Some Tips on Spoken English

Learning the English language has become one of the best and wisest decisions, one would have taken. In this era of globalisation and corporatisation, MNCs are turning into hiring English speaking employees to benefit their businesses. They no longer look for graduates or postgraduates as employees; these are all just the necessary criteria to apply for the job. The main focus to filter out and choose the best employee out of the pool of candidates is to look for candidates with the best skillset. From the company’s perspective, it is always skills that reap benefits for them in the future.

Learning English language skills is a must as it helps to communicate, express ideas, emotions and to exhibit the knowledge one possesses. Mastering this language requires one to improve all the skills to get perfection in English communication. There are four skills in the English language – reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Reading and writing are more focused on scholarly communication. Reading the content and trying to understand it, then writing the learnt concepts is essential in academics. Speaking and listening go hand in hand. These two skills are more focused on social interactions and interpersonal communication. One needs to be good at all four skills to master the English language. The learning process starts with reading, writing, speaking and listening. All these language skills form the basis of the English language. One must get a good hold of all four skills to master the language.

Speaking in English is usually referred to as ‘Spoken English’. Learning how to speak the language is essential for one to succeed in academics, career and among the social circle. It is considered a crucial skill; as it is the tool for one to express ideas, share knowledge and communicate with others. People often consider the ability to speak English as a matter of pride and prestige; they see it as a mark of sophistication in society.

From career to social interactions, Spoken English becomes an unproductive resource with vast knowledge but unable to put it into words and communicate. It can hamper one’s career growth and makes it stagnant.

How to develop Spoken English?

The English language is familiar to everyone. It is easier to learn the language, as the majority of them are introduced to it right from childhood. The focus here is on further improvement in the speaking skills of the English language. Below mentioned are some simple tips on how to improve your spoken language:

• One needs to plan, decide and act towards achieving the goal of improving Spoken English. Setting smaller objectives at a time can result in meeting the actual goal.

• One needs to set realistic targets and objectives to learn concepts of Spoken English.

• Read, read and read– It is one of the traditional methods of improving english vocabulary. One can start reading English books, journals, novels, magazines or any other material that is available. It exposes one to new words, sentence framing and helps one learn the language quickly.

• Watch English tv shows, news, youtube video on lectures which helps one to learn the pronunciation, new words, explore different styles of communication. This will help one to carry on the day to day conversations smoothly. This will also build confidence to interact with people, and the visual impact influences better learning and faster grasping.

• Listen to English songs– For music lovers, this could be an excellent opportunity to explore as it helps one to learn the English language faster. The rhythm and beats in the songs help one to follow the lyrics and learn new English words.

• Practice speaking – It is one of the most essential and highly effective methods to improve spoken English. English conversation is important needs to practice speaking in the English language as often as possible; and not worry even if the fluency is weak. Consistent practice is required to develop Spoken English.

• Stop worrying about making mistakes– The key to improving English speaking skills is to stop worrying about making errors. If one’s mind is always preoccupied with the fear of making mistakes, one is bound to make mistakes.

• A reliable source– One needs to find a trustworthy source of learning material. These materials have to be compiled by experts in this language. While choosing the source of information as there are chances of getting wrong or contaminated information coming from unreliable sources. One can also get trained by an experienced English teacher who has in-depth knowledge about this subject. There are several websites on the internet that provide English lessons, but one needs to find the most reliable sites published by certified authorities.

• One word each day– It is imperative to stay focused, on the journey of reaching the final destination. One needs to pour in efforts steadily; it doesn’t matter how small, the consistency is the most important. Stay committed to learning at least one word each day to keep it minimum. One word each day would still sum up to 365 days a year, which is not bad at all. Try to learn words, their meanings and usage. This will also help to stay updated with new vocabulary lists and speed up the learning process.

• Replace regional language with the English language– Try to communicate in English with friends, family, siblings, whenever possible. Since most of our mother tongue is not English this practice will make one comfortable and develop it as a habit. Speaking in English will help one to get more practical exposure in the language by having everyday conversations with friends and family.

