How Do I Stop Drawing A Blank When I Speak In English or on the CELPIP?

Do you ever struggle with feeling like you become mentally blocked when you're trying to use your English in everyday conversations?

Or especially when you're trying your best to respond to one of the speaking tasks on the celpip?

What's something practical you can do to practice your speaking skills that will make a big difference in your speaking task results on the exam?

Well, if you've been wondering those same things, then please keep listening because I'm going to share my best answers for those questions with you today.

Hi, I'm Aaron.

Welcome to the Speak English Fearlessly podcast.

This is the podcast where motivated English learners just like you learn how to speak English fearlessly and learn practical tips and strategies to conquer the CELPIP exam.

Today I'm answering a question I was asked over on Reddit, and I'm going to quote the question right here.

What about on the speaking part?

I always get a mental block when I'm speaking.

I did review, but I didn't really practice talking.

I think that those are great questions and I think lots of people struggle with them.

How.

How can I avoid going blank when I need to respond to one of the CELPIP speaking tasks?

And is there something practical that I can do to practice talking?

The first part of the question, how to stop drawing a blank.

Freezing when you need to respond to a CELPIP speaking test question, is really asking about how to build fluency skills.

Fluency, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, means, and I quote, the ability to speak or write a language easily, well and quickly.

The more that increases, the more your fluency increases, the less you'll experience those awful moments of not knowing what to say where you freeze or draw a blank.

But before I go on, I want to make sure you've thought about something really important.

You have moments where you draw a blank or freeze in your first language.

Now, it might not happen very often, but you need to be aware that these things happen to everyone.

It's kind of part of being human.

We all have those moments where we simply don't know what to say next.

It happens to me.

I'm sure it happens to you.

But because it's in our first language when it happens, we often, not always, but we often don't give it very much importance.

We shrug it off and just keep going.

But not when we're trying to use our second language, right?

No, when we have those moments of not knowing how to respond in English, or our words just kind of vanish out of our mind and we don't know what to say next.

We tend to add a lot of negative baggage to that normal experience.

Oh no, I drew a blank.

I suck at English or I will never be able to do this right.

Or maybe I'm just not cut out to be an English speaker.

I don't have what it takes.

I just don't have the talent or the skills.

I might as well just give up.

Those are just a few of the negative things I've told myself about my developing Spanish skills and what past students have told me over the years about how they feel about themselves, when they make mistakes or when they draw a blank in English.

So if you have those kinds of things rolling through your mind or something similar when you draw a blank in the middle of a conversation or when you're trying to respond to a speaking task question, then go ahead and hit pause on them.

Replace those negative words with the truth.

Everyone draws a blank from time to time.

It's normal.

And I'm working to get better here's how you can start getting better today.

If you want to see your fluency skills in English improve, you need to take steps outside of your comfort zone.

Now, I know that this advice really sucks.

Nobody loves being uncomfortable.

I know I sure don't.

But here's the thing.

You don't have to take giant steps out of your comfort zone.

You can take little tiny mini ones.

And those little tiny mini ones, if you're willing to do them on a repeated basis, can add up to something powerful.

So keep that in mind.

These mini steps don't have to be giant ones, especially if you're just getting started or you're feeling overwhelmed with your schedule as it is and you don't know how to add practice into it.

Think mini Mini steps totally count and can be powerfully effective as long as they are happening on a frequent daily basis.

It's not enough to want to take them, and it's not enough to sign up for a CELPIP prep course, though it's a good move in the right direction.

And it's also not enough to go around buying Celpip prep books or attending Celpip training sessions on, say, the Celpip YouTube channel.

You can fill your time up with all of those things, but a book, a class, a webinar won't help you unless you actually put them into practice.

Unless you actually put what you learned in them into practice.

That's where those mini steps I was talking about come in.

If you want to cut down on the number of times you blank out and don't know what to say.

Then you need to push yourself into more situations where you need to speak.

I know, like I said, that sucks.

And what you really want to do is avoid those experiences, right?

But go in the opposite direction here.

