It’s no secret: if you want to speak Spanish, you have to practice, well, speaking it. Conversation in a foreign language is hardly effortless at first — it takes time and patience to attain a semblance of automaticity, or the ability to speak and be understood with relative ease and spontaneity without the need to focus on the individual components of each phrase. Confident, unrehearsed conversation proves an elusive goal for many language learners, yet communication with other speakers is often the driving motivational factor for learning in the first place. You don’t want to finally be traveling or trying to speak to friends and family in Spanish and find yourself freezing up!

What makes speaking in a second language so much more challenging than reading or writing? One reason might be that foreign language anxiety — the fear of making mistakes or looking foolish — is especially high in oral practice. There’s no pressure quite like needing to spontaneously understand and articulate your thoughts in a new language, and you might feel like it puts you on the spot. One of the most important things you can do is relax! Higher levels of foreign language anxiety have been directly linked to poor oral performance: the more anxious you are about speaking another language, the less likely you are to be understood. Low confidence in your speaking abilities has a similar impact. Paradoxically, if you have anxiety or confidence problems, the best thing you can do to improve is speak more, not less. Try starting out by practicing in a low-stakes setting, to yourself or with a friend who you feel comfortable around. No matter whom you’re speaking with, though, be fearless! It’s better to make a mistake and be corrected than to never try.