general English

January 30, 2012

How to speak English fluently ??

Hi, buddy… what’s up?!

It has been a long time not seeing you. J. I’ve just found an interesting article about how to speaking English fluently. A common question that the students whole over the world (lebay.com) ask to their teacher or lecturer, especially when they are eager to speak English. There are some steps and some tips. I hope you’ll get “something” after you read this article.

Are you very shy when it comes to new surroundings, such as starting a new class or moving to a new area? Sometimes, it is necessary to overcome your shyness and speak confidently. By doing this, it can help you not only to share your ideas properly to others, but also to learn communicating with others. Here are a few steps to consider when speaking with confidence.

Steps

  • Learn how to have conversations with people. Your ideas or opinions may not always be accepted by others, but this is nothing unusual. Open your mouth, express your beliefs! This will improve your courage.
  • Don’t be afraid and speak loudly. If you speak in a low voice, not only will others not be able to hear what you say, but you will also portray a submissive demeanor, which suggests the opposite of a confident one.
  • Make eye contact when you speak. For one thing, it is polite for others. Also, eye contact will help others to listen to your thinking carefully.
  • Praise yourself everyday! This will promote your own confidence, which is important when you speak. With more confidence, people will take your thinking more seriously.

Tips

  • Don’t be nervous when you make mistakes. Human error is far from being a new concept — nobody is perfect! It is normal for everyone to make mistakes. Just calm down and keep speaking bravely.
  • Try and try again! This may be difficult for a shy person at first, but you need to force yourself to speak, and not seclude your thoughts. If you have some ideas, then try to speak out! Don’t just keep them in your head.
  • If you have self confidence issues, try to think that you are the only one who has sound knowledge about the topic. Then go ahead and impart your knowledge to the audience in an effective way.
  • Remember that there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Don’t portray an exaggerated amount of confidence, or you will come off as arrogant, believing that your ideas are better than the ideas of everyone else.

5 Speaking Rules you need to know!

1. Don’t study grammar too much

This rule might sound strange to many ESL students, but it is one of the most important rules. If you want to pass examinations, then study grammar. However, if you want to become fluent in English, then you should try to learn English without studying the grammar.

Studying grammar will only slow you down and confuse you. You will think about the rules when creating sentences instead of naturally saying a sentence like a native. Remember that only a small fraction of English speakers know more than 20% of all the grammar rules. Many ESL students know more grammar than native speakers. I can confidently say this with experience. I am a native English speaker, majored in English Literature, and have been teaching English for more than 10 years. However, many of my students know more details about English grammar than I do. I can easily look up the definition and apply it, but I don’t know it off the top of my head.

I often ask my native English friends some grammar questions, and only a few of them know the correct answer. However, they are fluent in English and can read, speak, listen, and communicate effectively.

Do you want to be able to recite the definition of a causative verb, or do you want to be able to speak English fluently?

2. Learn and study phrases

Many students learn vocabulary and try to put many words together to create a proper sentence. It amazes me how many words some of my students know, but they cannot create a proper sentence. The reason is because they didn’t study phrases. When children learn a language, they learn both words and phrases together. Likewise, you need to study and learn phrases.

If you know 1000 words, you might not be able to say one correct sentence. But if you know 1 phrase, you can make hundreds of correct sentences. If you know 100 phrases, you will be surprised at how many correct sentences you will be able to say. Finally, when you know only a 1000 phrases, you will be almost a fluent English speaker.

The English Speaking Basics section is a great example of making numerous sentences with a single phrase. So don’t spend hours and hours learning many different words. Use that time to study phrases instead and you will be closer to English fluency.

Don’t translate 

When you want to create an English sentence, do not translate the words from your Mother tongue. The order of words is probably completely different and you will be both slow and incorrect by doing this. Instead, learn phrases and sentences so you don’t have to think about the words you are saying. It should be automatic.

Another problem with translating is that you will be trying to incorporate grammar rules that you have learned. Translating and thinking about the grammar to create English sentences is incorrect and should be avoided.

3. Reading and Listening is NOT enough. Practice Speaking what you hear!

Reading, listening, and speaking are the most important aspects of any language. The same is true for English. However, speaking is the only requirement to be fluent. It is normal for babies and children to learn speaking first, become fluent, then start reading, then writing. So the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, then writing.