Trust me on this, go in the opposite direction.

Throw yourself into those experiences as often and as frequently as you can, like daily.

Here's how a mini step might look like to start making that happen.

The next time someone asks you how are you?

Say more than I'm good, thanks.

How about you change it up?

Try this.

Say I'm good, thanks.

Tell me about your weekend.

Or if you're on your way out of a work meeting, for example, turn to a co worker as you're on your way out and ask, so what did you think about that?

Now here's a Be ready to offer your answer to the very same question too.

Even if they don't ask you for your response, give it to them anyway.

This doesn't have to turn into a long talk at first.

Aim for like five minutes, but do it.

Change up those normal short, quick little interactions with an open ended question that invites someone to share a little bit more about what's going on in their life.

But you also come ready to share a little bit more about you too.

Remember, it doesn't have to be a long talk.

It can be like five or six minutes long.

But those little things, if you do them repeatedly during the day, you'll see that it makes a difference.

Now if you're ready for a bit more of a challenge, don't take a mini step.

Try a small step instead, like this one.

Grab a coffee or a tea so you can hide behind it if that helps, and join in at that break time conversation happening that you usually just stay far away from.

You know which one I'm talking about, don't you?

The one where only English speakers are standing around together or sitting together.

I know that just putting yourself out there to actually join in on that can be terrifying enough.

As an introvert myself, I know exactly what you're going through if you're breaking out into a cold sweat just thinking about this challenge right now.

But trust me, you can do this.

I've done it and I continue to push myself to do it so that I can practice my Spanish skills.

I actually did this just this weekend during a mini marriage workshop our church put on.

My wife was talking with a group of six Spanish speakers in one of our coffee breaks.

Now my go to introvert response is to grab a coffee and just stand quietly next to my wife.

I like to let her and everyone else do the talking, but instead I pushed myself hard.

I grabbed my coffee and jumped into the conversation that was happening.

Everyone was sharing how they first met, so when it came to our turn, I did my best to share my side of how I met my wife.

I did feel nervous and I did make a few verb mistakes, but I threw myself into it because getting better with my Spanish fluency skills is important to me and I want to be practicing what I offer you as advice too.

So yeah, if you want a bigger challenge, join in that next coffee gathering and actually join in the conversation that is happening.

And if you're up for an even bigger challenge, try this one.

Sit with English speakers at lunch and come prepared with a few questions to ask.

Here are some great how was your weekend?

Or what are you working on today?

And like I said a few moments ago, come prepared to talk about your own answers to these questions and give them even if you don't get asked them in return, which you likely will.

And here's a quick pro.

Avoid questions where yes or no could be the only answer you get back.

This will keep some of the pressure off of you.

To keep the conversation going, look for open ended questions that draw more out of someone than just a quick answer.

Stepping out of your comfort zone is the only way I know to begin seeing your English fluency improve.

And it's the only way that I know that will help you cut down on the number of times you draw a blank when you speak.

It will still happen to you, but the more you push yourself into those experiences where you need to use your English skills, you'll notice that that those moments of freezing will happen less and less.

And yes, engaging in day to day conversations in English with English speakers does help you get ready for the selfip exam.

Each time you do it, you're building your confidence, your vocabulary, your ability to think quickly and under pressure while you express your ideas as completely as you can.

That's super powered practice, in my opinion, and way more effective than sitting in a webinar or just reading a celpip prep book.

You're actually using your English.

So my challenge to you today is how will you step out of your comfort zone this week?

Remember, even small steps regularly taken will help you get where where you want to go and hopefully you notice.

That's also my best answer for that second question that was asked about practical ideas to work on your speaking skills.

How's that?

Two answers packed into one.

Was that helpful?

Would you like even more help with your Celpip prep.

I've taught English for 17 years and I'm a certified Celpip trainer.

I'm inviting you to join me and the Celpip Success School.

I help newcomers to Canada get ready for their Celpip exam.

And I can help you too.

There's a link in today's show notes if you want to take the next step.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.

I hope that you'll come back again next Tuesday.

Bye.