Means to Understand English of Native Speakers
Effective means for understanding fast-speaking natives
For many years, until now, non native English speakers seem to have utmost difficulties in understanding native English speakers. Building up linguistic competency to the extent of native speakers is not restricted to salient grammatical features of the language or accents and is therefore regardless of the linguistic level one is into. Among many, few critical skills that can be addressed for better comprehension of fast native English speakers include:
- Native vocabulary and accent
Understanding native speakers requires basic knowledge of conventional norms of the language. This could be achieved by taking lessons from native English teacher. Conventions in any language is intrinsically social and deeply affected by the region and community. Thus, one to one English tutorial with a native speaker can contribute to better perception of the language. Such English lessons will help the learner to encounter thousand of phrasal verbs, idioms, slangs and colloquialisms that are unique to the language of the region. With time and proper practice of English listening and speaking, one will gradual build up the necessary vocabulary requirements to perceive the intended meaning of native English speakers.
An effective English communication involves the speaker or sender, the message or speech to be transmitted and the sender or receiver. Not only to learn English, but for any language, active listening of the message is the quintessential factor. One should pay thorough attention to the accent, typical English pronunciation and stress on words and sentences while learning. Apart from taking up private English lessons, one can also benefit from watching regional TV series and movies. Secondary to listening, regular English conversations with a native person leads to faster English language learning fostering a good relationship between the speakers. Again, this in a way enhances the English vocabulary of an individual.
Given the high demand of English in business communication all over the world, one can opt for professional English course that can improvise language learning, vocabulary and speaking in a holistic manner. This further gives a heads up for an easy understanding the native English language. During business tours, often employees are at a distinct advantage when they are competent with the native speakers.
For a long term English language learning, several digital learning tools have gained enormous attention over past few years. One such famous and effective study tool out there is Anki. This tool uses a repetition algorithm for effective memorization of the learnt English lessons leading to an increased quality of learning.
- Connected speech and circumlocution
Often an individual who is well equipped with vocabulary fails to comprehend the native speakers due to lack of acquaintance with the connected speech. Words pronounced in the context of connected speech sounds widely different as compared to the same words when spoken in isolation. Basically, connected speech is nothing, but a significant impact of one word on to the immediate other when spoken in association that creates altogether a different extended sound.
Connected speech can be of several types including addition of two sounds known as assimilation, intrusion where an intruding sounds inserts itself between the words, linking (the most common) where the end of one word blends with the other generating a different sound or an elision where there is a sudden disappearance of the sound of one word when spoken in association with another. Below are the few examples of connective speech as a whole:
- Want to = wanna
- Is he busy=Isi busy?
- Do it =Dewit
- Going to = gonna
- Got to = gotta
- Would you — wudzu
As we can see that there is a dramatic change in pronunciation of words in the context of connected speech and this in turn imposes a great challenge for non-native speakers to understand the native English speakers. Moreover, one has to keep in mind, that all native speakers are not always grammatically correct and linguistically organized. Consequently, lot of intermediate learners get frustrated to understand the native English when the influence of connected speech is at a great extent.
In such scenario, taking up advanced English speaking course from native English tutors can again turn out to be fruitful. Sign up for spoken English courses with Express English for an effective English learning that will definitely boost your both comprehending and English speaking skills. Let’s get started with learning English online to address all the confusions that you have been facing while communicating with a native English speaker. Apply today for the free English courses and make a difference in your communication skills at the earliest! In addition, during your leisure hours listen to native English audio tutorials, note down the new connective dialects that you come across and try to implement the same while conversing with any native speaker.
Another significant problem that non native speakers face, however mostly goes unaddressed is circumlocution. This denotes an indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than it is required to express an idea i.e a roundabout expression. Although we tend to expect more of these from non-native speakers lacking proper vocabulary, however, same can be possible from the end of native speakers as well. So, apply today at Express English and enhance your English vocabulary by several means. One must remember that the choice and quality of words plays an important role for an effective comprehension.
- Cultural and Social awareness:
One of the fastest ways to understand the native speakers is to get yourself introduced with their culture. There lies a huge linguistic difference of several English speaking countries based on their cultural characteristics. Hence, linguistic fluency is intertwined to cultural fluency. When you learn the culture it allows you to delve deeper into the meaning of words and expressions. Since, use of words and expressions widely vary from one region to another and often new words emerge with respect to particular cultural activities, hence understanding culture contributes to increased language proficiency.
Often there are many instances where you might learn the accurate grammatical utilizations for sentence making, phrases and expressions from your usual English learning sessions, but you can only grasp the true essence of the native linguistic expressions when you learn the cultural ties associated with it.
Although several countries across the globe have English as their native language, however due to differences in cultural norms, the English speaking dialects varies widely. Hence, if you understand the cultural values in the United States, you will be able to understand the English prevailing there more naturally including certain phrases used there, however that does not imply that you will comprehend the language at with a similar competency while you are speaking with a British native speaker.
A gradual consistent practice of understanding the cultural dimensions will definitely activate a deeper perception in your English learning experience and in turn will help you to understand the language better from a native speaker with respect to a particular English speaking region. Developing strong cultural roots and understanding of the language will enable oneself to further explore and comprehend the changing dynamics of the language and culture, identify the differences that will significantly reduce misunderstandings during conversations. To sum up with we can say that Language is not just the sum total of words, grammatical principles and sentence construction, but also unique cultural norms, social systems and cognitive processes.
Review:
Therefore, we may infer that an active listening skill is one of the primary aspect to understand any native English speaker. Based on several examples as mentioned above, it is clear that native English speakers have certain unique speaking styles based on the regional, societal and cultural influences. So, training one’s ears and taking time to listen to fast conversations of natives will enhance English learning paving the way for your improved spoken English.
Furthermore, one needs to identify their own areas of learning and improvement. Critical linguistic analysis of yourself, in addition to regular English lessons from your professor, will accelerate your education process. One of the best ways to achieve this is to Bring the English language to your daily life and use it as often as possible.
Preparing small conversations of your own by implementing regional unique linguistic features of the native speakers and discussing with your English tutor further works well to improvise your learnings and helps you to build up your confidence. Always remember, no matter where you are in your learning process, with a little extra attention, you will dramatically improve your listening and understanding!!!
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