Communication Skills: Learn to Speak English with Confidence Study Tips

Study Coach presents Communication Skills Tips to help Learners Speak English with Confidence. To learn effectively Study Coach suggest that learners should be organised and plan to achieve.

Questions and Learning:

There are many questions and there are many ways to answer questions. A person with an extensive vocabulary and good thinking skills is likely to be very skilled at providing answers under test conditions (example: IELTS). To raise learning standards and improve speaking skills, make notes of questions and set aside time to practise framing your own answers. 

Questions:

What style of music do you usually listen to?

Do you ever attend live music shows?

How often do you go out to watch a movie? 

Do you think movies/films plays an important role in people’s lives?

Here is an example of a question and my answer in audio and text:

Question: How often do you listen to music?

Answer: “I listen to music during the week, but I rarely have time to listen in the mornings, because in the mornings my focus is on getting to work on time. At the end of the day, after dinner, once I have prepared for the next working day, I will usually relax and listen to some therapeutic music via the radio. Instrumental music coupled with sounds of nature, for example, birds chirping, the sounds of waves crashing against rocks, helps me to relax. I usually listen to music at the weekend, particularly on a Saturday morning, I will indulge myself by laying in bed and catch up on what’s going on in the music world”. 

Speaking Test: 

According to guidance from the British Council IELTS (Speaking Tests) you should remember to speak clearly and accurately. It is important to say as much as you can (without rushing) and to be spontaneous. The suggestion from the British Council is that you shouldn’t prepare answers in advance as you will not have this option when it comes to the real-life IELTS Speaking test. The more natural and authentic you can be, the better the test is likely to go.

https://englishonline.britishcouncil.org

Now, let’s have a look at some Study Tips, followed with questions and answers.

Study Tip: Don’t Cram

 Be organised and try not to cram communication ideas, cramming will lead to overflow and result in forgetting what was learned. We usually remember what we have forgotten but it is not advisable to use a cramming strategy. Furthermore, if we are prone to forget, it could impact negatively on our communication and learning to speak English with confidence.  

Study Tip: Creative Thinking

Be a creative thinker and a reflective learner, so make time to sit and reflect on what you have learnt, link previous learning to your new learning. 

Study Tip: Learning Style

When you reflect give consideration to your Learning Style, and create a learning plan to suit your learning style, one that is appropriate for your needs. 

QUESTIONS and ANSWERS 

To raise standards and improve overall Oral Communication skills, learners should make time to work on some specific aspects of Speaking Skills. Learners should set aside time to reflect on their own skills, and practise in order to make changes and learn to speak English with confidence. Let’s turn our attention to two questions. 

Question: How can I learn to speak English?

Answer: You should identify your strengths and weaknesses in speaking English, select one weakness and start practising to make changes. The aim is to reduce the weakness and make it into a strength. It is advisable to work on one weakness at a time if possible, if you can allocate more time to your studies then choose more than one weakness, without overloading yourself. I will give an example: if you have identified that saying words beginning with the letter ‘V’ and ‘B’ are giving you difficulties, then you could create a tongue twister and start practising.

Example: Visualise a variety of beautiful blooms, vivacious violets and bellflowers buried in baskets and yet in full view, valerians, vanillas, vibrant viola, the most violet flowers were very visible for voters to view. 

Question: Do you have any Communication Speaking Skills Tips?

Answer: The short answer is ‘yes’. Researcher Nelson-Jones suggest that speakers should reflect on their use of ‘Volume, Articulation, Pitch, Emphasis, Rate’. I have created below an image to briefly explain the ideas, to help learners memorise the points to aid communication skills and help learners to speak English with confidence.