English, one of the most widespread languages in this world, so much so that it has been taught in most schools of India. Although it is not the mother language of India, it has been used vastly over the years. One of the many reasons why it has become a compulsory subject implemented via various educational boards present in India. These boards include CBSE, ICSE, GCSE, IB, etc. It is so persistent in our school life that in CBSE students learn it from as early as preschool.
English is also a language that correlates to your educational qualification, wealth, and even maturity in India. In India, if a person is speaking fluent English they are not only more likely to be heard but also can impress people, as people will assume that they are educated and from a superior family background.
Over the years, the need to be better at English has increased. Many people aspire to become fluent in it and to make it as close to perfect as possible. This is not only because it can help them achieve exceptional marks academically but also because many influential people and citizens of developed countries speak it.
However, a major question is how can you assure that your English is perfect?
Although perfection does not exist, as even the most prestigious English scholars can’t achieve it because each day more and more words are added into the Oxford dictionary. However, we can reach near-perfect and improve each and every day.
To answer this question, as the saying goes practice makes perfect, you can assure yourself that your English is on the best version by practising English repeatedly by incorporating certain activities into your daily life like:
- Reading: One of the many ways to continuously increase your vocabulary and your linguistic style is to read. It could be in the range of leisurely reading newspaper articles, novels, web novels, and blogs to academically reading stories, poems, articles, and books. While reading, look for unfamiliar words, phrases, and idioms. Which you might be able to then use in your day-to-day life.
One of the many reasons for an assessment given by CBSE(the most known educational board in India) is to read and understand different forms of literary texts. These literary texts include poems, stories, and long reading storybooks for students above grade 9. To assess whether your understanding is correct or not, try solving some questions about those texts via CBSE past and sample papers.
- Using a dictionary and a thesaurus: This goes hand in hand with reading or when you are watching a movie as there is a high chance that you may come across words that you might not know. Finding them in a dictionary may help you understand the word and a thesaurus can provide alternatives to the same word. This increases your vocabulary and while simultaneously increasing your understanding of the language.
- Writing: Although this is an academic practice, this still allows you to improve your usage of English in your day-to-day life. For students, they can find writing prompts via sample papers. For example, A student used to find writing prompts from her English class 7 CBSE sample papers to write daily. In this exercise not only did the student just write but also tried to include new words that he/she had learned while reading online articles. Whereas other ways to find writing prompts can be on writing fix, Reddit- under the subreddit of your preferred genre, and Tumbler under the tag of writing prompts. This not only allows you to improve on the usage of vocab but also on the grammar, as you will practice where and when to put punctuations.
- Talking in English: Try to have your day-to-day conversations in English. Being a CBSE student, it is usually preferred to talk in English at school, however, from personal experience, students do not maintain that. Therefore, it is greatly advised to initiate conversations in English most of the time with your friends, classmates, and your family members. This will not only allow you to practice your language skills for school but also allow you to understand the context of the appropriate usage of the vocabulary you have learned.
- Watching English movies and web series: Watching movies and series allow you to be exposed to the English language, and allows you to gain knowledge through it, as you may come across various new vocabulary words. This is an effective method especially for auditory learners, who learn by listening. In addition to this, watching movies allows a person to understand the appropriate context of the usage of a certain word properly, as the video graphical content itself becomes the context of how to use the word. Additionally, watching movies is effective as it is a form of entertainment which many people can watch for hours.
- English music: As mentioned earlier, listening to a language helps you understand it more. Many auditory learners can learn effectively if music is incorporated into their learning environment. Additionally, listening to good music, and understanding its context can also help you improve your English. Not only that, singing along with it will help your pronunciation as well. This method is highly effective, as it provides you entertainment and helps you learn. Listening to music is like gamification of the task of learning this language. Many research shows that gamification increases motivation, and allows us to learn better and to learn more.
In this world English accounts for your personality, your family background, and your educational background, etc. Therefore it is an important factor in your life. There are various ways to make sure that your English proficiency is the best. Many such methods to keep your linguistic skills at par that has been listed above have already been incorporated academically in our lives, however, working an extra mile can make it even better. These activities are some of the easiest and convenient methods that can be utilized, to reach near perfection. Although perfection is not the right term, no matter how much knowledge of this language you have there is always some scope to improve in it.