Manual: Competent Communicator (CC)
Aug 17, 2007
How many of you can speak 2 languages? Linguists believe that bilingualism offers benefits such as an ability to see from a larger perspective, greater resourcefulness and creativity. How many of you are non-native English speaker? You may feel that this status puts you at a disadvantage among native speakers. When English is your native language, your reading, writing and speaking skill can always be improved. When it is not your native language, there is an extra room for improvement. It is like traveling in a business class vs. economy class. :-)
Lets look at few techniques that we can try to boost our skills in a second language.
Immersion
The more you speak in English, the more interactions you have with English-speaking friends or colleagues, the more your command of English will develop. Let me tell a quick story. Couple of months back, my colleague and I were troubleshooting an issue. At that moment, one of my eyelids started to twitch and I rubbed my eye so that I can focus properly on the monitor. Seeing this my colleague asked me “are your eyes okay?” I started explaining that my eyelid is blinking or moving involuntarily and it is normal. At that time, I was not aware of the word “twitch”. She mentioned that it could be “eye twitching” and, later, she sent me a website link about the same. I precisely had the same condition explained in that website. In that interaction, I learnt a new word “twitch”, which and I’ll remember forever. At that instance, Ii I had been with a person, who speaks my native language, then I would have used our native language and never bothered to look for English equivalent.
Reading
If frequent interaction with native speakers is impossible, then the next best technique is reading. Extended reading in English helps you develop 2 things: 1) a sophisticated vocabulary and 2) skill with more complex structures of the language. If you read a lot, then the words go into your passive memory and often remain for years. If you encounter a particular word later, then your vocabulary gets activated and you’ll remember it.
Support & Guidance
Next technique is to seek guidance from a teacher or enroll into a class. They guide you and correct your mistakes before you become too fluent. By fluency, I mean the ability to speak quickly and easily. The scary part is, if you become too fluent without this, the natural mistakes you make will tend to become ingrained and it is virtually impossible to get rid of them.
You can also work with your friends or colleagues to correct both your pronunciation and your grammar. While vocabulary can be improved any time through other means, good pronunciation and grammar require the aid of a teacher or native-speaker friends.
To recap, remember this mnemonic IRS. Immersion – more interaction with English speakers help you develop your command of English. Reading – helps you to improve your vocabulary. Support and Guidance – helps you to improve your pronunciation and grammar. Being a toastmaster you have an ample opportunity to try: Immersion and Support techniques.
Final tip, read monthly TM bulletin regularly. It contains good tips to improve your language skills. My today’s speech is an extract from the article “Sounding Good in English” in this bulletin.
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Copy of this presentation can be found here.
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