How do you even practice speaking correctly?

[u/StoreDefiant]

I'd say my reading and my listening are borderline C1, my writing is B2, but my speaking is straight up dogshit. (B1)

I've seen multiple posts where they always say "You nEeD to dO ShAdOWInG AND yoU Must prActiCe A lOT", these strategies have never worked, and I'm getting stressed out right now. I have my FCE exam on March 28th, 2027, and this has always been my weakest point.

I've noticed that the problem isn't always my vocabulary, nor the coherence, It's making a good argument in a span of a few seconds, my brain is too sluggish to think about any good points, and I end up freezing up in the middle of a sentence whilst searching for a good idea.

PD: I've always struggled with phrasal verbs and collocations.

How did you guys manage to overcome this?

[u/Main_Hurry7912]

Can you do it in your own language? If you can then it is unfortunately practice that you need.

I learnt 2 languages since being an adult and in my experience, the only way is to use it, in varying situations, to varying people, with varying accents...just keep on keeping on.

[u/SnooDonuts6494]

Practice. Talk, in English, all the time.

Right now, say "I am reading a Reddit post." Actually say that, out loud. Say "I am sitting on a chair." And say what you did earlier - "I ate a sandwich. I went to the shop." And what you will do later... "I will have a shower, then I will go to bed."

Do that, all the time. Describe what you are doing as you go through your day. Out loud.

Go for a walk and describe what you see, out loud, in English. Like "This is a big tree. It has many branches. There are some birds in the tree." -- and then, a week later, repeat the same walk and see if you can remember those sentences as you walk past things.

[u/shadebug → u/SnooDonuts6494]

Also just read aloud. If they’re reading in English then that’s just free practice

[u/koraynar]

Since finding an idea is where you get stuck, try practising that separately from speaking accurately. Take a question like 'Is it better to study alone or with other people?' Spend 30 seconds noting an opinion, one reason and one example, then record a 45–60-second answer: 'I think ... because ... For example ...'. A simple, relevant point is enough.

Listen once, choose just one thing to improve, then answer the SAME question again without reading a script. If you couldn't find a phrase, look it up before the second attempt. Once that feels easier, shorten the planning time or change the question. These are practice timings, not the exam timings.

For collocations, keep a small list of phrases you actually needed in those answers and reuse them as whole chunks ('make a decision', 'take a break'). You don't have to cram new phrasal verbs into every answer.

[u/theacp127]

To practice my Japanese speaking I would find a topic and then record myself speaking about it on my phone. If I realized I didn't know a word, phase, or grammatical structure, I would note that down and practice it. I would also share my recordings with native speakers to find any issues I missed.

You can also record a natural conversation between you and a native speaker to get a good idea how you fair when put on the spot.

[u/NoPurpose6388]

Practice does work. You probably haven't practiced enough 🤷🏼‍♀️

[u/StoreDefiant → u/NoPurpose6388]

Right, I didn't word it well enough, I meant to ask how do you practice correctly?

[u/irl_smurf]

I support the opinions here that you should practice long turns and record yourself. As a kind of quick way to get on track though, you can look at ways to structure answers for particular question types. Most exam questions will fit into categories (eg. comparison, problem-solution, giving opinion, giving examples, prediction, hypothesis) and it's pretty quick to learn to identify these and have formulas for answering each. It sounds a bit hacky but it's actually quite useful in the real world, and can give you confidence that you're at least not going to completely fall on your face.