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If you are like most people, you would like to achieve professional growth and success in your career. Typically, career success would mean promotions, greater responsibilities and accompanying financial rewards. If you look around you, you will often find that the people who progress and move up the ladder are those who demonstrate passion at work, are proactive, and of course, perform on the job at hand with the desired or better-than-expected results.

In most private enterprises, one needs to earn the right to move up the corporate ladder based on one’s performance at work. There are very few, if any, companies that offer career progression based on amount of time one spends in a particular role. For rewards to come your way, you have to show that you deserve them and that you are ready to move on to a higher level than you currently are. Put simply, one has to demonstrate both performance and potential for promotions and career progression.

As a member of an organisation, you must remember that you are always creating and reinforcing perceptions in the minds of your peers and managers. These subjective perceptions, in addition to objective results, play an important role in determining who gets rewarded and how much. Three very important characteristics tend to get judged in your responses to different situations: your interest, involvement and initiative.

All these characteristics can show up in your responses through both verbal and non-verbal communication. For example, you could say that you are very excited but your body language could be showing a degree of indifference. Similarly, you may say that you are committed to a task but don’t get too involved in the process. Don’t forget that many of these non-verbal cues can be more powerful than what you say. However, for the purpose of this article, let’s focus on How To Communicate your passion verbally using words and phrases that are simple but impactful.  We list some examples below. Pay attention to the words that are highlighted in bold/italics and notice the emotion they convey.

Showing initiative/ being proactive

1. I am eager to take up this project. Please let me handle it.
2. I want to lead this new initiative.

Showing interest

1. I’m very excited about taking on this assignment. The challenge and opportunity to work on solving this is really exciting.
2. 2. I love this opportunity. This is something I’ve really been looking forward to.

Showing involvement

1. I can’t wait to dive deep into this project. The outcome of this project is worth getting our hands dirty.
2. Let’s pull together all our thinking and execution abilities to get this done now.

Hope the above examples convey how you can use simple words and phrases in English to communicate effectively at your workplace and make yourself noticed. Getting your work and yourself noticed is an important part of realising your aspiration to progress in your career.

All the best in your professional career. Keep checking out our English speaking tips and advice on improving your communication skills by visiting this site regularly.

ABOUT EAGETUTOR:
eAgeTutor.com is the premier online tutoring provider. eAge's world-class faculty and ace communication experts from around the globe help you to improve English in an all-round manner. Assignments and tasks based on a well-researched content developed by subject matter and industry experts can certainly fetch the most desired results for improving spoken English skills. Overcoming limitations is just a click of the mouse away in this age of effective and advanced communication technology. For further information on the online English-speaking course or to experience the wonders of virtual classroom fix a demonstration session with our tutor. Please visit www.eagetutor.com.

-By Chander Madan

Let us say that your current English speaking skills aren’t great. You aren’t very confident of being able to communicate confidently and effectively in English with anyone, be it a small group or a large one. However, you are very determined to improve your spoken English skills rapidly and prove to yourself that you can do it, while making a good impression on those around you. Taking up an English speaking course is obviously one way to speed up the process of learning, and an important one at that. Yet, there is another critical element that can determine the rate and extent of success in your endeavour.

Just as the old English adage goes, “a man is known by the company he keeps”, your success in improving your English skills will depend largely on the “company” you keep. If you are around people who speak in English regularly, you have a much greater chance of improving your own speaking abilities. On the other hand, if you spend most of your time around people who speak in another language, say Hindi or your local language such as Marathi or Bengali, the improvement in your own English speaking skills will be stunted even if you have signed up for an English speaking course.

There are two main reasons for this. Our ability to speak fluently in a particular language is dictated by what we hear most often. This explains why children who grow up hearing their parents speak in their mother tongue tend to speak that language fluently, while migrants to another city who end up speaking in a different language, struggle to teach their children to speak in their mother tongue. So, even if you read lots of English books and improve your vocabulary, your spoken English is likely to still be not as good. So, when you are working around people who communicate amongst themselves in English, there is a constant reinforcement of the language in your brain (both the conscious and subconscious brain).

