English Conversation

Why is the Mastery of English Important?

Being the most commonly used language around the world, English is an essential skill for everyone – from students to professionals. This is particularly important in the workplace where you need to talk to clients, present your work to higher-ups, and communicate well with your colleagues. 

If you want to be commended for your efforts and ensure that your point will be delivered across, you must have good communication skills and an excellent command of English. It will definitely boost your confidence if you are able to express yourself in a clear manner.

5 Tips on How to Reduce Your Accent to Sound Like a Native Speaker

Having an accent is not a bad thing; one should not be ashamed of it. A person’s accent represents his or her background and culture. Lots of people take pride in their accent as it reveals their cultural heritage. Even English native speakers have their own accents such as American-English, British-English or Australian-English. However, this sometimes causes difficulty in understanding so some people are embarrassed by their own accent in English Speaking. It turns out that having a residual accent might affect self-confidence in communication and interaction.

There are some techniques that non-native English speakers can use to reduce their accent in speaking. 

  1. Slow down and clearly pronounce words

People tend to speak fast when they are excited or nervous. If you have an accent, try to speak slowly and clearly pronounce words so that everyone can understand what you want to say.

  1. Feel the rhythm while speaking English

English is considered “stressed language” as every single word have its own stress, differently on verbs, words and adjectives. Same to sentence. People said that sentence stress gives English a rhythm or beat. 

  1. Listen and Talk to native speakers

Listen and repeat to sentences spoken by native speakers until you can naturally speak those sentences. Try to speak to the native speakers as many as possible. You need to overcome your in-confidence and speak to the native speakers. It might make you feel embarrassed at first but failure creates success. People also tend to imitate others whom they frequently interact with. Therefore, the more you talk to the native speakers, the more you could improve.

  1. Record yourself

Don’t learn from others only, learn from yourself. Take your time to record your speaking and listen again to identify your weaknesses. Recording will also make you proud of yourself in how clarity in your pronunciation has progressed. 

  1. Take a class or tutor

Consider working with an experienced tutor or teacher to help you with pronunciation, intonation and even vocabulary. An ESL teacher will have his/her strategy to quickly help you with your accent. Joining a class might also motivate you as you have partners in your accent reduction journey.

 

English Pronunciation: Compound Adjectives

A compound adjective is a fixed expression which is made up of more than one word and which has the function of an adjective. Most compound adjectives are written with a hyphen, but a few are written as one word:

skin-deep     long-term     threadbare

The following types of compound adjective usually have main stress on the first part:

  • compound adjectives usually written as one word
    • ‘ airtight ‘ carefree ‘ praise , worthy
    • Exceptions: , nation ‘ wide, , hand ‘ made
  • noun + -ing form
    • ‘ hair- , raising ‘ fee- , paying ‘ time-con,suming
  • noun + past participle
    • ‘ poverty- , stricken ‘ pear-shaped ‘ health-re,lated
    • Exceptions: , eagle- ‘ eyed, , home- ‘ grown

The following types of compound adjective usually have main stress on the second part:

  • noun + adjective
    • , fat- ‘ free , sky- ‘ high , snow- ‘ white
    • Exception: ‘ camera-shy
  • adjective + noun
    • , long – ‘ term , full – ‘ length , high – ‘ profile
  • adverb or adjective + past participle
    • , fully- ‘ grown , long- ‘ sighted , well – ‘ dressed
  • adverb or adjective + -ing form
    • , easy- ‘ going , hard – ‘ working , well – ‘ meaning
    • Exceptions: ‘ backward – , look ing, ‘ forward- , looking
  • self- as the first part
    • , self- ‘ confident , self-in ‘ flicted , self- ‘ governing

Most compound adjectives with main stress on the second part can have stress shift. Compare:

  • The tiger was fully-GROWN. but: It was a FULly-grown TIger.
  • The prices were sky-HIGH. but: They were SKY-high PRIces.

 

5 Reasons Why Good English is Essential in Business!

English is the language of communication: English is the most widely spoken language in the world with over 1 billion people using it as a foreign language.

English spoken in business is different from English spoken in daily lives, as certain industries have certain vocabulary or jargon. For example, English vocabulary is different in business administration, finance, law or retail.

Mastery of English is beneficial even though you are working in your home country. Many businesses are international in scope and English is official language in the company.

