THE BENEFITS OF SPEAKING EFFECTIVELY IN ENGLISH

English has become a world-wide language, with numerous countries adopting it as an official language. English is the dominant international language in science, business, aviation, entertainment, and diplomacy, and also on the Internet.

In most fields of work your ability to speak English can help you advance your career; helping you get the job you want and earn more money. No matter what your area of expertise, skill in English will contribute substantially to your success.

There are a variety of ways to learn English. Schools and books dedicated to the language are common throughout the world. English classes and textbooks will help you learn vocabulary and basic grammar principles, but their use is limited.

If you want to become truly proficient at speaking and understanding English, you have to practice with native English-speakers. Unfortunately, such opportunities can be hard to find. Not everyone has the chance to study abroad in the US, UK, or other English-speaking nations.

THERE ARE 34 BENEFITS OF SPEAKING EFFECTIVELY IN ENGLISH.

1.      Communication

English, whether you like it or not, is the chosen language of international communication.

• English has official or special status in at least seventy five countries with a total population of over two billion.
• Speakers of English as a second language probably outnumber those who speak it as a first language.
• Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language.
• One out of four of the world's populations speak English to some level of competence; demand from the other three-quarters is increasing.
• Nearly one in two European Union citizens claim to be able to converse in English* according to a survey carried out in 1998, and 69 per cent of survey respondents who did not speak English as their first language felt that it was the most important language for them to learn or use.

2.      Information & Research

• English is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air-traffic control, international business and academic conferences, science, technology, diplomacy, sport, international competitions, pop music and advertising.
• Over two-thirds of the world's scientists read in English.
• Three quarters of the world's mail is written in English
• 80% of the world's electronically stored information is in English.
• Of the estimated 200 million users of the Internet, some 36% communicate in English.

3.      Develop your career

• Most professional jobs require a good level in English – think how impressive "excellent level in English" will look on your CV.
• Business and commerce are increasingly driven by international trade and if you are going to grow in your job you need to be able to follow this trend.
• Technical skills are essential in modern industries and you need to be able to both read and write technical English if you are going to maintain your technical competence.
• You may need to attend International Symposiums and Exhibitions either as a visitor or a presenter and the chances are you’ll have to work in the English language.

4.      Emigration

When you move to a different country or region, learning the local language will help you to communicate and integrate with the local community. Doing so will demonstrate your interest in and commitment to the new country.

5.      Family and friends

If your partner, in-laws, relatives or friends speak a different language, learning that language will help you to communicate with them. It will also give you a better understanding of their culture and way of thinking.

6.      Work

If your work involves regular contact with speakers of foreign languages, being able to talk to them in their own languages will help you to communicate with them. It may also help you to make sales and to negotiate and secure contracts. Knowledge of foreign languages may also increase your chances of finding a new job, getting a promotion or a transfer overseas, or of going on foreign business trips.

Many English-speaking business people don't bother to learn other languages because they believe that most of the people they do business with in foreign countries can speak English, and if they don't speak English, interpreters can be used. The lack of foreign language knowledge puts the English speakers at a disadvantage. In meetings, for example, the people on the other side can discuss things amongst themselves in their own language without the English speakers understanding, and using interpreters slows everything down. In any socialising after the meetings, the locals will probably feel more comfortable using their own language rather than English.

7.      Study

You may find that information about subjects you're interested in is published mainly in a foreign language. Learning that language will give you access to the material and enable you to communicate with fellow students and researchers in the field.

Language is the archives of history.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

8.      Study or research

Many English speakers seem to believe that wherever you go on holiday you can get by speaking English, so there's no point in learning any other languages. If people don't understand you all you have to do are speak slowly and turn up the volume. You can more or less get away with this, as long as you stick to popular tourist resorts and hotels where you can usually find someone who speaks English. However, if you want to venture beyond such places, to get to know the locals, to read signs, menus, etc, knowing the local language is necessary.

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.
(Dave Barry)

A basic ability in a foreign language will help you to 'get by', i.e. to order food and drink, find your way around, buy tickets, etc. If you have a more advanced knowledge of the language, you can have real conversations with the people you meet, which can be very interesting and will add a new dimension to your holiday.

