Speak English

Speak English is a course in eight stages, following the Common European Framework from A1 to C2: Foundations, Everyday English, Pronunciation, Conversation, Fluency, Professional, Negotiation and Mastery. Every stage is open, so you can start where the two-minute placement check suggests, or wherever you like.

Each lesson has three parts. Learn: a short explanation with examples, and the lines worth having ready, every one of them a tap away from being heard in a model voice, at normal speed or slowly, in a British, American, Indian or Australian accent where your device has one. Practise: exercises that explain every answer, right or wrong, and bring back what you missed at the end. Speak: a speaking task with a checklist, a clock and a recorder, so you hear yourself as others hear you, or a video, so you see yourself as others see you.

Body language is taught as well as words: what eye contact, a handshake, open palms, crossed arms or a hand at the face tend to say to an English-speaking listener, drawn as gestures beside the explanation, and practised on camera. Watch a take once with the sound off, and your hands, face and posture tell the story on their own.

A lesson is passed at four answers in five, with a star for 90% and three for every answer right. Every exercise you miss joins your review list until you have got it right twice. Progress is kept on your device, and signing in with Google takes it to every device you use.

Foundations (A1): Your first conversations: who you are, what you do, numbers, questions and the sounds of English.

Hello and introductions: Greet anyone, say who you are and ask how they are.
I am, you are: the verb to be: Describe yourself and others with am, is and are.
Numbers, dates and the time: Say prices, dates, phone numbers and the time clearly.
Daily routines: the present simple: Talk about what you do every day, and what other people do.
Asking questions: Ask who, what, where, when, why and how, in the right order.
A, an, the and plurals: Choose the right article and say plurals the way they sound.
Vowel sounds: ship or sheep: Hear and make the short and long vowels that change a word.

Everyday English (A2): Shops, cafés, directions, calls, the past, your plans, and the gestures that go with them.

Yesterday: the past simple: Say what happened, with regular and irregular verbs.
Right now: the present continuous: Say what is happening now, and choose between the two presents.
Plans and predictions: Talk about the future with going to, will and the present continuous.
In, on and at: Place things in time and space with the right little word.
Shops, cafés and polite requests: Order and ask for things, with some, any, much and many.
Directions and getting around: Ask the way, give directions and use transport.
Phone and video calls: Start, hold and end a call, take a message and spell a name.
Gestures, eye contact and space: Greet, listen and gesture the way English speakers expect.

Pronunciation (every level): Sounds, stress, rhythm, linking and intonation: be understood the first time, by anybody.

Th, v and w: Make both th sounds, and keep v and w apart.
R and l, endings and clusters: Finish every word and say clusters of consonants cleanly.
Word stress: Stress the right syllable, so a word is recognised at once.
Sentence stress and rhythm: Stress the words that matter and let the others go light.
Connected speech: Link words the way natives do, and follow them when they do.
Intonation: Use the music of your voice to ask, tell, list and be polite.
Articulation, pace and pausing: Speak clearly at a comfortable pace, with pauses that help.

Conversation (B1): Keep a conversation going: experiences, stories, advice, opinions and small talk.

Experiences and news: Talk about your life, recent news and how long, with the present perfect.
Telling a story: Tell a story in order, with the scene, the events and the ending.
Can, should, must and might: Give advice and talk about rules, ability and possibility.
If: real and imaginary: Talk about real possibilities and imaginary situations.
Small talk that flows: Start a conversation, keep it going and end it well.
Opinions, agreeing and disagreeing: Say what you think, and disagree without giving offence.
Everyday phrasal verbs: Understand and use the phrasal verbs natives use all day.

Fluency (B2): Sound natural: collocations, idioms, linking ideas, thinking out loud and fast native speech.

