English language has acquired
the status of a global language, whether we like it or not. To have a standing
in the school, college, university and the practical life one has to be able to
use English for effective communication. Owing to this scenario everyone wants
to improve their English language skills. Here are some tried tips that can
enhance the language skills if applied regularly and religiously.
1. Read regularly. Set a routine and read for at least 15 minutes every day.
This 15 minutes period can be the time you travel in the van from home to your
institution. It can be the time you wait for your turn at the Barber’s , the
dentist or a doctor. It can be the time between the periods when you just sit
wait for the next teacher to come. There are several short wait times scattered
around the whole day fill them up with useful reading.
2. Write regularly. Reading is a receptive skill, not that you are just
receiving the information like a glass from the jug, but still you are
comparatively passive while reading. Writing helps in consolidating what you
read. The structures and vocabulary that you pick, without even knowing that you
are doing that, show on the paper when you write. Writing gives you a sense of
pride. If you keep a record of your writing and read your first and the last
piece of writing after some weeks you will be able to see the growth.
3. Talk regularly. You must have at least one buddy who starts with you and
continues to follow the tips with you. Then you people can fix a time to call
each other and spend some time talking in English.
4. Listen regularly. We all learnt our mother tongue by listening to whole,
unaltered, complete, original language. We were rather immersed in the mother
tongue completely and that is how we were enabled to learn it. For learning the
second language, ideally we should be immersed in it. But as living in our own
country this is not possible so we must listen to or watch English programs on
the radio or television.
5. Note and review regularly. Although the above four if applied consistently
will be enough but I feel that some conscious learning of vocabulary and grammar
is always useful. I am a strong proponent of teaching and learning a language in
context but I still feel that isolation also helps. So note down the words that
you have encountered more than once and have developed some understanding of
them. Now that you are familiar with them look their meaning up in the
dictionary and understand the way they are used. While writing if you want to
say something and are not sure how to structure it refer a grammar book and
learn the rule.
The above tips will surely help you improve your language skills. Try them and
test.
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