Tuesday 16 August 2016

Of Understanding Spoken English

There are two levels of acquiring communication skills in English: one is the written level and the other is spoken level.  They are otherwise known as Written English and Spoken English.

Written English deals with English grammar -the rules for making sentences, questions, imperatives, using prepositions, articles, tense forms, conjunctions and much more.  Error free effective communication is its objective.

Spoken English is concerned with having conversation with others at different situations, exchanging greetings, introducing oneself, seeking permission, making request, group discussion, describing persons, things and so on.  Here the focus is not on grammar but on practice,  fluency, pronunciation, stress, and voice modulation.  Little grammatical errors are not seriously viewed here.

Any non native learner of English has to decide which level he wants to start first based on his need.  If he wants to write an article for his blog, or a book to be published or a thesis or project to be submitted, etc., then his focus should be on written English first.  If a person's need and situations are more to talk with others rather than writing, or if you feel that you know grammar very well, but still finds it difficult to talk to someone in an unexpected situation, then the second level will be the better one to start with.

Having the mere knowledge of grammar but not being able to speak to someone is a pathetic a condition.  Speaking fluently to a large audience but committing a lot of grammatical errors (without knowing) is also a disgusting one.

If you are to speak for a longer duration or give a long lecture on a topic of interest, you cannot manage with zero knowledge of grammar.  Similarly if you are an auto driver or a wayside seller, your need to talk to English speaking foreigners is less, and you need not trouble yourself with much of grammatical jargon.

So it is but your need and situations that matters.  

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