At Plain English, you can improve your speaking by:
Practicing your conversation skills on a live, small-group Zoom call
Recording videos and getting feedback in the Video Lab
Doing the pronunciation exercise with each Story
Taking the Toolkit Workshops
Doing the writing exercises (yes, writing!)
Live conversation calls
There's nothing like being in a live conversation to give you the real-world experience you need to understand English in the real world.
At Plain English, you can join a live, small-group conversation call on Zoom to practice speaking.
✅ Live conversation calls are available to members at the Plus+ level
Here's an introduction to the live calls:
The calls include a small group of Plus+ members and the Plain English team
The topics change every time; most (but not all) are about recent Stories
There are three per month, at different times, and you can join as many as you like
Learn more:
Video Lab
The Video Lab helps you improve your English speaking skills on your own time. Each week, you'll have the chance to submit a three-minute video of yourself speaking in English. Then, you'll get a personalized video reply with advice for how to improve.
✅ The Video Lab is available to members at the Plus+ level
Here's how it works:
Each week, we publish a new question on your dashboard
You listen to the question and choose to reply in audio or video form
Record a video of yourself answering the question (max: 3 minutes)
Get personal feedback later in the week to help you improve
Repeat the next week!
Learn more:
Pronunciation exercise
Think about it. When you speak, there are two things going on in your brain:
Deciding what words to say
Forming the sounds and saying the words
Of the two, by far the harder thing is deciding what words to say. But often the simple act of pronouncing words trips us up. And it occupies valuable brainpower that should go to deciding what word to say.
At Plain English, you can practice your pronunciation with a special voice recorder exercise.
In the Pronunciation exercise, you:
Record your voice reading a paragraph
Listen to your voice
Listen to a native speaker reading the same paragraph to compare to your own
Learn more:
Toolkit Workshops
Remember the two things going on in your brain when you speak? The harder of the two is deciding what to say. And often, the problem isn't a lack of vocabulary words. Instead, it's knowing how to use the words you already have in your vocabulary.
The Toolkit Workshop is all about the tools you need to express your best, complicated ideas.
✅ The Toolkit is available to members at the Plus+ level
Often, when you struggle to express an idea in conversation, it's because you don't have one of these tools.
Learn more:
Writing exercises
Writing is an overlooked skill for language learners. But writing can sometimes be the key to improving your speaking.
Think of it this way: writing is like speaking, only with more time to think about what you're going to say.
✅ Writing exercises are available to members at the Plus+ level
Learn more:
Write sentences with the things you learn in Plain English and get personal feedback
React to Stories with your opinions and thoughts
Answer weekly writing prompts
Do the Situational Writing exercises in the Toolkit Workshops