How to Enhance Communication Skills?

In the wake of globalization , English has become the international language of business and communication. It occupies a unique place of importance being living and ever growing language widely spoken and written. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare the students to be proficient in all four basic skills- namely listening, speaking, reading and writing- which are of paramount importance. Deliberate steps should be taken to nurture effective communication.

A few strategies have been suggested to augment communicative skills in students:

1. Interactive Classroom: Effective classroom management in language class by the teacher in terms of making the classroom interactive by facilitating the discussion on a topic related to textbook.

2. Listening Skill: Students can be made to listen talk shows like Ted Talks, BBC news for children, motivational talks etc. Language Lab and MCQ questionnaire containing 10 marks can be framed in order to measure the progress of students in Listening Skill.

3. Speaking Skill: Activities for strengthening communicative skills like Role Play, Seminar, Panel Discussion , Debate, Dialogue, Picture Description, Pick & Speak, Interview, extempore, elocution , Group Discussion etc should be taken up in pair /group on a regular basis.

4. Reading Skill: Age-appropriate graded books should be recommended to students in a group of 5 students to be read on a fortnight basis and a discussion/ book review( oral /written) can be facilitated among students on these books in library periods/ weekends so as to measure the progress of reading skill among students. Reading Club for this purpose is a catalyst in the process.

5. Writing Skill: Students can be encouraged to present a write-up on any topic from the textbook, story book, news magazine, newspaper within a given deadline. In addition, Inter-Hose creative writing, factual report, short story writing can be organized to give added impetus to their writing skills.

There are different approaches and methodologies available for effective teaching of English. It is advisable to adopt Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in English in all classes so as to provide an opportunity for learners to freely acquire proficiency in all the four major skills of the language as this approach provides enough scope for integration of skills rather than teaching a skill in isolation.

Forum for Integration of Skills for Language Enhancement:

a) The role of English Literary club ( ELC) in particular and other clubs in general should function effectively for creating enough opportunities and situations for students to acquire proficiency in the language.

b) School Assembly: should be a forum for developing public speaking skill within the given time apart from teachers giving speeches effectively on important occasions and guest speakers can also be arranged for this purpose. Listening is the prelude to speaking good English.

c) Regular viewing of TV programmes like News, Talk Show, Panel Discussion, Interview as well as disciplined active listening on News on AIR live or in the form of Podcast can go a long way in enhancing the critical thinking and communication skills of students.

d) Listening to Podcast : Podcast has picked up in our country for couple of years now. Students can be encouraged to listen to podcast on current affairs, panel discussion, news etc so as enhance listening skill, enrich their vocabulary and so on. They can also be encouraged to record podcast on various topics from their curriculum and share with students and teachers.

The above techniques if adopted and followed with single minded devotion can certainly help in beefing up listening , speaking and writing skills among students and adults alike.