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There are several important reasons to improving your English speaking. First, you need to qualify to teach by passing the SPEAK test. Second, you need to improve your English so that you can communicate effectively as a scientist, so that you career can progress. Third, you can communicate better in your living and working environment. These are NOT necessarily accomplished the same way! The SPEAK test is like any other test, you need to practice exactly what will be on the test. To be good at taking the SPEAK test you need to practice the SPEAK test. This site has lost of SPEAK test practive for you. To improve your casual speaking, you don't need to practice necessarily, but you do need to LISTEN very carefully! Listen to the words, phrases and pronunciation native English speakers use, and ask yourself, "is this the way that I would say that?". If not, then you need to try to change your speech to match whet you hear. Even though I came to the US from an English speaking country, even I had some difficulties making myself understood when I first came here. I noticed that I had to deliberately change the way I pronounced some words or I had to use different words. I had to do that even though it "felt wrong". Obviously if you come from a country where English is not the native language then you will have a MUCH larger problem that I had, but the principle is the same. You have to listen carefully and slowly change as much as you can. This takes effort! But learning anything new takes effort.You might even want to keep a small electronic or paper notebook of changes to your speech (words, pronunciation etc) you are trying to make. To improve your scientific language, again you need to listen carefully to scientific talks you hear others give, and remember the style and vocabulary. Taking notes again is a good idea. However, this is also something that you can PRACTICE. When you give talks in group meetings you can ask your group members for feedback and corrections. Watching English language movies and TV may help a little too, and so might LISTENING to English, there are some links to online English language radio on this site. I wish you good luck, but remember, learning a new language is very difficult, and anything that is difficult requires effort. Improving your English will happen naturally just by being here, but if you want it to happen better and faster, then you will have to work at it. Ian Gould |