Ways to Improve your English Speaking Skills - Kujua Kiingereza cha Kuongea kwa haraka

- Kumbuka wakati unasoma Kiswahili, mwanafunzi ulitakiwa kusoma au kusimulia hadithi kwa sauti darasani, kuimba nyimbo, au hata kutoa hotuba mbele ya wenzio wakati mko mstalini.

- Sasa na Kiingereza kinataka hivyo hivyo kama ulivyojifunza Kiswahili. Ndipo sasa utakijua Kiingereza katika nyanja zote yaani kuongea, kuandika, kusoma na kusikiliza.

- Kwa bahati mbaya, Mfumo wetu wa Elimu sio rafiki sana na Kiingereza, usipojitambua mapema, utajikuta unamaliza hadi Chuo Kikuu lakini hujui kuongea Kiingereza.

FANYA HAYA YAFUATAYO

1. Hakikisha unashiriki ipasavyo Program zote zinazohusu kuongea kiingereza hapo shuleni, kwa mfano: Debate, English Club, Morning Speech nk.

2. Kuwa na mazoea ya kuuliza maswali au kuchangia hoja kwa Kiingereza uwapo darasani

3. Kama uko mtaani, basi hakikisha unakuwa na Rafiki wa kuongea naye Kiingereza, itapendeza sana kama atakuwa anajua Kiingereza kuliko wewe.

4. Soma hadithi mbalimbali za Kiingereza hata kama ni za wanyama.

5. Tazama au sikiliza vipindi vya TV/Radio ambavyo ni vya Kiingereza, kwa mfano: Habari

6. Sikiliza nyimbo za Kiingereza, na tazama pia movie za Kiingereza.

7. Penda kushiriki ibada au misa ambazo ni za Kiingereza

8. Usione aibu kukosea, maana kukosea ndio kujifunza kwenyewe

B) ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HOW TO BE GOOD IN SPEAKING ENGLISH

1. Speak, speak, speak

Let’s start right off by saying that there isn’t a magic pill for better speaking. That would be too easy, right? Basically, the best way to speak better is to, well – speak! Commit to practicing often and with as many different people as possible. Do you already live or study overseas? Take advantage of the thousands of native speakers in your immediate community, such as your friends, their families, your coworkers, classmates, employees at the coffee shops, supermarket, post-office and other places you visit. If you’re learning in your own country, increase your practice time by meeting your classmates after class, finding an language exchange partner or joining an online community of learners.

2. Watching TV Shows, Cartoon Shows, and Movies

Nowadays, kids are more into mobile phones, television, laptops, and other electronic gadgets in their free time. Most of them are busy watching TV shows, cartoon shows, web series, movies, motivational videos, etc. Being a parent or a guide, we can take the best advantage of it by helping them utilise their time. We can motivate them to watch shows or series which are in English. There are a lot of English shows, including cartoon shows which can be the best learning method for children. Another best way to learn is by switching on the subtitles. They can listen and read alongside, which will help in understanding them better and improving their listening skills.

3. Listen to what others in the class say.

During group lessons, some students turn down the volume of their classmates until it’s their turn to speak. Not a good idea! Listen to what others say. First, they may make mistakes that you make too and you can both improve when the teacher corrects them. Second, English is universal. You have to get used to hearing it from people all over the world. A French person speaking English may sound different from a Chinese person. English is the language of the world, so it’s important to understand the variations.

4. Talk to yourself

You don’t need an audience to practise speaking English. You can talk to yourself at any time! The big advantage of talking to yourself is that you can choose whatever topic or theme you like. For example, one day you could decide to speak using the present tense. The next day you could switch to the future or past tenses, and so on. One top tip is to speak to yourself while standing in front of a mirror. That way you can see how clearly you are pronouncing words and phrases. An even better alternative is to video yourself as you speak in English. This lets you play back the footage and get a more objective view of your pronunciation and fluency.

5. Learn from native English speakers

With any language, going from the version of the language you learn in lessons to the way people actually use the language in real life can be challenging. Pronunciation, grammar, intonation, and slang can all make it difficult to sound like a native speaker, even when your English is otherwise perfect.

6. Listen to Yourself

If you do not have anyone to practice English conversations, look for English language apps that have a recording tool. Use the recorder to record yourself speaking English and then listen to it. Do you sound like the English speaker you are repeating? Take note of what sounds and words you are struggling with and practice speaking them aloud into the recorder.

7. Listening to music

Songs can be of great help when learning a new language. You can improve your English speaking skills by listening to and singing English songs. Pay attention to the words in the lyrics and try to understand them. You can even learn new words and how to form sentences musically through songs! We've made a list of songs with unique words and phrases to help you improve your English speaking skills.

8. Improve your pronunciation

You might know a lot of words, but if you fail to say them correctly, you will not be understood. That seems like a waste of the time spent on remembering words, right? When using online dictionaries such as Macmillan and Merriam-Webster, make use of the little speaker symbol to check the pronunciation of any word that you are not sure about. There are English pronunciation tutorials on YouTube or podcasts like English Pronunciation Pod or American English Pronunciation to teach you the many aspects of American English pronunciation. When you are ready for something more challenging, try out tongue twisters.

LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE FASTER

1. Write things down (by hand)

Despite the fact that constant progress in technology seems to make handwriting a thing of the past, do not underestimate the power of writing things down to stimulate your memory! Whenever I start learning a new language – I'm trying Croatian at the moment – I keep an old-fashioned notebook where I can write down all the new words and the main grammar points. The physical effort to actually write the words down helps me to memorize them better, and using different colored inks makes it even more eye-catching.

2. Start with short, simple dialogues

Richards believes that it’s possible to become conversational in a language in just 90 days – as he did with Italian – by starting with reading and listening to stories. But how can you do that when you’re so new to the language that you barely understand a thing? Well, Richards says, “At the beginning, you need to use material that’s really, really simple.”

In the first week or so, stick to reading the short, simple dialogues you might find in a beginner language learning textbook, such as “I go to the grocery store” or “I like to run and watch movies.” Although these phrases might seem too basic, you’ll learn more than you think.

3. Study the language every day.

Consistent study will get you quicker results. People often claim to have studied a language "for five years" and still not be fluent. But when they say five years, they probably mean that they studied the language for only a couple of hours a week over that entire time period. If you want to learn a new language quickly (that is, in the space of a few weeks or months), you're going to have to commit to studying the language for a couple of hours per day.

Language learning is based on repetition hammering something into your brain over and over again until you remember it. If you break too long between study sessions, you are much more prone to forget what you learned last time and you will waste valuable study time going back over what you've already learned.

4. Immerse yourself in the language

Immersion is praised as one of the best ways to learn a language. Once you become able to speak your new language fluently or even at a satisfactory level, it’s time to go out into the world. Your objective is to communicate with real people as much as possible.

Unfortunately, immersion isn’t always cheap. You’ll need both time and money to travel to another country and spend enough time there to experience immersion.

So, what’s to be done? The cheapest way is to create an immersion environment at home. Basically, apply all the above-mentioned tips at once. Surround yourself with books in the language you want to learn, listen to music, learn the lyrics and sing along, read books and articles in your target language – everything all at once. The idea is to bring the new language into your environment.