When I was eleven, I was madly in love with a girl in my class called Helenka. I tried to do everything to get her attention and impress her.

Somehow, I can’t remember how, I managed to ask her out on a date. And somehow, I can’t remember how either, she said yes.

“Wow!”, I thought, “I did it! I’ve got a date with Helenka. My first date ever!”

I then proceeded to tell everybody in my class that I was going on a date with Helenka.

(Mistake nº1)

We’d arranged to meet in the local park at 5pm (yes, I remember the time), and I put on my favourite black and red shell suit (NOT a mistake, it was 1991 and perfectly acceptable to wear shell suits).

I was a bit nervous as I wanted to impress her, but I had an ace up my sleeve: I’d arranged the perfect date.

A date of such proportions that there was no way she would be able to resist me.

I took her…wait for it…tree climbing.

(Mistake nº2)[thrive_leads id=’1049′]

I took her to the best tree in the park, a willow next to the lake, and skillfully clambered up the tree like a monkey, expecting her to follow. But she just leant against the tree trunk looking totally unimpressed, chewing gum.

“Hmm…maybe tree climbing wasn’t the best idea after all”, I thought.

My first date ever ended after five minutes.

If I thought that was bad, it was nothing compared to the next day at school, when Helenka told everybody in class about our ‘date’.

All’s well that ends well, though. We became very good friends, the other boys in the class were still impressed that I’d managed to even get a date with her, and I learnt never to take girls tree climbing to impress them.

You live and learn…

We all make mistakes in life. Likewise, we all want to make fewer mistakes.

However, some of the best learning experiences come from mistakes, so it’s important to try to get the ideal balance between making the right mistakes and avoiding the wrong mistakes.

Let me put it more clearly. I encourage experimental mistakes and discourage avoidable, unnecessary, and silly mistakes.

So let’s talk about making mistakes when speaking in English. If you never make mistakes, it becomes hard to progress in a language.

All evolution comes from small mistakes.

But. There are avoidable, silly, or repetitive mistakes that you shouldn’t be making as an English learner. These are the ones you want to eliminate to avoid making your level sound lower than it actually is.

“How do I do that then?”

Read on, my friend.

1 – Speak more slowly

Let’s start with the easiest one.

Well, I say easy, but it’ll actually take a bit of practice before you can speak more slowly without thinking about it.

We all have a natural speed at which we like to speak. Unfortunately, most of us speak too quickly, not only in our target language, but also in our mother tongue. As a result, we often make mistakes in our target language, or say things that we later regret in our own language.

We’ve all done it…

With about half of the mistakes you make when speaking in English, you know when you’ve made a mistake. But it’s too late.

The words left your mouth and entered the listener’s ear.

This means that they are avoidable.

And in order to avoid those mistakes, you only need a few extra milliseconds to analyse what you’re about to say before you say it.

If you speak 5% more slowly, you’ll make 50% fewer mistakes.

That’s a pretty sweet deal.

It’s like paying 5% more to receive a 50% discount!

Who wouldn’t agree to that?

Speak a little bit more slowly and you’ll make far fewer mistakes.

2 – Search and destroy

Sometimes, though, you don’t know that you’re making a mistake. What should you do?

Just do this simple exercise to find and eliminate potential mistakes that you’re making regularly.

Have a conversation in your head or out loud. Talk about anything, it doesn’t matter.

Speak slowly and think about everything that you say. Analyse each sentence and ask yourself honestly if each sentence is correct.

How do you know if it’s correct?

You just need to complete the following sentence: “I know it’s correct because ____.”

For example, I know it’s correct because…

…I heard my English friend say it.

…(spoiler alert) Ned Stark said it on Game of Thrones before he got his head chopped off.

…I read it in a book.

…if you use ____ in a sentence it needs this structure.

If you can complete the sentence with a justification, then you’re probably right.

If you can’t, then write it down and continue the conversation.

When you have a list of five things, check the things that you’re not sure of and practise them using the following method to make sure you never make the same mistake again.

3 – Repeat, repeat, then repeat again

There are two steps in learning: theory and practice.

It’s like asking for directions to a place. The person can show you the road and how to get there, but you will never get there unless you actually take steps towards that place.

The practice is basically just applying the theory.

Everyone knows this, yes. It’s obvious. But most people when learning a language think that when they learn something new, all the work is done.

Really, when you learn something new, that’s when the work begins, because you may understand it, but can you use it?

The only thing that matters is being able to use it.

All your work and effort should go into being able to apply the theory effectively and consistently.

This is where repetition comes in.

When you learn something new, you need to apply the theory over and over until you become sick of it.

It’s easy, and you don’t need a teacher to do this because you know the theory, don’t you?

Have the theory in front of you so you can check that what you’re saying is correct, and produce sentences replicating real life situations using the structure or vocabulary you want to learn.

How many?

Until you can use it without pausing or thinking about the structure. If you do it enough times, it will start to flow effortlessly.

Knowing is nothing. Applying what you know is everything.

4 – Passive memorisation

This is a variation on the theme of repetition.

Just like repeating a structure will allow you to use it without making mistakes, this form of memorisation helps you remember parts of language that you frequently make mistakes with.

It works by slowly exposing yourself to these structures. Over time, they will sound very familiar.

In language, we use what sounds familiar to us. This is where most mistakes come from.

You translate a structure from your own language and use that in English. It sounds familiar, so you think it’s correct.

Often, though, it isn’t.

If you expose yourself to what is correct enough times, then that is what begins to sound familiar.

Then you start to use that structure instead of translating from your own language.

The practice exercise is easy.

Make a list of the corrections you make mistakes with. For example if you often say ‘people is’ and not ‘people are’, then write down ‘people are’ on your list, along with all other things you want to stop making mistakes with.

Then, all you do is read the list out loud twice a day, every day, for a couple of weeks.

Zero effort. Maximum results.

This is the best way to stop making the same mistake over and over.

5 – Be safe

Use the structures you’re sure of and know to be correct.

Stay clear of the ones that you’re not sure of, and then go learn them.

Use what you know, and learn what you don’t know.

If you’re giving a presentation at work in English or some other similar situation, you want to be sure that what you’re saying is correct.

Not sure if it’s correct?

Then don’t say it, and say something you know is right. Later, go check what you weren’t sure of so that you can use it in the future.

Use and practise the things you know to be correct.

Don’t experiment.

But…

6 – Experiment

You know me, I like to contradict myself.

Yes, experiment.

Experiment with language that you’re not sure of next time you have a conversation in English.

Think outside the box and try new vocabulary, grammatical structures, and anything else you don’t normally use.

But!

And this is the most important part; ask the person you’re speaking to if what you’re saying is correct.

Remember, a native English speaker is essentially a walking, talking dictionary and grammar reference book.

Make the most of it and use them to learn new language, check that what you’re saying is correct, and repeat what they tell you is correct.

Forget pride or embarrassment, you’re on this planet to learn, so take every opportunity.

When they tell you the answer, remember it and after the conversation, look it up online and repeat Nº3.

Done!

Making mistakes can be an incredibly powerful learning tool.

Making mistakes is a good thing, as long as you learn something from those mistakes.

However, if you make a mistake and learn nothing from it, then this can be the thing that most slows you down and hampers your progress.

Apply these techniques and you will improve far more quickly and make fewer mistakes.

Knowing is nothing. Applying what you know is everything.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]