Collocations: words that go together: Put words together as natives do: make a decision, heavy traffic.
Linking ideas: Connect ideas smoothly, with linkers and spoken markers.
The passive and reported speech: Report what people said, and focus on what was done.
Idioms people really use: Understand and use the idioms you will hear at work and with friends.
Thinking time and paraphrasing: Keep talking while you think, and explain a word you have forgotten.
Regrets and speculation: Talk about the past that did not happen: should have, would have, must have.
Understanding fast speech: Follow natives at full speed, and ask for clarity without losing face.

Professional (C1): Meetings, presentations, body language, persuasion, feedback and interviews: speak with authority at work.

Register: formal, neutral, casual: Match your words to the person and the moment, and soften a request.
Meetings: Open, contribute, interrupt politely, steer and close a meeting.
Presentations: Structure a talk, signpost it and handle the questions.
Body language when you speak: Stand, gesture and look so your body says what your words say.
Persuasion: Build a case with reasons, benefits and stories people remember.
Feedback and difficult conversations: Give and take feedback, say no and apologise well.
Interviews: Answer the classic questions with clear, true stories.
Thinking on your feet: Answer anything with a clear structure and no time to prepare.

Negotiation (C1): Prepare, open, listen, read the room, trade, hold firm and close: negotiate with anybody, in English.

Preparing to negotiate: Know your interests, your alternative and your walk-away point.
Opening and anchoring: Build rapport, set the agenda and make or meet the first offer.
Questions, listening and labels: Find out what the other side really needs.
Reading the room: Notice what bodies say at the table, and keep your own calm.
Trading concessions: Trade instead of giving: if you…, then we…
Objections and pressure: Stay calm and courteous when the pressure is on.
Saying no, keeping the relationship: Refuse firmly and warmly, and offer another way.
Closing the deal: Summarise, confirm and agree the next steps in writing.

Mastery (C2): Nuance, emphasis, humour, rhetoric and debate, then one negotiation from start to finish.

Nuance and understatement: Say exactly how much you mean, and hear what others really mean.
Emphasis and fronting: Put the spotlight on what matters with clefts and inversion.
Humour, irony and culture: Get the joke, use light humour, and know British from American.
Rhetoric: Use contrast, threes, questions and pauses like great speakers.
Debate and conceding: Concede a point, counter it and argue fairly.
Capstone: a negotiation, start to finish: Prepare, open, bargain and close a real deal in English.

What the course covers

Grammar that matters in speech: the tenses, questions, modal verbs, conditionals, the passive and reported speech
Pronunciation and articulation: the th, v and w sounds, r and l, word and sentence stress, connected speech, intonation, pace and pausing
Conversation: small talk, telling stories, giving opinions and disagreeing politely, phrasal verbs, collocations and idioms
Body language: eye contact, greetings and personal space, gestures that match your words, posture on stage and on camera, and reading the room in a negotiation
Work: register and politeness, meetings, presentations, persuasion, feedback, interviews and answering on your feet
Negotiation: interests and your best alternative, anchoring, calibrated questions and labels, reading the room, trading concessions, pressure tactics, saying no and closing
Mastery: nuance and understatement, emphasis, humour, rhetoric and debate, and a negotiation from start to finish

How to get fluent with it

Twenty minutes a day, out loud, beats two hours once a week
Say every example aloud, and record yourself: your ear improves before your mouth does
Shadow real English: play a sentence, pause, and repeat it with the same rhythm
Use one new line with a real person the same day. Speaking with people is the part no app can do for you

Speaking and listening on your device

The model voice is your browser’s own, on your device
Where the browser can recognise speech, your speaking exercises are checked word by word. In some browsers, Chrome among them, the browser maker’s service does the recognising; you can turn checking off
Recordings of your voice and videos of you are kept only on your device, in Your recordings, to play back whenever you like. They are never uploaded, never sent to an account and never shared; clearing the site’s data deletes them, and you can delete any one yourself
The practice studio lets you record yourself with no lesson at all: talk freely, or take a topic (everyday, opinions, work, negotiation or tongue twisters)

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