9.      Studying abroad

If you plan to study at a foreign university, college or school, you'll need a good knowledge of the local language, unless the course you want to study is taught through the medium of your L1. Your institution will probably provide preparatory courses to improve your language skills and continuing support throughout your main course.

10.  Secret communication

If you and some of your relatives, friends or colleagues speak a language that few people understand, you can talk freely in public without fear of anyone eavesdropping, and/or you can keep any written material secret. Speakers of such Native American languages as Navajo, Choctaw and Cheyenne served as radio operators; know as Code Talkers, to keep communications secret during both World Wars. Welsh speakers played a similar role during the Bosnian War.

11.  Required course

You may be required to study a particular language at school, college or university.

12.  Getting in touch with your roots

If your family spoke a particular language in the past you might want to learn it and possibly teach it to your children. It could also be useful if you are research your family tree and some of the documents you find are written in a language foreign to you.

13.  Revitalising or reviving your language

If you speak an endangered language, or your parents or grandparents do/did, learning that language and passing it on to your children could help to revitalise or revive it.

14.  Culture

Maybe you're interested in the literature, poetry, films, TV programs, music or some other aspect of the culture of people who speak a particular language and want to learn their language in order to gain a better understanding of their culture.

Most people in the world are multilingual, and everybody could be; no one is rigorously excluded from another's language community except through lack of time and effort. Different languages protect and nourish the growth of different cultures, where different pathways of human knowledge can be discovered. They certainly make life richer for those who know more than one of them.
(Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word)

15.  Religion

Missionaries and other religious types learn languages in order to spread their message. In fact, missionairies have played a major role in documenting languages and devising writing systems for many of them. Others learn the language(s) in which the scriptures/holy books of their religion were originally written to gain a better understanding of them. For example, Christians might learn Hebrew, Aramaic and Biblical Greek; Muslims might learn Classical Arabic, and Buddhists might learn Sanskrit.

16.  Food

Perhaps you enjoy the food and/or drink of a particular country or region and make regular trips there, or the recipe books you want to use are only available in an English Language.

17.  Linguistic interest

Maybe you're interested in linguistic aspects of a particular language and decide to learn it in order to understand them better.

18.  Challenging yourself

Maybe you enjoy the challenge of learning foreign languages or of learning a particularly difficult language.

19.  One language is never enough!

If like me you're a bit of a linguaphile / glossophile / linguaholic or whatever you call someone who is fascinated by languages and enjoys learning them, then one language is never enough.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
(Nelson Mandela)

20.  To understand your own language and culture better

Sometimes learning a foreign language helps you understand your own language and culture better through comparison, or through the relationship between the foreign language and your mother tongue. For instance, studying Latin in high school taught me an incredible amount of English, because English has so many words that come from the Latin. Same with Greek.

21.  To keep your mind healthy

Learning a second language has been proven to delay the onset of dementia.

22.  To find your future husband/wife

Learning a new language and culture increases the size of your selection pool.

23.  To better understand the rest of humankind

Language is an aspect of humanity, and learning what a fellow human speaks teaches you more about humankind as a whole. The more languages you know, the more you understand our species, and that is beneficial no matter what the situation is.

24.  To talk to friends without others misunderstanding

If you and some of your friends learn a foreign language, you'll be able to talk to each other without other people having a clue what you're saying.

25.  To learn songs in other languages

Michelle has been learning Irish and Scottish Gaelic because she likes to sing and has founded an a cappella group that sings in Celtic languages. They sing old work songs, lullabies, etc. This hobby combines her interests in languages, history and story telling.

26.  To help people in need

Learning other languages increases our chances of providing help to people who seriously need it, such as those in hit by the tsunami of 2004, many of whom can not communicate in English, especially children.

27.  Friendship

My best friend is French and speaks English, Spanish and some German as well. I am trying to learn French to enhance our communication, though he doesn't demand nor expect it.

