How to Sound Natural Speaking In English & On the CELPIP Exam Q&A

Aaron Nelson: 00:00:00

Today we're going to dig into some questions from one of my podcast listeners.

And by the way, if you have a question you'd like me to answer for you on a future episode, please write aaron@celpipsuccess.com I'll put a link to that in my show notes today. Okay, so let's get started with Jasmine's questions. She writes, I'm still struggling with many things.

It is impossible to point all of them out because everything seems to be mixed up. How to sound natural, control my anxiety, use some directions, but not stick too much to a template.

Remember all the fancy words for different scenarios, connectors, phrasal verbs, idioms, and so on. She goes on to say that she feels stuck. Well, hello there and welcome to the Speak English Fearlessly podcast.

This is the podcast for motivated English learners who want to speak English fearlessly and learn practical tips and strategies to conquer the CELPIP exam.

I also love to feature encouraging interviews with regular people, people just like you, who are working towards becoming fluent in English so we can learn from their experiences together. Who am I?

My name is Aaron Nelson and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years, and I now help students prepare for the CELPIP exam through online classes. So, Jasmine, thank you for your questions.

You know, it sounds like you're feeling overwhelmed with all the work you've been doing to try and prepare for the CELPIP exam. I hope these ideas will help simplify a few things for you and most of all, help you get unstuck.

First of all, let's talk about how to sound natural on the exam. And to do that, I want to tell you about my first, my very first few attempts at publishing this podcast.

A year and a half or so ago, the first attempts sucked. They sucked. They suck so bad. I messed up every sentence. I couldn't get my ideas out the way I wanted them to.

I sounded so stiff and totally not natural. I re recorded the same first episode, likely over a dozen times, and still I didn't feel happy about it.

I eventually just decided to ship it out after months of thinking about it. Today I am 83 episodes in and I love creating each one. I feel very comfortable behind the mic now, at least most of the time.

And I've found my process to record each episode so that it comes pretty easy. And I think. I think I sound like myself. This doesn't mean it's perfect, but it does mean I feel confident about my process.

The lesson here that I want to share with you Jasmine and anyone else who struggles with feeling natural when it comes to speaking in English or speaking in English and recording your answers for the CELPIP exam, all of this will happen with repetition and practice. The more I recorded each podcast episode, the easier it became. The more I got behind my microphone and began recording, the more comfortable I felt.

The same is going to be true for you, I promise. And I've got three ideas that will help you with this process.

Number one, practice speaking into a mic or your cell phone while recording your practice answers. I can't stress this point enough. Speaking into a mic and not a person is unnatural for most people.

So that part of the exam, and by the way, speaking into a microphone and not to a person is a part of the exam. So that part will feel unnatural to you if you don't practice it.

And that part alone, that speaking into a microphone can be the obstacle that can trip you up if you don't become familiar with how it feels.

So practice doing it so that when you are actually needing to do it on the exam day, it will feel a little bit more natural to you than if you just show up and need to do it for the very first time, I promise you.

It feels weird, it feels strange, and if you haven't prepared by actually practicing speaking into a microphone or speaking into your cell phone and recording your answer, it's going to trip you up on the exam, I promise you. So don't do that to yourself. Practice recording into an object, into a microphone, into your cell phone, and then listening to your answers.

All right? Number two, always use your personal experience. As much as you can remember, you are an expert on you.

You can speak with authority and conviction about what you've experienced, which will help you sound more natural. So do it as often as the exam allows for it. Many of the questions on the exam will enable you or will allow you to speak from personal experience.

When you give your answer, you should always try to do this. Like I said before, it will help you to sound way more natural than if you're trying to invent an answer on the spot.

And finally, number three, don't stress about your accent. Focus on expressing your ideas. The exam raters are not going to lower your score if you have an accent.

The only time when your accent could interfere with your score is if that accent is if your accent is so strong that it makes it difficult for the person to understand you. But having an accent will not lower your score.

So instead of worrying about your accent, focus on expressing your ideas with the best grammar you can with varied vocabulary and interesting details. Jasmine's second question is around controlling anxiety on test day.

I think the best advice I can offer you here is to lean into practicing as much as you can for as long as you can before your test day. What I mean by that is that you give yourself sufficient time to prepare. Having more time to practice will increase your self confidence.

Not giving yourself that time does the opposite. It steals your confidence because you'll feel unprepared.

