No matter what language we are learning, we would all love to speak more confidently. But not all of you know how to gain confidence in your English－speaking ability. 【小题1】

Use positive self－talk

Believe it or not, the most important person you talk to every day is yourself. 【小题2】 So the next time you are using your English, pay attention to what you tell yourself or others. Be sure to replace unhelpful thoughts or ideas with better ones.

【小题3】

To sound more confident, speak loudly enough that anyone in the same room can easily hear you. And try to slow down your speech if you speak too fast. Many English learners worry that speaking too slow will make them sound inexperienced. But speaking too fast may cause more mistakes. So avoid worrying that you are speaking too slow for the people around you.

Don’ t worry too much

One of the biggest barriers to confidence in speaking a second language is the constant worry about making mistakes. Understand that making mistakes is a natural part of the language learning process. Yes, you will make mistakes. 【小题4】 And many English learners communicate very well, even with mistakes. To some degree, mistakes can be a good thing. The more experience you get, the more you will know what is and is not correct.

Set realistic goals

【小题5】 So make a plan for daily practice and spend at least 30 minutes each day practicing your English.

If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice. There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills, you should first master the skills of reading and listening.

Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example, in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.

As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening. For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.

If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve quickly, and you can be a fluent English speaker one day.

Almost every college and university in the US now offers some forms of Internet-based application.【小题1】 Some people believe that the best way to get a detailed look at what life is like at any college or university is by visiting the campus.

【小题2】 Most students begin visiting colleges and universities that they are interested in before their final year of high school. The majority of colleges and universities let interested students visit their campuses at any time of a year. Students can contact the admissions offices of the schools that interest them.【小题3】 Their job is to provide information, offer advice and show future students different parts of the campus such as housing and classrooms. During the visit, students should also try to plan a meeting with an admissions official. Most schools keep a record of all the exchanges they have with candidates.

It's never too early to visit a school. This could be years before they even start thinking about the application process. Simply witnessing the college experience in real life can be helpful for young people.【小题4】

However, visiting schools may not be a choice appropriate to everyone, especially international students. So for students who are unable to visit, there is one additional resource: social media.【小题5】 Schools will permit students to post videos and pictures that show what their daily lives are like at college.These can provide applicants with a view that is almost as good as being there in person.