I understand almost everything in English. Why is speaking so difficult for me?

I’ve heard this so many times during my English teaching career. Most recently a month ago from a new client. Her listening skills are so good she can understand movies in English without subtitles. But if she is in an English meeting, she always asks colleagues to cover her part as she feels she can't do it.
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In our discovery call, she was telling me this and said “I don’t understand why I find speaking so difficult. Every week, I get hours of English practice from the TV and from reading but I still speak English like I’m a child.”
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So I told her: “Think of it like football. If you watched football every weekend but never actually practiced or played with the ball yourself, you wouldn’t be able to play well in a football match.”

Watching TV and reading in English helps improve your English (vocab, a better feeling for grammar, understanding) so I recommend you do this too. However, if you want to get better at speaking English, the most important thing to practice is speaking itself. This is true for everyone, as producing a language is a different skill to understanding it. But it is particularly important if you feel nervous about speaking English. Over time this practice will not only give you the fluency you need but it will also give you the confidence to speak up in your English meetings without hesitation or doubt.

There are many ways to get this practice:
 AI makes a great speaking partner.
 You can find a 'tandem' exchange partner.
There are endless free online possibilities where you can chat to people all over the world.

If you would like a safe-space to practice speaking English with real people (!), who have a similar level to you and where the conversation is focussed on work topics, tasks and discussions, you can also check out my Just Talk Club.
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