If your child talks easily at home but goes quiet when a teacher asks a question, you may be wondering how to improve their English speaking skills. You may also hear one-word answers about the school day, or find out that your child knew an answer in class but did not put up a hand.
Most parents in this position want to know whether they can help at home, and in most cases they can. Children build speaking skills mainly through practice, and the conversations, books and games in an ordinary week give them plenty of it. For children who would like more structure, English classes can add regular practice with a teacher and other children.
In this article, we will cover why speaking skills matter, how to improve your child’s English speaking at home, the speaking skills elementary students build and how public speaking skills grow in middle school.
Why Are Speaking Skills Important?
Speaking skills are important because they help children share ideas, ask for help and take part in class discussions. Children who speak with confidence often find it easier to join group work, answer questions and make friends.
Speaking is also closely linked to reading and writing. Because the words a child uses in conversation are usually the words they recognize first in books, children who hear and use more words have more to draw on when they read and write.
Like reading, speaking improves with practice. So a child who is quiet at six can become a confident speaker by twelve, especially with regular, low-pressure chances to talk.
How Can I Improve My Child’s English Speaking?
You can improve your child’s English speaking with daily conversation, reading aloud and word games, and most of these take only a few minutes at home.
The habits below work for most ages, from kindergarten to middle school:
- Talk every day – ask about your child’s day at dinner or in the car, and give them time to answer in full sentences.
- Ask open questions – questions that start with “what”, “how” or “why” invite a longer answer than a yes or no.
- Read aloud together – reading a book aloud, then talking about the story, builds vocabulary and gives your child new sentence patterns to use.
- Teach new words – name objects and actions precisely during everyday tasks, such as “whisk” or “simmer” while cooking, and use new words from books in conversation later that week.
- Play word games – 20 Questions, I Spy or describing an object without naming it can make speaking practice feel like play.
- Model the sentence – when your child makes a mistake, repeat the sentence back correctly instead of pointing out the error.
- Find real listeners – a video call with a grandparent, or ordering their own food at a restaurant, gives your child a reason to speak clearly to a listener who is not used to their speech.
Short, regular practice usually helps more than one long session a week. In practice, ten minutes of conversation on most days gives your child far more chances to speak than a single hour on the weekend.
Speaking Skills for Elementary Students
Speaking skills for elementary students usually include speaking in full sentences, retelling events in order, asking and answering questions and taking turns in a conversation. For most children, these skills build gradually between kindergarten and fifth grade.
Here is what each skill looks like, with a simple way to practice it at home:
- Full sentences – answering “I played soccer with Maya” rather than “soccer”. A follow-up question such as “Who did you play with?” encourages the longer answer.
- Retelling events – describing what happened first, next and last, for example after a school trip or a favorite story.
- Asking questions – asking and answering questions about a topic. At home, show and tell works well, with your child answering the family’s questions afterward.
- Taking turns – waiting for others to finish and replying to what they said. Board games and family meals give plenty of chances to practice.
- Listening closely – hearing new words and sentence patterns in stories, songs and conversations before using them, since listening and speaking skills develop together.
If your child is learning English as a second language, they may understand much more than they can say at first, and this quiet stage usually passes as their confidence grows.Â
If other people often find your child’s speech hard to understand, a speech-language pathologist can assess whether extra help would be useful.
Public Speaking Skills for Middle School Students
By middle school, speaking practice moves from everyday conversation to speaking in front of a group. Public speaking skills for middle school students usually involve planning a talk, speaking clearly to a group and managing nerves.
Class presentations, group projects and, later, job interviews all call on these skills. Speaking up in class discussions is good practice too, because it gets students used to sharing an idea in front of others before they give a full presentation.
Here is what tends to help middle school students the most:
- Plan the talk – a clear opening, two or three main points and a short ending are easier to remember than a full script.
- Practice aloud – rehearsing in front of family, or recording a practice run, helps students hear where they rush or lose their place.
- Join a group – a debate team, a drama club or English classes give regular chances to speak in front of others.
Nerves before a presentation are common, even for adults. Even so, slow breathing and a few practice runs can make the first minute easier, and the first minute is often the hardest part.
Before You Go: Every Conversation Counts
Your child’s English speaking skills grow with practice, and most of that practice can happen on an ordinary day at home. So a talk at dinner, a story read aloud or a game in the car all give your child a chance to find words and use them.
As your child moves through school, the same habits help them answer in class, share ideas in group work and speak in front of an audience. With regular practice and a little patience, many children who were quiet at first become confident speakers.
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