Fluency Training

What is fluency and how can you achieve fluency in your speech?

Fluency is the ability to communicate your thoughts and feelings and to say what you want to say without fear and hesitation. The foundation of fluency is the urge to express yourself adequately in various circumstances; such as social, academic, or work place settings.

Now, you can start working to find ways to enhance your speech ability by using the technique of reading aloud. There are steps you need to follow:
1. phrasing - words go together in groups - identifying thought/ intonation groups
2.pausing – with rhythm and phrasing – pauses should be left between thought groups
3.linking - joining sounds into words and words into phrases and sentences

Understanding the rhythm of English speech is important for learners. You will realise that any long segments of connected speech are made up of certain patterns, known as tone units. To speak effectively and comprehensively, we need to divide our speech into tone units for each thought group.
The tone unit is a part of the sentence in which there is a significant pitch pattern. Within it there will be some prominent/ stressed syllables. Stress is one the main tools in English to convey word and sentence meaning. It is important for you to control the stress system if you want to be able to speak English clearly.