Better job opportunities: if you work in English-speaking countries, English is a must. In non-English-speaking countries, it would be another skill that you can add to your resume and would boost your chances of job promotion.

More confidence in working: Business English with Sydney Language Solutions will improve your confidence in presentation, negotiation, conversation, better comprehension and pronunciation in Business context. All of these will boost your confidence in conducting Business in English.

The Importance of English Conversation

English Conversation is not the same as IELTS, OET, or Business English. It’s casual English you can use with friends, lovers, potential friends/lovers, or work mates when you’re out of the work place. It’s also a good way to get a job as well.

Why learn it?

  1. People will not always speak in formal English. They will have moments when they relax, when they break the “rules” of English, when they “misuse” it, when they have a good time. If you want to communicate with them, you need to know what they’re talking about. If someone says another person is “as rough as rags” it means that person is strong willed, stubborn, uncouth, has a gruff voice, is resilient, and/or hard working. To someone was shot down in flames, does not mean they were in the air force. It means they were defeated in a debate, argument or intention. However the expression “to get on like a house on fire” might sound like a bad thing but it’s actually a good thing. It means to get along really well.
  2. You may want to use these expressions as well. You want to make your feelings known. You may want to be quick and straight to the point. If you want to talk about people who insult you and criticise you, then you could say you “cop flack”, and they “rubbish” you or “burn” you. If you were in trouble but now you aren’t any more, tell people you’re “off the hook.”
  3. Slang language comes in different varieties, it depends on the country and community you are with. “Off the hook” is Australian slang for not being in trouble anymore, while in America in means “excellent, fun.” Even within countries you will find different slang. People who enjoy electronic games will know the word “noob” to mean someone who has played games or a certain game for a short period of time.
  4. Social media is an important part in people’s life. If people want to express your opinions and/or feelings on Facebook or YouTube then they normally use abbreviations such as “fyi”, “omg”, “atm”, and “ftw” etc. Get to know these expressions, understand them, use them, save time, get your point across and don’t feel left out.
  5. There may come times when you want to talk to people about serious or enjoyable moments. These may be problems at work or in relationships, or recounting a holiday. Good conversation skills help get the point across. These are times to let your emotions come out. Formal language may not be ideal in these interactions.
  6. A job interview also requires good conversation skills. You don’t want to sound rehearsed, you want to sound natural. You’re not there to be the interviewers best friend, but you don’t want to sound indifferent. They need to know you care about the job, about the tasks, about the responsibilities, about the customers and other staff. Don’t be a passive observer, but be enthusiastic about the job they’re offering. You don’t need to be excited, just positive and serious.
  7. When you’re negotiating in your job interviews, potential business deals, presentations, reporting your scientific findings, or convincing people they need to take safety seriously, conversation is important. You need to know more than the facts. People already HAVE to hear you. Make them WANT to hear you.

Those are the reasons for the importance of good conversation skills. You need them for getting a job, doing a job, and relaxing outside the job. Different types of conversation are needed for different situations.

Ways to improve your English conversation skills

Write your own blog

You may not know that writing is actually a good way to improve your vocabulary. When you want to describe something but get stuck, you will have to look at the dictionary. By writing your own blog, after a period of time, you will be surprised in the way you can express your idea in a conversation.

A meet up group

Join an English conversation meet up group to meet with people who want to practise their English speaking skills and you certainly will learn a lot from each other.

Sing karaoke

Learning through singing is such an effective way to improve your pronunciation and confidence. Why not surprise your friends in a party night singing your most favourite song?

Take an English conversation course

It is a good way to start, if you have no idea at all. The tutor in the class will guide you on what to do and correct your individual common mistakes. Later on, you can learn by yourself easily.

Think in English

Try to force yourself to think in English but not your own native language. It will likely be hard initially, but this will be a great way to learn more things around you which you didn’t really actually think of in the past. Later on, you will find more things to say when you speak in English

Pick up your favourite movies

Watching movies in the English language with English subtitles may help you to understand the movie and help you to know how people actually converse in real life. We always learn from something and someone, so this is one of the many ways.

Vocabulary list

Building up your own vocab list will help you a lot in the long run. Don’t forget to go through the list whenever you have spare time. Make the most of your smart phone, iphone and iPad apps such as note taking app, and to do list.

 

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