english speaking classes in ahmedabad

Wednesday, 24 February 2021

Let’s be honest. You cannot claim to be fluent in English if you are not a fluent English speaker. Even if you have memorized the English dictionary, it will not matter if you cannot communicate in English. With that being said, we understand that speaking in English for non-native speakers can be intimidating.

Conversational English, especially, is challenging. In addition to the other ways English is confusing when you want to speak like native English speakers, it means you must be familiar with slang, contractions, and cultural idioms.

So, how do you move from the textbook and the computer screen grammar practice to actually speaking English? To put it simply – you speak it! To become a fluent English speaker, you must make every effort to speak English daily and often.

However, many foreign language students find themselves struggling to find opportunities to practice speaking English. That’s where we come in. Below, you will find 15 ways to practice speaking English, especially if you take an English class in DC.

1. Talk to Yourself

First things first, you are going to need to get used to talking to yourself. No, this will not make you crazy! In fact, you will probably find you feel more comfortable trying out new English words and phrases alone before you try them out in conversation with someone else. When you find yourself alone in your home or dorm, talk aloud about what you are doing, such as describing the meal you are cooking.

2. Listen to Yourself

If you do not have anyone to practice English conversations, look for English language apps that have a recording tool. Use the recorder to record yourself speaking English and then listen to it. Do you sound like the English speaker you are repeating? Take note of what sounds and words you are struggling with and practice speaking them aloud into the recorder.

3. Watch Yourself Talk

Another unique way to practice speaking and build your confidence is to use a mirror. Yes – it sounds strange. But, by looking at yourself speak in the mirror, you will be able to see how your mouth moves and forms words, as well as your body language.

4. Join a Language Exchange Program

Another unique way to practice speaking English is to join a language exchange program, such as Tandem. Tandem pairs users with native speakers. Through the Tandem app, you will have the opportunity to have conversations in English with a native speaker using video chat.

5. Read Along with Subtitles

Whenever possible, you should use subtitles. While subtitles also help you learn how to read in English, you can also use the subtitles to practice reading aloud. When you read aloud, you are speaking.

6. Imitate What You Hear on TV

Find some television shows or movies that you enjoy watching. After watching, imitate the way the characters speak English. As you will come to learn, the tone affects the meaning in English conversation. By paying attention to the character’s tone and body language, you will have a better understanding of how to communicate in real life.

7. Use Video Messaging to Practice Speaking

If you have friends or family members who speak English and live abroad, you should take advantage of the many video messaging tools, such as Skype and Facetime, to practice speaking. In situations with friends and family, you will need to explain that you want to speak in English because they may assume you feel more comfortable speaking your native language.

8. Speak in English to a Virtual Assistant

Set up any virtual assistant tools you use (such as Siri, Google, or Amazon Alexa) to speak in English. Not only will the virtual assistant speak in English, but you must also speak English to get a response. Additionally, this is a great way to improve enunciation.

9. Order Food in English

Whenever you have go out to eat, order your food in English. This actually applies to anytime you are speaking with a customer service representative. When you are out in public, make an effort to speak to your waiters or store clerks in English.

10. Narrate Your Day

Whether alone or with a speaking partner, spend time each day narrating your day aloud. By speaking about your day, you will build up your conversational English skills, as two common English questions are “How was your day?” and “What did you do today?”

11. Make Commentaries in English

For those that are passionate about sports, use English to commentate sports games. Listen to English sports announcers and then mimic them. In addition to sports, you can also commentate video games in English and share them online.

12. Use a Messaging App

Another unique way to practice speaking in English is to download and use Whatsapp. Whatsapp is a messaging tool used by more than 1 billion people all over the world. In addition to using the app for video messaging and English conversations, the app is also a great way to connect with other English learners to practice.

13. Sing in English

Look for musicians and bands that sing in English that you enjoy. As you become familiar with their songs, sing them aloud! You can start with karaoke that allows you to read the lyrics while singing along. Singing is a great way to build your vocabulary and learn how to pronounce words.

14. Try Tongue Twisters

Brave souls should try to master popular English tongue twisters. These are funny one-sentence poems that involve rhyming and alliteration. Their similar sounds make them difficult to speak, so it is a fun challenge for English learners.

15. Take English Classes in an English-Speaking Country

Of course, the best way to practice speaking English is to take English classes abroad for a truly immersive experience. For example, students who enroll in English course Washington DC will have daily opportunities to speak English. In addition to speaking English to those they must interact with this metropolitan city, they will also speak English with teachers and students at one of the language schools in DC. At the Washington language institute, inlingua, students will spend most of their time in class speaking English.

