Have you ever had butterflies in your stomach before standing in front of an audience to speak something, that too in English? Or have you fumbled badly and groped hard for words which surprisingly ceased to flow out naturally from your mouth while speaking to someone in English? If the answer to the above questions is yes, then it is the right time to take some radical steps to improve the situation and become fluent in English.
They say that speaking a language, especially English, is just like driving a car. It is natural to experience trouble at the time of starting a car. This is something which all of us experience across the world. But once the car starts, there is no looking back. It runs smoothly. Similar to that is the plight of speaking a language like English. English speakers, especially non-native speakers, face the same teething problem when starting out.
With the fast sweeping wave of globalization across the nations in the world, the importance of English as an important lingua franca has increased even more in the modern age of the 21st century. In addition, speaking fluent English has proved to be one of the essential parameters of success in most job and career opportunities available in the country and abroad as well. It has also become a sine qua non of lucrative pay packages and a golden passport to bright promotion prospects.
So, overlooking the task of mastering the art of speaking English fluently may prove to be fatal. The most important question arises here: how can we learn to speak English, that too fluently?
You must have wondered how children start speaking their mother tongues without having any knowledge of alphabets, grammar and any good stock of vocabulary of the language. What magic enables those innocent children to speak their mother tongues so effortlessly and smoothly?
A child learns to speak a language by carefully listening to and imitating what their parents and peers speak. Next, the children do not have any hesitation, constraints and fear or so-called phobia which the adults are so naturally and commonly vulnerable to when speaking or learning a new language.
Following are some points which may considerably help us to speak English fluently:
- Don’t underestimate yourself ever. But at the same time, you must be aware of your weaknesses. Take sincere steps to correct them. The knowledge of basic rules of grammar of English is the stepping stone. Master them. Without mastering them, it is very difficult to speak English correctly and with ease.
- Don’t lose confidence when you speak in front of a person or a crowd. Once you lose confidence, you will never succeed in speaking the language that you would like to be fluent in.
- Read newspapers and magazines in English regularly and search for different sentence structures and difficult words. Look up the meanings of those difficult words in a dictionary and try to retain them in your mind.
- Consistently enrich your word power. For this, always keep a dictionary and a thesaurus with yourself.
- In the beginning, start speaking with shorter sentences. This will increase your self-confidence to gradually switch over to speaking longer sentences later on.
- Watch talk shows, news and current affairs programmes on television and try to learn the modus operandi of speaking in English.
- Pronunciation is called the soul of a language. Learn how to correctly pronounce the words. For this you don’t need to be a phonetics expert, just keep in mind some important “pronunciation keys.”
- They say, “Practice makes a man perfect.” So, keep on practising and practising. Speak, speak and speak - this is what will make you a famous and fluent speaker.
Words matter most
I. Choose the closest meaning of the words listed below:
1. AFFABLE
(A) catastrophic (B) open to communication (C) confusing
2. DOUBTING THOMAS
(A) absurd (B) a person who insists on proof before he believes something (C) shameless
3. DOUBLE WHAMMY
(A) two bad things which occur together (B) a complete change (C) a short cut
4. ARMISTICE
(A) natural (B) truce (C) ridiculous
5. BRASSIERE
(A) embarrassing (B) obdurate (C) bra
Answers: 1.B 2. B 3. A 4. B 5. C
II. Choose the opposite word for the words listed below:
1. LIVELY
(A) burden (B) sluggish (C) fresh
2. DWINDLE
(A) cope (B) mow (C) increase
3. CORRESPOND
(A) unite (B) erode (C) diverge
4. FLIMSY
(A) taste (B) strong (C) defect
5. DIVULGE
(A) to bother (B) to dispense (C) conceal
Answers 1. B 2. C.3.C 4. B 5. C
Words usually used in the media
Leitmotif - oft-repeated feature of a place, time or person, (Recently prohibition seems to have been the leitmotif of a host of state governments in the country)
Runaway - adj. anything which is happening quickly and uncontrollably (The film, which had been released last week, has earned a runaway success in the Bollywood industry)
Culpable - guilty, deserving blame, an action which is considered criminal (He was arrested for the culpable offences which he committed by inciting people against the government’s policies)
Vendetta - a situation in which a person tries to harm another person (The arrested opposition leaders accused the government of pursuing a political vendetta against them)
Hole - a fault, a weak point (The prohibitory policy of the government has left a huge hole in the pocket of the state exchequer)
Idioms
To date from - to have existence from a particular time (Majority of the buildings in the city date from the 18th century)
To daydream about - to have daytime fantasies (These days youngsters do not believe in hard labour and self-study. They only daydream to realize their goals)
To dawdle about (also to dawdle away) - to waste time (Stop dawdling about now. Examinations are fast nearing.)
To dawdle along - to move along slowly and casually (The girls were dawdling along. They were also frolicking with their friends. They did not know they were very late for college)
To dawn upon or on (for a fact) - to become apparent to someone (Ultimately it dawned on me that I am not moving in the right direction to get the job I always craved for)
Phrasal verbs
TO APPRISE SOMEBODY OF SOMETHING - to inform someone about something
TO ASK AFTER SOMEBODY - to ask for someone’s welfare
TO ASCRIBE SOMETHING TO SOMEBODY FOR SOMETHING - to consider that something is caused by a particular person or thing
TO ACCEDE TO SOMETHING - to agree to something
TO ACHE FOR SOMEBODY OR SOMETHING - to desire something very strongly
Word of the week
RHAPSODIZE: - to talk about something very eagerly and excitedly (Children were rhapsodizing the taste and aroma of the lunch they had had last week).