Hey there! This is TOP 356. 3 Reasons Why You Know So Much English but Still Can’t Speak It
**You read English. You understand English. You’ve been learning for years, but when it’s time to speak your mind just freezes, and the words don’t come out. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. My name’s Ola, and this is Teacher Ola Podcast. I’m here to help you finally speak out loud. This isn’t about perfect grammar or fancy vocabulary. This is about your voice. Your words. Your real English.
You know what you want to say, but you can’t find the words. You start thinking about grammar. You translate sentences in your head. And you get confused and lose your confidence.
And afterwards, when the conversation is over, all the words suddenly come back to you. You think, “Oh, I could have said this! I could have used that expression! Why didn’t I say it?”
If this sounds familiar, I want you to know something: you’re not alone. And more importantly, this doesn’t necessarily mean your English is bad.
And actually, this is something I want to help you with. That’s why I want to remind you about two things that might be useful for you right now.
First of all, if you haven’t watched my Reset webinar yet, there’s still time, but not much! The replay is available only until the 20th of October. In this webinar, I explain how to memorise vocabulary so that you can actually remember and use those words when you’re speaking, rather than learning them today and struggling to remember them tomorrow.
And because we’re talking about exactly this problem today, I really encourage you to watch it. You can find the replay at TeacherOla.com/Reset. Just make sure you watch it before the 20th of October, while it’s still available.
And there’s one more thing I want to tell you about. The doors to my SIOL course are closing very soon, because we start the whole programme on the 20th of October.
If you’re thinking about joining but you’re not sure whether the course is right for you, whether the level is suitable, or whether it’s what you need at this stage of your English journey, don’t worry. You don’t have to guess. Just go to TeacherOla.com/test and take the test to check whether the course is a good fit for you.
Now, let’s get back to today’s topic, because I think it’s closely connected to both of these things.
**I think there’s a problem with the way many people approach learning English. We spend so much time learning the language that we forget to practise actually using it.
And these are two different things.
Knowing English and being able to speak English are not the same skill. Vocabulary and grammar are important, of course. I’m not saying you don’t need them. You absolutely do.
But knowing a language doesn’t automatically mean you can use it comfortably in a real conversation.
So today, I want to talk about three reasons why your English might not work the way you want it to when you start speaking. And I also want to explain what you can do about it.
**Number one. You know the phrases, but you haven’t practised the skills
Let’s start with something we call language functions.
Language functions are simply the things we do with language. We ask for advice. We give advice. We agree and disagree. We ask for information. We express our opinions. We interrupt politely. We ask follow-up questions. We explain what we mean when somebody doesn’t understand us.
Think about how often you do these things in your first language. You probably do them every day without even noticing.
And I’m sure you know quite a lot of English phrases that help you do the same things.
You know how to say, “In my opinion…” You know how to disagree politely. You’ve learned expressions like “Have you thought about…?” or “I’m not sure I agree with you.”
But knowing these phrases is one thing. Using them in a real conversation is something else.
Imagine you’re having a conversation with a colleague. They express an opinion you strongly disagree with. You know exactly how to disagree in English. You’ve studied the expressions. You’ve probably even completed exercises in which you had to choose the correct phrase.
But now you’re sitting across from a real person. Maybe they’re more confident than you. Maybe they’re speaking quickly. Maybe you’re worried about sounding rude or of course making a mistake.
And suddenly, disagreeing feels much harder.
So what do you do? You smile, nod your head, and say, “Yes, exactly.”
Even though you don’t agree at all.
And the problem isn’t your vocabulary. You might know all the words you need. The problem is that you haven’t practised the skill of disagreeing with another person in English.
You need to learn how to express your opinions, ask people to explain what they mean, respond to unexpected questions, and keep a conversation going when you don’t know what to say next.
And sometimes, these things are emotionally difficult, even in our first language.
Think about asking somebody for help, saying no to a request, or telling someone that you don’t like their idea. These situations are uncomfortable. And when you have to do them in a foreign language, the challenge becomes even greater.
This is why I believe that practising language functions is so important.
Don’t just learn five phrases for giving advice. Practise giving advice to a real person.
Don’t just memorise expressions for disagreeing. Discuss a topic and try to disagree politely.
Don’t just learn questions you can ask in a conversation. Practise listening to somebody’s answer and asking a follow-up question.
And here’s something else: don’t always prepare what you’re going to say in advance.
Of course, preparation is useful. But if you always know the questions, the answers, and the vocabulary you’re going to use, you’re not really training yourself to deal with a real conversation.
You’re training yourself to perform a prepared task.
The goal is to become comfortable using English to do the things you already do in your everyday life.
Because knowing how to say something and being able to say it when the situation calls for it are two very different things.
Number 2. You haven’t automated your English
Now, let’s talk about another reason why speaking can feel so difficult: automation.
Think about everything you have to do when you speak English.
First, you need to decide what you want to say. You have an idea, an opinion, or a story you want to share.
Then you need to find the words to express that idea. You need to put those words in the right order, choose the appropriate grammar, and pronounce everything clearly enough for the other person to understand you.
But that’s not all.
At the same time, you need to listen to the other person. You need to understand their message, notice their reactions, and decide how to respond. You might need to change your explanation because they look confused. You might need to stop speaking because they want to say something. You might want to ask a question because something they’ve said interests you.
And all of this happens while the conversation is moving forward.
It’s a lot of things to manage at the same time.
So imagine trying to do all of this while consciously thinking about every grammatical decision you make.
