What & How of English

English is a communicative language. In order to improve your English, you need to develop four different skills altogether including listening, speaking, reading and writing in English. So, this is a joint venture, not a separate drill. Also, it is a lengthy process. Don't expect that you will have a vast command over English within 1 or 2 months. It will take time but it will surely give you tremendous remarks.

So, what's the approach?

Primarily, you must listen. Listening is boring. So, find out what things attract you more like lectures, seminars, music, movies, news, the BBC, audio books, cartoons, animation, TEDS etc. Pick one or two items and do 20 minutes listening everyday.

Secondly, choose a partner to talk for 10 minutes everyday. Talk about anything. Both of you can select a topic before and do some research on that topic. Then present your research to each other. It�s like a mini debate. If you have no partner, then you can do it via messenger. Choose a messenger partner to chat in English for 10 minutes. The speaking phase is challenging but it has more reward if you can do it perfectly.

In addition, read Bangla newspapers daily for a month. Then, turn this habit into an English newspaper. If an English newspaper seems difficult to understand, read only bold headlines of each page for a month. Then, start reading the full news inside. Besides newspapers, you must read both Bangla and� English literature. Read classics, modern, postmodern texts. While reading, don't try to find out every word meaning instantly. It may ruin your taste. Rather, you can underline the words unknown to you, then after finishing 5 or 10 pages reading, find those meanings out. You can download an app (BBC Learning English) from the Play Store and read the programs.

Finally, keep a diary. Write at least 10 sentences in English everyday before you go to bed. You can write your hopes, sorrows, happiness, dreams, confusions, everydayness, anything you want. You must write. Writing is troublesome. Your grammar may not be okay. But don�t worry. This writing practice is not for your grammatical enhancement but for your habitual development.

Now, you may think about how you can improve your grammar. Chill! It's freaking easy. You have to develop your basics on tenses, sentences, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections. You must know each & every concept scrupulously. Obviously, you must accomplish SSC and HSC level grammar. That's all.

Lastly, I will suggest some simplified books to improve your basics:

1. English Grammar in Use by Murphy

2. Common Mistakes in English by T. J. Fitikides

3. Practical English Usage by Michael Swan

4. College Writing Skills by Langan

5. Writing Essays with Ease by University of Dhaka with British Council

Mizanur Rahman Arko

Lecturer of English

Gazipur Cantonment Public School & College