First Problem
Isn’t it strange that schools across the world teach reading first, then writing, then listening, and finally speaking? Although it is different, the main reason is because when you learn a second language, you need to read material to understand and learn it. So even though the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, then writing, the order for ESL students is reading, listening, speaking, then writing.

Second Problem
The reason many people can read and listen is because that’s all they practice. But in order to speak English fluently, you need to practice speaking. Don’t stop at the listening portion, and when you study, don’t just listen. Speak out loud the material you are listening to and practice what you hear. Practice speaking out loud until your mouth and brain can do it without any effort. By doing so, you will be able to speak English fluently.

4. Submerge yourself

Being able to speak a language is not related to how smart you are. Anyone can learn how to speak any language. This is a proven fact by everyone in the world. Everyone can speak at least one language. Whether you are intelligent, or lacking some brain power, you are able to speak one language.

This was achieved by being around that language at all times. In your country, you hear and speak your language constantly. You will notice that many people who are good English speakers are the ones who studied in an English speaking school. They can speak English not because they went to an English speaking school, but because they had an environment where they can be around English speaking people constantly.

There are also some people who study abroad and learn very little. That is because they went to an English speaking school, but found friends from their own country and didn’t practice English.

You don’t have to go anywhere to become a fluent English speaker. You only need to surround yourself with English.

You can do this by making rules with your existing friends that you will only speak English. You can also carry around an iPod and constantly listen to English sentences. As you can see, you can achieve results by changing what your surroundings are. Submerge yourself in English and you will learn several times faster.

TalkEnglish Offline Version is now ready for download. In this package, you can utilize over 8000 audio files to completely surround yourself in English. There are over 13.5 hours of audio files that are not available in the web form. All conversations and all sentences are included, so even if you don’t have many English speaking friends, you can constantly surround yourself in English using your MP3 player. This package is available at the English Download page. Take advantage of this opportunity and start learning English faster. Click on the link or go tohttp://www.talkenglish.com/english-download.aspx.

5. Study correct material

A common phrase that is incorrect is, “Practice makes perfect.” This is far from the truth. Practice only makes what you are practicing permanent. If you practice the incorrect sentence, you will have perfected saying the sentence incorrectly. Therefore, it is important that you study material that is commonly used by most people.

Another problem I see is that many students study the news. However, the language they speak is more formal and the content they use is more political and not used in regular life. It is important to understand what they are saying, but this is more of an advanced lesson that should be studied after learning the fundamental basics of English.

Studying English with a friend who is not a native English speaker is both good and bad. You should be aware of the pro’s and con’s of speaking with a non native speaking friend. Practicing with a non native person will give you practice. You can also motivate each other and point out basic mistakes. But you might pick up bad habits from one another if you are not sure about what are correct and incorrect sentences. So use these practice times as a time period to practice the correct material you studied. Not to learn how to say a sentence.

In short, study English material that you can trust, that is commonly used, and that is correct.

I hope that all of you got “something” after you read this article…

source:

http://www.talkenglish.com

http://public-speaking.in

October 8, 2010

How to make English spelling interesting (or even fun)

English spelling can seem difficult, random and endless even to native speakers, so there is an obvious need to liven its practice up in most EFL classes. Scrabble and Boggle don’t work very well with non native speakers, and dictations are usually dull and too teacher-centred for most communicative EFL classes. Here, then, are some other ideas, mainly usable for all ages from 6 to 60. Continue Reading

October 8, 2010

idiom

An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for ESL students and learners to understand. (usingenglish.com)

An idiom (Latin: idioma, “special property”, f. Greek: ἰδίωμα — idiōma, “special feature, special phrasing”, f. Greek: ἴδιος — idios, “one’s own”) is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made. There are estimated to be at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions in American English. Continue Reading

October 8, 2010

American Slang

 

American slang is different from British slang because of the evolution of American English …

When the pioneers living in the new world had children, they taught their children to pronounce words the way they were written, in order to keep things simple. This was the first break from British English. Continue Reading

October 5, 2010

7 tips for speaking English fluently

RULE 1: Always Study and Review Phrases, Not Individual Words

Never study a single, individual word. Never.

When you find a new word, always write down The Phrase it is in. Always.

