5 Steps to better speaking

25 Oct

(Article updated in April 2025. Reading time: 5 minutes.)

Today I’m sharing with you my greatest tool from my “speaking kit”, which might change the way you practice. Before consistently using this in my speaking classes with my students, I’ve practiced this way too, while learning languages.

So, what’s my greatest tool? Voice recordings!

You basically record yourself speaking on your phone (look for the “Voice recorder” or “Voice memos” app), or on your computer.

Here’s what I found:

Recordings can make an amazing speaking practice. However, at the beginning, recording yourself might feel strange, even intimidating.

Here’s what one of my students, Teresa, said:

The recordings helped me formulate thoughts and concepts, not just words in Greek. I was very nervous ahead of the first one. I wanted to write everything down first and then just read it, but knew that wasn’t the point. So I refrained. As I made the recordings I was able to rely on fewer and fewer notes. By the third recording I just had a few key words as a crutch. But I would do that anyway if I was going to record a little talk in English just to remember what I want to say. Finally, knowing it was ok to pause and make mistakes allowed me to keep talking. I was proud to listen back to myself and say, “Hey, I was just able to speak Greek for three whole minutes!” Μπράβο μου!

I’m very thankful to Teresa about sharing all the details from the process she followed with recordings!

Let me also share with you a few things I’ve learned along the way, both as a learner and a teacher. They’ll help you stay focused and keep this speaking practice simple and doable.

#1 Consistency

As with all learning, consistency is key. Recordings are no exception and you need to use them a few times to include them in your way of studying.

You’ll find that it gets easier as you go and that at the end of the month or the trimester you have a solid amount of recordings, a proof of your progress and learning.

No need for a rigid schedule here. Just remember to record yourself a few times to get used to it and then it will organically become part of your learning.

#2 Self-confidence

With monitoring in mind, voice recordings can boost your self-confidence, once you stick to them.

Make a folder on your phone or desktop and store your recordings the same way you store your exercises or vocabulary lists.

Then, go back to your very first recordings and notice your progress. It’s gratifying and helps enormously with staying motivated, too.

#3 Focus

You might be asking: What should I talk about?

Well, think of this: What do you want to talk about? How can you find the right vocabulary around that topic? Is there a question you‘d like to answer or even a topic for discussion you’d like to analyze a bit?

In the Chats/Κουβέντες program, students practice with a speaking prompt weekly. The prompt can be anything: about daily life, celebrations and traditions, holidays, traveling, activities, opinions, advice, agreement/disagreement and more! (Check out the 6-month pass, here, and join us for extra speaking practice!).

Choosing one topic and maybe making a short list of questions help you stay focused, make more efficient connections between the new or revised words & their meaning and reduce the overwhelm of trying to include everything at once.

#4 Realistic expectations

It’s easy to get excited and say “Oh, recordings! Great idea. Yes, I’ll do this!” and then imagine yourself talking and talking - only to find out later that you can barely speak on the voice recorder for one minute.

One minute is surprisingly a lot, by the way. Instagram videos, for example, are one minute long, yet they fit in so much information.

Start with small steps:

Talk about one specific topic or question and aim to use a certain number of new words or expressions.

#5 Move past your perfectionism

Now, I’m one of those people who usually get anxious behind the mic or the camera. It’s just what happens, even when no one’s listening. But to improve, I’ve learned to push through, and complete the activities that perhaps made me cringe a bit (at the sound of my voice, or the sound of my mistakes).

Recordings are meant to help you speak. Don’t spend your time looking for the most advanced vocabulary and complex phrases. A good rule of thumb is using 95% of what you know and 5% of new words you found in your dictionary.

As well, don’t read from your notes! This is a speaking, not a reading activity :-)

To recap, remember to:

Be consistent with this new activity
Monitor your progress and gain some precious self-confidence along the way
Focus on just one thing
Be realistic about your expectations
Move past your perfectionism

Let me know how it went!

And if you ‘re ready to focus on your speaking skills, here are 2 programs that help you do exactly that:

Check out my $9/mo speaking membership, with 100+ video lessons & quizzes on words, phrases and grammar points to help you sound more natural!
Check out the Speaking class for Advanced students who want to improve their speaking skills in an interesting & friendly class.

Happy Greek speaking,

~ Danae ☀️