You should also use the free CELPIP practice exams to help you understand what the real exam will be like and you can get them, like I just said, free at the celpip.ca website. They are freely available. You just need to sign up for an account.

That account is free and once you log in, you'll be able to access two practice exams. You should be practicing with their practicing exam so that you know what to expect on exam day.

But even after doing these things well, you still might feel nervous or anxious. And you know what? That's totally normal. And I don't know anyone who didn't face those feelings on exam day.

But for sure, practicing well and long enough is the best way I know to combat anxiety on your test day because it will help you to feel and be prepared. Next, you asked about how to remember the fancy words connectors and phrasal verbs.

I'm going to lump all three of these into my answer that I hope will help you.

In the same way that you should not be trying to memorize vocabulary words, but understand and use them as much as you can so that you own the word, you should also not be trying to memorize connecting words or phrasal verbs either. Instead, here's what I suggest you do. Number one.

When you discover a new word or a new connecting word or a new phrasal verb that you think is interesting or it sounds cool or you think it's important, write it down. That's the first step. When you write it down, you're telling yourself.

You're telling your brain this word, this phrasal verb, or this connector is important. I want to pay attention to it. Okay? So write it down.

Maybe consider starting a vocabulary journal or a phrasal verb journal or a connecting word journal or a a new word in general, A new phrase in general journal where you can store all these new words as they come along. Okay, but it's important to write it down. Number two. Your next step is to discover what it means.

Hopefully you'll be able to figure it out in the context of where you heard it or read it. That should be your first bit of detective work.

See if what is around that word or around that phrasal verb or around that connector can help you figure out the meaning.

After you've done that, after you've tried to figure it out based on the context, then it's a good idea to look in the dictionary and make sure that you've got it right.

And in your vocabulary journal, write out the real definition of that phrasal verb, of that connector, or of that new vocabulary word that you're trying to pay attention to.

Number three, create a sentence or two, like write it down using your new word or your new phrasal verb or your new connector word, but do it in your own words.

And finally, number four, make it your goal to use your new word or your new phrasal verb or your new connector word as often as you can in conversation today. If you can use it seven times, that would be brilliant.

The thing is, the more you use your new word, the more it will become a part of your vocabulary. And that's a big difference between trying to memorize them. You shouldn't be trying to memorize new words. You should be trying to use them.

And the more you use them, the more they will become yours. You will become the owner of that word, and it will become a part of your vocabulary, and it will sound more natural when you use it.

As a bonus tip, always be listening to the English conversations happening around you. This is literally a goldmine for new words, new phrasal verbs, new connecting words. It's just happening all around you.

And all you need to do is be paying attention to what conversations are happening day in and day out around you. Like if you're riding on a bus. This is a perfect chance for you to be listening in.

I mean, you don't want to look like you're listening in, but be listening to the conversations happening around you.

I guarantee you that you'll start picking out words that you don't know, and this is the chance for you to write them down and begin stealing it yourself.

So when you hear a phrasal verb being used, and you like how it sounds, like I just said steal it and begin using it yourself, of course, making sure that you understand what it means first. Right? The secret is not to try to memorize these things, learn what they mean, and then use them like crazy.

This approach means you'll likely be using just one or two new words a week, but you're really going to be using them.

But the end result is way more effective than trying to memorize long, boring lists, because when you use your new words repeatedly, they have a higher chance of becoming part of your vocabulary. Like I've said a moment ago, you have a higher chance of owning the word, which means you're far less likely to forget about it.

Jasmine, I hope this helps you, and thank you so much for asking.

And like I said at the beginning, if you've got a question that you'd like me to try and answer in a future episode, just send me an aaron@celpipsuccess.com and I will put a link.

Well, it's not a link is that I'm gonna put that in my show notes, my email address if you want to write me and ask a question that I'll feature in an upcoming episode so we did cover quite a bit of ground today.

And to help you to remember everything we talked about, I created a checklist with all the points we covered that will help you to 1 sound more natural 2 deal with anxiety 3 learn how to own new vocabulary words, phrasal verbs and connecting words. And I'll even throw in a few practice speaking questions to help you develop your speaking skills. Does that sound helpful? Useful to you?

Well, you can grab your free copy today. It is free. Just go to celpipsuccess.com resources and it will be right in there waiting for you.

You can grab that resource and any other ones that seem interesting to you. Well, thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I hope that you'll come back again next Tuesday. Bye.

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