How to Improve Your English

Language is more than a medium of communication. It reflects your cultural background, it reveals your personality and it organizes your thoughts.


It is with the help of language that we can convince others and compel them to believe what we believe in. That is why, whether you are taking an examination or you are writing a letter or an article or you are discussing with your friends or you are at an interview, you need impressive and highly communicative language. It was the thunderous and highly communicative language. It was the thunderous speech of Sir Winston Churchill that made the Germans commit the folly of attacking Russia instead of attacking England during the Second World War. It was the emotional and cautiously-worded speech of Antony, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that made him popular and downgrade Brutus. What wonders carefully-worded speeches can work!

You cannot be born with a mastery over the language; you have to acquire it with persistent labour. If you have an aptitude for it, you can acquire it more quickly. But you cannot reach the end point at any stage; improving language is a continuous process.

There are many hurdles in the way of a learner. We depend more on journalistic writings—newspapers, magazines etc.—for our knowledge of the language. We forget that language used in journalistic writings is not standard English. You may call it “functional English”. For example in the newspapers you come across the phrase “family members” but in standard English, it should be “members of the family.” Similarly, in journalistic idiom, it is correct to say: “they were asked to quickly decide” but in standard English it is an incorrect sentence because there is split infinitive in it. The sentence should be “They were asked to decide quickly.”

You cannot be born with a mastery over the language; you have to acquire it with persistent labour. If you have an aptitude for it, you can acquire it more quickly. But you cannot reach the end point at any stage; improving language is a continuous process.


Teaching of English at the early stages of schooling is way below the mark. Teaching is more or less a mechanical process at these stages. Whether it is “play-way method” or “visual perception method”, teachers fail to excite the interest of the children. They take interest, it is because the language is new to them and their parents are very happy when their children speak a few words of English. But this interest does not last long. Moreover, at home they talk in their mother tongue.

Another obstacle in our effort to learn English is our inability to buy standard English books and read them. At school stage, if at all we read, we read comics or detective novels which in no way help us in improving our language or expression.

Keeping the above mentioned hurdles and problems in mind, we will have to devise some methods of adopting or expression.

Reading, Speaking, Writing
For learning a language reading, speaking and writing should go together. Reading enriches our knowledge which in its turn serves as a spur to original thinking. Speaking organises the thoughts in their logical sequence; this helps in the continuous flow of ideas and mind becomes quick in selecting words. Writing makes the language scientific, accurate and effective.

Reading.
Which books should we read? In fact, we should read prose writing of well-known English writers of today. Prose writings of B. Russell,, A. L. Huxley, G. B. Shaw, Nirad C. Chaudhri, Naipaul etc. should be read. Magazines and newspapers cannot helps us much. Just going through the book is not enough. Read one paragraph and cull out the main ideas and arguments. Try to put these ideas in your own way. Then compare the two — the one which you have written and the other written by the writer. Discover your weaknesses —

(a) Whether you are unable to select proper words (b) if you have failed to explain the idea in a proper manner (c) if you have failed to make the whole description effective. When you write again, try to remove these defects.

While going through the book, collect impressive phrases and note them down in a note book. Revise them from time to time so that you may commit them to memory. When you come to writing, make use of them. In this manner, these phrases will become a part of your thinking and will not import any discrepancy in your style.

Speaking.
If you have not been conversing in English with the members of your family and friends, you will experience at lot of difficulty in speaking. So better begin reading a few paragraphs from a book loudly and as fast as you can. When you feel that your reading is very smooth, come to the next step. Start speaking loudly on simple topics that you know. For example, you may speak on “Members of my family,” “My School days” or “Train journey” etc. Then you can come to more argumentative and difficult topics if you feel that you can speak well on simple topics. Your emphasis should be on the flow of the language in the initial stages. Then you should try to make your language free from mistakes. It will be good if you use a tape recorder, for then you will be able to evaluate your speech. You should also see if your speech has developed logically and ideas cohere themselves with one another.

Writing.
Writing is as important as reading and speaking. Just writing for the sake of writing is not enough. You will have to make a sincere and conscious effort to write better. Begin writing on simple topics but your approach should be fresh. There should be touches of imagination here and there. For example, the idea “We have made economic progress but this is not enough” has been put thus by a writer:

While there has been substantial economic recovery but we are not out of the shadows yet and there is no room for complacency.

