As a non-native English speaker, how to become more fluent

First of all, if you’re worry about your fluency in English, you’re not alone. It’s the number one problem of people we work with at A Star Coaching, even advanced level speakers. Luckily, this is one of the things we love to help our clients with and 97% of our clients see a significant improvement in their fluency after training. 

Take Cedric for example: his job involves trips overseas and while he’s fine in business meetings, talking about the company and its products, when it comes to dinner with clients or just a chat with foreign colleagues at the coffee machine, he feels stuck. 

Lunch with clients: fluent or stressful?

Here I’ll show you some of the things that we have worked on with Cedric to help him feel more fluent all the time. 

Would you like to discuss how we can help you be more fluent? Take an appointment here for a 15-minute consultation

1. Regular Practice is the key to being fluent

Ok, this first one isn't a secret, I think you all know this. You also need to remember that fluency has nothing to do with knowing all the grammar rules. In fact, you can be very fluent and a great communicator and still make mistakes. And you know what? Nobody cares about your mistakes, as long as you deliver your message! The main thing is to be clear and concise.

The primary method to enhance fluency is through regular practice. Studies indicate that regular, active practice boosts both accuracy and speed in language processing.

✔️ Daily speaking practice:

Even 10–15 minutes a day of speaking out loud can sharpen your fluency. If you have a specific event to prepare for, practise what you are going to say out loud as many times as you can. Otherwise you can just talk to yourself about your day, what you’re doing, what you think about Trump. It doesn’t matter the topic, just as long as you speak aloud. 

✔️ Find people to talk to:

If you don’t have a language coach, do you have an English-speaker in your company you can have coffee with? Maybe phone your colleague instead of sending the email. If you’re in France, there are a lot of English-speakers (who can’t speak French) living here. Why not try to meet some of them? 

2. Revise Vocabulary

Vocabulary is one of the keys to fluency: if you can’t find the right words when you need them, you won’t be fluent. 

✔️ Learn in chunks, not just single words:

A chunk is a phrase or two or three words that are often used together. Focus on useful phrases and collocations like “take into account,” “by the way,” or “I don’t know if…” This will help you speak more naturally.

✔️ Use active recall:

Instead of just reading or highlighting new words, test yourself regularly. Tools like Anki, Studysmarter or Quizlet can help you build spaced repetition into your routine. You can download the app on your phone or computer and revise when you have 5 minutes spare.

✔️ Vary the topics:

Watch videos or read articles on different topics that interest you. Try to vary as much as possible so that you collect new vocabulary: when you’re at lunch with your clients, you’ll be ready for all discussions!

3. Work on Clear Pronunciation

You don’t need to have a “perfect” accent, but it’s important to be clear and not to trip over difficult words.

✔️ Use shadowing techniques:

Listen to short clips and imitate the speaker’s pronunciation and intonation. This improves muscle memory for speech and research has shown that it’s one of the best ways to improve listening skills and fluency. 

✔️ Focus on being understood, not perfect:

Some words are always going to be difficult to say, and that’s ok. When we work with clients, we help you pronounce difficult words (sheet anyone?) or find substitutions that you won’t be afraid to say. (Just say a piece of paper instead of a sheet of paper.) 

Manage your expectations around fluency

The problem is that it’s very difficult to obtain the same level of fluency as you have in your native language, without years of immersion. French-speakers often find they can become very fluent in another Latin language like Spanish, but not English. That’s because Spanish and French are very closely related, structurally and the vocabulary, which means the brain doesn’t have to work as hard. English is structured quite differently to French and if you try to translate from one to the other while you’re speaking, it won’t be easy. 

Remember: fluency doesn’t mean perfection — it means confidence and connection. You can make connections even without a high level of fluency and your confidence will grow when you see that you can handle different situation in English.