English Practice

One of the new best friends of man is the Internet. It is simply filled with all the up to the minute news and innovations, and most of all, if you are trying to learn how to speak English and there is no way that you can do this successfully in your country, then you can just use some apparatus that the internet has made possible.

My most favourite is the site howjsay which all you need to do is to type in the word and then you get to listen to a computer generated voice which will say the words properly and in the right accent. Even I am sometimes surprised that I had pronounced a word incorrectly for year after I just curiously did some inquiries. Shame on me.

The point is, this is a good way to teach people to speak the English language properly. The internet is filled with these apparatus and it can be surprising that a lot of students from foreign countries find that they could actually communicate well simply by going through the internet.

Another thing in the internet that is great for language skills is the messenger application like Skype, MSN and YM. These can connect you to several people from all over the world and you can actually ask your friends if they know what to do. Most if not all of the time the friends would be able to correct your use of the language and before you know it, you can literally chat with them online in perfectly written English.

If you want to learn how to speak it properly, there are also sites where you can just join chat groups and the “friends” there will offer their assistance in a flash once they learn that you are trying to learn their language. In return, they can also learn your language, so there would be a balanced exchange in the learning process.

One of the better ways to speak English is if the medium of instruction is in the English language. There are pros and cons to this type of education and it all depends on the teacher of the language.

Let us start with the pros first.

Learning in a school which uses English as the medium of instruction is almost like immersion. The difference is there is no total immersion. After classes which is taught in English, the student can just go back to the native language and still think in that language. The results can vary. Depending on the teacher and the student, the student can actually sometimes speak the language fluently with an accent and yet fail in writing it or they can read and write if fluently but cannot speak it. If the teacher or professor is the type that demands full attention on the fluency of the language then this can be corrected immediately and hopefully the results would be reading, writing and speaking the language. However, there is still the barrier of thinking in the language. This is rarely achieved in a school setting.

Now for the cons.

English is taught as the medium of instruction in schools whose country may not be fluent in the language itself. These are true in countries in Asia. The subjects are taught in English yet if the teacher cannot or fails to explain the subject properly, they fall back to their native language. They find this really convenient and they think that the method has merits. It may, but the merits are so few that the resulting English spoken would be filled in with the native language and worse, the speaker could not even be understood because of the heavy accent and the need to sound American and fail drastically.

Is there no hope?

The points were just written to make the reader aware that there are advantages and disadvantages to learning the English language in a school setting where the language is taught by those who also cannot speak it well. However, this does not stop the learning to take matters into their own hands and learn through another method, by watching television and learning shows.

One of the better methods to learning how to speak English better is by taking down notes. This is actually a very simple way of improving your grammar and vocabulary.

If you are just learning how to speak English or can already converse well but are still grasping for some words that fail to come around, then this is one technique which you can do to remember some of the words that you hear for the first time or the use of the word in a sentence that makes sense to you.

Some may consider that you may look funny taking down words as you hear them, but if they realize by informing them that this is your way of learning, then they may actually even volunteer some more words for you to take down.

That is the fun in learning a language, anyone that you meet can become a potential friend because they feel that they are in a position to teach, they know their language well and they can impart some wisdom and knowledge that they have been getting and earning since they were babies.

As a learner of a foreign language, never ever feel shy or out of place to make people know your limitations of the use of their language. You will be surprised that a lot, if not most, people like it that you are learning their language. They feel a pride when they know someone learning and rare are the people who would put you down and ridicule your attempts.

Sometimes, simply sitting on a park bench and listening to people talk is one way of hearing words that you have never before met in your learning. Once you take down the words for the day, go back and look up the meanings.

The internet is filled with dictionaries online and there are even some which teach you how to say a word properly. You can even find some sites which offer tutorials on how to use the one word that you took note of into several sentences which give the word different meanings.

Learning to speak English is fun, it gets better if you take down notes.

One of the best ways to practice speaking a language like English is by simply talking and talking and continue talking like there is no tomorrow. This effort of continuously talking will become a habit and eventually you start thinking in the English language, no longer thinking in your own native tongue.

When learning anything, all the teachers will tell any student that the only way to perfection is through continuous practice. If you are learning to speak English, then the best way would be to continue practicing by talking, reading and writing. Here’s how:

Talk, read, and write. That is how you do it. No other way to it. You just have to take it at face value, you cannot practice by thinking your way through it, and you have to actually do it. Dreaming of practicing will not help improve your skills, especially the English language.

You, as the learner, have to understand that the English language is not altogether a pure language when it is spoken. One of the purest languages is the Basque language, and that is not English. English has been influenced most specifically by several other languages. The language that we now know as English is not the language of Shakespeare, Wordsworth or even Chaucer. How do I know? Just read their works and you will find that a lot of the spellings are different, the uses of the words are also different and definitely the grammar is different.

When you talk to your friend in English, you will be using the modern English, American, not British. Talk to your friend in English and even if they answer in your native tongue, just keep going and answer in English. However, you have to inform them the why of your actions or they will feel that you are insulting them. Once they know that you are practicing, they will actually practice with you and even learn from you.

As long as you keep speaking it, you also have to learn from books and other media to help improve your grammar and vocabulary. Going back to the classics, this you can eventually go to, after you have acquired more skills. Once you have done so, one of the best ways to improve your grammar and vocabulary is through the classics.