Some lay stress on a particular point with the help of various methods—rhetorical language, details and ramifications contributing to the main idea and weaving patterns like a magician who throws balls of different colours into the air and then catches them. Read a paragraph from the speech of Mr. Churchill and discover its beauty:

Freedom will be erected on unshakable foundations and at her side will be Right and Justice and I am sure of this that when victory is gained, we shall show a poise and temper as admirable as that which we displayed in the days of our mortal danger that we shall not be led astray by false guides either into apathy and weakness or into brutality but that the name of our dear country, our island home will be our conduct by our clairvoyance, by our self restraint, by our inflexible tenacity of purpose long stand in honour amongst the nations of the world!

So write once,then try to improve it. Thus you will be training your intellectual processes for better expression. With practice, you find a style suitable to your personality and thinking.

Improve Your Thinking Process
Language is coloured by one’s thinking process. Those who are simple-minded and think straight, will always be simple and straightforward in their language. Read the following paragraph from Gandhiji’s writings and you will find it simple and straightforward:

Exploitation of the poor can be extinguished not by effecting the destruction of a few millionaires but by removing the ignorance of the poor and teaching them not to co-operate with their exploiters. That will convert the exploiters also. I have even suggested that ultimately, it will lead to both being equal partners.

In the above quoted paragraph, ideas flow in an effortless manner and they have a logical relation; there is a chain of thoughts. Some people are not clear in their thoughts, so their language is involved and complex and they labour to explain their ideas. For example:

Effective rational propaganda becomes possible only when there is a clear understanding, on the part of all concerned, of the nature of symbols and of their relation to the things and events symbolised. Irrational propaganda depends for its effectiveness on a general failure to understand the nature of symbols. Simple-minded people tend to equate the symbol with what it stands for, to attribute to things and events some of the qualities expressed by the words in terms of which the propagandist has chosen for his own purposes, to talk about them.

In the above quoted paragraph, so many modifying ideas are given in each sentence that the attention of the reader cannot be fixed on one point. This is not because the thinking is ambiguous but because the related ideas appear so fast in mind that one is forced to pack them together. The writer wants to give a very comprehensive explanation of an idea in a single sentence. Such writing poses a great problem to the reader.

All great writers, who are famous for their effective style, are simple, to the point and straightforward. For example Nirad C.Chaudhri is known for his effective style; read the following lines by him, about Oxford—
The university was still a club — a religious, scholarly and epicurean club for its teaching members, a recreational, sporting and talking club for its student members, and a social club for both.

It is a fine imaginative presentation of a simple idea.

Now the question arises, How to cultivate our thinking process? Firstly, we should think in English before writing. As has been pointed out earlier, if we think in Hindi and write in English, we translate the idea in our sub-conscious mind and this can never be accurate. For this, we will have to make maximum use of English, while speaking or writing. Secondly, we should develop the habit of thinking straight. Think over a topic in logical manner. If the topic demands arguments, think ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘what’ of the topic. If it is narrative, think of the chronology of events. If it is narrative, think of the chronology of events. Without thinking straight, your language cannot be simple and straightforward. Thirdly, straight thinking also depends on vocabulary. If you have a good vocabulary at your command, words will help you to think properly. If you do not have a good vocabulary, you have to fumble for words and you think of putting the idea in a different manner. The presentation thus becomes involved.

Personality Influences Thinking
It may sound strange but is a fact that the personality of the writer colours his thinking and writing. Great writers do not grow like a mushroom on a dung hill; these have to be cultivated like roses in the garden. A good writer will have to develop a healthy moral, mental and material outlook towards life. If a person is not endowed with a suitable personality, one has to cultivate it. A good writer will have to be (i) a good observer of man and affairs of men (ii) analytical in approach (iii) comprehensive in thinking (iv) sensitive to impressions (v) desirous to correlate information. It is this part of the personality that can be called intellectual make-up, which influences thinking and so also writing and speaking.

If a person cannot observe life closely, and minutely, he cannot have material for writing or illustrating. Sherlock Holmes, the hero of the detective novels of Conan Doyle could derive much information even from a hat lying on a dunghill. So should be a writer. Life gives us material for writing. A writer must have a knowledge of the social, cultural and economic life of the people. Even when you are a student, you need this knowledge because this can provide you much stuff for writing and speaking. You can illustrate your point, you can substantiate your argument and you can come close to reality. If keen observation is supplemented with the reading of good books, the knowledge becomes more comprehensive. By contrasting and comparing your knowledge with the knowledge of other writers, one becomes more scientific in knowledge.

A speaker or a writer must have a talent to analyse the situation, correlate it with other information and then come to generalisation. This intellectual approach will organise his thoughts and help him to express them. He will not have to wait for the ideas.