“Right, I need the past tense here. Is it the present perfect or the past simple? What’s the correct preposition? How do I pronounce this word? Wait, what did they just say?”
By the time you’ve answered all these questions in your head, the conversation has already moved on.
And this is where automation comes in.
Automation means that, through practice, you become able to use parts of the language quickly and with less conscious effort.
Think about driving a car. When you first learn to drive, every action requires attention. You think about changing gears, checking your mirrors, using the pedals, and watching the road. It can feel overwhelming.
But with practice, many of these actions become more automatic. You don’t have to think about every single movement in the same way.
Speaking a language is not exactly the same as driving, of course, but there’s a useful similarity here.
When you’re learning English, you might have to think carefully about how to build a sentence. But with enough meaningful practice, some words, phrases, and grammatical patterns become easier to produce.
You no longer need to build every sentence from the beginning.
For example, if somebody asks, “What do you think about it?”, you don’t want to spend ten seconds translating the question and constructing a response. You want to be able to say something like, “Well, I think it depends on the situation,” almost automatically.
And the same applies to asking questions, explaining your opinion, telling stories, and responding to people.
You need to practise until using these common patterns requires less effort.
This doesn’t mean you should stop caring about grammar. Grammar matters. Accuracy matters. But if you have to consciously check every grammatical rule while speaking, you leave yourself with less attention for everything else happening in the room.
And this is why doing grammar exercises, although useful, isn’t enough on its own.
You might know a grammatical rule perfectly well when you have time to think about it. But using that rule correctly and quickly while somebody is waiting for your answer is a different challenge.
So how do you develop automation?
You practise speaking. Regularly.
You repeat useful phrases. You tell the same story more than once. You answer similar questions.
And remember, this takes time. You can’t expect something to become automatic just because you’ve understood it once or twice.
But the more you use English to communicate, the more opportunities you give yourself to develop this skill.
3. Real people are unpredictable
And now we come to my third point, which I think is particularly important.
When you’re learning English on your own, you can control quite a lot.
You can choose the video you watch. You can pause it when you don’t understand something. You can look up a word. You can repeat a sentence until you get it right.
When you practise speaking to yourself, you also have a lot of control. You know what you want to talk about. You can prepare your ideas, choose your vocabulary, and start again whenever you want.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing these things. Listening, reading, and practising on your own are valuable parts of learning a language.
But there’s one thing you cannot fully recreate on your own.
Another human being.
Because people are unpredictable.
You might prepare a brilliant answer to a question, only to discover that the other person is interested in something completely different.
You might start telling a story, and somebody interrupts you with a question you didn’t expect.
You might use a word you think is perfectly clear, but the other person doesn’t understand it.
Or perhaps somebody makes a joke, changes the subject, disagrees with you, or asks you to explain something you haven’t thought about before.
And suddenly, you’re no longer simply producing English. You’re responding to another person in real time.
This is a different kind of challenge.
Imagine you’ve prepared to talk about your last holiday. You’ve learned all the vocabulary you need. You can describe the hotel, the weather, the food, and the places you visited.
You’re ready.
But then somebody asks, “Would you go back there if you had the chance to live there permanently?”
That’s a different question, isn’t it?
Now you need to think about your answer, perhaps consider something you haven’t considered before, and explain your opinion. You might even change your mind while speaking.
And you have to do all of this in English.
This is what real communication looks like. It’s not simply a test of how much vocabulary you know. It’s an opportunity to use that vocabulary to respond to something new.
You learn to deal with moments when communication doesn’t go exactly as planned.
And these moments are not signs that you’re failing. They are part of the learning process.
Maybe you don’t understand a question. So you ask, “Sorry, could you explain what you mean?”
Maybe you can’t remember a word. So you describe the thing instead.
Maybe the other person disagrees with you. So you explain your reasoning or ask them why they see things differently.
These are all communication skills.
And the more you practise them, the better prepared you become for the next unexpected situation.
This is also why I don’t think you should wait any longer for your speaking training. Not because you’re ready for everything, but because dealing with things you’re not ready for is part of learning how to communicate.
And that’s okay.
Time to practice! Listen and say the sentences out loud:
Knowing English and being able to speak English are not the same skill.
Knowing these phrases is one thing.
The problem isn’t your vocabulary.
You need to learn how to express your opinions.
The goal is to become comfortable using English.
You no longer need to build every sentence from the beginning.
You practise speaking.
People are unpredictable.
And these moments are not signs that you’re failing.
You just need to keep finding ways to express yourself .
That’s it. Three reasons why speaking is such an important part of learning English: you need to practise the skills, automate your English, and learn to deal with real people and all their unpredictability.
And you don’t have to be ready for everything. You just have to start practising.
Now, don’t forget to download the worksheet and put what you’ve learned into practice.
And if you’re thinking about joining Say It Out Loud, now is the time. Enrolment closes on the 20th of October, and this is the last edition of the course this year. If you’d like to find out if it’s the right fit for you, head over to teacherola.com/test.
And if you haven’t watched my RESET webinar yet, don’t leave it too late! The replay is only available until the 20th of October, so make sure you catch it at teacherola.com/reset before it’s gone.
Thank you so much for listening to episode 356. Please rate and review the podcast, subscribe if you haven’t already, and above all: stay fearless, take care, and say it out loud.
I love you, I believe in you, and I know you’re ready to speak English.
I’m your teacher, Teacher Ola. Bye for now!