So you’ve been making steady progress with English: studying English grammar, expanding your vocabulary, and watching Hollywood movies without subtitles. Now it’s time to take the next step and practice your English with a full-blown English conversation. A cheap, efficient, and fun way of practicing your spoken English is HelloTalk‘s Video Chat feature. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into how to find conversation partners, how to prepare for your video chats, and share a few helpful tips to supercharge your learning.
How to Practice Speaking English with Video Chats
HelloTalk has a dedicated community of native English speakers who are interested in learning your language. Video chats closely resemble an in-person dialogue, letting us read facial expressions, gestures, and non-verbal cues, which make for a richer and more authentic language exchange.
1 – Find language partners to practice with
First things first, we got to find a language partner. The good news is HelloTalk’s Connect feature makes it easy to search, find, and connect with language partners. A great language partner is not only someone who offers corrections, but also someone who you enjoy practicing with. You can customize your search to connect with partners by language, region, gender, location, and more. Do you love the British accent or want to train your ear to understand how they speak in California so you’re ready for vacation to the West Coast? Why not search for partners by region so you can get the most out of your practice?
2 – Prepare conversation topics ahead of time
Planning ahead can greatly improve your video chats. For starters, they give your exchange structure and also let you learn some related vocabulary ahead of time so you can practice them during the call. This is super helpful because you’ll learn how native speakers use these words in context and also get a feel for the cultural nuances around your chosen topic in your language partner’s country. For example, last week my English partner picked the topic preferences. Some of the expressions I learned ahead of time were:
Expression your preferences
“I prefer to go out late and sleep in on the weekends” – I prefer to…
“Given the choice, I almost always choose coffee over tea” – Given the choice, I would/I’d pick…
Asking about someone’s preferences
“What would you study if you could go back to school and why?” – What would you do if…
“Would you like to go to Los Angeles for the weekend or go camping?” – Would you like to….or…..?
3 – Agree on a meeting time and schedule your calls
One great way to stay consistent with your conversation practices is to schedule your calls ahead of time. This way you commit yourself and can take advantage of helpful tools like digital calendars. Not only will you be more likely to not miss your video calls but you will also build a regular habit of practicing your speaking each week.
4 – Protect your personal and financial information
The internet comes with many conveniences. At the same time, it is important to stay safe online and protect your personal and financial information. Remember, never give out any financial details to untrusted sources. Secondly, you can always use HelloTalk’s messaging and voice call features to get a feel and see if your language partner is a good fit for your learning before trying a video call.
5 – Have fun with it
Keep things fun and interesting. Language learning is a journey, so it’s important to have fun along the way. Pick topics you enjoy, ask your language partner thought provoking questions, and revel in the opportunity to connect with people from the English speaking world and learn more about their culture.
Join HelloTalk – Video Chat with Native English Speakers
HelloTalk is the world’s #1 language exchange app and home to a global community of language learners and culture lovers. Join over 35 million people from 190 countries who’ve made HelloTalk the hub for language and cultural exchange. Did you know English is the most popular language on HelloTalk? Search for language partners and practice English with native speakers for free through text, voice, or video. The app also includes self-paced lessons, instructional livestreams, and intuitive language tools such as translation, transcription, and transliteration to get you talking with native English speakers in no time! Download the free app today at hellotalk.com.
