Dear Friends, I have personally come across the situations several times where I found my friends stating the problem of English speaking and writing. The reason is that English is not our mother language. The language English is spoken throughout the world…in another word, you can say ‘English is an International Language’ but it does not mean that you can’t learn this language. Many times, I have met very good and knowledgeable people in their domain but weak in presentation of their knowledge. First of all, I just want to suggest that don’t consider English requires lot of knowledge to speak or write. I shall mention here that English Speaking is an art and all you need to know is English Grammar and strong vocabulary with their proper use. In order to improve English, I suggest the following to do regularly and I strongly believe that you can improve your English in one or maximum two months. 1. Learn the Basic Grammar In order to learn proper English, first you require a good English Grammar Book which can help you in learning the rules of basic English grammar. There are many good books on English Grammar which you can buy or even can get through Internet in PDF format. Read the Grammar and memorize them for proper sentence framing. English Grammar is very essential for correct speaking or writing. You can download or access the page from the following links: a. http://kisi.deu.edu.tr/binnur.kavlak/ingilizce/belgeler/FreeEnglishGrammar.p... b. https://www.englishgrammar.org/lessons/ c. http://ugcportal.com/raman-files/app/EnglishGrammarNotes.pdf d. https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-and-vocabulary Apart from above links, there are many other good books also in market which you can buy or get from other sources. 2. Read the News Paper / Story Once you are comfortable with English Grammar, the next is you need the paragraphs which can enable or bring a situation to understand the grammar used in paragraph writing. The best method is to read any English News Paper daily at least for half an hour. In the beginning, you may find this very boring because you may not understand the lines written in paragraphs. But best advice is not to leave the habit of reading newspaper daily. To find the reading more interesting, you may replace the News Paper with Story Books which creates interest while reading. While reading, observe the grammar used in paragraphs in News Papers/ Story book. 3. Note Down the Vocabulary from News Paper / Story Books While reading the News Paper / Story Book, you will come across many words which you may not know. Just note down in any note book and keep noting down regularly the difficult words in your copy. After that refer any good English dictionary and note down their meaning with examples against the words you have noted down from newspaper. But the most important part is the revision every day and see the example of words how they can be used. 4. Speak loudly in front of mirror After one month of time, you will find that you will have enough vocabulary to start with speaking. So far, you have learned the Basic English Grammar and collected the words from News Paper / Story Books. The next is to use them while speaking or writing. The best method to learn speaking is to stand in front of mirror and speak loudly starting with small sentences like I am going, you are coming etc. Many people know English but while speaking they find difficult to speak because they might not have got enough environment to speak with perfect pronunciation. While speaking English, one thing is very important and that is speaking correctly with correct pronunciation which may be developed with regular practice in front of mirror. 5. Write your own created story In order to learn English, you also need to learn writing good communication skill in English which only can be developed with lot of writing practice. The best method I suggest is to create your own story and try to give them a proper shape in paragraph with proper use of Grammar and Vocabulary with their uses at appropriate places. You will find after sometime that your writing skill gradually get improved. 6. Apply with your friends, family members etc. to kill hesitation Generally, you may find difficult to speak English directly with anyone as English is not our mother tongue and many of us are also not habitual to it while speaking or writing and because of this many of us have the problem of hesitation. We get fear in mind of making mistakes which brings hesitation. The best method to kill hesitation is to find your friends, family members etc. for half an hour and try to communicate with them in English. If you continuously do this, you will find that you start getting correct pronunciation within few days and also the speed with accuracy. Slowly, you get confidence of not making mistakes and kill your hesitation of speaking. 7. Learn from mistakes It is natural that when you start learning English, you will commit lot of mistakes but it does not mean you should give up learning. The best suggestion is observing the mistakes and learn from it and don’t repeat the same mistakes in next conversation. For ex. I have come across many people who make mistake in gender in the beginning. 8. Have conversation with people who know English Once you are little comfortable with speaking and writing, try to find someone who speaks good English. Find some time with the person to communicate on regular basis. Perhaps, this may not be possible. So in this case, watch regular English News Channel where you will get appropriate English Speaking Friend i.e. News Reporter. Observe thoroughly the way reporter speaks and try to speak in the same way. You will find soon that you start speaking better English. Please remember, English Speaking or Writing is not impossible. Only you need regular practice of the above mentioned suggestions. Definitely, it will help you to learn English. Hope the lines will help you all. You can also download the article in PDF at http://www.dptripathi.in/download/english.pdf Thanks DP Tripathi -- ********************************* Dhanwantari Prakash Tripathi MA (ECO), MLISc, HDISM, ECDL ********************************* Assistant Librarian Biju Patnaik Central Library National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha –769008 INDIA ********************************* M - +91 – 8895296796 W – www.dptripathi.in ********************************* -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.