Ready to study English in Washington DC? Contact us today!

https://idc.edu/15-unique-ways-to-practice-speaking-english/

Monday, 6 April 2020

Spoken English Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms - Definition and Examples

Gill Sir is the best Spoken English Class and IELTS Coaching Academy in Maninagar, Ahmedabad.

www.gillsir.com - call 9898334999

Definition:

The ways in which the English language is transmitted through a conventional system of sounds. Compare to written English.

Spoken English, says linguist David Crystal, is "the more natural and widespread mode of transmission, though ironically the one which most people find much less familiar--presumably because it is so much more difficult to 'see' what is happening in speech than in writing" (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed., 2003).

In recent years, linguists have found it easier to "'see' what is happening in speech" through the availability of corpus resources--computerized databases containing "real life" examples of both spoken and written English. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) is a contemporary reference grammar of English based on a large-scale corpus.

The study of speech sounds (or spoken language) is the branch of linguistics known as phonetics. The study of sound changes in a language is phonology.

Examples and Observations:

Academic Bias Against Spoken English
"[L]inguists have inevitably had a long-standing and intensive contact with standard English. The nature of standard English as primarily a written variety, together with the immersion of academics in written English, does not augur well for their recognition of structures that may be more typical of spoken English than written English."
(Jenny Cheshire, "Spoken Standard English." Standard English: The Widening Debate, ed. by Tony Bex and Richard J. Watts. Routledge, 1999)
The Relationship Between Spoken and Written English
"[I]n the course of the language's history, the relationship between spoken and written English has come nearly full circle. Throughout the Middle Ages, written English predominately served transcript functions, enabling readers to represent earlier spoken words or (oral) ceremony, or to produce durable records of events, ideas, or spoken exchange. By the seventeenth century, the written (and printed) word was developing its own autonomous identity, a transformation that matured in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and first half of the twentieth centuries. (However, through at least the end of the nineteenth century, spoken rhetorical skills were also seen as critically important to people with social and educational aspirations.) Since World War II, written English (at least in America) has increasingly come to reflect everyday speech. While writing on-line with computers has hastened this trend, computers didn't initiate it. As writing growingly mirrors informal speech, contemporary spoken and written English are losing their identity as distinct forms of language."
(Naomi S. Baron, Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading. Routledge, 2000)

Teaching Illiteracy
"One main danger is that spoken English continues to be judged by the codified standards of written English, and that teaching pupils to speak standard English may, in fact, be to teach them to speak in formal written English. A test of spoken English may become a test of one's abilities to speak a very restricted code--a formal English used routinely by dons, civil servants, and cabinet ministers. It is not very far removed from the language of formal debate. Such a view of spoken English can produce an artificial and unnatural English and can even promote a kind of illiteracy which is as damaging to users of English as not being able to write literate English; for to have everyone speaking and writing only one code--a standard written English code--generates an illiteracy almost as grave as would be the case if everyone were only able to use a local dialect."
(Ronald Carter, Investigating English Discourse: Language, Literacy, and Literature. Routledge, 1997)
Henry Sweet on Spoken English (1890)
"The unity of spoken English is still imperfect: it is still liable to be influenced by local dialects--in London itself by the cockney dialect, in Edinburgh by the Lothian Scotch dialect, and so on. . . . [I]t changes from generation to generation, and is not absolutely uniform even among speakers of the same generation, living in the same place and having the same social standing."
(Henry Sweet, A Primer of Spoken English, 1890)

The Value of Teaching Spoken English (1896)
"Not only should English grammar be taught with reference to the nature of language and the history of English, but it should also take account of the spoken, as distinct from the written, form. The reasons for this seem to me many and excellent. For instance, it is a misfortune that the English language makes its appeal to the educated mind, mainly through the written and printed form. The appeal to the ear and the appeal to the eye, which should strengthen one another, are thus distinctly separate and divergent. Our orthography encourages this separation. It is, therefore, the more important that textbooks of grammar should make some attempt to counteract this tendency."
(Oliver Farrar Emerson, "The Teaching of English Grammar," 1896)
The Lighter Side of Spoken English
"'If Opal's goin' to be a school-teacher, mebbe she wants summat to practice on,' grinned her father.
"'Oh, Pa, you mustn't say summat--it isn't a word," remonstrated his daughter.
"'Ain't a word!' shouted her father with increasing excitement. 'Well, hear that! How do you know it ain't a word?'
"'It isn't in the dictionary,' said Opal.
"'Shucks,' disparaged Pa, 'what's the dictionary got to do with it? The words that git into the dictionary ain't common talkin' words nohow; they're written words--nobody puts talk into a dictionary.'
"'Why not?' questioned Opal, astonished at her father's apparent knowledge of the making of dictionaries.
"'Cause why? Cause spoken words is too lively for 'em--who can go round and keep track of every word that's spoke? I can make up a hull mouthful myself, and no dictionary'll ever know anything about it--see?'"
(Bessie R. Hoover, "A Graduated Daughter." Everybody's Magazine, December 1909)