Accelerate your English mastery: part one

The purpose of language

Almost everyone can benefit by improving their English speaking and writing techniques. Those born in the U.S. may have developed their verbal expression, but even many American college graduates can’t write very effectively. Naturally, those growing up outside the U.S. have even greater speaking and writing challenges to overcome. Most of my students are interested mainly in learning everyday English used in the U.S. rather than focusing on written expression. My opinion is that learning to feel confident conversing freely with native speakers basically differs from writing competence in degree and kind. My next post will address writing proficiency but since speaking is most important to many, the focus here will be on speaking English more like a native speaker.

Feeling confident in casual English conversation is largely psychological. Technical mastery of English grammar and pronunciation, though desirable, is not necessarily required. Some people speak confidently even when their speech is hard to understand. Others who have great skills don’t feel confident using them. The fastest way to help people feel comfortable expressing themselves in English is to boost their confidence. After all, the purpose of talking it to communicate. Secondarily, we all like to appear smart and sophisticated as we get our point across. Once those goals are fulfilled, real-time conversation does not allow for fine-tuning or perfectly grammatical sentences.

So far, the most effective short term strategy is getting people to talk about how they feel speaking in English. Asking them how they think others perceive them helps pinpoint their greatest fears, allowing them to give voice to their doubts and worries. Some of these worries are basic human nature, our need to fit in and be accepted and understood. Everyone shares this. Other fears can be unfounded and easily dispelled when properly understood. I use these techniques to help people lower anxiety and feel more comfortable right away, which is a way of describing self-confidence.

The next most powerful technique is learning to hear the music of English. Once they hear the rhythm, timing, intonation, and inflection of pleasing English, students can try to imitate the overall sounds instead of focusing on individual words and sentences. The first step is mastering each of the many basic sounds of English. Each sound requires different shapes in our lower face and throat. Once we learn all those shapes, we can put them together, like an exercise routine. Reading out loud is the easiest way to do this, because students can focus on reciting a written script, like an actor. Freed from having to invent their own words, learners can work exclusively on sound production.

Over the longer term, English learners have benefited the most by learning expressions that are well known to American children, but not taught in schools overseas. Popular expressions can be baffling because even if you know the meaning of every word, you don’t understand the phrase, such as “paying lip service to” or when a child smelling something unpleasant cries out “P.U.!” Pick up any U.S. children’s book and you will discover many expressions that will baffle you if you did not grow up in the American culture.

Besides colloquial expressions, idioms, and slang, U.S. cultural and historical references appear everywhere. Recently a monument to Martin Luther King Jr. was dedicated in Washington, DC. Though Dr. King is a national hero, his story is not much known outside the U.S. Raising the bar of understanding even higher is the fact that people born outside the U.S. have little or no knowledge about the history of race relations in America. I was helping a Japanese born student attending our local community college. His English assignment was to write about Dr. King. I helped him get started by letting him know that Dr. King was black and that the U.S. had severe racial discrimination. This was not covered in his Japanese high school curriculum. Noteworthy, though, is that Japanese students study U.S. history at all. How many U.S. high school students study Japanese history? Learning about American history and culture helps English speakers more fully understand what others are saying.

Notice that specific grammar and vocabulary study have not been mentioned. That is because though necessary, these skills take longer to develop. During longer programs, learners can focus on their own specific grammar issues and memorize vocabulary. Improvement in these areas comes slower, so I suggest doing the easy work first, as discussed above. As promised, I will talk about improving your written English expression in part 2.