Learning English as a 2nd language can be tirelessly long, but there is always an award when you improve your English communication. English is a dominant language in the world, so knowing it can unlock a multitude of opportunities, especially when it comes to your career. Many countries have adopted English as its official language so it only makes sense that a lot of companies would do the same, especially to expand their audience across the globe. However, to achieve this objective, it won’t be easy. The English language is complex to learn and keeping up with the relaxed jargon, or slang, found in English can be a challenging role on its own. You will have to start somewhere, and this blog is the perfect place to do that. You will be provided with the knowledge of improving your English communication in the most effective way.
Why Should You Improve English Communication?
It’s important to understand how significant the English language is in the modern world. As a beginning English speaker, you should feel accomplished by taking that first step, but there is so much more to know about language itself. English is the global language of business, science, technology, and diplomacy. Proficiency in English opens doors to countless opportunities. According to Berlitz, 67 countries and 27 non-sovereignties have English as the official language. These countries spread across multiple continents, including Europe and Africa.
Another reason to improve English communication is to be more effective so you can be understood better and develop stronger relationships. When you embark on new career opportunities, you will encounter those who may have a stronger grasp of the English language than you. International soccer star, Lionel Messi, was known overseas and in Argentina as a legendary footballer and recently signed with the Inter Miami of Major League Soccer. According to Yahoo Sports, his MLS squad teammates speak mostly Spanish, but it has not stopped him from learning English. While Miami does have a big Latin population, it is still in the U.S. where English is dominant. And for someone like Messi, who was already a star coming into America, his presence and performance could potentially land him in rooms where he must speak English. Also, it’s not just athletics, many companies do business globally by either having business dealings globally or are looking to expand in international markets.
What Can You Do to Improve English Communication?
If you want to be good at something then you have to practice it, especially with the English language. With technological advances over the years, there are so many ways to improve your English language skills. For instance, you can use some websites or mobile Apps to practice English conversation online with other global learners in different time zones. In some cases, there are too many and you just don’t know which ones to really nail down. The important thing to remember is that concepts are more important than tools. You can improve your English communication through grammar, listening, reading and writing. You can also do all of these at once or one at a time. Once you decide on an objective, then you can follow through on a plan of action.
Basic Grammar Rules
Learning and reviewing the basic grammar rules will help you improve English communication. Fundamental grammar rules, such as figures of speech and sentence structure will reinforce your understanding of the English language. This is a good place to start practice as your understanding will translate into the other areas mentioned in the previous paragraph. For example, when you understand how a sentence is organized then you can speak that sentence out loud and listen to how easily it flows off of the tongue. It also helps you understand sentences that are spoken to you if you choose to do listening exercises.
Developing Listening Skills
Part of being a good communicator requires you to be a good listener. You have to listen to someone thoroughly to understand what they’re saying before responding to them, whether it’s a written or verbal message. When someone is speaking with you, pay attention to them by maintaining eye contact and refrain from interrupting them by letting them complete their thoughts. When you’re learning English, this is important so you can comprehend the full meaning of their message and your response will be aligned with what is being discussed.
There are a couple of verbal components to developing listening skills. After someone is done talking, you can summarize what they just said, just to make sure you understand their message. Sometimes the speaker might have said something by mistake, and this gives them a chance to correct themselves and express their message better. In addition to this, you can ask clarifying questions for anything that you might not understand. Sometimes native English speakers drift off into slang and other idioms when talking with just about anybody. They don’t understand that someone who is learning English may not be aware of all the common phrases and sayings used in everyday English vernacular.
Speak More
The opposite side of listening would be speaking. Speaking will be vital in improving your English communication because it’s going to help you understand your own message before trying to deliver it. It’s not going to be perfect all the time, but the more time and effort you put into speaking, the better you will become at it. The key to this is finding the right opportunity to do this. It can be something as simple as talking with a friend who already speaks English, so you can measure up your progress. When you speak English more often, you will hear yourself on where you go wrong and therefore can make corrections where needed.
Reading Regularly
Reading various articles or English texts can help improve English communication in a great manner. There is so much variety in this skill that there is not a wrong way to approach this at all. A common answer for this would probably be books. However, realistically speaking, not everybody is built to sit down and go through a book. Fortunately, English language learners can seek out articles and blog posts online that provide rich, complete and structured content to improve your skills. These materials cover a wide range of topics, so you can pick something that interests you, which will help keep you engaged.
The important part about reading is that you can see everything you learned about English, being put into action. All the knowledge you picked up for sentence structure and other grammar rules being put together to form complete and engaging messages. There are also some advanced aspects that you will begin to encounter such as the author’s style or purpose of the content.
Mastering Writing Skills
Writing is a great step to show your understanding of the English language. This is because you are creating the message from scratch and putting it all together. It is similar to speaking but this takes a little more work. You have to manually place the words in an organized fashion and also make sure they are spelled right. This also involves avoiding errors such as run-on sentences and incorrect punctuation. Some longer forms of content require advanced elements such as style and purpose – the same things you were looking for from authors in the reading section – but as you continue to learn English, it’s best to focus on shorter form content such as writing sentences, text messages or emails.
Always Practice
None of this even really matters unless you practice these methods. Even with the extensive knowledge of resources and tactics, there must be action to either one or all of English communication skills. Reading is probably the one you can really start with just so you can see what some of the messages look like and get a template of sentences to either speak with or write down on paper. Since reading also comes in a multitude of mediums, you can have a variety of materials to choose from to improve your English communication. Still, regardless of what you choose to read, write, speak with others or listen to them, it has to be done in a consistent fashion until you get it down naturally. Even those English speakers that learn a new language never find success without repetitive, constant practice.
Improving your English communication is a long but rewarding journey. There are many ways to to achieve this goal with simple strategies that you can choose to do individually or in a group. However, the achievement will not come without hard work that includes quality consistent practice. The English language is a global standard and is complex in its vernacular. It is intricate in some of its most basic teachings but can also grow more complicated through slang and common phrases. However, don’t look at that as an obstacle but rather an opportunity. This is your opportunity to improve your English communication through HiCafe, a platform dedicated to helping people learn the English language as well as improve their skill sets through resources such as articles, videos and private tutoring. For more information, visit HiCafe Homepage.