The present states it all
Indian students lack basic language skills such as reading, speaking, and comprehension. These skills are cardinal as they are required for a high- end job in IT, software, consulting and management sectors.
Indian education institutes take pride in their student placement statistics. A recent survey by Aspiring Minds proved that these graduates even with their fancy scorecards and degrees actually are “unemployable”. The survey revealed that only 7% are eligible for the position of a software engineer. The amusing part is, this failure has got more to do with their communication skills and less with their core skills! The survey tells that 96% of the engineers can’t speak English- which is a mandatory requirement in all the IT ventures today.
What actually induces this?
The paramount setback is seen with pronunciation, fluency and sentence formation. The survey shows that 61% of students have grammar skills which are equivalent to a 7th-grade student! Although, understanding spoken English and vocabulary showcased fewer problems.
A possible explanation for these shocking results as provided by Aspiring Minds CEO & Co-founder, Himanshu Aggarwal is- “The low employability among engineering graduates is a cumulative outcome of poor education standards and higher demand of skilled employees thereby creating a drastic skill gap in the country,”
It’s not just the mediocre colleges that have students with poor skills. Even the students from IITs and NITs face such issues. Gautam Biswas, director, IIT Guwahati said, “We get students from different backgrounds and regions, and they are mostly not comfortable with English. Quite a few students appear for the joint entrance examination in their mother tongue. It becomes very difficult for them to follow the curriculum.”
The solution
English is a fun language. Once you have the knack of it, you love it. And if you already love it, you definitely have a knack for it! But for those who despite everything still struggle with it, follow these tips to become fluent in it.
Read what is happening to your North-East-West-South: To understand graduate level English, students from their schooling days should inculcate the habit of reading newspapers. Reading every day helps to increase your proficiency. You can also read novels, story books, articles- whatever interests you!
Get yourself a pocket dictionary: Download Merriam-Webster or Oxford Dictionary on your smartphone and get going. All you need is the will and curiosity to acknowledge new words!
Get chatty: Learn new words. Start using them in your conversations- maybe with yourself or with your friends! Just keep talking to yourself in English, gradually you will get accustomed to speaking fluently and without hesitation.
One more reason to binge watch Netflix: Watching English TV series and movies help a lot in enhancing listening skills. Next time whenever you watch anything, switch the subtitles off.
Mobile Apps: Download apps like StumbleUpon, Curiosity to browse through content to improve your skills. You can also download games that help in building vocabulary and language skills.
Get yourself a Grammar Nazi friend: Surround yourself with people with good English. If you can’t find any around you, join a club or activity where you can find people with good communication skills.
Following these tips can gradually help you improve your English.
Let us know your opinions in the comment section.
