How To Practice Speaking A Language By Yourself

Let's face it: most language learners don't get nearly enough speaking practice. What if you don't have access to native speakers or if you're not ready for a conversation partner yet?

The good news is that you don't need another person to improve your speaking skills. In fact, some of the most effective speaking practice you can do requires nothing more than yourself and a bit of creativity.

Recently, Sebastian, a reader from Colombia, shared how to practice speaking a language by yourself through self-talk and shadowing.

These methods have helped him keep his English sharp even without regular access to native speakers, and they can work just as well for you.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this article:

Quick Summary: How To Practice Speaking A Language By Yourself

Self-talk: Narrate your day and practise specific phrases by talking to yourself in your target language throughout your daily activities.

Shadowing: Read along with audio recordings, speaking simultaneously with native speakers to train your mouth muscles and improve fluency at natural speed.

Why Should You Practice Speaking A Language Alone?

Speaking practice isn't just about having someone to talk to. It's about taking the words you know and the grammar you've studied and combining them into coherent sentences. It's about getting your opinions across using the tools at your disposal.

When you practise speaking by yourself, you actually gain some advantages over conversation practice:

• No interruptions – You can complete your thoughts without being cut off
• No time pressure – You can pause to think about words without awkward silences
• Unlimited practice time – You're not limited by someone else's schedule
• Freedom to experiment – You can try out new phrases without fear of judgment

The key is being mindful about integrating speaking practice into your day and actually doing it consistently.

What Is Self-Talk And How Does It Help You Practise Speaking?

Self-talk is exactly what it sounds like: talking to yourself in your target language. Sounds silly, right?

But here's the thing – there's no real difference between giving your opinion to another person and giving your opinion to the wall. The mental and physical process of forming sentences is identical.

Every single person reading this can start doing self-talk right now. It's simply a question of being mindful that this is what you want to do and actually inserting it into your day.

The Narration Method: Describe What You See

The simplest way to start with self-talk is to narrate your day as it happens. This approach comes from polyglot Richard Simcott, who talks about literally describing what's going on around you:

“Now I'm walking down the street. Now I'm looking at some trees. Now I'm walking into a room. Now I'm turning on the light switch. Oh, isn't the light bright in here.”

This might sound mundane, but it's actually brilliant practice. You're working with everyday vocabulary that has a very strong connection to the kind of things you'll want to say in real life.

If you can narrate your day to yourself as you're going along, you're building an incredibly useful foundation.

How Can You Make Self-Talk More Goal-Focused?

Whilst narrating your surroundings is valuable, you can make your self-talk practice even more effective by linking it to specific goals and daily triggers.

The Trigger Method: Link Practice To Daily Activities

Here's a powerful technique I use: set short-term goals and create triggers that remind you to practise specific phrases throughout your day.

Here's How the Trigger Method Works:

Let's say you're travelling to Italy this summer and you want to be able to order food in a restaurant. You don't need to master all of Italian – you just need to practise the specific phrases for ordering:

• “Can I have the menu please?”
• “I'd like to have this.”
• “My wife will have this.”
• “I would like this for the kids.”
• “Can we sit by the window?”

These phrases can be learnt fairly easily. But here's the clever part: create a trigger that helps you practise them multiple times every day.

Example: The Fridge Trigger

If you want to practise ordering food, set this rule for yourself: every time you open the fridge at home, order something from it in Italian (out loud, to an imaginary waiter).

When you get some tomatoes from the fridge, practise saying, “I'd like some tomatoes please” in Italian. Then make it more complex: “My wife would like some tomatoes please.”

Since you eat multiple times a day, you've now created numerous opportunities to practise the exact phrases you're learning. You've linked your daily activities directly to your language goals.

Your Action Plan: Setting Up Triggers

Exercise: Create Your Own Speaking Practice Triggers

1. Choose a specific goal – What would you really like to be able to do in your target language over the next few weeks? Pick something small:
   • Order food in a restaurant
   • Describe the weather
   • Give directions
   • Introduce yourself at a networking event
2. Identify a daily trigger – What activity do you do multiple times a day that could remind you to practise? Examples:
   • Opening the fridge
   • Brushing your teeth
   • Waiting for the kettle to boil
   • Walking the dog
   • Commuting
3. Link them together – Every time you encounter your trigger, practise saying the phrases related to your goal.

By doing this many times a day, within a week you'll very quickly become confident saying these phrases. You'll upgrade your language skills remarkably quickly.

What Is Shadowing And How Does It Improve Your Speaking?

The second technique Sebastian mentioned is shadowing. This is when you have a transcript in front of you, listen to a recording and practise reading that transcript at the same time as the speaker.

It's quite hard to do actually, because it's happening quite fast. To be honest, it's not something I do much of because I don't particularly enjoy it. However, the times that I have done it, it's been very useful.

Why Does Shadowing Work For Solo Speaking Practice?

Shadowing forces you to do several things simultaneously, which makes it remarkably effective:

1. Trains Your Mouth Muscles

If you're not used to speaking fast, shadowing gives you the experience of what it's like to speak at native speed. This is what I call “glimpses of mastery” – you get to sit in the shoes of the native speaker for a moment and feel what that's like.

2. Forces You to Think Ahead

You can't read and speak at the same time. You have to read ahead of what you say so that when it comes time to say it, you're able to do it. This mirrors the actual process of speaking a language, where you need to think a bit ahead of what you're saying.

3. Builds Speed and Fluency

By keeping pace with a native speaker, you're pushed beyond your comfort zone in terms of speed, which gradually builds your ability to speak fluently without hesitation.

Sebastian mentioned that he particularly likes shadowing podcasts, and given his phenomenal British English accent (hit play on the video at the top of the page to listen), I'd say the technique is clearly working for him.

Whilst I don't know his full background, I imagine his accent is related to the fact that he does substantial self-talk and shadowing practice.

How To Practice Speaking A Language By Yourself FAQ

Your Next Steps: How To Practice Speaking A Language By Yourself

Self-talk and shadowing aren't for everybody, but they might be exactly what you need if you're looking for ways to integrate more speaking practice into your day-to-day life.

The beauty of both techniques is that they're completely free, require no special equipment beyond audio recordings for shadowing, and can be done whenever and wherever suits you.

Start This Week:

• For self-talk: Choose one trigger from your daily routine and one specific phrase or conversation type to practise. Commit to doing it every day for one week.
• For shadowing: Find a podcast episode or audio lesson with a transcript in your target language. Spend just 10 minutes shadowing it, and notice how it feels to speak at native speed.

Remember, speaking practice doesn't require another person. It requires intention, creativity and consistency. You have everything you need to start improving your speaking skills right now.

What will your first speaking practice trigger be?

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.