28.  Venting your feelings

Another reason why one might want to learn a foreign language is to insult/cuss out people without them understanding what you're saying. It works best if you choose a language few people study. Avoid the Big Two (Spanish and French), because too many of us learned them in high school. And you never know who has a German, Finnish, Italian, or Greek grandmother!

29.  To help you understand how other people think

Language influences culture, so learning a language helps you to understand how other people think, and it also helps you to get a general understanding of our world and the many people and cultures that inhabit it.

30.   I love learning

My reasons for learning English languages is because I just love to do it, it's all the different ways people express themselves, and it shows that there really are other people out there (to a teenager who's always stuck at home in a small farm town). It is also a way to learn how people interact and socialize with each other, and how each society works.

Also, I like speaking, and learning different languages help me to understand how things work so I can build relationship, and vice versa, creating the language helps me to understand how all different languages grammars work.

Learning languages to me is much more than making me able to communicate with others. To me it's like getting some nice new surprise and a whole new level of understanding.

31.  Showing respect

I believe that when somebody at least tries to learn the language of the country they are visiting it shows a lot of respect. People really appreciate it.

32.  It's fun

Learning a language is fun and can provide a shared interest with your husband or partner. It also satisfies perpetual students' urge to study.

33.  To express things that are difficult to express in your native language

Learning a foreign language can provide you with ways to talk about things that might be difficult to express in your own language. It's also a way to get in touch with other selves.

34.  To better understand your own language

In order to learn another language, you need to learn the different titles and functions of sentence parts. Learning these things can make you a better student and a more articulate person. Also, many of the root words used in foreign vocabulary will help you later on as you struggle to comprehend or analyze new words in your native language.

CONCLUSION:

Learning English language takes time and dedication. Speaking effective English possible if you are determine.  Here I suggest 8 general tips on how to learn English effectively.

1.      Study every day

Try to set aside some time every day for your studies, ideally when your brain is at its most receptive. It's better to study for 30 minutes every day than for 3 hours once a week. If you can spare an hour a day, break it up into two or three sessions to avoid brain overload.

If you decide to study for half an hour a day for example, try to stick to that time. It's often easier to get started on an activity if you know you'll finish it after a certain time. Don't worry about completing the lesson or whatever you're working on, just try and do as much as you in the time available and maybe you could reward yourself afterwards.

2.      Revise/ review regularly

Go over each lesson several times, perhaps once in the morning, once in the evening and once several days later. Give your brain time to digest the material, but make sure the gaps between periods of study are not too long, i.e. more than a few weeks, or you will forget most of what you're trying to learn. Make sure you have got to grips with the contents of one lesson before moving on to the next.

3.      Build on solid foundations

Make sure you're comfortable with the fundamentals of the language before tackling the more advanced stuff. It will take you a while to get used to the pronunciation and orthography of a new language, but without a solid understanding of these, you'll find it very difficult to learn more.

4.      Set yourself targets

Setting reasonable targets is a good way to motivate you. You could set yourself a time limit or aim for a certain level of proficiency.

5.      Focus on your interests

Once you have got to grips with the basics of the language, learn to talk/write/read about the things that interest you. In this way you are more likely to remember to the words, phrases and grammatical constructions you encounter.

6.      Don't be discouraged by apparent lack of progress

You will find that at times you're making fairly rapid progress, while at other times you seem to standing still or even going backwards. This is normal when learning a language, so don't be discouraged. If you feel like you are making little or no progress, try going over earlier lessons/exercises to see if they're easier now than when you first tried them.

7.      Have fun

Find ways to make language learning fun. This could involve games, songs, stories, tongue twisters, jokes and anything else you can think of.

8.      Don't worry about making mistakes

You probably make the occasional mistake when speaking your native language, so making mistakes in a foreign language is nothing to worry about. What matters is getting your message across, not whether you use all the right words, inflexions, tenses, cases, etc. If you cannot think of the exact words, try using other ones. For example, say you were talking about your office and didn't know the word for photocopier - you could try describing its function: "a machine for making copies" instead. You could also try drawing pictures and/or miming if you can't think of the words.