How to improve English Language Skills?
For improving English language skills it is necessary to understand " what are the language skills and how we can improve these skills? The are four languistic skills in any language as(1) Listening Skill
(2) Speaking Skill
(3) Reading Skill
(4) Writing Skill
Keep in mind that these skills need practice to improve. You can improve your English skills, if you have aim to make practice of the above-mentioned skills. All of the languistic skills are inter link with each other but for speaking English you must need to listen English daily. Similarly , for writing effective English you need to improve your English reading skill. Most of the people can read and write English but can not speak english because they do not have environment of speaking English. They can not listen English from their society. So they are weak in listen and speaking. Beside this they can read and write English because they have English in their syllabus.They have practice in reading and writing but not in listening and speaking. Small childern can understand language while living in society yet they are not school going childern. They can listen and speak clearly because they have practice of listening and speaking but they can not read and write untill they go to school and study there for few years. No doubt these skills are interlink with each other but you should improve your skill that you do not have.
LANGUAGE SKILLS.
Anyone who uses a language may read, write, speak or listen to that language at the same or different times. Thus the study of a language consists of four major skills: listening. understanding, speaking, reading and writing. Speaking and writing involve some kind of production on the part of the language user. Therefore, they are called productive skills. Listening and reading are the receptive skills since the listener or the reader receives spoken or written language. During the process one has to be active and alert. So, these two skills are also termed as active skills. Listening and reading, on the other hand, are called passive skills though they are not passive in the actual sense of the word. Communication in any of the four language skills is an active process in which the native speakers language system is activated either to decode an incoming message or to decode an outgoing one. Often a language user is involved in using combination of skills i.e. he is using all skills at the same time, for example, a secretary discussing official matters with the boss, recording minutes, reading notes etc. It is said that the natural sequence for the acquisition of language skills is listening. speaking. reading and writing. But these skills should not be classified into four separate areas. In most of the situations language skills overlap one another. They are integrated.
According to a survey, most of the time that adults spend in communication activities, 45 % is devoted to listening. 30 percent to speaking. 16% to reading and only 9% to writing. This variation in percentage is also an indication of the fact that all language skills are not of equal importance for everyone. -Some people have a great need for certain skills than for others e.g. for a newsreader, speaking and reading skills are more important whereas for a student writing and reading skills play a major role. For a teacher all four language skills are of equal importance. In the next units we would have an overview of all four language skills. In this unit we would discuss the oral skills i.e. speaking and listening.
