Speaking English as a second language

Hello. I always have trouble communicating in English because of my articulation, people can't understand me clearly because of that.

My country has a bilingual policy, so students here learn two languages. (English + Mother Tongue) My Mother Tongue is Chinese, it's the language I use to speak with my family and I can speak it fluently. As for English, I don't remember having trouble with it prior to my anxiety. I was probably around 9 when I was bullied back in primary school. I remember being very quiet and wouldn't speak to anyone, not the students nor the teachers, basically I was selectively mute throughout primary school. Then in secondary school, things looked better, I was able to say a few words or short sentences when my classmates or teachers asked me a question. Though I'm still very quiet, I can now speak during oral examinations, and significantly better at speaking because back in primary school, I would just sit and stare at the teacher during oral exams.

I did some research and found that my problem could be a combination of SA + Selective Mutism. Like I say, I was basically mute in primary school (and maybe the first two years in secondary school) for 6 years. Long story short, I never really get the chance to speak in complete English, (like reading from a passage out loud) because I hardly interact with the other students to speak proper English.

I don't have to speak fluent English until the oral exam, I felt that I screwed up my previous two pretty badly. The last English oral I had was abysmal. There are two components to the oral exams, (Reading Aloud + Spoken Interaction) the same for both English and Chinese. The teacher commented that on my reading, saying that I read a little too fast, inarticulate and my reading overall was choppy. Then the spoken interaction part was even worse, because I had little to say, the teacher would throw questions and I need to think quick on my feet, I ended up speaking less than two sentences for each questions. (there were 3 questions) Surprisingly, I passed the oral but not by much, 16/30 overall, but it's the worst score in my class. As for Chinese, I don't have much of a problem with it, easily scored 9/10 for speaking aloud but I had the same problem with spoken interaction because I have very limited ideas and little things to say during the exam, more of an anxiety problem because I was too anxious when facing the examiners (there are two) to think of ideas.

Therefore, I want to say that I have difficulty expressing myself in English verbally, mainly because of my inability to articulate clearly. I don't have much problem with pronunciation, but because of my poor articulation of words, my sentences all come out unintelligible. Once, I read an extract from a book and record it in my phone as part of a book report and it was cringeworthy when I listened to it because I can't understand myself from the recording. I felt really embarrassed that my articulation was that bad. I also speak with a dry and monotonous voice, though it's not a problem I'm too concern about currently because I want to be able to articulate well first.

Lastly, I want to say I would appreciate it if anyone can give me advice on how to improve my articulation. I haven't speak proper English for like 6 years now and it is pretty messed up to think that a primary school kid can speak English more fluently than me.

—-the best practice is to speak English w someone who speaks good English. Find a tutor or someone who would barter their services in exchange for housecleaning or whatever you could offer. Good luck!