Monday, October 6, 2008

Do You Want to Improve Your English Speaking Skill

Nowadays English is essential to work in all the fields in any industry. Do you want to improve your English communication skill? Then start practicing it. English is very easy to learn; through constant practice anyone can handle this language. There are many things which contribute to good spoken English, but an important question for you is this: How then can you improve your spoken English? How can you try to put your resolution to improve into practice? Here are some concrete things you can do on your own to improve your English. But you should make it practice in your daily life, take a resolution and try to improve English communication skill confidently.

• Listen your friends’ speech and learn grammar, vocabulary and also learn how to communicate with out any mistakes.
• Listen to the radio. You could get up five minutes earlier and listen to the news in English.
• Watch TV programs to improve your listening skills. Try watching the news in English instead of your mother tongue. If you watch a movie and it has subtitles, try taping a paper over them. Listening to news reader’s talk is a good preparation for talking yourself.
• Read more. Not just newspapers and magazines, novels too.
• Refer to the dictionary and a grammar book (like Wren and Martin), while reading. Make it a habit.
• Do crosswords. They help to increase one's vocabulary and also urge you to think.
• Invite your English teacher to have lunch! Find a friend who also wants to improve his or her English and have lunch or dinner together - speaking in English of course.
• Watch for notices of English activities and join in whenever you can.
• Find books-on-tape in the local library. Listen when you are relaxing at home or when you are commuting if you have a walkman.
• Choose famous people who accent you admire, and if you can get recordings of him or her, imitate the way he or she speaks.
• Practice situations when you are alone, perhaps in front of a mirror. Imagine when you are introducing yourself, disagreeing with someone's ideas, being interviewed or asking for information. If you can get someone to help, assign parts and do the role play
• Exchange tapped messages with a classmate. Record a few minutes and then ask your classmate to respond later on the same tape.
• Practice reading aloud - get someone to check your pronunciation and intonation, or record yourself on tape and analyze your own speech
• If you have a chance to travel, take advantage of the opportunities to use English - airlines and immigration personnel, hotel and restaurant staff, fellow travelers and passengers. Visit a former English teacher either from secondary school or from a course you took at the university. Teachers like to hear how their students are doing.
• Improve your vocabulary- You could come across these anywhere -- while reading, on a news channel, on a sign at the shopping mall, on a billboard, etc. Make the effort to look up the exact meaning of the word in the dictionary, instead of adopting the easier route of understanding the meaning from the context. If possible, maintain a book where you can note down the new words everyday, along with the context, so you remember them better.
• Prepare for small talk-Speaking English fluently is not just about making corporate presentations and giving long speeches. It is about expressing your views on the most mundane of things. The ability to make small talk is very important in business and social conversations. You can select any topics like sports whether current affairs, arts, hobbies, travel, etc Talk about it with someone close to you so you can check for grammatical accuracy
• Make mistakes-With out making mistakes you can learn anything .It is from the mistake you learn the right one. It is the same with language. If you do not use the language, you will never know how good you are at it. Speak with others frankly and ask them to help you, whenever you make mistake. Do not be embarrassed to make mistakes, for that is the only way you will learn. That is how the process of acquiring fluency a language occurs. As a child, you may have made a lot of mistakes before getting a good grasp of your mother tongue. The only difference now is that you are conscious of the mistakes

Everyone knows that the only really effective way to improve on language skills is to use the language. In reality, however, we know that there are many reasons why people don't want to speak in another language - they are afraid of making mistakes, they can't express their real meaning easily. Moreover, they are shy and afraid of the people who will laugh at them. We all feel this way sometimes, but if you really want to improve your spoken English, try some of the suggestions we have made here. Once you try putting some of these ideas and principles into practice, the cat will have a very hard time getting your tongue!

No comments: