7 Ways to Overcome Your Fear of Speaking a Foreign Language

Xenoglossophobia (also known as foreign language anxiety) is “the feeling of unease, worry and apprehension experienced in learning or using a foreign language.”  

The main reason people decide to learn another language is to speak to native speakers in the target language. Most people spend a long time learning a language through apps, podcasts, books, online grammar exercises, flashcards amongst others to reach a good level, however, once they come to actually start speaking to someone in the language, they can feel an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety. Some people find they freeze and cannot utter a word.

If this sounds familiar then do not worry, it is completely normal to feel like this. Learning to speak in a whole new language is a huge challenge for most people but something definitely worth doing.

In this blog post we will give you tips to overcome this fear of speaking in a foreign language so that you can speak freely and without fear next time you come to speak to a native speaker.

1. Identify the reason why you are scared

The first thing to do is to work out what exactly you are scared of. Common reasons that people are fearful include:

• Fear of someone not understanding you.
• Fear of being laughed at.
• Fear of making an embarrassing mistake.
• Fear of bad pronunciation/poor accent.
• Fear of saying something to offend a native speaker.

Once you identify the true reason you feel scared, you can then start to tackle this fear.

2. Trust native speakers

Try to see native speakers as friends and not enemies. Most people appreciate anyone who makes an effort to speak to them in their mother tongue. They do not mind if you make mistakes as nine times out of ten, they still know what you are trying to say anyway. They also like helping learners and teaching you to speak their language.

3. Embrace mistakes

Do not worry about making mistakes. Once you make one mistake you learn from it and are unlikely to make the same mistake again. As mentioned in the previous point, native speakers are very forgiving. They are never going to laugh at someone who is trying to learn their language. Some mistakes are funny, and you will look back and laugh at these even years later.

4. Improve listening skills

Remember that half of a conversation is listening to what the other person has to say so a great way to boost your conversational skills is to improve your ability to listen to native speakers. This can easily be done by downloading podcasts, listening to foreign radio stations, Youtube videos, TV series and films on Netflix. If you stick at this regularly you will gradually notice that you can understand more of what is being said and you also get used to the speed at which they speak. If Spanish is your target language then you may like this blog post, “How to improve your Spanish listening skills”.

5. Learn filler words and phrases to buy time

One good way to slow conversations down a little and to speak at your own pace is to learn some key filler words and phrases that you can easily throw into a conversation to give yourself a few extra seconds to formulate what you want to say next. Try to learn the phrases for words like, “well”, “let’s see”, “you know”, “I would say that…”, “good question!”, “that’s a good point” and similar ones. If you are learning Spanish you may like to read a previous blog post, “Filler words in Spanish (muletillas)”.

6. Practice talking to yourself when alone

If you have never really spoken to a native speaker before and it is all completely new to you, when you come to do it, it can feel like a huge struggle. The best way to combat this is to practice speaking in the language to yourself when you are on your own. By doing this you will get used to hearing yourself speaking in the foreign language so that it isn’t that new to you once you are in a conversation. Try to practice conversations you may have in a variety of situations you might find yourself in; at the hotel, ordering food and drinks, in the taxi, out shopping, buying travel tickets, striking up a conversation with someone in a bar or meeting a colleague/supplier.

7. Improve your accent

One of the best ways to make your conversations more successful is to try to sound like someone who is fluent in the language. To do this you have to do lots of listening and copying of native speakers. You could listen to a Youtube video of a native speaker, then pause it and repeat what they have just said. Then rewind and listen again to check you sound exactly like they did. Try to copy the ways they move their mouth and tongue to make the different sounds typical of their language. You could also make recordings of yourself and either play them back to yourself or send them to a native speaker if you know one to see what they think of your accent. You may be interested in reading our blog post “5 tips to improve your Spanish pronunciation”. These tips can be applied to any language.

To conclude, remember that it is totally natural to feel anxious speaking the foreign language you are learning but with a little practice and by keeping these tips in mind, you can easily become confident when talking to native speakers.

If you would like to find out more about our conversational Spanish lessons or other languages, feel free to contact us today.