How to speak English well? What is real English?
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M. NASSER GORSI, Linguistics expert and ESL lecturer
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The hegemony of the English language has grown up so
much that it has become a global language. Those countries where England
had its colonies, left the language as a legacy after independence.
Languages came into existence first, grammatical rules were created scientifically later on in order to teach and understand.
I
believe, that one can succeed even if you don't have much knowledge
about his/her subject, but provided that you know English well.
People
in many countries like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, middle east
countries, etc. believe that English is the language of gentlemen and
ladies. So, in the society, they manage to grab good respect.
I would like to classify English into two categories broadly:
1. Prescriptive English: This English is the actual language that is prescribed and is considered to be pure.
2. Descriptive English:
It is the English that we manipulate according to our own mother tongue
or you can say due to the mother tongue influence (MTI).
Never study grammar in depth.
When I was in school, I had always a bent towards languages. I always
liked the Russians speaking Russian, Spanish by Spanish and French by
French people.
Somehow, I started teaching English as a second
language when I was in the college. Then after three years of teaching, I
came across some books and changed my strategy of teaching with the
passage of time.
During my MA in English, in 2007, I studied
linguistics, which helped me study the language scientifically and my
love for languages grew more.
In 2008, the next year, I joined a
one-year course in French language. Fortunately, I realised that 60-70%
of the English language has been derived from French. My passion for
teaching kept growing and I had increased my batches, earned good money,
paid college expenses and had bought a lovely jet black cruiser
motorbike.
One day, one of my students told me to teach him basic
tenses. I postponed the topic for the next day as I had to prepare for
myself first. It occurred to me that I had forgotten almost all the
tenses. But I never forgot English. It was probably once you learn the
language by heart (unconsciously), you don't need to take care of
grammatical rules. So,thereafter, I studied the grammar deeply to teach
and realised that I had forgotten many rules.
I taught hundreds of
students. All of them wanted a magic wand and learn speaking English
like an English speaker in one day. Believe me fellas, Rome was not
built in one day. If you are born, you don't start speaking the next
day, you take two to three years to learn the language.
Golden Tips that I involve in teaching English.
1. Start reading a good newspaper for two-three hours every day. Every day means every day. This will teach you grammar unconsciously.
2. Write at least 10 pages of a notebook. This will not only improve your spellings, but will also improve your handwriting and some understanding of the language.
The
level of our confidence keeps rising and diving. Sometimes, if you are
in high spirits, you speak it boldly with confidence. At times, if the
other person you are talking to, speaks fluently, you may lose
confidence in yourself and get depressed. It happens, almost with every
body.
There are people who speak fluently but do not know proper
grammar even and there are some who write very well but can't speak.
This is due to lack of practice and exposure.
Yes, exposure plays a
vital role in speaking English. Ever wondered why do most Indians (any
native of any country other than English) living in the English-speaking
countries speak like English speakers? Yes, it is called exposure.
Speaking and listening, both. Children who are brought up in the
English-speaking countries speak just like any other English native. It
is because they are the native, get 100 per cent exposure since their
childhood.
What is Language Acquisition Device?
I am of the
opinion that one can learn any language during his/her childhood
because according to the Linguistics, there is something called LAD
(Language Acquisition Device) in our brain. In the childhood, it is
always easy to learn the languages because our LAD is empty and gets
hold over the new things fast. As we grow, our use of the language,
subjects starts limiting and we stop learning or learn at a slow pace
after sometime. I know a few guys who were learning French language in
my Panjab University class. They were in their early 60s and were
retired from jobs. One of them had retired as a doctor, another one had
retired from the education department. The doctor was very good a good
learner. It is probably due to his hard work at home or he kept learning
his whole life. On the other side, the other man, who had a Doctorate
in Physics, told me in his Punjabi, "Zaar Nasser, mere ko ek baat samjh
ni atti, man ghr mein bot meint karta hun, sali samjh ni atti French."
(Dear Nasser, I don't understand one thing, I work hard on my French at
home but can't understand it.)
Not everybody is same. There are
many kinds of learners. Like some are new to a language and others know
the basics like spellings, some pronunciation and can understand to some
extent. The Golden Tips that I have mentioned above are beneficial for
both. If you follow this schedule with full dedication and honesty for
at least three months, I promise you that your language will drastically
improve.
Many a time, there are people who know English but they
cannot answer questions in IELTS. Reason, lack of confidence and
knowledge. You must know about the topic to be spoken in order to speak.
In journalism, there is a common saying,
"READ TO WRITE".
I always cite this example to my students and tell them to read as much
as they can. This also improves their knowledge and they can speak on
the issues they have read about.
Apart from that you can buy a grammar book and work on a few exercises every day to learn the rules.
I
have been teaching English as a private tutor since 2003. I also worked
as an ESL (English as a second language) lecturer at Chitkara
University of Engineering and Technology, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh,
India.
I had opened up an institute of English academy but due to some financial problems, my dream project had to be closed.
My
passion for learning and teaching English has never stopped. Right now,
I have been working as a Sub-Editor in The Tribune (English daily
newspaper), for more than three years. But I still teach the whole day
since morning for three reasons:
1.My newspaper job starts at 6 pm in the evening and I have the whole day.
2. Passion
3. Money
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Regards