Effortless English: Learn To Speak English Like a native

Error Correction Is Useless Anyway
A meta research study at the University of Southern California found that error
correction has no impact at all on spoken English. In other words, students whose
verbal errors were corrected showed no improvement, and were similar to students
who were not corrected. The conclusion: verbal error correction is useless.
In fact, it’s worse than useless. Error correction harms you by forcing you to
constantly think about grammar. Instead of focusing on communicating your ideas,
you increasingly focus on just the language itself. Doing so usually leads to more
anxiety, which we know slows your learning and harms your performance. This is
why you must never ask a teacher or friend to correct your spoken English. It is a
waste of their time and yours. Error correction will also poison your relationship
with English speakers and drive them away, just as Seo annoyed the teachers at the
school in Korea.
This truth is a difficult one for many learners. Yet the research is clear. You will
get no benefit from having your spoken errors corrected (note that writing is
different because it is a slow process that can be done consciously and
methodically). So rather than ask for error correction, ask others to avoid
correcting your errors. If you pay a conversation partner, ask them to avoid
correcting your mistakes. If they notice an error, ask them to simply restate the idea
using correct English. By hearing your idea restated correctly, you’ll intuitively
learn to improve without thinking consciously about English.

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Listen During Most Of Your Speaking Time
When thinking of conversations, most learners focus on speech. They worry about
speaking correctly. They worry about remembering vocabulary words. They fear
making mistakes. In my experience, most English learners focus 90% of their
energy on speaking.
Yet, the true power of real life conversations comes from listening, not speaking.
Think about it. When you talk to a native speaker you have a tremendous
opportunity. Because they are a native speaker, they are automatically the best
possible source for authentic spoken English. They will naturally use high-
frequency phrases, idioms, slang and grammar.
If, during a conversation with a native speaker, you spend most of the time
speaking — you have missed a great opportunity. When you speak to a native
speaker, how exactly are you learning? You might get a little practice, but you will
not learn anything new.
On the other hand, as you listen to a native speaker you get a wealth of learning.
You’ll hear true native pronunciation. You’ll learn natural phrases. You’ll learn new
words. You’ll learn idioms and slang. In fact, most of the benefit of having English
conversations happens when you are listening.
This is good news, because most people love to talk. You don’t need to feel
stressed about talking with a native speaker because it’s very easy. All you have to
do is ask them a lot of questions. Ask them about their life. Ask about their job or
school. Ask about their family. Ask about their hobbies and interests. Ask about their
past experiences.
Then listen. Listen carefully. As they speak, look at their eyes and the rest of their
face. Seek to understand as well as possible. If you don’t understand something, ask
more questions for clarification.
When your goal is to listen rather than talk, you’ll learn more English and you
will also be a better friend. Everybody loves a good listener! The added benefit to
you is that you can relax. You don’t need to feel pressured to speak. With a few
simple questions you will have all the conversations you want.