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Do you speak with a lot of pauses and hesitations?

Do you have difficulty expressing your ideas in English?

Do you mentally translate from your native language to English… but the sentences come out incorrect or unnatural when you speak?

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If you want to eliminate these problems and become fluent in English, the secret is…
Learning how to think directly in English!

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Many English students say:
“It’s too difficult!
“I don’t know enough English words!”
“I need to think in my native language and translate.”
The problem with thinking in your native language and translating is that it results in sentences that are not correct in English, because the grammar and sentence structure is often different in English and your native language.
Many students believe that thinking in English is something you can only do when you’re at the advanced level – but that’s not true.

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Thinking directly in English is a skill that you can practice and develop at any level – and today I’m going to teach you exactly how to do that, step by step. If you practice this, you will succeed.

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It seems logical to learn a language, especially at beginner levels, by translating.
Unfortunately, this creates a habit that later is hard to break. However, it is essential you learn to break this habit, if you want to start thinking in English, speak fluently and answer questions quickly .

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Here we are going to look at 7 smart things you can start doing today, to start thinking in English.

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Table of Contents�

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Think in English by Surrounding yourself with English

This doesn’t have to mean living in an English speaking country, although that is great if you can.
You can do it by giving yourself time everyday, where you only hear and see English. You can start with 10 minutes everyday, and then move up to 30 minutes, an hour or more; whatever you can manage.
See this as fun and enjoyable, not study. So I’m talking about doing the following in English:
Listening to a podcast
Listening to the Internet radio
Listen to some songs

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As you do this, you can do any or some of the following
Passively listen
Repeat words you hear/see
Repeat phrases you hear/see

Why this is important?

Passive listening takes away any stress and helps you absorb the language better. Repeating words and phrases, gets you to activate new vocabulary so you can start using it fluently.
By only seeing and hearing English, you start to move away from translation to thinking in English.

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Only use words you know�

When speaking in English, sometimes students want to express an idea, but lack the vocabulary. So they go and look it up in a dictionary.
This is one way to build vocabulary, but it does not build fluency.
A great way to improve fluency and to start thinking in English is to only use words you know when speaking.
I know, this sounds strange to you, and you might think…
It is simple, and that is the beauty of it!
Also because you are using words you already know, you never need to translate. You just practice using the words you know in sentences and conversations.

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Start small and build up�

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A common technique to start thinking in English is to see an object and say the word to yourself in English.
You see this picture above and you say to yourself the words that you see and know. For example,

Yoga
Plants
T-shirt
Lights
Mat

You can do this whenever you have a minute or two of ‘dead time’ (e.g. waiting in line, commuting on the train).
Instead of having a picture, you just look around yourself and say (in your head) what you see.

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The first secret is to build the daily habit – even one minute a day is enough, to start.

The second secret is to start small and build up – following this order

words
collocations
phrases

So, start with words, as in the example above.

Then use collocations (two or more words that commonly go together). For example, with my picture above,

Yoga mat
Blue T-shirt
Indoor plants
Bright lights

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Then move to short phrases, for example,

There’s a yoga mat
She’s wearing a blue T-shirt
The indoor plants are nice

Remember, keep it simple, and only use words you already know, as you start small (with words) and build up (to phrases).

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Talk to yourself

In the exercise above you have been saying words in your head, and now in addition to that you need to start actually saying words out loud.
Again, the goal is not to build vocabulary, it’s to start building the habit of thinking in English.
The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky suggested that ‘inner speech’ (thinking) comes from the internalisation of your real voice (speaking).
Now, it is not very natural to describe what you see out loud (we only really do that in classrooms!), so more realistic and meaningful activities could be, for example,

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Saying your feeling and reactions to different situations.

Such as saying,

“That’s a silly hat”, when you see your neighbour in the street

Describing your plan for the day

Describing an activity you are doing

When cooking, “I need two eggs, where are they? here they are, now I put in some milk…..”

Reviewing what you have done today

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Write in English�

When it comes to thinking in English, I think the active skill of writing complements the active skill of talking (even to yourself), in creating an English environment that will help you think in English.
Of course, the way we speak and write are quite different, and I Do NOT encourage you to speak like you write, but there is some research suggesting speaking and writing are connected and can influence each other.

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Here are some simple things you can start writing,

shopping lists
messages to family
post it’s to yourself
a diary
a blog
When you do the above, you are first thinking, then reenforcing the learning and use of the language by writing it down. This in turn helps you think more in English.

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Practice with others�

In English we say,

‘The proof is in the pudding‘

This means, only when you do something, can you see if it really works.

So, whilst it is good to practice thinking when alone, you also need to practice it in conversation with others.
The more you engage in conversations in English, with students, teachers, or friends, the more you will have the chance to practice thinking in English as you speak.
Have some conversations where you just focus on thinking in English. In those cases, follow the tip above about only using words you know – Keep It Simple!

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Be monolingual

Finally, one of the biggest changes I made in learning to think in a foreign language was to switch from using a bilingual dictionary (Arabic– English) to a monolingual one (English– English).
This was a critical step, because it forced me to stop translating and encouraged me to think in English. Yes, it was difficult and it took more time to use, but when I started to notice the benefits, I carried on using it.

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Another expression we have in English is

‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’

This means you have to pay to get some benefit.

You cannot just start thinking in English overnight, it is not a magical transformation. It takes time and effort, like using the monolingual dictionary, and above all it takes practice.

However, the rewards are huge.

So start trying some of the steps above and see the change start to happen.