• Observe– The best way to learn is to observe. Try observing people who speak fluent English. It will help one to learn faster and know the pronunciations of the words, usage of different words, accent etc. More learning happens on itself. Language learning has always been influenced by observance right from childhood.

• Think in English– The major problem of non-native speakers is thinking first in the native language and then trying to translate the same in the English language. This mental process takes time which delays one’s response while communicating. It hampers the flow of communication, and there were situations when each sentence thought in the native language cannot be translated word-to-word in the English language. In such cases, it becomes difficult to communicate and hinders interpersonal communication. Training one’s mind to think in English will save a lot of time, and this helps in the better and effective communication process. The message is conveyed more clearly than the translated one.

• Be a better listener– to be a good speaker, one needs to be a better listener. The more attention one pays to the ongoing conversation, the better the response could be. One needs to be an active listener and must focus on listening to what a speaker is saying and reflecting on it at the same time before responding. It saves one from irrelevant answers and takes the conversation in the right direction.

• Do not rush– Learning speaking English is not a day’s job. It takes time and effort to master the language. Get hold of the English grammar and phrasal verbs in order to speak correct and good English. Do not rush towards complicated words or sentences immediately. One needs to learn things gradually, which makes learning more impactful.

Common mistakes in spoken English

Speaking English as a non-native speaker has its own set of problems. Some slight errors might end up changing the meaning of the statement. Grammatical mistakes, subject-verb agreement, tenses etc. are the most common errors one might make.

Incorrect

Correct

I am having four brothers and two sisters

I have four brothers and two sisters.

She do not have a car

She does not have a car.

Does he has a laptop?

Does he have a laptop?

Today college is there?

Is college functioning today?

He did not wrote the assignment

He did not write the assignment.

I cannot cope up with this pressure

I cannot cope with this pressure.

She has white hairs

She has grey hair.

One of the trains are late

One of the trains is late.

Rain is coming

It’s raining.

I don’t know anything.

I don’t know anything.

This movie was more better

This movie was better.

The hall has less people

The hall has fewer people.

I guess you are fine.

I hope you are fine.

I hope you are busy

I guess you are busy.

She returned back

She returned.

• The most common errors that non-native speakers make while speaking English are related to tenses, subject-verb agreement etc. Few most common mistakes include the usage of wrong tenses. For instance, “She did not get her book”, here using ‘did’ and ‘got’ as a past tense is incorrect. The correct statement would be “She did not get her book”.

• There are many situations where there is redundancy, which is again a standard error in Spoken English – “Please revert back”, the word ‘revert’ means ‘return to’ again using ‘back’ is unnecessary. Using the same meaning words is called redundancy.

• Subject-Verb agreement– “The list of items are given”, ‘the list of items’ here is one single list. The subject is ‘the list’ and not the ‘articles’. So, the correct statement is – “The list of items is given”.

• Using since/for – “I have lived here for 4 years” and “I have lived here since 2015”. The trick here is to use ‘for’ when talking about the exact time. Use ‘since’ to mention the starting point of the period only.

• Question framing– A common error one makes while asking a question, is the framing it incorrectly. For instance, “You have booked a cab?”, here the framing of the question is incorrect and only the tone is used to emphasise on it. The correct framing would be, “Have you booked a cab?”

These are some of the most common errors non-native English speakers make. It is essential to understand the mistakes to avoid these while having a conversation. Improving Spoken English is about learning to speak the language with confidence without any errors. Even a small error could change the meaning of a statement leading to miscommunication and confusion. It might also lead to serious trouble if one messes up during a formal conversation with higher authorities at the workplace. One must try to speak fluently and in a way that everyone understands. It is vital to communicate effectively.

Knowing the common errors is essential, but one must not avoid communicating in the English language because of the fear of going wrong. Making mistakes is part and parcel of the learning process after all “To err is Human.”