7 TIPS TO BETTER GRAMMAR WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH
Sabrena Doherty 
Do you find it difficult to improve your grammar skills?
Are you tired of feeling embarrassed and too shy to speak because of your grammar mistakes, but you don't know where to start?
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Don´t worry! Read on for some tips and tricks that will make your English speaking better and help you make fewer grammar mistakes!
We will divide our tips into short-term solutions that will help you now, and longer-term solutions to work on for the future.
SHORT-TERM WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GRAMMAR WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH:
Speak more slowly
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A lot of my students try to speak at the same speed as they do in Spanish. This means they are more likely to make mistakes. Another big disadvantage of this is that the person they are speaking too will also speak fast, so they might be more difficult to understand!
Don´t translate in your head
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If you try to say the same in English as you normally do in your native language, you are more likely to make mistakes. This is because you speak in more complicated structures and expressions in your language that are often too advanced for your current level of English. Therefore you are more likely to make mistakes and speak with less fluency because you have to stop and think more.
If you make a mistake - keep going!
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It´s possible that the person you are speaking English to doesn´t even notice. The main objective of language is to be understood - as long as what you said was understood correctly, it doesn´t matter if the grammar wasn´t perfect! Which is better - to be understood, or to have exquisite grammar?? Anyway, most people will just think you have a lovely exotic accent and won´t even notice mistakes. I know this from experience - before we became English teachers, we travelled extensively and met a lot of non-native speakers who spoke with fluency but also with mistakes. I never noticed the mistakes at the time though as I wasn´t a teacher, I just thought it was a cool, exotic way of speaking.
LONGTERM WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GRAMMAR WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH:
Practice in a class
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Join an English class where you practice grammar, not study grammar.
Almost all of our students had studied grammar repeatedly over the years before coming to us, but they still made mistakes when speaking and had no confidence.
The problem is that you can learn something but if you cannot apply it to a practical situation, you are not incorporating the information in a meaningful way.
To give you an extreme example:
Every year in May we have 16-year-old students who have to know a very advanced level of grammar to pass exams but cannot speak a sentence with the verb TO BE.
Also, throughout the year we have students who tell us that, until they came to us, they attended classes where they learned a mixture of grammar, reading exercises, writing, listening and with only a few minutes of speaking.
This meant of course that they only had a few minutes a week of meaningful English practice, i.e. speaking the language themselves.
In our 100% speaking classes, we practice grammar, we don´t study grammar. We do this by quickly introducing the grammar point, explaining as necessary, then going straight into practice drills for 7-10 minutes.
That´s how you become fluent in grammar and not make mistakes.
2. Make sure your teacher corrects your mistakes!
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It´s important that your English teacher corrects your mistakes as you are speaking, if not, how will you know you are making mistakes? There are certain situations where it is better to correct at the end of an exercise, for example, a roleplay or presentation, but generally, we learn from our mistakes more if we are corrected on the spot.
It is also useful if your teacher reviews your mistakes at the end of the class.
We correct mistakes in our classes, try one free: https://inglesconkillian.com/f/new-groups-opt-in
3. Practice in your daily life!
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Obviously speaking is the best practice, but if it isn´t possible, try to immerse yourself more in English every day.. Listening to English is a fantastic way to improve your English (read this article to know why https://inglesconkillian.com/blog/9-ways-listening-improves-your-english) - this will help you hear the correct grammar structures in context. Each time you hear it it will consolidate your learning and make it less likely that you will make this mistake in the future. Aim to speak and or listen to English daily for at least 15 minutes. Read this article on how to incorporate more English into your life on a regular basis: https://inglesconkillian.com/blog/how-to-immerse-yourself-in-english
4. Don´t do it alone!
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Use these resources to help you improve your English grammar:
Our membership FAST TRACK TO FLUENCY has a grammar section where you can review and learn a range of grammar points from level B1 upwards.
We also have a 30-day grammar challenge in our membership, where we review a different grammar point every day, and a Masterclass of the 10 most important grammar rules for business.
To study grammar in a more in-depth way, I also recommend these websites to our students:
https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/
https://www.englishrevealed.co.uk/
Further resources to help you improve your grammar:
Join our speaking classes - try one free: https://inglesconkillian.com/f/new-groups-opt-in
For company classes, we organise the government funding: https://inglesconkillian.com/home-page-inglesconkillian-company/
This blog and video reviews the most common grammar mistakes people make when speaking - do you make these mistakes?
Blog: https://inglesconkillian.com/blog/10-common-mistakes-english-learners-make-and-how-to-correct-them