well first of all. i seem to have a lot of problems with coming up with sentences or forming sentences in general. for example when i'm talking to americans or whatever i usually don't really know what to say. but i fully understand them!! and when i'm about to say something. it's almost as if i didn't know any words.. like. i don't know any other english words other than the basic stuff. how can i improve?? please help me. thank you
Sounds like you just need to practice. Maybe find a friend who can video call you a few times a week just to chat until you're feeling confident?
yes most likely. thank you!! i also need to read more to expand my vocabulary
Looking at your responses it seems that you have a good grasp on the english language. Which is good! It means you have all the tools available to you when making conversation. You probably just need more practice. Conversations in non-native languages can be difficult, because you have to come up with an answer on the spot. It's not impossible, though. You'll probably stumble for words and make mistakes at first, but that's perfectly normal and okay.
tl;dr: talk more. Good luck!
As had been said - practice. It's how native speakers of a language get good at it.
You can improve your vocabulary, comprehension and accent by watching TV shows and movies (I remember meeting Dutch kids on holiday who I thought were American as they learn so much from the screen),, and grammar and the like can come from reading. However, that ease of conversation and the speed of your recall of words just comes from talking a lot. Try finding an intermediate to advanced language class where they insist on people talking in that language all the time.
When learning another language, it's really normal for your comprehension to be way better than your production. Input > output. Just keep talking to people and consuming English media and it will come to you. The more you increase your input, the more fluently and naturally you'll speak -- it won't sound like you're speaking from a textbook.
Like you I also struggle with vocab though. What I like to do for focused study is watch a show or some piece of media and pick out some words I want to learn in context and make flashcards from them.
As most others already said, the best solution is immersion, ideally by talking with someone. If you can't find someone to speak with that would make it quite a bit harder to improve, but not impossible.
For your situation (being able to understand but unable to express yourself in English) I'd reccommend the stereotypical "think in english". I'd recommend talking with someone (ideally a native speaker, but even a fellow learner is incredibly efficient, followed by writing a diary abd participating in online forums (like you currently already are!).
It's best to have input from someone else who can correct you if you make a grammatical mistake, give general advice on what sounds 'more natural' or 'better' in the language and answer any questions you might have, as well as help you if you're "missing one word" (from personal experience when learning a language it's rarely a 'it's at the tip of my tongue' situation. It's more like I just don't know this one word and I need someone to give it to me).
Another thing I can say about your problem is I also suffer a bit from it. Whenever I try to talk in German I need a few hours to 'warm up' - to just get my brain to switch to German and having a speaker on the other side really helps. I can hear the language to jog my memory and the other side can (and often does) give me input on what they think I might be trying to say. (I'm a B1-level speaker so not even close to fluent but more than enough for doing basic interations within an environment open to helping with language issues).
What I liked to do when I was actively learning German was trying to come up with different ways of saying 'the same thing', seing how they differ in their meaning, potential usecases, complexity, grammar, etc. It helps with vocabulary as well as the "thinking in German" part, as languages differ greatly in the ways they package the same message and taking a comparative approach helps greatly with being able to (casually) converse later. Having a fellow learner or a fluent speaker give you multiple variations of the same thing and analyze the differences for/with you would be a godsend for this approach.
I learnt english by reading books. That might help, although reading can be quite a passive activity, so you might want to couple it with some writing activities to make sure you're actually doing something so it sticks better. I'm also not sure how well that will work for your specific problem of struggling with conversations, but tbh I'm not great at speaking to people irl myself (although that applies in my first two languages—english is my third—as well so I don't think it's a language barrier thing so much as my brain thing) so I dunno what would help with that specifically.
My Spanish and especially my French are like 1000% better if I have had a little alcohol to drink. It’s not an awesome tool and I don’t use it anymore, but it definitely helps build confidence that I kept after drinking.
Eh. This is stupid don’t do this.
I am in a similar situation here. If you ask me, if your communication follows all the hard rules such as the wording order follows consistency and if what you say adds up, that's what matters. Other than that, just try to improve as you go along. Talking to an AI (or me) might help.
A friend of mine who was learning English said that translating song lyrics from her native language into English really helped, 'cause you have to kind of get the meaning across and not just a literal translation of the words. Dunno if it works for everyone but she swore by it!
That requires you to interact with music in your native language which for people from most countries would be rather unpleasant
I think that'd only help improve your confidence, because you could so easily be translating wrong thinking you've done it right, then establishing what you've wrongly said as a habit.
