Tips to Speak English Fluently During an Interview

Interviews are an important part of recruitment process. There you have to compete with people who may have excellent communication skills. Fluency matters a lot in speaking. The following points may be kept in mind to improve fluency.

Speak at a steady pace

Many people think that if they speak quickly, they will be considered to have good fluency. However, it is not true. You should speak at a steady pace in the same way as you speak in your native language. The way of speaking should neither be too fast nor too slow. Speaking too slow should also be avoided because the listener can get lost in your ideas.

Fluency is related to smoothness, flow and coherence of speech

Smoothness - This is related to pauses, repetition, silences and self- corrections. All these hinder the smoothness. So you should avoid long pauses and avoid repeating yourself.
Flow - This is the ability of a person to give answers at length. You should avoid giving one word or short answers.
Coherence- This is about maintaining logical order while speaking. It's about an organization of your ideas so that you can be properly understood.

Use linking words

Certain words and natural phrases can be used while speaking to maintain coherence and to avoid embarrassing silences. For example, when you complete a point and want few seconds to think about the second point you can use:
Another reason is
I would also like to mention about

Linking words to give examples:

For example

For instance

like

such as

However, they should sound natural and don’t overuse them.

Avoid over thinking about tenses and grammar rules

Don't think too much about tenses and grammar rules as this affects fluency. If you are weak in English grammar, try to make short and simple sentences. In this way, you would make fewer errors and would be able to explain your point clearly. You can also avoid perfect tenses and perfect continuous tenses as they are difficult to use.

Don't use less familiar words

You can have an advantage if you have a good vocabulary. However, don't use those words whose meaning is doubtful or you find difficult to pronounce as this can affect your confidence as well as fluency. So, just remember you have to use right word at the right time.

Avoid foreign accent

There is no need to copy the accent of native speakers of the English. All the accents are usually acceptable. Imitation of an accent of others only increases difficulty while speaking and it also sounds unnatural.

Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.