Going from comprehension to speaking

I think that the Antimoon method is excellent. I've know of several people who have used a similar method, especially with a long "silent period" before speaking (or even writing). It makes sense to develop your competence before you produce grammatical sentences with good pronunciation.

The question I have is: Even after you're "ready" (i.e., your comprehension is great), do you have to "practice" speaking, or does speaking develop naturally? Some people think enough input will do the trick, others think you have to make the first effort.

And if you do need to practice, what methods did you use, especially if there were no native speakers around. Reading out loud? Memorizing dialogues? Using a tape recorder? Talking out loud to yourself?

Any advice or experience from successful learners would be greatly appreciated.

Using a tape recorder would be a good tool for improving your overall fluency. It has the advantage of replaying your conversations and check your mistakes.

Who is going to determine when you are ready? if you hold a conversation in the real world and if you have a serious problem communicating with real people then you are not ready and you need to absorb a lot of input. That's it. No two opinions on it.

Nope. Speaking ability will not emerge on its own. It is not like you wake up next day (after a whole year of absorbing the language through reading and listening) and you start speaking like a true native speaker. You need to train your brain so that it can be synced with your tongue as well. That will come with some practice. With some practice your speaking skills will emerge and you would not afraid to speak with other people. I absorbed a lot of input and tried speaking English with native speakers in the real word. I could understand them word by word but I had a serious problem putting my thoughts across. After that, I had bought a tape recorder and started talking to myself and then again I tested my spoken skills in the real world, yep, I did perform this time better and was able to put my thoughts across at ease. However, you should write more after absorbing a lot of input through reading and listening and then should go for speaking. You written sentences will be incoporated into your spoken skills.

This seems to be a common question across many threads, and Guest's answer is excellent.

Do any other successful learners have a reply?

What about shadowing/echoing: Repeating out loud a split second after what you hear from a broadcast or recording. (And if you have heard a recording to the point of memorization, repeating out loud WITH the recording.)

The Birkenbihl method also advises the "chorus" method, and "shadow speaking." Take a look at their website--their method makes a lot of sense:

http://195.149.74.241/BIRKENBIHL/PDF/MethodEnglish.pdf

Has anyone tried their methods, including chorus/shadow speaking? I have the same challenge--going from understanding to speaking. Any advice from any other learners (like "Guest") who have done that successfully?