One of the best kept secrets for improving your English is language exchanges! Language exchanges simply involve meeting up with a native speaker and having a conversation or chat, half in English, and half in your own language. Through this you both get to practise talking to a native speaker and gain feedback from each other. Language exchanges are a great opportunity to ask questions such as how to say something in English, and usually your partner will be happy to correct your mistakes, as long as you correct theirs!
With this in mind, let’s look at some of the great reasons why you should be thinking about doing language exchanges once you arrive.
Firstly, and most importantly, through a language exchange you are getting to practise with a native speaker of English. As a result, you can learn the way English is used in everyday conversation and you can concentrate on the words and phrases which are used most frequently. Reading is a good way to increase vocabulary, but the words used most frequently in written English are not the same as those used in spoken English. It’s also a great way to learn popular idioms.
A lot of English students tell me that they feel under pressure when speaking to native English speakers and it is much easier practising English with other students. One of the great things about language exchanges is that you’re both less afraid to make mistakes because you’re both in the same situation.
It’s a great way to make English speaking friends! Introduce your partner to your friends and go to anything you’re invited to and you will soon find you have a network of acquaintances and friends from the country. Many people find that once they’ve met just a couple of native English speakers, their network of English speaking friends expands quite quickly.
If you’re planning to stay for a long period of time, practising with native speakers will be really important to your progress as you become more advanced.
In a language exchange you have a period of one or two hours of conversation in which you can really concentrate on learning the language. When you are in an English speaking country you might think that you are learning English all the time. That’s the idea, anyway! However, it is so easy to fall back on your own language or avoid speaking English (even subconsciously). You might not even notice how much you are practising English, or not! A language exchange forces you to really focus for the time you are doing it. Over a period of a few weeks this extra quality practise time each day could make a massive difference. In addition, it will get you in the habit of making sure that you learn outside of class. The people who spend the most time speaking English and trying to learn outside of class are usually the ones who improve the quickest, so many teachers say!
As mentioned, many students find that speaking with native speakers is more difficult than speaking with other students. But if you force yourself to do this and really try to improve, you will learn more quickly. The key to learning quickly is to practise something which is just a bit more difficult than you’re comfortable with, but not too difficult so that you don’t get discouraged. Speaking with a native will really push you that little bit harder!
Train your ear to proper pronunciation. Clearly, there is no better way to learn the correct way to pronounce a word than to listen to a native speaker. As students know, English is not phonetic, which means that you cannot always look at how a word is written and know how to say it. This is why it is important to listen to how native speakers pronounce the words.
I hope this article has convinced you to give it a try! In fact, not only is it a great way to learn English, but it is also a fun way of entering into the culture of the country you are living in. Next time we’ll show how easy it is to start, and how to go about finding partners!
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