The second reason why being in the company of English speaking people will help you is that you will be forced to practice speaking the language. When you notice that others around you prefer to communicate in English, it would be awkward for you to speak in any other language. This automatically leads you to make an attempt to speak in English. Practice, as you know, makes you perfect!

We have seen the benefits of being surrounded by fluent English speakers time and time again. For example, we know of many people who studied in vernacular medium until their University level and really struggled with proper English communication, both written and verbal. Despite their really weak fundamentals with the language, when these same people went overseas to an English-speaking country, their fluency in the language improved drastically in a matter of months. This clearly highlighted the impact of the environment around you.

So, if you are serious about being a fluent English speaker, take a close look at who you are spending the most time with. Do they speak in English with you often? If not, it is time to make some changes and be around people to do so.

Keep visiting our blog for regular English language tips. If you are preparing for a English proficiency test like the IELTS, contact us and register for speicalised training that will help you get a good score.

ABOUT EAGETUTOR:
eAgeTutor.com is the premier online tutoring provider. eAge's world-class faculty and ace communication experts from around the globe help you to improve English in an all-round manner. Assignments and tasks based on a well-researched content developed by subject matter and industry experts can certainly fetch the most desired results for improving spoken English skills. Overcoming limitations is just a click of the mouse away in this age of effective and advanced communication technology. For further information on the online English-speaking course or to experience the wonders of virtual classroom fix a demonstration session with our tutor. Please visit www.eagetutor.com.

-By Chander Madan

There is a quote attributed to the writer Stephen King that says that “if you want to be a writer, there are two things you must do: Read a lot and write a lot.” You can extend that quote to say the following:  “To be a fluent English speaker, you must listen a lot and speak a lot.” While there is no substitute to this mantra, we will give you some more details of how you could work towards becoming a more fluent speaker.

 To start with, let’s understand what factors affect fluency. In our view, fluency in speech is a function of clarity of thought as well as command over language. The latter obviously depends on how much you listen to or speak in that language - English in our case.

It doesn’t help anyone to have speaking fluency without adequate clarity of thought, because the audience you listen to you will be lost as to what exactly you are trying to communicate.

Developing clarity of thought

It is important to learn to structure your thoughts in a logical manner. Make it a regular practice to write down your thoughts and ideas. Start by thinking of what you want to say and why. Depending on who you are speaking to, you can vary the how you speak which essentially refers to the tone and style of what you want to speak.

Create a mental checklist or framework of how you want to communicate. For example, let’s say you are asked to speak about a recent offsite trip from the office. You could start by giving some details of the context such as where and when the offsite was held. Remember context is very important in any communication.  Then you can go into what your view is about the offsite such as what was good and what was not-so-good or bad. What were the most memorable or enjoyable parts of the offsite? Did you learn anything new or different from the offsite. Would you recommend the location? Do you have any suggestions for others to get the most of their own offsite?

Asking yourself some standard questions such as what, where, when, why and how can help you structure your thoughts in a logical order. Once you have established that clarity you will find yourself speaking a lot more fluently.

Practise English speaking

While you develop your logical thinking ability, you can practise speaking English regularly. You can start by talking to yourself in front of a mirror. Take a few minutes everyday and talk about a range of topics of interest to you. Whether it is the upcoming elections in India or your thoughts on a sports event or a movie you watched recently, gather your thoughts and speak them out aloud. These talks don’t have to be too long-- just a couple of minutes to start with will be fine. Breaking free from inhibitions to speak will be a great step forward for anyone wanting to improve their spoken English communication skills. As you muster more confidence, you can speak longer and in front of a bigger external audience.

You should also seek and receive feedback on your communication skills. Obtaining feedback and taking appropriate action on them is a very important part of mastering any skill. For example, there may be some basic English grammar mistakes that you may be making that you are not aware of. Nipping these mistakes in the bud will serve you in good stead for the long term.

We hope this article gives you some useful tips on your journey to improve your spoken English fluency. If you have any questions or need specific advice, connect with us through this blog or through our social media handle on Facebook. Our dedicated team of English tutors will be more than willing to help you.

