Role of Communication Skills

Role of Communication Skills
11-September 2017 2.00

Dear Students, It gives me immense pleasure to share a strategy with you for spoken English program. Speaking in English is an art. It should not be compared with any of the courses. So the approach to get a good command on English should also be such wherein we take it as an artistic way. There is a very clear concept that if one wishes to learn swimming, He or she has to go into water. One can’t be a good swimmer until he or she practices into water. Thus we get a good command on spoken English part only if we speak. If don’t speak and keep on learning, it will only enhance our theoretical knowledge not the art of speaking. You must have found many experts in your academic life who have good knowledge of grammar but when it comes to speak, they are unable to speak well. This clearly means that only theoretical knowledge is not required to be an impressive speaker in fact his self interest and the artistic approach is also required to be an effective speaker. Artistic approach makes learning with fun and very easy going. I have some views to share with you on this. Hopefully you would like these views and if you follow them sincerely, I am pretty sure that you will find a great motivation from it and will speak in English confidently.

Passion: Passion means strong desire. Now you must be thinking that we are desirous to learn spoken English. That’s why reading this article and making efforts. Only this much desire is not required for it. In fact there should be “Strong” desire.

The meaning of strong desire, I shall explain very soon. I would like to make you think of your problems that you face when you try to speak in English.

What comes in your mind??????????????????????????

There will be many problems in your mind like Sentence Formation, Tenses, Vocabulary, Fluency, Pronunciation, and lack of views, lack of confidence, Hesitation and many more. According to me, for all other problems our training can be fruitful and we can bring your level from ground to top but for one problem, without solving that all efforts whether from my side or from your side will be fruitless and that problem is

Hesitation

Dear Students, this is the biggest hurdle to pursue this art. With hesitation, one is never supposed to be a good speaker. So let’s work out on this. It is only psychological problem nothing else. So let’s think deeply on this. I have a question for this.

Have you ever thought the reason of feeling hesitation?

As per experience, since I have conducted various workshops and seminars, generally the audience gives the reply that there is thought in mind i.e. “Whether I am right or wrong in statements.”

People start questioning themselves and this results into a serious problem i.e. Hesitation and they don’t speak at all. Here only a question rises on their participation in spoken part and they don’t start speaking actually and keep learning English English English !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The same thing I was talking about earlier that we are learning English to speak but we are not passionate. We only have desire but that strong desire is still missing. My concept of strong desire only means that one should go the way it is directed to. When we know it well that without speaking, spoken English part is useless then why shall we not speak?

Now as far as mistakes are concerned, let me give you two options to have a good command on English.

  1. ¬ Committing Mistakes
  2. ¬
  3. Being Silent

Now you decide which one is the better option to have a good command on spoken English? Hopefully, you will go with the first option because in the second option you have not started even. So when there is no start then how can we expect results? When we are wrong somewhere, we have a chance to improve but if we remain silent then do we have any option to improve? Obviously No.

So commit as many mistakes as you can and be ready to improve them.

To err is human. This is a saying that you must have heard. So we are not the one who are committing mistakes first time in fact everyone is a learner. We should behave like a learner and should be ready to learn new things that we come across in our day to day life. None is perfect.

In fact the writer whose books you read, they also write in preface that if any error takes place in the book then please recommend for improvement. So when they are writing the book themselves and then too they suspect that the errors can be there. So why we should think this much before we convey our ideas.

We must put the responsibility of feedback to the audience. The more active the feedback is, the better we improve. If we wish to get a good feedback then we must convey our message frankly without thinking of mistakes because we are not going to commit a blunder it is quite often to find mistakes in the sentences and we learn with mistakes only. Openness to commit a mistake should be the key to have an active start of this art. So remove your silence and start speaking confidently without caring the mistakes part. Wherever we find them there should be a receptive attitude and the work should start for its improvement.

The other factor of feeling hesitation is that we feel inferior to others. We generally walk out from such places where we find a person who has better fluency than us and is more conversant. With our friend circle and family we feel quite comfortable to speak but when it comes to speak to an unknown person and he or she is senior to us then we find ourselves hesitant. Now again a question for you.

