Hi Helen, "Spoken" is a past participle. You will use it with: - the passive voice (the truth was spoken...) - in perfect tenses (she has spoken English for 10 years / they had spoken English for 10 years but then...) "Speaking" is either the gerund or the verb in continuous tenses: - Gerund: I like speaking English - Present continuous: I am speaking English right now - Past continuous: I was speaking English yesterday when the phone rang - Present perfect continuous: She has been speaking English for 10 years To answer your question in your title, you have a few possibilities: - Improve my spoken English - Improve my English speaking skills - I understand spoken English Happy Friday! Lou

Spoken is used when youre talking about the action of someone speaking in the past tense. "My friend has spoken...etc etc" for example. Speaking is a present tense action verb. When we are face to face having a conversation we are speaking to eachother.

Spoken English skills.... I understand spoken English English speaking skills. Spoken is - in this case - an adjective. (As the other poster notes it can also be a participle). Speaking is used in gerund form and acts like a noun.