Why Use Voice Messages

The Key to Improving Your Speaking Skills

I become more convinced each month that voice messages are a vastly underutilized tool for language learning.

For Beginners: Overcoming the Speaking Hurdle

For beginners, the main challenge is taking those first steps to speak the language. Voice messages offer an excellent way to incorporate speaking practice into daily life without waiting for formal classes.​

Why?

When you're just starting, you can prepare before recording and only send the message once you've achieved relative fluency. Each repetition becomes a valuable exercise. 

True fluency emerges when you string sentences together like puzzle pieces, no longer focusing on individual elements.

This happens naturally through sufficient repetition—you stop overthinking the rules and develop an intuitive feel for the language. That's when you start recognizing what "sounds right" or "sounds wrong." 

Voice messaging:

• Introduces regular speaking practice into daily life
• Lets you prepare and try multiple attempts before sending
• Builds fluency through repetition

And how to make it useful?

1. Prepare what you want to say
2. Record yourself until you can speak relatively fluently
3. Send the message only when you're satisfied

For Intermediate Speakers: Refining Your Skills

For intermediate speakers who need to enhance their speaking quality, voice messages provide an ideal way to increase awareness, eliminate recurring mistakes, and polish their skills.​

Why?

Once you achieve fluency, it's easy to overlook the finer points of your speech since people understand you. This makes the effort of monitoring your language feel tedious—it becomes challenging, particularly because you can express more and are eager to communicate.

Therefore, we need to create opportunities to reflect on our expression.

Voice messaging:

• Increases awareness of speech patterns
• Helps eliminate repetitive mistakes
• Refines overall language skills

Why it's effective:

• Forces you to reflect on how you express yourself
• Allows for self-correction and improvement
• Breaks automatic speech patterns that may include errors

When you record yourself, you listen and self-correct. 

You become more aware, grow more sensitive to self-discovered mistakes, and each mindful repetition helps break the automatic patterns that lead to recurring errors ingrained over years of practice. 

While it requires patience, I believe this is the path forward.

Do's and Don'ts

How to make it useless?

• Speak without preparing notes
• Record once and send immediately
• Skip listening to your recording
• Record a 10-minute message when asked for 3 minutes
• Glance at corrections without re-recording with the suggested improvements

How to make it as effective as possible?

• Prepare notes
• Record until you can follow your notes and speak fluently
• Listen to your recording and self-correct
• Practice at least twice
• After receiving corrections, record yourself at least once more

The Hidden Mirror in Language Learning

Learning a language without hearing yourself is like learning to dance without a mirror. Voice messages provide the crucial feedback loop that accelerates your progress and refines your skills.

Imagine dancers trying to perfect their moves without ever seeing themselves. Sounds impossible, right? That's exactly what many language learners do when they don't use voice messages.

With short, focused messages, you gain:

1. Instant Feedback: Hear your mistakes in real-time
2. Self-Correction: Spot errors before they become habits
3. Pronunciation Refinement: Compare your speech to native speakers
4. Confidence Building: Track your progress over time

Traditional language classes rely heavily on live conversation. While valuable, this method has limitations:

– Limited time for individual speaking practice

– Difficulty in revisiting and analyzing your speech

– Inability to compare different versions of your attempts

Voice messages break these barriers, allowing you to:

– Practice at your own pace

– Review and analyze your speech multiple times

– Compare your attempts side-by-side with native speakers or your improved versions

We can take the best of both worlds :)

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