Who it is for
English speaking practice for software developers
Reading English is already part of the job. What is hard is almost certainly not reading: taking your turn in a standup, thinking out loud in an interview, pushing back in a code review.
Developers tend to have oddly lopsided English. Documentation, error messages, technical arguments — all comfortable. Vocabulary is often well above B2. Then you join a distributed team, walk into your first standup, and the problem changes shape.
Why this happens
Because what you did for years was read. Reading is receptive: your own pace, you can go back, you can look things up. Speaking is productive and real-time. The two develop separately, and one does not automatically deliver the other. Someone who has read documentation for ten years but never spoken cannot speak — that is not about intelligence or talent, it is simply that an untried skill is untried.
The three hardest situations in software
- Standups and meetings. Summarising what you did in two sentences when your turn comes. Being short makes it harder, not easier: in a long answer you can recover, in two sentences you cannot.
- Technical interviews. Thinking out loud. Doing an already difficult task in a second language is the main reason capable people are assessed below their real level. You solve the problem, but because you went silent while solving it, you are marked down for communication.
- Code review and disagreement. Saying "I think this approach is risky" without it landing badly. Here the politeness patterns matter more than the technical vocabulary, and almost no course teaches them. The distance between "This is wrong" and "I might be missing something, but wouldn't this break when…" can be a career difference.
What helps and what does not
What does not help: taking a general English course. Your vocabulary is already wide; what is missing is not words but assembling them in real time. A general course re-teaches you things you already know.
What helps: rehearsing those three situations separately and repeatedly. Once you have built your standup sentence twenty times, the twenty-first needs no thought. This is the boring part that works.
In TalkSmart's speaking module you can pick workplace scenarios and role-play them with AI. For the interview side, our English job interview guide covers the structure of common questions and the STAR method.
About accent
Trying to fix your accent is the wrong priority for most developers. In international teams Indian, Polish, Brazilian and Turkish accents work side by side and nobody even discusses it. Being intelligible is enough.
What actually makes a difference is building sentences without stalling. Someone with a strong accent who speaks fluently is perceived as far more competent than someone with a clean accent who pauses in every sentence. Spend your energy there.
Where to start
By measuring your level. Most developers sit around B2-C1 in reading and A2-B1 in speaking, and that gap is normal. The level test takes about four minutes; once you see the result you can decide whether you need general fluency work or can go straight to scenario practice.
Frequently asked questions
My technical English is good but I cannot speak. Is that normal?
Very common and entirely expected. Reading is receptive, speaking is productive. For someone who has read for years and spoken rarely, this outcome is unavoidable. The fix is not more reading — it is speaking repetition.
What should I say while thinking in an interview?
Narrating your thinking is the expected behaviour rather than going silent. Phrases like "Let me think about the edge cases first" or "I will start with the brute force and then optimise" buy you time and are part of what is being assessed — the interviewer wants to see your reasoning.
Do I need to fix my accent?
Usually no. Intelligibility is enough and accent variety is the norm in international teams. Hesitation and unfinished sentences cause far more trouble than accent does.
How do I disagree in a code review?
Question form works better than direct negation: "Wouldn't this fail if the list is empty?" It makes the technical point while leaving the other person room to step back. These patterns are learnable and worth rehearsing.
Want to practise this out loud?
TalkSmart gives you a live AI examiner — cue cards, timing and band scores included.