Developing English Communication and Understanding Skills

It is important to understand well whether your communication is in your own language or in another language. A lot about communicating in your own language is learned naturally as a child. However, to communicate well in another language a person must take time to develop their ability in that language. That means that to communicate in another language, a person must develop new skills in the use of their ears (listening), their mouth (speaking), and their mind (understanding spoken and written words). Just as speaking and writing are important, so are reading and listening important for the learner of another language.

Listening helps us to hear the correct way to talk about an idea. As we listen many times to a native speaker tell stories we understand quite well, the way to say the sentences and ideas in the story become more and more a part of us until we automatically say those kinds of expressions correctly without thinking about the rules of the language. Most people enjoy listening to material that is quite easy for them to understand. That is they already know most of the expressions they hear. However, if there is a lot that they do not understand, they can not follow all they thinking of the speaker.

Thus what is being said is boring and sometimes the listener stops listening. Likewise reading is important for learning to write correctly in another language. As we repeatedly read the same story, written by a native speaker, the way to write about the ideas becomes more and more a part of us until, when we write, we write those same kinds of expressions correctly without thinking about the rules of the language. Most people enjoy reading material that is quite easy to understand. That is they already know most of the vocabulary; and the sentences are not too complicated to grasp the idea being expressed.

On the other hand, if a person does not understand much of what they are reading, they must stop many times to look up words in a dictionary or go back over the information again to try to understand the idea. It becomes difficult reading and also breaks the trend of thought so that it becomes unclear. Reading of that kind quickly becomes boring. This course is specifically designed to help the learner of English to develop skills in speaking and writing clearly; and improve their ability to listen and read with clear, easy understanding.