Today, I wanted to talk to you.

Well, actually, I wanted to have a chat with you, just a casual informal conversation about how to improve your conversation skills.

So I recently asked all of my students on Facebook and Instagram, what sort of videos they'd like to see in the near future because I've had a little bit of a rest recently but I'm back in the game now.

And most people wanted to see more grammar videos which will definitely be coming soon, more vocabulary videos and also tips on how toimprove their spoken English and also their listening skills.

Now, I've already done a video on listening which you can watch just up here.

But I haven't done a video on conversation yet, so that's what I'm going to do today.

But I am going to provide you with some real vocabulary and some very useful grammar, so I've squished everything that you wanted into one video.

Alright, let's get started with tip number one.

Tip number one is be aware of the sounds that you make when you think.

If you want to sound more native when speaking and not offend anyone when speaking, then you need to think like an Englishman.

When I was in Spain, I was quite surprised when I first had proper conversations with people because they would be talking to me and then suddenly say, "Eeeeeeeeh," and I would think, "What was that?"

That's quite loud. Their mouth right open, "Eeeeeeh," and in the UK, it's considered impolite to have your mouth open in somebody's face.

So when we think about what we're going to say next in a conversation, we tend to say, "Ummmm"or "Hmmm."

So we tend to hum with our mouths closed.

So, try practicing at home.

If you see any interviews of British celebrities and personalities, check to see what sort of noises they make when they are thinking about how to respond to a question

The next tip is be aware of interjections.

Now, what are interjections? Well, they are short little expressions that express how you are feeling.

So if I say something like, "Oh," it means I'm interested, maybe I haven't heard that before, maybe I'm a bit surprised.

"Oh."

And if I say something like, "Hmm," it could mean I don't quite believe you.

So people from the UK of less inclined to tell you exactly what they think and more inclined to tell you through interjections and body language.

If you'd like more information on interjections like, "Oh right," "Yuck," "Eww," then I can definitely make a video all about them.

It really is good to know them because it will help you understand what speaker's thinking and also convey what you are thinking as well.

Tip number four (three) is learn to use question tags properly.

Now, what are question tags? They are short little questions that go at the end of sentences.

Things like, "You're not married, are you?"

Or "He didn't go, did he?"

Or "You like tea, don't you?"

Now, they can mean two different things.

They can be a genuine question or they can be almost a request for confirmation of something that the speaker already knew.

"You're very tanned, you've been on holiday, haven't you?"

I know that they've been on holiday. I'm just asking for confirmation.

Now, question tags are very simple to form and use.

If you have a positive statement, "you are coming," then you'd add a negative question tag on the end, "aren't you?"

"You are coming, aren't you?"

And if you have a negative sentence, "She didn't say that, "then you add a positive question tag at the end, "did she?"

"She didn't say that, did she?"

Right, now we've spoken a little bit about noises, a bit of vocabulary and a bit of grammar that you can use to improve your conversation skills

Well now, I'd like to talk about some real hardcore practice.

So when I was working as a private English teacher, a lot of people wanted conversation lessons and they would come in and say I just want to talk which is great but I had a small handful of students that really knew how to improve their conversation skills and I actually learned from them.

I had a couple of students come in and say, "I want conversation lessons but I want to practice my stories," and this was great.

They would come in with a handful of stories that they would tell on a daily basis. Maybe where you're from, why you're living in London, something funny that happened to you on holiday.

Something that they like to tell, they like to be interesting, they like to be funny in group situations. It's good to have a few stories up your sleeve.

Well, they would come to me and they would ask to practice them and perfect them

So they could tell their stories fluently and efficiently and make people laugh and make people feel interested and make people enjoy their company.

So I really really recommend that apart from practicing your conversation, you practice your stories.

You go over them again and again and again until you have them sorted, until they're perfect and fluent and natural more than anything.

Now you guys already know that I work with a company called Lingoda.

If you haven't seen my review video for Lingoda, you can find it just up here and this is a website that i really would

recommend if you want to practice your conversation because every single one of their lessons encourages speaking you

sign up on a monthly basis and you have

a mixture of group lessons and private

lessons and the great thing about it is

with the private lessons you can choose

the topic that you want you can say

right today I want to practice my

stories and they will organise that for

you

so they've given me another discount

voucher to offer you you can get 50 euros or

fifty dollars off your first

month at Lingoda if you're interested

in that offer click on the link in the

description box now my final tip for you

is reflection

it's all very well going to a language

exchange and speaking and speaking and

speaking but if you don't reflect on

your mistakes you're never going to

improve so after every single

conversation that you have in a language

that you're trying to learn

make sure you take some time afterwards

to think back and ask yourself where was

i lacking and there could be a multitude

of answers I didn't know enough

vocabulary to properly express myself or

my listening skills weren't strong enough

to fully understand my partner or I was

telling a story and I wasn't comfortable

enough with the past tenses to tell it

accurately so make sure you analyze and

reflect and then do some research about

it so you can practice what you lacked

in in the last conversation now the

world is your oyster here on YouTube you

just have to type in question tags

interjections past tenses and there will

be some lovely person teaching you

exactly how to use it

you have just got so many dictionaries

apps online schools there is everything

that you need to help you here online

so make sure you take advantage of it

that's it for today's lesson I hope you

enjoyed it I hope you learnt something

don't forget to connect with me on all

of my social media you've got my Instagram and

my facebook where I host a free live

pronunciation lesson every sunday at

four thirty gmt more information on the

facebook page i will see you soon for

another lesson i've got lots of grammar and

vocabulary videos coming out soon

I can't wait to show you them mwah!