Speaking English fluently (Part 1) [Archives:2006/914/Education]
Dr. Ramakanta Sahu
The importance of English can hardly be overemphasized. Its use in Travel, Tourism, Teaching technology and Trade is universally accepted. Yet it is a matter of concern for people like me that a significant chunk of school and university student population find it rather hard to speak English elegantly. Here are a few practical tips for such people to speak English fluently.
1. Speak in a natural way
Speak in idea units naturally and spontaneously. Divide a sentence into idea units. Speak in word-groups that contain an idea unit.
2. Train your speech organs
Acquire the power of pronunciation skill because English is a stress-timed language as against Arabic or Hindi which are syllable-timed languages. The speech organs such as your tongue, lips, throat and some other parts of your mouth need special treatment and training for this purpose.
3. Practice material
Practice makes man perfect is a well-known adage. Bank upon good practice material. There is no need to learn the practice material by heart, but you should read it ALOUD several times. It gives a clear picture of patterns of general frames of word groups. It also forms the habit of natural speech, enabling your organs of speech and mind to work in harmony.
4. Learn to use the right word in the right place
Increase your word power, not by looking up meanings of unfamiliar words from the dictionary, but by trying to guess their meanings from the context. An elementary knowledge of morphological process of word derivation from roots can help significantly. Acquire core words and cultivate the skill of generating more words. Take care to build up your own vocabulary bank slowly and steadily.
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