The best way to improve your speaking skills is, of course, to speak in English as often as possible. English teachers often suggest that there are a lot of opportunities to use spoken English in Hong Kong. While we agree, we know that taking up these opportunities requires certain ‘strategies’ (not to mention courage). We also know that for most non-native speakers problems can arise when they are using English to communicate. It is, however, important for you to make effective use of speaking practice opportunities and the first two of the advice sheets described below will help you with strategies for creating and dealing with these situations.

The next three advice sheets deal with more specific academic and professional situations in which you might be required to use spoken English.

Advice sheets in the SAC

• Creating practice opportunities: Strategies for speaking A (S2)
  This advice sheet will help you to think about maximising your opportunities to use spoken English. Ways of creating your own practice opportunities are put forward and some resources (available at the SAC or elsewhere) are recommended. In addition, some ways of evaluating your speaking skills are suggested.


• Coping with problems: Strategies for speaking B (S3)
  Many English learners have two main problems in using English in speaking situations: 1) they find it difficult to follow other speakers; and 2) they feel they do not have the words to express themselves. This advice sheet offers some tips (sometimes called ‘compensation strategies’) which may help you overcome these two problems.


• Improving your presentation skills (S4)
  It is very likely that you will be required to give at least one oral presentation during your time at university or in the workplace in the future. This advice sheet introduces a number of SAC materials and sites on the WWW which offer useful ideas on giving oral presentations.


• Improving your interview skills (S5)
  In Hong Kong today, many job interviews for professionals are conducted in English. This sheet offers advice on how to behave in an interview and, more importantly, on how to prepare for interviews. Some resources which give useful tips for interviewees are also recommended.


• Spoken English for other workplace situations (S6)
  Of course, once you get a job, you may need to use English for more than just presentations. You might be required to participate in meetings, handle telephone conversations, as well as, (and perhaps most importantly) socialise and ‘chat’ with your colleagues. This sheet gives advice on using spoken English in these different kinds of situations and directs you to useful resources in the SAC and on the WWW for preparing and practising for these situations.

Further references for improving your speaking skills

Here are some questions regarding your speaking skills. You should try to answer these questions as honestly and accurately as possible. You will notice that problems with speaking can, in fact, be related to poor listening skills or strategies, pronunciation difficulties, a lack of vocabulary or grammatical inaccuracies. If these are your problems, please consult the advice sheets mentioned.

• In conversation, do you have problems following what other people say? If your answer is 'yes', you should try using some of the strategies outlined in advice sheet S3, such as asking for repetition and clarification, but also, see the advice sheets Improving Your Listening (L1) and Listening to Social Conversations (L6).
• Do you have a pronunciation problem that sometimes causes confusion for people you are speaking with? E.g. Can you make a distinction between sounds like [l] and [n] and [t] and [d]? Do you stress some syllables in words incorrectly? If yes, check out the advice sheet Learning Pronunciation (P1).
• Do you hesitate or pause a lot because you lack the vocabulary you need in conversation? If so, read the advice sheet Learning Vocabulary for Speaking and Writing (V8).
• Do people sometimes misunderstand you because your grammar is inaccurate? If yes, read the advice sheet Grammar for Speaking (G6)

And now...

If you need any help or advice, or just a chat about your progress:

• see an Adviser, on duty at the SAC Advice Desk (for details of advisers and their availability, please go to http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/sacadviser.html)
• e-mail lcsac (lcsac@ust.hk) with your query;
• ask at the reception counter of the SAC — if the receptionist cannot help you directly, s/he will pass your query on to one of the SAC advisers
• consider joining the following Co-curricular Course:
  Speaking Expressively: A speech performance course
  (http://lc.ust.hk/~support/coc/course.html#se)
  IELTS Speaking (http://lc.ust.hk/~support/coc/course.html#is)
  Vitalising Your Talk (http://lc.ust.hk/~support/coc/pcourse.html#vyt)
  English Immersion Programme (http://lc.ust.hk/~support/coc/pcourse.html#eip)

Note
This is part of the Speaking series of leaflets supporting independent language learning, produced by the HKUST Language Centre SAC team. This leaflet was redrafted by Melissa Megan, 2000. If you copy from this leaflet, please acknowledge the source. Thanks.