Confidence versus Proficiency

What is confidence? What does a confident English speaker look like? And how can you become a confident speaker?

This episode is going to try and answer some of these important questions. You might assume that someone with perfect grammar, a huge vocabulary, and a native-like accent will be a confident speaker. But that is not necessarily the case.

Over the years, I've met English learners with excellent English, but who were afraid to speak. And learners with much weaker English ability, but who seemed completely confident and comfortable communicating. This suggests that [00:01:00] confidence and language ability are not exactly the same thing.

So I want to explore confidence from a slightly more psychological perspective. What is confidence? What is the opposite of confidence? Why is confidence so important for language learners? How about self-efficacy? And how can you become a more confident English speaker?

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TRANSCRIPT - https://thinkinginenglish.blog/2026/06/29/394-how-to-become-a-confident-english-speaker-english-vocabulary-lesson/

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