When talking, most of the time we just use basic questions and answers.
For us, learners, it’s difficult to ask and answer questions in real time because we are not used to do it.
How many times a tourist in the street asked you a very basic question in English and even though you could help him/her you feel blocked and didn’t know how to answer?
This is because you are not used to ask and answer questions in English.
What Do You Have To Do To Improve Your English Speaking Level
To overcome this situation you just have to work English questions and answers until you feel at ease and confident.
It’s Just like someone that wants to learn how to ride a bicycle.
You just have to ride and ride until you finally learn how to do it well.
It doesn’t matter if when you start riding the bicycle you are clumsy or don’t do it perfectly. Practice and practice makes perfect.
What only matter is what you are going to achieve. Don’t worry if you don’t do it perfectly the first times.
To improve your speaking level, the perfect and natural scenario would be to live in an English speaking country. In a total immersion, asking and answering questions all day long in common situations.
If you can’t go to live in an English speaking country, like most of us, you still can do a very easy exercise on a daily basis that is going to help you to improve your speaking level. Moreover you can do this exercise alone or with somebody else.
The Questions And Answers Marathon
What rules do you have to follow when doing this exercise?
What do you have to do?
– Ask and answer questions one after another without stopping.
– Do this exercise by speaking aloud or by writing down the questions and answers.
When do you have to do it?
– Do this exercise every day.
– Keep doing it for 5, 10, 15 or more intense minutes.
How do you have to do it?
– Ask all kind of questions using (What, Where, Why, How, Do, Have, Did, Would….).
– It’s basic to build correct questions and answers.
– Always answer with a sentence and not with a single word.
– It doesn’t matter if what you ask and answer is true, has sense, is accurate…
– It also doesn’t matter if you make some mistakes. Just go ahead.
– Ask and answer about any topic. Change topics as needed.
With whom do you have to do it?
You can do this exercise:
– By yourself (One single learner)
– With a partner (Two learners)
– Within a group (Three or more learners)
If you are more than one you just have to switch roles (Asking / Answering).
A Personal Example Of This Exercise
I’m going to show you an example of this exercise.
During more than 5 minutes I have been asking myself and answering back to myself a lot of questions.
As you are going to see some questions and answers are true some others are untrue. It doesn’t matter what you are talking about.
You only have to build correct questions and answers.
I wrote down my questions and answers…
-Who are you?
I’m George.
-Where are you from?
I’m from Spain.
-Where are you currently living?
I’m currently living in France.
-Do you like France?
Yes, I do.
-Since when are you in France?
I’ve been living in France since 2010.
-How old are you?
I’m 30 years old.
-What do you like to eat?
I like very much pizza.
-Do you eat pizza very often?
Yes I do.
-How often?
I eat one or two pizzas per week.
-And do you like hamburgers?
Yes I do like hamburgers.
-How many hamburgers do you eat per week?
I eat 1 hamburger per week at most.
-What are you hobbies?
I have many hobbies. I like to play the guitar.
-Do you play the guitar?
Yes I do.
-Do you own a guitar?
Yes I own more than one guitar.
-How many guitars do you have?
I have 3 different guitars.
-And do you play the piano too?
No I don’t.
-What kind of music do you like?
I like pop rock music.
-Do you like heavy music?
No I don’t.
-What is your favorite band or artist?
My favorite artist is Sting.
-Do you like Sting very much?
Yes I do like sting very much.
-What is your favorite song by Sting?
My favorite song is “Tea in the Sahara” among many others.
-Do you like TV shows?
Yes I do.
-What TV show do you like?
I like “Lost”, “The big bang theory” and “The IT crowd” among many others.
-Do you like a TV show called “24 hours”?
I don’t know because I have never watched this show.
-What is your favorite color?
My favorite color is yellow.
-Why is yellow your favorite color?
I don’t know. I just like yellow.
-Do you smoke?
No I don’t.
-Why you don’t smoke?
I don’t smoke because it’s bad for my health.
-Do you like sports?
Yes I do.
-What sports do you like to play?
I like to play football. I also like to skate among many other sports.
-Do you like basketball?
Yes I do.
-Do you like boxing?
No I don’t. I think it’s too aggressive.
-Are you married?
No I’m not.
-Are you going to marry in the future?
I’m not sure but we never know.
-Do you like to cook?
Yes I do but I don’t know to cook very much.
-What do you usually cook?
I only cook very basic dishes.
-Why do you only cook basic dishes?
I only cook easy recipes because I don’t have time to practice.
-Why you don’t have time?
I don’t have time because of my job, my family chores…
-Do you like to dance?
No I don’t.
-Why you don’t like to dance?
I don’t like to dance because I don’t dance very well.
-Who do you admire?
I admire hard working people.
-Why do you admire hard working people?
I admire hard working people because it’s not easy to keep working hard day after day.
-What you don’t really like?
I don’t like at all bullfight.
-Why you don’t like bullfight?
I don’t like it because they harm animals.
-What kind of animals they harm?
They harm innocent bulls.
-Do you like bulls?
No I don’t. I’m scary of bulls.
-Have you ever seen a bull in the middle of a field?
No thanks God, I haven’t!!!
-Are you really scared of bulls?
Yes I’m scared of bulls because they are dangerous animals when they are in the wild.
-When is your birthday?
My birthday is in March.
-What is your favorite language?
English is my favorite language.
-Why do you like English?
I like English very much because of how it sounds.
-Do you like the Chinese Language?
No I don’t.
-Why you don’t like Chinese?
I don’t like Chinese because it’s a very difficult language.
-Have you ever been to China?
No I haven’t.
-Would you like to travel to china in the future?
Yes, I would like very much.
-Have you ever been to the US?
Yes, I have.
-Did you like it?
Yes, I like the US very much.
-Do you own a pet?
No, I don’t.
-Don’t you like pets?
Yes I do but I don’t like to have them indoors.
-Why you don’t like pets to live with you at home?
Because I think that they have to be free in the nature or in a big garden at least.
-Do you want to answer more questions?
No, thank you. I’m done.
I decided to stop here but you can keep going, asking and answering questions, as long as you want.
And Remember…
-What do you think about this exercise?
-Are you going to use it?
-All your comments are very welcome.
The post How to improve your English speaking level with an easy exercise appeared first on Learn English Like Me|The best strategies to improve your English.
