English is a globally spoken language used for communicating in all multinational companies. Anyone who plans to grow in their professional career has to be proficient in this language. It makes it easier to present and discuss ideas with your peers, clients and others.
In a globalised world, it becomes pivotal that you can communicate with others without any language barrier. Students planning to study abroad must ensure that they work on their communication skills. They must research and learn more about English for academic purposes. This would help them perform well in their studies and tackle their essays and other assignments better.
While there are multiple ways to improve one’s communication skills, a handful of them show highly effective results if applied properly. The key here is to be consistent and dedicated in your approach while using the following methodologies:
Pick a topic to talk about– The first step to able to communicate properly and confidently is to speak up. You can start by picking a topic and recording your voice to understand how fluently you speak, the mistakes you make and the number of filler words you use. Keep up this exercise to see the progress you are making with each recording.
Also, try to engage in a conversation with people you know and seek their help while navigating through talks on various topics. Speaking up is essential in building up English communication skills.
Learn new phrases– While there is a lot of emphasis on gaining a strong vocabulary, using new words in conversation can be tricky. If you are not aware of the context in which these words are to be used, you can make mistakes. Hence, it’s wiser to pick up new phrases that can help you construct sentence better and also improve your overall conversation style.
You will come across many new phrases in books, blogs, articles, magazines and other platforms that you can use in your daily conversation. Some of these can help you be more expressive and articulate your thoughts in a more presentable manner.
Listen well– You cannot be a good learner if you don’t listen well to what others are speaking. To be able to communicate proficiently, you have to work on your listening skills. By paying attention to the words of other people, you will be able to understand many things – word modulation, speaking rhythm and also new words and phrases.
Hence, while engaging in any conversation, stay focused on what the other person is replying as it will help you learn and improve.
Use interrogative– Interrogatives such as ‘What do you think?’ or ‘What are your views?” are a great way of keeping a conversation flowing. They also show that you are interested in hearing other people. This way you will be able to hear out others more and the two-way conversation will also impact your listening and speaking skills.
