Essential Activities to help you Speak English More Fluently

I am writing this post in January 2026, a time when people are setting goals for the rest of the year.
Maybe you are thinking about improving your English fluency in 2026. But knowing what to do to get the best results can be overwhelming (especially when you’re a busy professional with work deadlines to meet!).

In this post, I’m going to outline 4 essential types of activity that will make a significant difference to your English fluency this year.

Is there a magic formula for English fluency?

Well, no…not exactly. But there are some aspects of practice that are essential to not only learning language, but also improving spoken fluency and building confidence to actually use English in real life.

The 4 key types of practice activity are:

1. Input Activities
2. Processing Activities
3. Output Activities
4. Reflection Activities

Let’s look at each of them individually.

To really learn authentic English, we need a lot of input through listening and reading.

Through this, we build our ‘language bank’ – the words, phrases and structures that we know and have access to when we speak.

Reading more and listening more are key. However, what you read and listen to is important. Choose content that is either:

1. Engaging – enjoyable to read/listen to (e.g., stories that interest you – there’s a reason why some of the most fluent English speakers were huge fans of Harry Potter books when they were young)
2. Useful – contains language you can actually use in real life (e.g., listening to a podcast related to your area of work)

We build our mental language bank ‘subconsciously’ through regular listening and reading, but we can’t rely on this alone if we really want to make progress.

When you read and listen (input activities), make some time to pay attention to language patterns.

Note down vocabulary you’ll find useful.

Notice grammatical structures and phrases the writer/speaker uses.

Notice what your colleagues say in different situations.

Consciously processing how language is actually used in real life will help you use it more accurately.

If it helps, study grammar rules, BUT make sure that when you learn a rule, you notice how it’s used in real life. ChatGPT can help you create examples. Then write your own sentences using new words or grammar rules – sentences that are relevant to your life and you could actually use.

If you want to work on pronunciation, notice how your favourite speakers speak. Which words do they stress? How does their intonation change? Listen and repeat to train yourself to use the same sounds and pronunciation patterns.

The more of these conscious processing activities you do in the beginning, you’ll begin to train your mind to notice these patterns automatically in the future.

This is where you actually use the language, and put everything you’ve learned together. The aim of output activities isn’t to practice a particular grammar point, but to use the language you know for a particular purpose.

For example, you could:

1. Keep a journal of your day or week: write your thoughts or reflections on the day. Focus on the content while you’re writing, not creating perfect sentences. This gives you insight into how you’re automatically accessing your mental language bank. It will highlight any common mistakes you make, or the words you commonly use.
2. Record yourself talking about a specific topic: again focus on the content of what you say, not using perfect sentences or using perfect vocabulary. Then listen back because this will allow you to notice: (a) What you do well (b) Mistakes you make automatically, and any gaps in your vocabulary

Doing these kind of output activties allows you to build confidence and fluency by yourself before using English in the real world.
This often makes you feel more confident, and fluent when you speak English at work.

To build more confidence using English with others (that isn’t work!), join a conversation club. You’ll have lots of opportunities to practice speaking, you’ll build confidence and fluency…and you may get feedback and correction (depending on the club).

To ensure you’re always making progress, reflect regularly.

As I mentioned above, reflect on your output activities – listen back or read your work and notice:

1. What you did well – focus on this first to remind you of all the progress you’ve made!
2. What you could improve – maybe you could use more specific vocabulary, or maybe you make grammar mistakes, or maybe you speak very quickly and forget to pause. These are all things to work on for next time.

Reflect on your real-life interactions – if you want to improve your communications in meetings or in presentations, reflect on how it went afterwards. Again, focus on what went well first!

Finally, regularly reflect on the practice activties you are doing regularly. Are you learning useful vocabulary from the podcasts you listen to? Could you find shorter podcast episodes to listen to more regularly?

Regular reflection ensures that (a) you regognise your progression, which will give you momentum to keep going (b) focus your learning and practice, so everything you do takes you closer to speaking more fluently.

If you start the year with enthusiasm but practice falls by the wayside when you get busy, accountability is essential. When you are ‘accountable’ it means you actually do what you say you are going to do.

Set a reminder to practice or listen to a podcast. Use a speaking app that sends reminders. Stay accountable with a friend who’ll check in on your practice…or work with a coach or teacher who will keep you accountable AND give you feedback to help focus your practice.

Consistency is key to speaking more fluently in 2026, so having something or someone to keep you accountable is so valuable for the times when you feel less motivated.

As you can see, there’s no secret formula to speaking fluently in English. However, if you include each of these kinds of activity in a way that works for YOU – making it enjoyable and useful and working on it consistently – that’s how you build real, sustainable fluency.

If you’re looking for help to develop your plan for English fluency, practice sessions with personalised feedback and accountability, one-to-one coaching will really help.

You can find out more and book your free trial session here:   One-to-one Coaching