Beating Speaking Anxiety: 7. I’m scared I’m not getting better

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You're listening to the Learning English Conversations podcast

from BBC Learning English.

We'll have another episode of the English We Speak soon.

But today, we're continuing with our special series,

Beating Speaking Anxiety, a podcast to help you fight your fears

of speaking in English.

This episode is cold, I'm scared I'm not getting better.

Do you feel like your English speaking isn't getting better?

These days, I feel less confidence about my English.

I can see my bad point.

On the surface, these are people who seem to be able to get past their anxiety in some way.

But internally, they're suffering.

It takes a long time to learn a language completely,

so we should celebrate the little milestones that we achieve along the way.

Today, we're going to talk about what to do when you feel like you aren't improving when

speaking English.

Hello and welcome to Beating Speaking Anxiety, our special series to help you become

more confident speaking English.

I'm Georgie, an English teacher and presenter at BBC Learning English.

And I am Hanan from BBC Arabic.

You can find the transcript of this episode to help you learn on our website,

BBCLearningEnglish.com.

Many people feel like no matter how much they study, they can't improve their speaking.

Hanan, I think you mentioned that when you first moved to the UK,

you had a high level of English, but you still found it hard to have conversations.

Yes, that's very true, Georgie, especially that your classroom language is very different

from the day-to-day language.

Yeah, when I was learning Spanish, I spent so much time reading,

practicing my listening, but when it came to speaking, I just found it so much harder,

because it's so in the moment, it was much harder to improve.

And this is a common experience.

So on the surface, these are people who seem to be able to get past their anxiety in some

in some way, they seem to be able to, you know, get the promotions, do really well at work.

But internally, they're suffering a lot of the time, feeling a lot of discomfort.

This is Rianan Carter. She's an English teacher and speaking coach who works with high level,

high anxiety learners. That means people who are really good at English, but really worried about

using it. As Rianan says, these are people who might seem to be doing well, but inside,

they feel like that anxiety is holding them back. They might have reached what they

would consider to be like a wall in terms of, you know, I couldn't go for a job with that level

of responsibility because my English just isn't up to it. Or, you know, my manager tells me I'm

doing fine, but I feel so insecure every time I'm contributing in meetings. I feel like I'm not

doing my best. Rianan finds that when people reach this wall, the best thing they can do is stop

trying to improve their English at all. And this might sound strange. How can you improve your

English without learning more English? But Rianan says that putting too much pressure on your

English skills can actually make speaking anxiety worse, especially if you're a bit of a perfectionist.

If you are taking lots of action, and if it feels like my god, I've been in course after course,

after course, and I sign up for more, and I follow more people on social media, and I'm listening

to podcasts like this one, and I'm doing everything. Well, then maybe you stop doing it,

and maybe you say, I need to take a break from focusing primarily on English. Maybe there's

something else I really enjoy. Rianan recommends trying things that you're interested in,

and that allow you to practice English, but without the focus being on English. For example,

she had a student who wanted to study for a master's in botany. That's the study of plants.

And she was saying, you know, oh Rianan, should I take the IELTS exam? Should I take the Cambridge

exam? And I'm like, you know what you should take? An evening class in botany.

A couple of hundred quid about equivalent of what you would be spending on English preparation.

And you're going to be around people who are interested in the same topic as you.

You're going to be naturally using the kind of vocabulary that you're going to need for your

master's later. Go try that. And if there are still gaps, or if you realize that you don't

meet the entry requirements, okay, fine, we come back and we do something more language related.

But try something else.

I like this tip, because the focus of what you're doing is on something you like and enjoy,

and it might make you feel relaxed. And then there's less focus on the language you're using.

It also makes the language feel more real, because you're using it for a real purpose. And that's

motivating. Rianan's advice sounds really great for higher-level learners. But Georgie,

what about people who feel like their English level is holding them back?

Yes, learning a language is a long journey and it can sometimes feel like you're stuck at

intermediate level. If that's you, the best thing you can do is recognise and celebrate the

progress you've already made. Let's hear from Barnaby Griffiths, a speaking coach who has been

offering us advice throughout this series. Language learning is a very, well, it's a never-ending

process, isn't it? And we know that it goes on and on and on. So we need to be very clear that we

are progressing by noticing that we've improved week and week, month and month and celebrating

that and feeling good about ourselves and saying, I'm better than I was a month ago.

So how can learners make sure they're celebrating their progress, Georgie?

Yes, so one method is you could keep a diary, write down things you've achieved,

things you found difficult, another idea you can set small goals for yourself,

and it can help to send a message or email to yourself to remind you to do them.

And Barnaby suggests using video to recognise how far you've come.

A way of doing this is by recording yourself. If you record yourself a few times a week or

once a week and you compare gradually how you're improving, you should celebrate that progress

because it might not be a huge difference, but I always compare to learning a musical instrument.

These things, it takes a long time to learn a musical instrument competently. It takes a long time

to learn a language competently. So we should celebrate the little milestones that we achieve along

the way.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Beating Speaking Anxiety. To learn more about

speaking anxiety, head to our website where I've made videos for each of the speaking

fears we talk about in this series. You'll hear more advice and see some tips in action with

real learners. Use the link in the notes for this episode or visit BBCLearningEnglish.com.

Next time we'll be talking about how to express your personality in English. In our final episode

of the series. Join us then. Bye!

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