Improve English Language Skills
Importance of Communication Skills
English, as you know, has become the most influential world language. Many of us have studied this language for years at the school. We can read English, and we can write at least some English. But we are not confident about speaking this language. Why not? How can we begin to speak English, and speak it well?
Language skills are part of a broader set of communication skills. We communicate not only through language, but through gesture and 'body language', and by what we do(or neglect to do). The following will give you some information that will help you to communicate in English effectively. It helps you to think about how to learn this language well, and use it effectively.
How do Children Learn Language
A question we often ask about a small child is, ''Does he or she speak yet?" A child "picks up" language, and "learns" to talk, just as he or she "learn" to walk. 'walking and talking come naturally to a child as it grows. In some countries, the child may grow up speaking more than one language, if these languages are spoken in the home and in the neighbourhood. We call this multilingualism.
A child speaks a language or languages much before he or she starts going to school. To know a language, then, is, first of all, to be able to speak it as easily and naturally as a three-year-old child does. Later on, at school, the child will go on to read and write, as you and I do. But unless we can speak a language at will, we may feel that we do not really know the language.
Now you are probably saying to yourself: "But I did not learn English as a child! What can I do now? Can I become a child again to improve English language skills?" No, but you can do some of the things a child does when he or she learns a language.
Improve English Language skills :
Rules of a Child
The child listens before he or she speaks. A baby may understand a few words at six months of age, but it has been listening ever since it was born, and even a little before that! The baby may not speak any words until it is nine months old. By the time it is three years old, though, it can speak at length.
So your first strategy is to listen to the language you want to communicate in. Perhaps your friends and your family don't speak English. Never mind. Since you are an adult, you can listen to the radio, and watch television or films where people speak English. Don't worry if at first, you don't understand very much of what you hear! If you listen to the same kind of programme regularly -- such as the news, or sports commentary, or quiz programmes -- you will soon begin to understand it better.
Just as you must listen in order to be able to speak, you must read regularly and at length, to be able to speak or to write. Make it a habit to read an English newspaper every day. Try to read magazines and books in English.Make sure that the English in these books and magazines is written by writers who know their craft!
A child learns the language wherever it can, whenever it can: anyone who uses a language is a language teacher for the child! You too can "pick up" language, in this case, English, if you actively look for opportunities to use it. Use it to listen and read, and to speak and write; and learn whenever you can, from anyone who can speak to you, or anything you read. Practice makes Perfect!
You can learn more about the language by consulting reference materials such as dictionaries, a thesaurus, and books about grammar and style.
See Also
Learning English as an International Language
Defining English Language Varieties - Dialect, Accent, and
Style
See Also
Learning English as an International Language
Defining English Language Varieties - Dialect, Accent, and
Style
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