My name is Steve Ford and I am happy you have joined me here for our lesson.

Today I have an interesting question which I quite often get from my students every day

every day

This question is related to students who've studied English for some time

but feel they just can't speak properly

So here we have a question from a physicist from Slovakia

who wrote to me on my Facebook page and I said

that's a great question, could you record it and send it to me by e-mail?

Well, he did and here's Michal's question

Michal, your question caught my attention 'cause I know just how important it is to gain self-confidence speaking a language

So I am going to share some of my teaching experience and also my learning experience

with other languages to set you on the right track

What do you need your English for?

This is the first question that you should ask yourself when you feel you're not speaking as well as you'd like

Are you learning English for pleasure, travel, work, studies, romantic relationship, immigration?

Once you know where you're headed

it's a lot easier to know what kind of level you want to speak.

What I notice with my own students is that they tend to specialize in one kind of English

So if you're a physicist and you're explaining physics

I am sure that

You would be able to blow me away with your English!

So when my students who are business professionals talk about work and finance

their level of English is way up there and so is there level of self-confidence

The same goes for my students who are doctors and professors

you get them talking about Urology, Paleontology, Biology, Dermatology and they have a good command of English

But, if we change the topic and go on to small talk

suddenly they get tongue-tied

I imagine that's the same for you Michal

One part of my lessons that my students really enjoy is trying to find equivalent word forms for one specific word

Now, let's say you out there watching my lesson also keep note of new words, highlight the ones you like but

you have no native speakers to practice with

It happens! Luckily with the internet we have a lot of English learners helping each other out on skype

Some students are worried about learning bad speaking habits from other students

So what's your alternative if you simply want to improve with native speakers....

Well this same situation happened to me when I was learning Portuguese more than 20 years ago

I was living in Canada, doing self-study by reading and watching TV programs, listening to music and so on

I had a notebook of expressions and vocabulary

and I had to search around town and ended up finding this little old lady, sweet old lady who happened to speak Portuguese

So I would go to her house once a week

and we would talk about this and that over a cup of coffee

I also used to try and think in Portuguese constantly

I would create hypothetical situations where someone would pose a question to me and I would try to answer

I didn't care that I'd be walking down the street mumbling Portuguese(eu sou, você é) to myself

since I wanted to go back to Brazil and I knew I needed to practice any way I could

well here are some student pet peeves

and one I like to point out to my students ASAP

I feel myself

I was curious to see this happening with all of my students who particularly speak Slavic and romantic languages

I always say, be careful, in English "feel" is just feel: I feel fine

If you say I feel myself

it means

you are touching yourself..........so be careful!

Well Michal and everybody out there watching this lesson. I hope I was able to share some of my teaching experience

to help encourage you with your English learning

All of these mistakes are many times unconscious

but with a little self-correction you can become more aware and improve

I see many students improving day by day

We'll catch you later and see you online! Bye for now!