Here are a few ways to improve your English Proficiency:
Go back to the Basics and Simplify Your Thoughts
Filipinos have been privileged to have been exposed to the English language since the day they first started school, for some, it even started since the day they were born. English movies, Television Series, Literature and Articles are so accessible that students tend to take their English lessons for granted. I’m not telling you to go back to school again, what I’m suggesting is for you to remember the basic grammar rules that were taught to you in your grade school and high school. It’s a sad fact that even though we have English subjects every school year, we still fail at mastering the art of communication in the English language. It’s not because we don’t understand it, it’s because we have a hard time simplifying our thoughts for our mouth to utter the words.
The key is to use simple words, construct simple sentences and re-learn your basic grammar rules to make sure that they are correct. You may Click here for some tips on the grammar rules. A good practice would be to learn Phrases – Click Here for sample phrases and familiarize how the sentence was constructed with the proper grammar rule. A more enjoyable practice would be watching English movies with subtitles and imitate the dialogue on the movie. You can also imitate the pace, the pitch and the intonation of your favorite Celebrity. Make sure to take note of how fast they are speaking when talking with each other on the Movie, this is the pace that you want for someone to understand you. What are you waiting for? Go watch that favorite English movie of yours and start a practice that you can also enjoy.
Expand your Vocabulary – Read and Learn Online and Offline
The world of internet is full of opportunities, information and a lot of free materials. You can utilize this resource to the fullest to improve your knowledge of the English Language. You’d be able to find a lot of sites that offers articles that you can read, a good example would be the Rarejob News Article blog – the blog is a summary of News articles from all over the net with a list of vocabulary per article to add to your English arsenal of words. Since Rarejob caters to Japanese students who want to learn English, you can make sure that their articles are simplified in way that you can use them as if you were learning again for the first time. I would also suggest making it a habit to read newspapers or books, the Newspapers is not just for you to keep up with the current affairs but this can also introduce you to a range of new words and Sentence Structures. They also help you to form opinions on various issues. The habit of reading a book is also bound to make you aware of the grammatical rules and also strengthen your vocabulary. You can also read magazines and journals. The majority of writers who write in famous publications have a pretty good knowledge on the fundamentals of proper grammar. In this practice, you'll be exposed to a lot of useful materials that would help you increase your English proficiency, aside from that - you might even learn something new.
Read Out Loud
This practice is awkward to some people but mind you, this is really effective. Remember when we were kids where we were shown pictures by our teachers and were asked to read the words that come with the picture out loud? When you do this, your brain records the sound of the words as spoken by you and you will never forget the way the sound goes with the image. Eventually, we get exposed to new ideas and techniques in reading and we start to just whisper the words instead of saying it out loud until the time where we only read through our minds. This technique though is also the reason why our tone and enunciation is also deteriorating as time passes by. When we read silently, we only use two parts of our body – the brain and the eyes. To get back to the saddle - we should back up a bit and start to read out loud again and when we do, we would be using four parts of our body - the brain, eyes, ears, and mouth. Using more parts of the body would increase your retention level since your mind had been trained to listen to your own native language and it is resisting the learning. So you can train your mind to listen to something new by actually reading out loud, with feelings and emotions as the word turns. This way, what the eyes see, the brain will hear and the learning becomes faster and the skills you develop will get better from your practice. You would also be able to exercise your facial muscles since the sounds are shaped by our facial organs - tongue, teeth, nose, lips, etc.
What would be the best source of practice for this? We should look for materials with gentle cadences that change the mood of the written word like poetry or literature - materials with dialogues that you can imitate. Experiment with the tempo, the tone, raise your voice up and down and notice that every time you do this, even with the same sentence, it would turn up with a different meaning. Always read what interests you, in this way, you won’t have a problem with getting bored and giving up right away. Observe what your read, when you read out loud, use your mind to the maximum. Notice how the sentences are put together, the order of the words, how they construct the sentences and the grammar rules that they are using. Try to remember these things and put them in practice when you speak and write in the English language.
Never give up on Practicing
In case you find yourself getting bored or uninterested in learning, don’t give up. Think of giving up as a mortal sin. Like your job hunt, you shouldn’t give up on your Communication Skills as well. Learning and mastering the English language is never easy. The key is to keep practicing until you get the hang of it. You reduce your practice hours or frequency but don’t quit - keep reading and writing.
The rewards of a good communication skill are not just limited to your job hunt or your employment, this will also develop you personality and your people skills. It is an investment that’s worth the effort with only your time as the cost, work your way in developing these skills and reap the rewards, you will never regret it.
