Learn Hardcore Russian: Я хочу улучшить своё умение говорить по-русски. - I want to improve my ability to speak Russian.

Using свой emphasizes that the ability belongs to the person doing the action.
You can say моё умение, and it’s grammatically correct, but своё is more natural here and often preferred in standard Russian when the subject and possessor are the same.

Why is it своё, not свой or своя?

Свой changes form to agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun it modifies, not with the person doing the action.

The noun here is умение – a neuter noun in the accusative case (it’s the direct object).
Neuter singular nominative/accusative form of свой is своё.

So:

свой дом (masc.)
своя книга (fem.)
своё умение (neut.)
свои друзья (plural)

Why is умение used? What does it mean exactly, and could we use other words?

Умение means “ability/skill” (the capacity or know-how to do something).

Common related words:

умение – ability, skill (fairly neutral, often practical or functional)
навык – skill/habit, often something trained and automated (e.g. typing speed)
способность – ability/capacity (often more general or inborn: learning ability, mental abilities)

In this sentence:

Я хочу улучшить своё умение говорить по-русски.
Focuses on your ability as something you possess and can improve.

You could also say:

Я хочу улучшить свои навыки русского языка. – “I want to improve my Russian language skills.”
Я хочу лучше говорить по-русски. – “I want to speak Russian better.” (more informal, very natural)

But умение говорить is perfectly correct and somewhat bookish or formal.

Why do we say умение говорить, not говорительное умение or something similar?

Russian typically expresses “ability to do X” with:

умение + infinitive

So you get:

умение говорить – ability to speak
умение писать – ability to write
умение слушать – ability to listen

Using a noun made from the verb (like your hypothetical говорительное умение) is not natural here. The “noun + infinitive” structure is the standard way to talk about abilities to perform actions.

Why is it говорить по-русски, not говорить русский?

In Russian, with languages you do not usually say говорить русский. Instead, you use:

говорить по-русски – literally “to speak in a Russian way”, but idiomatically “to speak Russian”
говорить на русском (языке) – “to speak in the Russian (language)”

So:

✅ говорить по-русски
✅ говорить на русском (языке)
❌ говорить русский (unnatural in standard Russian in this sense)

Говорить русский could only appear in very special contexts (e.g. in poetry, or something like “He speaks Russian (person)” which is odd), but as “to speak Russian (language)”, it’s wrong.

What’s the difference between по-русски and на русском (языке)?

Both generally mean “in Russian / in the Russian language”, but there are some nuances:

по-русски
- Feels a bit more colloquial and adverbial.
- Often used for speaking and for “in a Russian way” (manner):
  - говорить по-русски – speak Russian
  - одеваться по-русски – dress in a Russian way
на русском (языке)
- Slightly more formal or neutral.
- Common with verbs like говорить, писать, читать, переводить:
  - писать на русском – write in Russian
  - читать на русском языке – read in the Russian language

In daily speech, говорить по-русски and говорить на русском are basically interchangeable in meaning.

What exactly is по-русски grammatically? Is it a case form?

Historically, по-русски comes from the preposition по + an old dative/instrumental-type form of русский.

In modern grammar, it’s usually treated as an adverb meaning:

“in Russian (language)” or
“in a Russian way, in Russian style”

So you can think of по-русски just as an adverb, similar to быстро (quickly), громко (loudly), etc., which describes how you speak: you speak how? — по-русски.

Why is the verb улучшить (perfective), and could we use улучшать instead?

Улучшить = perfective
Улучшать = imperfective

Я хочу улучшить своё умение…
Focus on a result you want to achieve at some point in the future: you want your ability to become better.
Я хочу улучшать своё умение…
Focus on a process, on regularly working on and improving your skill.

Both can be correct:

If you mean “I want my ability to become better” → улучшить (perfective) is more natural.
If you mean “I want to be engaged in the process of improving” → улучшать.

In practice, learners typically say улучшить in this kind of sentence.

Why is the infinitive улучшить used after хочу?

In Russian, after verbs of desire and intention such as:

хотеть – to want
планировать – to plan
любить (in the sense “like to do”)
собираться – to be going to

you normally use the infinitive to express what action you want to perform:

Я хочу улучшить… – I want to improve…
Она хочет говорить по-русски. – She wants to speak Russian.
Мы собираемся поехать в Москву. – We’re going to go to Moscow.

So хочу + улучшить is the standard construction.

Which case is умение in here, and why?

Умение is in the accusative singular.

Reason: It’s the direct object of the verb улучшить:

улучшить (что?) – to improve (what?) → умение

Since умение is a neuter inanimate noun, its accusative singular form is the same as its nominative singular: умение.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Я хочу улучшить умение говорить по-русски своё?

The natural word order is:

Я хочу улучшить своё умение говорить по-русски.

Word order in Russian is flexible, but not completely free. Pronouns like своё normally come before the noun they modify, especially in neutral speech.

✅ своё умение (normal, natural)
❌ умение своё in this sentence sounds unnatural and stylistically off.

You can place possessives after nouns in special contexts (poetry, emphasis, or stylized speech), but for learners it’s safest to keep:

[possessive] + [noun] → своё умение

Could I just say Я хочу лучше говорить по-русски instead of this whole sentence?

Yes, and it’s very natural and common.

Я хочу улучшить своё умение говорить по-русски.
More explicit and a bit more formal/“textbooky”: you literally talk about improving your ability.
Я хочу лучше говорить по-русски.
Simpler and very idiomatic: “I want to speak Russian better.”

Both are correct. In everyday conversation, the shorter version is probably more common.

How do you pronounce and stress the words in this sentence?

Stresses (in bold):

Я – ya
хочу – kha-CHU (stress on the second syllable)
улучшить – oo-loot-SHIT’ (stress on -ши-)
своё – svo-YO
умение – oo-MYE-ni-ye (stress on ме)
говорить – ga-va-REET’ (stress on ри)
по-русски – pa-ROOS-kee (stress on ру)

Whole sentence (approximate transcription):
Я хоЧУ улуЧШИТЬ своЁ умеНИЕ говоРИТЬ поРУсски.

Is говорить по-русски reflexive because of the -сь / -ски ending?

No. The -ски here is part of the adjective/adverb formation, not the reflexive -сь / -ся ending.

Reflexive verbs: мыться, бояться, улыбаться – end in -ться / -ться (or -сь / -ся).
по-русски is an adverb formed from русский with the suffix -ски and the preposition по-.

So there is no reflexive meaning in по-русски. It just means “in Russian / in a Russian way.”