How “Listening” can improve English Communication skills

Among various skills needed to improve Spoken English, "Listening" plays the most significant role as the foundation in mastery of language. Research shows that ‘Listening practice’ is the best way to learn any new language, as it not only improves your listening skills but also improves your pronunciation, vocabulary, accent and speaking skills. Following are some simple and practical tips using which we can improve our communication skills through Listening.

1. Watch English Movies with Subtitles – By watching English movies with subtitles, we get to understand how the words are pronounced as well as the intonation used in conversations. You can choose whatever genre you like- comedy, horror, drama or romance- just ensure that the movies have subtitles (at least initially).
2. Sing English songs loudly – Everyone loves music. If you really want to fine-tune (perfect) your English listening skills, you should listen to songs. While listening, try to have the lyrics handy and sing along with the singer loudly. It will improve your fluency and make you feel confident.
3. Watch English news on the TV – Watching good English news channels can also make you a good listener. It improves your vocabulary especially with context to the latest happenings. At the time of listening always have a pen and paper handy so you can write down the difficult words and look up the dictionary later. Another advantage of watching news is that it gives you good content to have a discussion with your friends or family on the current topics. It will make you a lot more confident and gradually your hesitation will go away.
4. Watch English TV Shows – TV shows with Indian English such as "Koffee with Karan", "Highway on my plate", "Band Baaja Bride" etc. are quite interesting and are easily understandable. If you wish to try International shows, you can try watching Star World, Zee Café etc. By watching such shows you will appreciate how confident actors and celebrities are while speaking, how well they make eye contact and if they make any mistakes, despite being nervous, they are able to hide them very confidently with a beautiful smile.

5. Find Speaking Partners- It would really help to find friends, family members and colleagues willing to join you in this journey. Commit to always converse in English with these people. You can have small punishments or penalties anytime anyone speaks in Hindi. This will improve your Listening skills and also help you overcome hesitation in speaking. You can also join the highly effective 3-month long Spoken English course at Ladders Institute, Tilak Nagar, Delhi. It will give you the right knowledge, guidance, atmosphere and practice which will help you speak English naturally and fluently! for more information about course : http://www.laddersinstitute.com/

By using these simple techniques, you can improve your self-confidence, accent, fluency and style of speaking in a fun and easy way!

Mr. Kshitij Mehta is a faculty at a reputed personality development institute in Delhi, and loves to write about personality developmnet.