Language study
requires hard work and careful effort. Some ways have proven themselves more
successful than others. Ten such ways are given here for your improvement.
1. Find a
Partner.
Communication in any language is really
practical when there are two agents. Therefore, at the beginning you have to
find a partner for making English conversation and it is better to find a
partner from your peers with whom you are really comfortable to communicate may
be with all your mistakes
2. Start thinking everything in English and use
chunks.
Don’t try to speak sentences translated from
other languages. Always think in English and speak spontaneously. Talk to
yourself. Play back in your mind the language what you just heard, mimicking
(to copy the way somebody speaks) intonation, stress (an extra force used when
pronouncing a particular word), etc. This will help you to improve your
fluency.
This helps the beginners particularly. Chunks
are phrases or groups of words which can be learnt as a unit by one who is
learning a language. Examples of chunks are ‘Can I have the bill, please?’ and
‘Pleased to meet you’, etc. This is another way to improve your fluency. It is
because, while learning English, it is very important to notice how words are
often heard together.
3.Don’t worry too much about Making Mistakes.
Get
over your shyness and hesitation. Use the language as often as you can; may be
with a lot of mistakes at the beginning. Slowly, you will be all right. The
more you speak the faster you will learn. Also don't try to avoid the “illers’
/noises’, “repetition of words’, ‘pauses’ etc.
Even the native
speakers use “filler’ phrases to varying degrees. These are phrases like “What
I’m trying to say is ...”, “If you know what I mean . . . “, “Let me think a
minute here...”etc., which give speakers a small space to think before they
express their next idea.
4. Don’t worry about starting trouble
Even
native speakers of English find it difficult to get started. So, don’t let the
starting trouble disturb you. Using discourse markers (a word or phrase that
organizes spoken language into different parts, for example ‘Well …’ or ‘On the
other hand …’) is a good idea in handling starting trouble.
Okay, all right, right then, well, hmm’, you
know, like, etc., are all examples of discourse markers used in conversation.
They are employed to give the speaker a second to think about what he wants to
say. At the beginning don’t speak fast. Being fluent does NOT mean speaking
quickly. It is better to speak slowly and clearly at the beginning than quickly
and incoherently. People will not understand you if you speak too quickly with
the wrong intonation (the rise and fall of the voice in speaking, especially as
this affects the meaning of what is being said).
5. Don’t follow written English Style and don’t
learn by heart.
Don’t try to follow a formal written English
style or don’t make deliberate attempts to speak full and complete sentences as
in written English. Also don’t try to connect your sentences through logical
connectors like ’Above all’, ‘in addition to’ etc.
6. Hear English Everywhere.
Have you ever asked yourself: “How did I learn
my own language?” In fact, you never really “learned” it at all - you just
started speaking it. One day, when you were about two or three years old, you
started speaking your language. A few words at first, not full sentences. But
you spoke. And very soon you made progress without even thinking about it.
It was like magic !
But it wasn’t magic. It was the result of hearing. For two to three years
before you spoke, you heard people speaking your language all day and may be
all night. You heard people speaking your language. May be you listened to
people, but more importantly you heard them. For two to three years, words went
IN to your head.
Then words came OUT of
your head! That is why hearing (and listening to) English as much as possible
is so important to you now. The more English you put in, the more you’ll get out!
There are many ways of hearing English:
Radio:
Two of the best
international networks are the BBC World Service and Voice of America. Both of
them have special programmes for learners of English. In addition to this you
can make it a habit to listen to News broadcast by All India Radio.
Television:
TV helps both in
hearing and listening to English. The pictures help you understand what is
being said. Again BBC, CNN, DD News, NDTV24/7, Star News etc, are the good
choices to serve our purpose. When you are watching TV, observe the mouth
movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, imitating the
intonation and rhythm of their speech.
Cinema:
Make it a habit to
watch to English films. If you need to read the sub-titles, at least you’ll be
hearing English even if you don’t understand it.
CD Player / Computer:
CD player has one
really great advantage. You can hear/watch repeatedly by replaying them. If
there are sub-titles, you can cover them with paper (which you can remove if
you really don’t understand after listening several times).
Friends:
Try to make friendship with English-speaking
people so that you can practice your English through conversation. This will
serve as an exercise for your speaking as well as listening. At least you can
chat a little by telephone. Thus, if you want to speak English better in the
future, speak it as much as, possible NOW! Finally, don’t worry if you don’t
understand everything you hear. Hearing comes first! Understanding comes next!
Record your own voice (if possible) and listen
for pronunciation mistakes.
7. Develop your Active Vocabulary.
Active vocabulary consists of the words you
use frequently and comfortably in speaking and writing, while passive
vocabulary consists of the words you recognize when you read and listen. So one
has to increase his Active Vocabulary to be good speaker.
Learn new words every
day. If you add 5 words a day, to your vocabulary, you will learn about 150 new
words a month. As you are searching for words that you want to know, it will be
easier to remember them. Do it this way
a) Keep a small notebook handy: Think of a
word you know in your mother tongue. As you read, study, listen to TV or talk
with other people, note down words and expressions that you think would be
helpful for you.
b) Look it up in your
dictionary. Refer only an English - English dictionary. Get into the habit of
looking up words which you don't know and their phonetic symbols (for correct
pronunciation of words when you are not sure).
c) Write the English definition of every
thing.
d) Copy a sentence
from the dictionary. This will help you learn how to use the word correctly. Do
not yet write your own sentence. Practice reading this sentence until it
becomes natural for you.
8. Make Substututions.
If you learn some basic sentences in English,
you will be able to make unlimited number of sentences based on this basic
structure. This process is called substitution. Let us see how it works : Basic
sentence : Do you speak English?
Substitutions:
I. Do you speak Hindi / Do you speak Spanish?
/ Do you speak Tamil ? / Do you speak Greek? / Do you speak Italian ? (Just
imagine how many sentences you can make substituting English).
II. Do your sisters
speak English (Just imagine how many sentences you can make substituting you
into your...
III.Do you speak English fluently? (Just imagine how many sentences you can make
adding one more word )
9. Read
aloud (the books that are not too difficult).
Read aloud in English
for one to two hours each day. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles
that you use when you speak English. It will also help you to Listen, Speak and
learn new words.
Find a book that is
not too difficult - don’t be embarrassed to start with a children’s storybook
with pictures! Once you feel comfortable with these kinds of books, you can
start reading simple short stories and then graduate to novels
10. Make
a promise.
It is said that zeal
without action is fire without heat. So be active from today. Even make a promise
to follow all the above tips. On one fine day you will be speaking fluent
English. It is true like law of gravitation. Follow the AIM CARD that will be
given to you at the beginning of the course. So this is a new day in your life.
Look forward. Success will be yours.
Remember for speaking
better in English you have to listen and read a lot.
