Week 9_How to Improve Your Fluency level in English

How to Improve Your Fluency level in English

Prof. Pang: My English was used to be very poor. I was also shy, but I enhanced my fluency. There should be various way to improve it. What is your suggestion for it?

Student 1:
It has been helpful for me to watch video clips such as presidential speeches, news, sports events, and so on. Also, one faculty recommends to have a tutor for conversational English.

Student 2:
I did my undergrad in Australia. Hanging out with students in English definitely helped. Picking up your advisor’s terminologies is a good way to improve your academic communication skills in English. In addition, watching TV shows is helpful. I personally recommend “Modern family” to pick up contemporary conversational English.

Student 3:
In my case, I learned a lot through preparing for the TOEFL test especially for reading, listening, and writing.

Student 4:
Obviously, you need to make many native-speaking friends and hang out with them.

Student 5:
Indeed, this is a matter of accumulative learning, I believe. Try to use unfamiliar words or expressions consciously. That helps a lot. Repetitions will engrain English in your mind.

Student 6:
To expose myself to more English-speaking environment, I personally created a debate club, which is aimed to discuss about diverse social issues in English. Active participation in such activity definitely helped me to improve my fluency level.

Student 7:
No specific strategy to mention, but setting up a goal actually helped. My goal was to be of native speaker’s level. Setting up a high bar pushed me to practice more though relaxing the aim also helped me in a way.

Prof. Pang:
I do believe that making friends who can have a conversation in English is very helpful. Watching TV shows such as “Modern Family” is also beneficial. Previously, I have watched the old TV show, “Friends,” more than 20 times for each episode. Why? That is because the repeated exposure to practical English expressions from the TV show can be part of my own terminology after repeated listening. I did experience this.

One more thing is here. As a second language learner, if you don’t have knowledge common with that of native speakers, it is really hard to have a real conversation. This is actually not about the fluency level. That is why watching American TV programs should be emphasized once again. In reality, hanging out with native speakers may not be feasible. However, watching your favorite TV programs can be a good alternative.

I still like to listen to podcasts. For example, the BBC podcast is full of great information for conversation. I keep listening to the podcast every day as much as possible. This podcast inspires me that written and spoken languages are actually not different. The highest level of spoken English resembles much like a written language. This podcast can be a good resource to hone your skill.

Student 1:
There is also a great app, called “tunein,” for listening to HBR discussions and other academic findings.

Student 2:
I think, helping each other is also critical. Presenting one’s own research idea can be helpful, too.

Prof. Pang:
When networking in a conference or other settings, academics talk about lots of things other than their research. As Prof. Yoo mentioned, we should practice to converse over diverse topics with your colleagues and friends. Eventually, that helps you a lot in many ways.