“How can I improve my response speed?”

“How can I improve my response speed?”

I have been asked this question by many clients over the years. In case some of you have a similar desire, I want to share one piece of advice I have recommended that has proved to be effective.

One way you can increase your response speed is by using the parroting technique. Parrots are absolutely beautiful birds, and some species have the uncanny ability to accurately repeat what they hear, often quite quickly.

With the parroting technique, you use as many of the words the speaker did in their statement to form your response. Why do this? Simple. The speaker often gives you most of the information needed to form a correct response. Their statement will include the necessary subject, object, and verb tense from which you can craft your response.

I mainly recommend this technique to lower-level, even some intermediate, speakers who are slow to respond and have trouble forming correct sentence structures. If you pay close attention to the speaker, it is much easier to construct your response by parroting. There is no need to get overly anxious or panic.

But if I use parroting, won't I sound a bit robotic? In my opinion, if you are a lower-level English learner, your aim, initially, should be to speak as accurately as possible and build your confidence. In time, you will have opportunities to express yourself more freely. Also, when you talk to a native speaker, they will intuitively recognize you are trying to respond accurately. That said, to sound a bit more natural, I always recommend adding some extra information or asking a follow-up question in your response, to advance the conversation more natively.

Let’s look at some examples:

James: Do any of your friends have a funny laugh?

Paulie: Yes, one of my friends has a funny laugh. Her name is Yasha.

Damien: Are you going to the concert on Friday?

Paulie: Yes, I’m going to the concert on Friday. How about you?

Kevin: Have you seen the latest Spiderman movie?

Paulie: No, I haven’t seen the latest Spiderman movie. Do you recommend it?

To sum up, the parroting technique allows you to respond faster and with less anxiety. You also practice making complete sentences while increasing your speaking output. When you speak more, your confidence increases. It also tests your listening abilities.

Certainly, one-word responses may be appropriate in some circumstances. However, if you are a lower-level or intermediate learner, I recommend you give the parroting technique a try.

Please consider sharing this post with anyone you think it might benefit.

As always, thank you for your time.

#PEAKEnglishInstruction #englishwithtroy