Beating Speaking Anxiety: 1. I’m scared of making mistakes

You're listening to the Learning English Conversations podcast from BBC Learning English. We'll have another episode of the English We Speak soon, but today we have a special podcast for you, Beating Speaking Anxiety, a podcast to help you fight your fears of speaking English. We'll hear from learners, speak to experts, and give you tips to improve your speaking. And each week we'll talk about a different fear. Our first episode is called I'm Scared of Making Mistakes.

Do you get anxious when you speak English? You're not alone. I guess I'd say that my experience speaking English is full of dread and regret. I don't know why, but I cannot find the courage to speak to someone. For me it was very important to be.

Uh good in English and I was like thinking what people will think about me when I'm speaking wrong way or my pronunciation is not Imagine that uh if you are able to Sound very intelligent, very wise, very smart in your first language, but then in the second language, you are not able to do that. It isn't about perfection and it isn't about necessarily being very fluent. In this special series from BBC Learning English, we'll be helping you understand speaking anxiety and improve your

Hello and welcome to Beating Speaking Anxiety. I'm Georgie, an English teacher and presenter at BBC Learning English. And I'm Hanan, a bilingual reporter for BBC Arabic and presenter of the Arabic educational series, Dari. So as an English teacher, something my students used to ask me all the time was how can I get better at speaking? And sometimes they mean they want to make fewer mistakes. But most often it's about confidence and wanting to stop feeling so nervous.

They're worried about being judged for their mistakes, they're scared they'll forget their words, that people won't understand their accent. There are so many fears when it comes to speaking a foreign language. Yes, it's something I struggled with too when I moved to the UK to work at the BBC. My English was actually pretty good, but having conversations with people, I found it really difficult.

So when I first joined the BBC, the Learning English team made an assessment of my English level, which they used to do for all new joiners to see if they need any help or courses. My results were pretty good and I was fluent, but on that very same day, leaving the building and going to get some coffee, I couldn't really understand what the barista was saying. And I felt pretty nervous to order coffee and was trying to stress every single word, hoping that my grammar is correct.

and I'm pronouncing the words right. Yeah, I'm sure that's a situation lots of people can relate to. So in this series, we're gonna look at all the things that make us afraid of speaking in a new language. We'll speak to experts to understand why speaking makes us so anxious. Learn about what happens to our brain when we learn a new language and And explore some tips to help make speaking English less stressful.

Each week for the next eight weeks, we will focus on a different fear learners have when speaking English. And we start with one of the most common fears for learners. I'm scared of making mistakes. Let's hear more from some learners, Cindy from Colombia, David from Brazil and Elisa from Mexico. And I feel afraid when I speak English because I don't have a more vocabulary and I feel afraid for mistakes and can communicate my idea.

I felt very self-conscious, I felt really insecure sometimes because I was like, oh, am I saying the right things? Do I say uh do I know things well enough? I don't like making knowing they know I put pressure on myself to avoid making mistakes. All of those learners are worried about making mistakes. Yes. A time when I felt this fear the most was when I worked as an English teacher in Spain, and I had to have meetings with my students' parents to discuss their progress. All in Spanish.

I was so scared of making mistakes because in my head it was linked to my job and my professionalism. I didn't want the parents to judge me and think I was a bad teacher.

Totally, and you know it's not just new learners of English who are worried about making mistakes. Even advanced learners talk about this. So what's going on? You know, usually the beliefs that cause anxiety, especially severe anxiety, are uh we call it irrational beliefs. And also like uh some low self-perceptions. Uh fear of nectar evaluation. all those learner internal, you know, factors. This is Han Luo, Associate Professor of Chinese at Lafayette College in the United States.

Han has done lots of research into the sources of anxiety, or where that fear comes from. Han says irrational beliefs can make us anxious. Irrational beliefs are beliefs that aren't based on things that are true. And Ham says that learners worry about mistakes because they're scared of negative evaluation. In other words, that people will judge them for their mistakes and think badly of them. Imagine that uh if you are able to

Sound very intelligent, very wise, very smart. In your first language, you are admired by people, but then in the second language, you are not able to do that, right? When people speak in another language they worry about what other people might think about them. But Hans says this judgment doesn't come from other people, it comes from within. Yes, but in the moment when we try to speak, we're often not aware of what's causing the anxiety and stress.

And so the first step to reducing the fear of making mistakes is to recognize that fear. We want to make those uh implicit uh beliefs into conscious beliefs. That is already like a very, very important step. Often the beliefs that are making us anxious are implicit, we don't notice them, and we need to make them conscious so that we do notice them.

You realize it now. Oh, nobody will laugh at me uh if I make a mistake uh because everyone is in the same boat, right? So when you realize this, you know, now I tell you, you don't have to worry about it. So are you able to just remove your anxiety, you know, and and then your your beliefs are changed? I find what Hans said about irrational beliefs really interesting.

So I'm an English teacher, so I know that mistakes help us learn, and also that as long as you communicate your ideas effectively, it doesn't really matter if you make a few mistakes. But I still have an irrational fear of making mistakes in Spanish. I need to make my feelings match my belief that making mistakes is fine.

And you know what, Georgie? Um, we already make mistakes in our own languages. So I I feel like we should encourage ourselves and tell ourselves it's okay to make mistakes. A hundred percent, I totally agree.

Han says recognizing that these fears of making mistakes are irrational is the first step. But is there anything we can do practically to help get rid of this fear? It isn't about perfection and it isn't about necessarily being very fluent. It's about communicating well. This is Barnaby Griffith. He's a speaking coach who works with the students who want to improve their speaking in English.

Barnaby says if we think about speaking as communicating rather than like a test, then we can relax. So embrace your mistakes. Above all, allow for mistakes. So self-correct is fine. Allow pauses and silence within your communication. and learn to correct yourself and also introduce elements such as humor. And smile and and laugh when things go wrong and say, Oh, I didn't mean to say that and and and have phrases like, Let me rephrase that or I need to say that again and and and be vulnerable.

I love Barnaby's advice to just smile and laugh when things go wrong, but I imagine it might be difficult to be vulnerable, like Barnaby says. Do you have any tips, Georgie? Yes, I do. Um I think the best way to get comfortable making mistakes is to start in situations where you feel safe. So you could practice with someone you feel comfortable with.

And another idea is to do a language exchange. So this is when you find someone who wants to practice your language and you want to practice their language. This is really good because you're both practicing languages and you're both making mistakes and you're kind of in the same situation. That's true. Um I had a similar experience actually when I was learning Turkish.

Um, so I did um an exchange with a Turkish friend. Uh she was teaching me Turkish and I was funny enough, I was actually giving her some English tips. Um and it was really good because it is with with someone you know and you feel comfortable with and uh you don't worry too much about mistakes. I was making mistakes in both languages and uh that felt okay. Yeah, it's great, because there's no judgment, is there? Exactly.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Beating Speaking Anxiety. To learn more about speaking anxiety, head to our website where Georgie has made videos for each of the speaking fears we talk about in this series. You will hear more advice and see some tips in action with real learners. Use the link in the notes for this episode. At bbclearningenglish.com And we'd love to hear about your experience speaking English. Please send us an email and tell us what scares you about speaking.

Our email address is learningenglish at bbc.co.uk. And in the next episode, we'll be talking about what to do when you're speaking English and your mind suddenly goes blank. See you then!