Not only pristine MNCs seek employees who are deft in various skills, even small companies are keen on hiring candidates who have excellent employability skills. With soft skills being the pivot of today’s employability factor, communication skills are an important element to make or break a job for you. English being the universal language for communication, it is necessary to have a tight, fluent grip on it.
Following are the tips you can use to improvise your English:
1. Grammar
Grammar simply put is a way to arrange different words to communicate a thought. It is basically the syntax which is followed to form sentences. Grammar can only be learnt if and only if you are ready to invest efforts regularly.
How to improve your Grammar:
- Learn about the parts of speech; Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Conjunctions, Interjunctions etc. Pick up a Class 5 English book and tutor yourself.
- Talk to yourself each moment. Keep a mental (or you can whisper/ write down) your daily tasks. The catch here is to do this in English. This will make you familiar and eventually slick in Point of Views (Singular, Plural and either). With POVs being understood, your chances of going wrong with English will reduce.
- Follow the Subject-Verb-Object order. (subject) (adverb) (verb) (article) (adjective) (Object).
- Practice Tenses: Tense is nothing but time. One easy way to get your grip on tenses is to imagine yourself performing the sentence. And remember Verb is an action.
- Pay attention to Punctuations.
To be regular with these, you should read a lot. Start with Newspapers, Magazines and then Novels. Pay attention to the sentence formation, use of Tenses and other Grammar tools.
2. Spelling
Spelling is the way in which syllables and consonants are put together to form words and therefore sentences. Being a SpellBee is a fun task. Whatever works for you to understand, do that.
How to win at Spelling:
- Always sound it out. Read out loud the word you are stuck at.
- Remember the rule: “i” before “e” except when there is a “c”.
- Practice writing down words.
- Play word games; on mobile or board games.
3. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the personal dictionary you have in your head. Memorising Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosiswhich is actually a Lung disease can give you fever and it is not everyone’s Cup of Coffee! But, developing your Vocabulary is possible and very much easy!
Here is how:
- Every word ever coined has certain history attached to it. Yes, I am talking about Roots. For example, the word “Ambulatory” comes from the Latin Root ambulatorius meaning walkable/ related to movement. Ambulance means a vehicle that is used to move patients around. So, once you understand how a word is formed, it becomes really easy to remember the meanings of words.
- You can use Flash Cards to memorise words; GRE GMAT students must be aware of this technique already.
- You can also use mobile apps like Merriam Webster, Magoosh to hone your word power. You can also add extensions to your browser that show a new word every time you open a tab.
Fun ways, huh?
4. Diction
Diction refers to the way you portray your thoughts into words. Diction is the style in which words, phrases are jammed together into sentences.
How to find and improve your diction:
- After the initial stages of learning alphabets, words now, try learning the whole sentences.
- Learn phrases, proverbs and idioms.
- Watch movies, TV shows; carefully notice the kind of jargon that is being used.
- Speak up! Practice speaking English with friends, colleagues or even yourself.
- Start with one song per week: Find your favourite and learn it by heart. Sing along for one week.
You’d be surprised at a number of words you would have added by the end of the month!
5. Phonetics
Phonetics refers to the sound of words. This is from where an accent is developed. You should put in efforts to learn the correct pronunciations of words in the dictionary.
How to have a hold of pronunciations:
- Listen, listen and listen. Observe what are the different sounds in words and sentences are.
- When in doubt, use technology; ask Siri or Cortana or Google.
- Practice speaking out words.
- Listen to linguistics podcasts.
6. Practice And Test Yourself
Follow these fun tips to improve your English. Practice as much as you can. Like they say: talk in English, walk in English. If nothing sails your ferry, use MyEnglish to analyse your spoken and written English. This tool also comes handy for the English section in the AMCAT test. How, do you ask? It helps you rate your spoken English; analysing you on your vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency. It also rates your written English based on Grammar, syntax and quality of content. You also get an AMCAT Certification. 🙂
Remember English is a skill and you can either get hold of it or you can not– it all depends on you.
Let us know your views and queries in the comments.
