough. Try to create daily or at least multiple time per week speaking opportunities for yourself.

8. Take advantage of unexpected bursts of motivation, energy, and extra time - Although you'll probably find that you need to schedule in some time to speak in order to fulfill Point #7, also take advantage of peaks that you may have in motivation to do even more. Don't let those moments pass you by. Looking for something to do on a day off or rainy day? Your future self will thank you for working on your self development rather than scrolling through Instagram

9. Document your wins and review them frequently - There's nothing more motivational that progress, but sometimes we can't see that we're progressing unless we document our wins, big or small. Celebrate all the conversations you're able to have and then take a look at them from time to time. You'll be surprised at how far you've come. If you share your wins with other supportive people so that they can celebrate with you, the effect will be even greater.

10. Take it to the real world - Depending on your circumstances, a lot of your speaking practice may come from classes or online, but you'll also want to find occasions to practice in the real world whenever possible. Depending on your personality, this may really put your nerves to the test, but the anxiety won't last forever. Your brain needs a history of multiple documented moments of "success" in order to slowly, but surely signal to you that "you will be ok." There's no way to accumulate that history unless you go out and try.