When you review, always review all of the phrase,.. not the word.

Collect phrases.

Your speaking and grammar will improve 4-5 times faster. Always write the

complete phrase.
Never again study a single word. Never write a single word in your notebook,

Learn Phrases Only.Phrases are GROUPS of words that naturally go

together.

**RULE 2: Don’t Study Grammar

Continue Reading

October 5, 2010

Learning English = Good Dictionary

The first step to learning English is having a good dictionary.

What do we mean by good dictionary?

Well, firstly, if you really want to improve your fluency with the language you should use an “English – English” dictionary. Many people find it comfortable using a “Hindi –English” or “Marathi –English” dictionary. Do “not” use this kind of dictionary. Use an “English – English” dictionary only!

There are many advantages of an English – English dictionary. In this kind of dictionary, the meanings are explained in English like:

to criticize = to say negative things about; to talk about the mistakes of

So you have to understand the meaning of the meaning too. This helps you to familiarize your self with the language and also exposes you to new English words that you should find out the meanings of.

To really accelerate your English learning process, go in for an English-English dictionary. Not only should you have this kind of dictionary. You must also use it. Use it every time you come across a new word.

Also, keep in mind that when you buy your English-English dictionary, you buy a version that is for learners, not the version for native speakers. Usually, “students version” or “learners version” etc. will be written on the dictionary. Continue Reading

October 4, 2010

School Uniform of England, Japan, and Indonesia

ENGLAND

School uniforms in England were first introduced on a large scale during the reign of King Henry VIII.[1] The uniforms of the time were referred as “bluecoats”, as they consisted of long trench-coat-style jackets dyed blue. Blue was the cheapest available dye and showed humility amongst all children. The first school to introduce this uniform was Christ’s Hospital and it is the oldest uniform of any school. Continue Reading

October 2, 2010

American and British English differences

Written forms of American and British English as found in newspapers and textbooks vary little in their essential features, with only occasional noticeable differences in comparable media[1] (comparing American newspapers to British newspapers, for example). This kind of formal English, particularly written English, is often called ‘standard English’. An unofficial standard for spoken American English has also developed, as a result of mass media and geographic and social mobility. It is typically referred to as ‘standard spokenAmerican English‘ (SSAE) or ‘General American English’ (GenAm or GAE), and broadly describes the English typically heard from network newscasters, commonly referred to as non-regional diction, although local newscasters tend toward more parochial forms of speech. Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted but have actually intensified, according to linguist William Labov.

Regional dialects in the United States typically reflect the elements of the language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four major regional variations of spoken American English: Northern, Southern, Midland, and Western (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006). After the American Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led to dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated in the eastern parts of the country that were settled earlier. Localized dialects also exist with quite distinct variations, such as in Southern Appalachia and New York.

The spoken forms of British English vary considerably, reflecting a long history of dialect development amid isolated populations. Dialects and accents vary not only between the countries in the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also within these individual countries.

There are also differences in the English spoken by different groups of people in any particular region. Received Pronunciation (RP), which is “the educated spoken English of south-east England”, has traditionally been regarded as proper English; this is also referred to as BBC English or the Queen’s English. The BBC and other broadcasters now intentionally use a mix of presenters with a variety of British accents and dialects, and the concept of “proper English” is now far less prevalent.

British and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. For instance, the English-speaking members of theCommonwealth often closely follow British English forms while many new American English forms quickly become familiar outside of the United States. Although the dialects of English used in the former British Empire are often, to various extents, based on British English, most of the countries concerned have developed their own unique dialects, particularly with respect to pronunciation, idioms, and vocabulary; chief among them are Canadian English and Australian English, which rank third and fourth in number of nativespeakers.

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October 1, 2010

Ten Ways To (Seriously) Improve Your Writing

It’s commonly said, (among writers who do it for their living), that blood to a surgeon is like rejection to a writer — a necessary part of every day’s work.

Whether a surgeon likes blood is irrelevant. Do professional writers — and ambitious amateurs — enjoy rejection? Irrelevant.

It’s not a game for delicate souls, whether you are paid for your work or hope to, or do not.

I’ve earned my living selling my writing since my sophomore year of college; here are ten issues professionals/ambitious writers take seriously:
Continue Reading