Nowadays, more and more young people know how to speak English from a young age, especially due to school, where it is common to teach English classes from primary school up to high school. However, there is a big leap from a good knowledge of English to a proficient one, which companies highly rate. And how can you differentiate from them? EDUopinions is going to tell you about your options!
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Live in an English-Speaking Country for a Semester, or during the Summer
By living abroad in a country where people only speak English, you have no choice but to speak their language. With that, not only do you get out of your comfort zone and practise your speech, but you also learn new words and expressions and enhance your pronunciation. Furthermore, living in such an environment will most likely help you to develop a natural accent that you may not have had, as now you live with locals and your long term goal is to blend in and sound like one.
If you immerse yourself in this experience and fully commit to it, you may even start thinking to yourself in English, and not in your native language. With that, it is clear that you are becoming more and more proficient.
Enrol in a Cambridge English School and Complete a Certificate
More and more students are enrolling in a Cambridge English School. There are schools all over the world, and its purpose is to teach English in the best possible way, in order to have more proficient English speakers. In order to guarantee so, students enrol there (some for one or two semesters, others for some years) to have classes. In those classes, they do not only learn and improve their speaking skills, but they also practise their writing skills (from informal writing to strictly formal), as well as their listening, grammar and reading comprehension skills.
With this, its students learn almost every single part of English, and will, eventually, enrol in the school’s exam. Cambridge certificates last for a lifetime and companies usually look for candidates with at least a B2 level (this is the First Certificate Exam in Cambridge).
Read a Non-Translated Book or Watch a Non-Dubbed Movie
With a wide selection of English speaking writers, there are thousands of books to choose from, from Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown. By reading a book in its most natural form (its original one), you will learn some specific new words and vocabulary that probably are connected to the book’s story. With that, in a real-life situation, you may use those same words and expressions, and you will sound like a true native English speaker.
By watching a non-dubbed movie, it will help you to listen better, as you will be faced with different voices, accents, ways of speaking and also the speed of the dialogue. While at first, it may seem challenging, you may put your native language subtitles to help you recover what the characters were saying, so you can keep up with the story, but you may also understand better what they said.
Additionally, for both situations, as you are reading the book or watching the movie, you will start imagining and understanding the dialogue in English, rather than your native language, and you will not have the need to translate everything to your native language as well, as the objective is to use English as the main language, and not as a secondary one.
To sum up, there are a wide variety of things you can do in your everyday life that can and will help you to get your English as good as possible, and in the long run, the results will certainly show up and will reward you for your effort!
If you’re looking for universities offering courses in English Literature, feel free to check out this article on The Best Universities To Study Literature.
Read also: When are the IELTS dates 2019?
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