Beating Speaking Anxiety: 2. I’m scared of forgetting my words
Learning English Conversations
BBC
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever been speaking English, and suddenly you freeze and forget your words?
In this episode of our new series, Georgie and Hanan talk about why our brain can’t always remember words we know in a new language.
With Alissa Melinger, Professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Dundee.
WATCH – Find Georgie’s videos with tips to improve your speaking here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/beating_speaking_anxiety
TRANSCRIPT – Read along with this podcast and learn useful vocabulary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/beating_speaking_anxiety/forgetting_words-podcast
NEWSLETTER – Sign up to our email newsletter to hear about our latest lessons and programmes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u178220599
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | You're listening to the Learning English Conversations podcast from BBC Learning English. |
| 0:12.0 | We'll have another episode of the English we speak soon. |
| 0:15.9 | But today, we're continuing with our special series, Beating Speaking An speaking anxiety, a podcast to help you fight |
| 0:23.5 | your fears of speaking in English. |
| 0:26.6 | This episode is called I'm scared of forgetting my words. |
| 0:31.8 | Have you ever been speaking English and suddenly you forget a word? |
| 0:39.3 | I forgot, I forget the word when I try to speak. |
| 0:45.3 | For a moment my mind is blank. |
| 0:50.3 | I know what I want to say, but no words come to mind. |
| 0:56.9 | Like, my mind just shuts down. |
| 1:01.6 | The bilingual faces a big challenge in that they have double of everything. |
| 1:12.6 | In today's episode, we're going to talk about how to avoid panicking when things go wrong, speaking English. |
| 1:23.6 | Hello and welcome to beating speaking anxiety, the podcast to help you fight your fears of speaking English. |
| 1:30.0 | I'm Georgie, an English teacher and presenter at BBC Learning English. |
| 1:34.6 | And I'm Hanan, a bilingual reporter for BBC Arabic and presenter of the Arabic educational series, Ders. |
| 1:42.1 | You can find a transcript for this episode and other resources to help you on our website, |
| 1:47.6 | BBC learning English.com. |
| 1:50.1 | We heard at the start of the program about that terrifying feeling when you forget your words |
| 1:56.1 | when you're speaking a new language. |
| 1:58.1 | Has that ever happened to you, Georgie? |
| 2:00.2 | Oh, so many times. It happened all |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.