WHY ENGLISH???

“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.”

                                                          - Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958)
                                                        [American engineer, inventor of the electric starter]

     English is the universal example of an international language. Everyone wishes to master this language for the purpose of application—get chosen at the interview, higher education or for settling abroad. But it is not to be forgotten that mastering a non-native language is a Herculean task, yet the same could indeed be achieved with constant practice and sheer determination.

     It is the transition period when the student enters into college. They have their own whims and fancies about college life due to the tremendous influence of mass-media. He should properly be tuned first and brought into the seriousness of the professional course. Any individual irrespective of his background and other influence would certainly want to speak English in such a way that everyone marvels at them. This includes his effort to expand his vocabulary, learn few foreign words and phrases to show off as the so called ‘educated’. There are three stages in adapting the fluency of any language: drilling, mimicry and memorization—almost unavoidable in a foreign language instruction. Mimicry—provides necessary meaningful repetition of perception and production of language itself. The acquisition of foreign language is accomplished through memorization. If this turns out to be the sole purpose of every language learner, the process becomes easy. It is also to be noted that this could be attained with aid of listening to audio tapes, watching selective videos & reading novel books.

     In today's scenario, mastery of words would place you in a good profession as most of the interviews are based on listening, writing and reading. Learning of vocabulary adds to the beauty of a language spoken. The more words you learn, the more confident you’ll be to speak or write. A student with adequate vocabulary can function effectively and efficiently. Learning new words would help one to attend many entrance tests confidently, and mastering them will eventually lead to improve communication skill. Learning idioms and proverbs indeed enriches vocabulary; the meaning of which cannot be inferred from the words, it has a different meaning when analyzed deeper. It would make your language interesting and attract the listeners. Say, “burning the candle at both ends” would mean trying to do many works at a time; and “cat nap” would refer to a small sleep and so on are instances of an idiomatic expression.

     Writing itself is indeed a challenge. Some may be sound in speaking English but they cannot write equally well. Writing and speaking are two different concepts and there are only a handful of people who have mastered both the arts. First impediment in the written form is the spelling of the words they use. While speaking, we can use any kind of words with less effort because we are not going to write them down. But while writing, we have to be sure of the spellings and a change in the spelling may sometimes change the meaning of the words. English has many homonyms and homophones like “aisle/I’ll”, “allowed/aloud”, “berth/birth”, “beech/beach”, “dear/deer”, “die/dye”, “son/sun”, “eye/I”, “knot/not”, “pain/pane”, “peek/peak”, “see/sea” etc. and unless the writer is thorough with the spellings he or she cannot write the correct words. Failing to develop this skill, one could never be a good writer. If he is unable to write his thoughts effectively, no individual will show interest to hire him. Thoughts can accomplish form through words; hence it is yet again mandatory to improve writing skill.

     Listening—an act of hearing attentively is an inevitable part of learning English. Research shows that 45% of our time is spent on listening. Good listening skill is mandatory to get into a decent profession; for this skill is tested even at the times of interviews etc. active listening to conversation in English would serve helpful at this stage.

     One area which could be focused to improve pronunciation is phonetics. Phonetics helps to analyze and identify how each and every alphabet is pronounced. This could further be developed with the help of Daniel Jones Phonetic Dictionary where phonetic symbols are given for each alphabet. For instance, castle should be pronounced with a silent ‘t’ as /ka:sl/, and succumb should be read as /sak^m/ with a silent ‘b’. There is always a tendency to mix /t/ and /d/, /p/ and /b/, /k/ and /g/, /f/ and /v/, /s/ and /z/, //`/ and /3/ sounds. Concentration on the pronunciation of vowel sounds and consonant sounds, the way they are articulated, mouth gymnastics or tongue twisters can be practiced to make the tongue flexible to utter the words. A few tongue twisters for practice would be: “The fast fury fox flew across a field in a flash, while the frisky frog and fish fell into a pond with a splash”, and “She sells sea shells on the sea shore, if she sells sea shells it must be the shells taken from the sea.”

     Teachers should motivate students for participative learning; this will solve all the stumbling blocks in students. Teaching and learning is never a one-way but a multi-way process. Teacher should not be seen as an adversary; as soon as the teaching is over, students should raise their doubts, clarification, etc. By doing so, students’ communication skills in English will gradually and unconsciously grow. To develop this, sufficient practice must be given to students in their preliminary stage; one of which would be insisting to speak in English.

Practice leads to perfection! Perfection leads to professional Engineers!!

Hearty wishes for the beginners who wish to do the change!

Thanks for reading!