10 Creative Ways to Improve Your English Language Skills

Though it is not something mandatory – but having a good proficiency in the English language somehow gives you an edge as it is a globally spoken language and that subsequently makes it easier for you to communicate with any individual across the world. No matter who we are speaking to and what the purpose might be ranging from an interview to residing in an English-speaking nation, we should be able to properly communicate our thoughts and this particular language plays a pivotal role in this!

And, it is not such a difficult job to do. Once we familiarize ourselves with different sources and ways of learning English, the rest of our worries will be history. Apart from regular academic study, there are a few other interesting ways we can employ to learn English, the fun and fast way. Here is a list of 10 ways in which we can learn English ranging from old-school ways to modern ones. Let’s take a look at all these ways: 

1. Learning from New Vocabulary

This is one of the old-school ways of learning English. You may start by reading newspapers, comic books, articles, and all other readable sources and start noting the words you do not know the meaning of. You can refer to those words in the dictionary and note them in a book and get better each time. This way you will start learning new words every day and knowing how to apply them to your daily conversations helps the most.

This technique is mostly chosen by professionals and is the least preferred by teens and younger ones. It may be tiring at the beginning but once you get used to it, you will be amazed to see the kind of changes in your overall accent.

2. Learning from International Standards

We go down the list with yet another old-school way of learning English. This is a technique that almost most of the officials are using to test the level of English that the candidates possess ranging from beginner to advanced and shortlist them for official purposes. Apart from them, there are many proficiency tests available online these days to test our level of understanding of English. Some of them are TOEFL, IELTS, PET, B2 Business Vantage, BEA, and so on.

At any stage of your life, it is advisable to take at least one or two of those tests to check your extent of English fluency. Most of the tests assess you in four aspects, and they are as follows:

• Listening
• Reading
• Speaking
• Writing

By testing yourself on all these aspects you will have a clear understanding of the areas you need to improve and the areas you are good at. 

3. Learning from Social Media

Social Media is all around us these days and has proven to be one of the most effective channels of communication regardless of the information to convey. You can easily find a much greater audience online with this effective tool on your leverage. Now comes the actual part, which is to use it to your advantage.

There are many professionals who post quality content in English. You can follow them and begin reading their posts that interest you. The way they change the content based on different needs and situations and the kind of words they conventionally use will get to your brain with time involuntarily just like prayer does. LinkedIn is one such social media platform to find the majority of workplace professionals and thus become full-fledged in English.

4. Learning from Video

This is an extension of learning from social media. There are many video sources such as movies, anime, cartoons, tv shows, and so on available to watch. These are the best and the easiest sources of learning English and thus improving it. Reading might be an intimidating task but watching is not. But just like how you take medicine regardless of it being sour, you need to come out of your comfort zone in this case as well.

The way you can come out of your comfort zone would obviously be to stop watching native versions of those sources and start switching to English versions instead. You can also make use of captions to help you in the beginner phases. In the beginning, it may occur to you that you do not get a thing of what the characters are talking but it works. You just have to give it some time and get used to it. Remember that it is only impossible as long as we think it is.

5. Learning from Music

One of the best ways to improve your English. There are many English songs that many of us just love to listen to. But the least of us bother to look at the lyrics which is where we lose the golden opportunity to improve our English and thus to get the accent.

Looking at the lyrics and learning to sing the whole song will not only help in understanding and enjoying the song much better than before but will also educate you unknowingly about the kind of usages that were used to create meaning and new words to know the meanings of. 

6. Learning From News

Another amazing way of learning English is News! Unlike TV shows and movies, the news is a bit more informative and along with English, it also helps you enhance your knowledge about world affairs. Also, watching the news will help you to learn the formal way of communicating. Along with this, you will also get a chance to learn new words used by the anchors or news reports and use them in your daily life.

7. Conversation in English

Learning is the most basic part of any process but applying it practically makes one smart. So while learning English from various sources you also need to start speaking it with people. It is very important that you use the words properly and interactively while speaking the language as it will help in making you fluent. You can practice with your friends, family, or mentor as they will also tell you the mistake then and there, eventually helping you to improve. Another simple step that you can follow is to stand in front of the mirror and speak in English. However, at first, it might feel awkward but with time you will be able to find your own mistakes and correct them accordingly.

8. Be Curious

If you want to improve in a rapid way then asking a lot of questions is the key. If you are not excited about learning a new language and do not resolve your doubts at the perfect time then you will not be able to learn properly. If you hear a phrase or word that you are not able to understand then do not wait for the last moment but clear your doubts then and there. As it helps you to clear the concepts and make you more fluent while speaking.

9. Write Proper English

Writing can be tough! As we all know that English Grammar has its own rules and standards, so catching all of them can be a bit critical. Therefore, it is important that along with speaking, you also practice, how to write perfectly. However, speaking, reading and writing go hand-in-hand as these are the most important aspects of any workspace or any other place. So if you are going to write anything such as a blog, article, poem, letter, essay, etc then do understand the rules and then go ahead. Maintaining them will make you better and lessen the number of mistakes.

10. Remember Your Mistakes

Last but not the least, “Remember Your Mistake”. Making mistakes is part of human life and everyone learns to form that only. So, if you are learning something new then make sure that you are doing it correctly, and remembering the mistakes is equally important as it will help you not to repeat them again. Also, it boosts confidence as you know that you are doing things correctly.

Conclusion

Finally, we wrap up the series. As a bonus, there is another way of improving your English which is to simply find a larger and more proficient audience to present the skills you learned. This will give you the extra confidence that you may need some time in the future. There are many additional ways to learn English be it the old-school way or the creative way. The key is to have patience and a willingness to learn. These are the important aspects to learn pretty much anything!!