ABOUT EAGETUTOR:
eAgeTutor.com is the premier online tutoring provider. eAge's world-class faculty and ace communication experts from around the globe help you to improve English in an all-round manner. Assignments and tasks based on a well-researched content developed by subject matter and industry experts can certainly fetch the most desired results for improving spoken English skills. Overcoming limitations is just a click of the mouse away in this age of effective and advanced communication technology. For further information on the online English-speaking course or to experience the wonders of virtual classroom fix a demonstration session with our tutor. Please visit www.eagetutor.com.

-By Chander Madan

When it comes to learning spoken English, many people often mistake the purpose of the learning. They tend to think that acquiring English speaking skills is about speaking with a British or American accent. They couldn’t be farther from truth. The true purpose should be to learn to speak English correctly, fluently, confidently and in manner that the listener understands the communication without much difficulty. 

Too much emphasis is laid on mastering the accent. In fact, there are people who are sufficiently proficient in speaking in English but don’t have the confidence to speak fluently and on a regular basis because they feel their accent is not of ‘international standard’.

Accent is mainly a function of what you hear the most and therefore is very much dependent on the environment and the time you have spent the most  listening to the language. It is perfectly normal for Germans to speak English with a German accent, the Dutch to do so in a Dutch accent and a Gujarati to speak in a ‘Gujju’ accent. Why is the accent of a Britisher from London  likely to  differ from an Englishman from say, Yorkshire. (Just think of accents of the famous cricket commentators David Lloyd and Geoffrey Boycott and compare it to that of David Gower or Mike Atherton, to get an idea of what we are talking about).  Similarly, Americans from New York speak in a very different accent than the Texans or those from the Southern states such as Alabama.

This is not to say that accent is not important at all when speaking English but being accent-neutral has its own advantages, as almost anyone can understand accent-neutral English. However, much more important than accent is the ability to speak in English with the correct pronunciation.

Often accent and pronunciation are misunderstood to be one and the same, which is not the case. Each word in the English language is meant to be pronounced in a certain way. For example, the word “Parliament” is supposed to be pronounced as “par-la-ment” i.e. the “i” is silent or champagne is  pronounced as ‘sham-pain’ and not as ‘cham-pag-ne’. Hopefully, these two simple examples will give you an idea of the importance of correct English pronunciation.

In fact, many competitive English speaking tests such as the IELTS, clearly state that test-takers are not graded for their accent but for the correctness of their English pronunciation. So it is very important for anyone taking the IELTS test to improve their pronunciation and not worry much about their accent.

Simple tips to improve English pronunciation

With some effort, it is easy for anyone keen to improve their English speaking skills to get better at their pronunciation.

As we have mentioned repeatedly through  our series on English communication skills, one of the most effective tactics is to listen a lot to good English, be it through English news on Television (especially channels like BBC), documentaries on National Geographic or Discovery, or even classical English movies where there is a lot more emphasis on the spoken word.

Secondly, every time you come across a word that is new or seems a bit strange, check it up in the dictionary. Good English dictionaries such as the Oxford, Cambridge or Webster, spell out the ideal pronunciation for the words. Many online English dictionaries also have a verbal/audio version of the word to help you understand how to pronounce the word. Doing this will not only help improve your English vocabulary but also your effective communication with the correct pronunciation.

To conclude, don’t be too carried away by trying to copy an American or British accent that you might hear your favorite Hollywood star speak in. Instead, work on mastering your English pronunciation as without that, you will be speaking poor and incorrect English.

ABOUT EAGETUTOR:
eAgeTutor.com is the premier online tutoring provider. eAge's world-class faculty and ace communication experts from around the globe help you to improve English in an all-round manner. Assignments and tasks based on a well-researched content developed by subject matter and industry experts can certainly fetch the most desired results for improving spoken English skills. Overcoming limitations is just a click of the mouse away in this age of effective and advanced communication technology. For further information on the online English-speaking course or to experience the wonders of virtual classroom fix a demonstration session with our tutor. Please visit www.eagetutor.com.

-By Chander Madan