A person who is not comprehensive in thinking cannot be persuasive in speech or writing. If all the aspects of the problem are addressed, it leaves no scope for the reader to doubt its validity. No letter, no agreement, no article can appeal to the reader unless it is quite comprehensive. You can speak for a longer time and write in detail if you study all the aspects of the problem. One-sided view comes limping to the reader and so does not sink into his mind. An isolated incident or a piece of information does not appeal to the reader but when it is given a wider context and related to other aspects, it has an appeal. For example, if I say that “Mr. A is bad because he is a politician”, people may consider it a prejudiced opinion. But if I give details of his actions and talk about more politicians in that very vein i.e. make it more comprehensive, the readers will be persuaded to believe.

Comprehensiveness also provides variety to a piece of writing. A writer with a limited vision cannot talk about variety of things. But we should not forget that variety is the spice of life. It broadens our outlook and enriches our mind. If our brain is a mine of information, we can overawe the reader by the sheer wealth of information. We make the reader or the listener our intellectual disciple.

No speaker or writer can make a mark unless he is sensitive to impressions. The same incidents or happenings arouse different types of reaction in the case of different people. The song of the nightingale made Keats to sing—

Fade for away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leave last never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectle-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or now love pine at them beyond tomorrow.

It is a vivid picture of the miseries of life and seems to be remotely connected with the song of the nightingale. But a person sensitive to impressions often finds that the whole gamut of emotions is touched by a single incident and his kaleidoscopic imagination weaves different patterns out of it. Clearly, a person sensitive to impressions, retains much in his mind, certain words, or ideas become associated with happenings.

Correlating information is possible if one is sensitive to impressions and comprehensive in thinking. If a person cannot establish relation, whether imaginary or real, he cannot improve his thinking and expression. For consolidating his ideas and opinions, this correlation is essential. Correlating information does not mean just putting information together, it means to discover their similarity, contrast, or another type of relationship. This adds many arrows to one’s quiver. The larger the number of pieces information, the greater will be your search for words to express them. The richer the thoughts, the richer will be the language. Ideas do not die due to their excessive weight; They create a strong craving for expression. It is an over-whelming emotion like anger or love which must find an outlet. Language automatically becomes better.

Concluding Remarks

From this discussion one can gather that English cannot be improved by simply reading books or by simply increasing vocabulary. It requires an all-out effort to make it more effective. The whole personality will have to be coloured by it. If you read English books, converse in English and write in English, you start thinking in English.

All this should be supplemented with a conscious effort to make your language better. Think if you can use a better phrase than the one which is used by you. You can pick up good phrases from standard writes and remember them. Make use of them while writing. The phrases will become a part of your thinking and your language, as well as presentation, will improve.

Before adopting methods for improvement, one should fix one’s aim — whether improvement is to be made for writing effectively or for speaking effectively. In either case, we will have to adopt a little different technique.

Ahmad Ishaque Jahangir

Thanks dear for such a helpful post, it really help me a lot to understand the underlying problem of mine actually whenever i start writing something either for randomly or start making any notes so many thoughts start floating in my mind like a boat floating over the sea .I didn't know what to do exactly, because I will not that say that i am much bad in English and sure about the fact that not perfect in either writing or speaking. I can serve my purpose but always willing to improve it as know it well that there is always room for further improvement.Conceiving in my mind that my vocabulary is poor i use to make plan for improving it than become fed up and start grammar exercise thinking grammar mistakes a lot than leave it undone.As i know my English is average, there is definitely grammar mistake, low vocabulary but the main problem which i should tackle first is expression of my thought and ideas in a best and comprehensive way.I should start thinking in proper way,instead of cluttering my mind i should start analyze what happen around me in a proper way . After reading this post from now onward i will start coloring my thoughts and expression as well.thanks again and one thing more plz check out my English mistake and tell me must.I am looking forward for your reply and for your new post as well.God bless you.

A few mistakes are highlighted and coloured. There can be more mistakes.

I would suggest you to start reading and writing. The more you read and write the more beautiful your expressions become.

You have good English. You can express your ideas in English. If matter is of mistakes, everyone makes and learns from one's mistakes.

Write, read and get guidance is only formula.

You should start with expansion writing. Write one expansion daily and post it here:

http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-compu...xpansions.html

Senior members and I will guide you well. I am also learning English and so does everyone here.

Start with expansion writing.

I remind words of Paulo Coelo, "When you want something the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

Stay Blessed.

This post based on my personal experience, is also helpful in enabling a person improving English language. I myself practiced it and gradually I improved a lot.
http://www.cssforum.com.pk/233604-post1.html

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Thanks Allah

Excellent. Undoubtedly, these things enable one's expressions and language.