With whom can we improve well? People who know better than us or who know less than us? What your answer comes? Well, you must have answered that we can improve well with those people who know better than us. So being with such people is really our pleasure not the matter of sorrow. So if we find a person who knows better than us then we should feel happier rather than feeling bad. So one must be curious to have such people in touch and should enjoy the company. If we go with this attitude then definitely facing an interview, giving a presentation, taking part in conference, negotiating with someone etc. all this will be very enjoyable for you. There will be no worries in fact you shall feel happiness on the same.

Confidence: One must be confident to convey one’s ideas well. There are various sections in English Language like Sentence formation, Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Accent and many more. One can’t excel in all these section in a day. Now we can’t wait also in such a manner that until we get command on all these things, we won’t speak. So one must keep trying to participate regularly so that one must not be able to conversant.

In this practice part, the most common problem that one faces is

“What if others laugh at time when I try to speak?”

This is the most common situation faced by most of us and due to this we generally feel lack of confidence. We miss good opportunities to speak. By the way what idea comes in your mind when you face this kind of situation? How do you feel when someone starts laughing at you while you are trying to convey your ideas in English?

Many ideas……………some of you must be thinking irritated at this situation. Some of you might be feeling nervous and would not speak any more at this situation. Some of you will be thinking that I am wrong somewhere that’s why these people are laughing at me. Some of you will be thinking that somewhere I have made such a silly mistake, due to that these people are responding in such a manner.

Well I have a wonderful idea to share with you, that idea is that If someone laughs at me, I shall also laugh with him. Yes of course, Why should I get worried if someone starts laughing when I try to speak. I must make myself comfortable with my audience. When I shall start laughing with that person, he will become serious and he will stop laughing. So if someone laughs, there is nothing to get worried on this. in fact we should go with environment, the way it is. We should try to make it more enjoyable. We must expect an active feedback from the audience whether it is laughing manner or it is in serious manner. The one who laughs at us is not actually the wrong person. He is the one who is trying to highlight a certain thing and that matters to us. So this way we can maintain our confidence level very well.

Now we have passion and confidence both but what if we don’t put up efforts to make our communication better. Yes I am talking about learning language. The role of grammar, knowing the correct pronunciation. So without putting efforts it will be useless to expect to have an excellent communication skills.

Efforts: When it comes to put efforts, there are several ways to make our English better like

  1. Reading English Newspaper
  2. Reading English Magazines
  3. Talking to friends in English
  4. Listening songs in English
  5. Watching News channels
  6. Learning a word from dictionary each day and this way we can make a good collection of vocabulary.
  7. Reading grammar and language related books.

But in all above mentioned suggestion, None is followed with regularity. We find excuses in them and make our mind convinced with those excuses. Sometimes, we don’t have interest or sometimes we don’t have time to devote regularly for these activities. Learning language is a continuous process. It is not to be done someday and next day to be forgotten. When none of these ways is followed continuously, it leads to frustration and we end up without any result.

I have a suggestion to share with you, that does not involve your special time for this preparation and you can do this anywhere at any time. That idea is

Think in English

Yes, this is the best way to make our English strong. Whatever idea comes in our mind, whatever we speak, whatever we visualize in this real world, we should accept a challenge to think it’s English. If we know it is good and even if don’t know it is very good as it is leading to discussion with other friends about that query. So one must take this challenge and look for the solution wherever we struck. I have a simple idea in my mind that if we take an average of 10% command on spoken English, then too we are confident to enhance it.

(10%---- Fluent)

Yes, from 10% itself, one can become fluent in English. There is a simple logic that if one uses 10% of his knowledge to speak, he will find 90% questions. Now if he gets the solution of 90% questions, 90+10=100. It means if we put 100% efforts, then of course we shall succeed. This can’t be doubted any more. Let’s have an example. Suppose we wish to speak MAI BULAKKAD HUN. Now many of us will make I am Bulakkad. So this word will strike in your mind if you don’t know its meaning. You would like to look for it from the possible resources. Now this is the passion required to learn English. We don’t only plan to learn, in fact we actually put efforts to learn. Only planning for it will not result. Like this there are so many sentences and words in our day to day communication, that we come across and we often ignore them. Concentrating on such words and thinking their English will lead you to a powerful command on vocabulary. I have executed this idea with many students and I have found good results.

When it comes to speak, we actually speak our ideas, not the ideas of books or teacher so if we are working on our ideas and thinking their English, we can make it strong in a few days. I welcome the questions and ideas on the same.

Happy Learning ! Aditya Dubey