Improve Your English Skills

Many people want to be able to speak English well. But sometimes they don’t know how to make it happen. When we were in school, the teachers actually given the exercises to improve our English language skills. But most of us don’t feel confident with the abilities that we have in the English learning. Okay, here described four ways to be able to realize it all.

1.        Listening

In learning English, listening is the most thing we do everyday. An experts say that “Adults spend an average of 70% of their time engaged in some sort of communication, of this an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing”.

Why listening is good?

1.        When listening, we are reviewing a lot of English usage such as vocabulary, grammatical structures, intonation, accent and our own interpretation.

2.        We can learn new words and expressions by hearing them frequently.

3.     Besides the English revision, general knowledge from news, features, or even advertising spots is certainly beneficial for regular listeners.

4.        We can imitate what we hear and apply it with great confidence.

5.     Listening can be a good "hobby" while we do other things such as cooking, ironing, exercising, relaxing etc. In other words, we have no wasted time at all.

6.        Listening is also a great way to train our attention.

How can we listen to english? We need a lot of practice. Many ways to practice listening as watching TV, listening to the radio, listening to music, listening to conversation exercises. Practice learning some conversation and repeatedly.

2.        Reading

Many people have trouble with reading. Reading is hard for some people and it can take time. Reading is a process of the brain where you look at symbols on a page, and your mind sees the patterns of characters and understands the meaning in them. If you develop good reading skills, it will be very helpful to your future. Aren't your school teachers always saying 'Read more books!'? Here are a few steps and tips to get started.

1.         Find something to read.

2.         Sound out each letter as best you can and you will notice they form some sort of word.

3.         Find a place to read where you can concentrate. 

4.         Begin your reading by looking at the pictures, or listening to the music to get a feel for what you are going to be reading about.

5.         Start with titles, names, or other larger print items that you may know or ever thought about.

6.         Read as much as you are able.

7.         Reread.

If you don't understand what you are reading, read over the sentences again. Try reading the words out loud to yourself. If you still don't understand something, ask a good reader nearby to explain the sentence(s) to you, or simply pick up a book that is easier to read and more appropriate to your reading level. Feel free to use your finger as a pointer. It will keep your eyes focused on the line you are reading, improving your understanding.

3.        Speaking

Improving your English speaking skills will help you communicate more easily and effectively. But how do you become a more confident English speaker?

1.    Practise where you can, when you can. Any practice is good – whether you speak to someone who is a native English speaker or not.

2.  It's important to build your confidence. If possible, use simple English sentence structure that you know is correct, so that you can concentrate on getting your message across.

3.   Try to experiment with the English you know. Use words and phrases you know in new situations. Native English speakers are more likely to correct you if you use the wrong word than if you use the wrong grammar. Experimenting with vocabulary is a really good way of getting feedback.

4.   Try to respond to what people say to you. You can often get clues to what people think by looking at their body language. Respond to them in a natural way.

5.  Try not to translate into and from your own language. This takes too much time and will make you more hesitant.

6.  If you forget a word, do what native English speakers do all the time, and say things that 'fill' the conversation. This is better than keeping completely silent. Try using um, or er, if you forget the word.

7.    Don't speak too fast! It's important to use a natural rhythm when speaking English, but if you speak too fast it will be difficult for people to understand you.

8.    Try to relax when you speak – you'll find your mouth does most of the pronunciation work for you.  When you speak English at normal speed, you'll discover that many of the pronunciation skills, such as linking between words, will happen automatically.

4.        Writing

1.    Keep All of your Writing in One Place

By keeping your writing all in the same place, you will be able to see how much you are improving and keep it organize

2.    Practice Writing in English Daily

3.    Pick a Topic and write!

Don’t get stuck on figuring out what to write about. You can write about anything.

4.    Write More than One Draft

Draft means a preliminary version of piece of writing. Sometimes, your best writing becomes better after you take a break and work on a second or third draft.

5.    Have a Friend Edit Your Writing

Have a friend that knows English correct or edit your work. Having another person read your work helps generate more ideas to better your writing.

6.    Find the Best Place for You to Write

You should try writing in different places or at different times of the day. Maybe you have writer’s block at night; try getting up 15 minutes earlier and writing in the morning. Maybe you have trouble writing where there is a lot of noise; try writing in a quiet and comfortable place