COMMUNICATION: PROBLEMS AND REMEDIES

Many readers of my column English Matters in Education Express, a supplement with The New Indian Express have emailed me asking me to suggest tips to develop their various language and communication skills. I sent replies to some of them and for the benefits of those who did not get my reply to their queries the following message serves as a common reply.

I have taught English communication skills to students of engineering and technology for many years in India and abroad. While training students to develop their speaking skills and soft skills such as interpersonal and group skills, I have diagnosed a number of problems which act as hurdles for them to communicate effectively. Some students write well, but they are not able to express themselves orally; some speak fluently, but can’t write without grammatical errors; some are comfortable speaking among themselves in a small group, but are not comfortable facing the audience; some have problems with their body language and use inappropriate gestures while interacting with others; some find it difficult to maintain eye contact; some are always misunderstood………

Recently, I asked a group of 45 second year mechanical engineering students to state the difficulties or problems they have while making an oral presentation or taking part in a group discussions. The students listed the following problems:

• Limited vocabulary
• Lack of grammatical accuracy
• Lack of fluency
• Lack of active listening
• Fear of speaking in public
• Fear of expressing certain views
• Lack of confidence
• Lack of exposure / practice
• Fear of mistaking mistakes
• Shyness
• Lack of interpersonal skills
• Lack of group skills
• Thinking in one’s mother tongue and translating it into English
• I’m not okay – you are okay attitude
• Insecure feeling

There were about 10 students who had fairly good communication skills. Their strengths were 5 C’s: Confidence, Commitment, Conviction, Courage and Clarity. Whenever I needed volunteers for some activities, those ten students volunteered and exhibited the 5 C’s. They had clarity of thought and clarity of expression. I asked them whether they also had experienced such problems or difficulties. ‘Yes’ was their reply. Then I asked them to suggest remedies for the problems stated above. Given below are some remedies which have been proved effective for them.

• Develop a passion for English. Once you are passionate about something you will do it by all means and you will enjoy doing it.
• While conversing in English with someone give importance to the message and do not be preoccupied with grammatical accuracy. If you are much worried about grammar and pronunciation errors, you will not develop your fluency. Kill the language without fear. Once you become fluent, you should try to improve your grammar.
• Accept yourself as you are. Do not compare yourself with others. No one was born with all the language skills required for effective communication. If it is possible for others to acquire communication skills, it is possible for you too. Have a healthy attitude: I’m okay – you are okay.
• Practice is very important. It is a key to success. By reading books on swimming, you can’t learn swimming and become a good swimmer. Whenever you get an opportunity to speak in front of others, make use of it.
• Try to think in English. If you think in your mother tongue and speak in English it may not sound natural. Though it is difficult it is possible.
• Buy a good dictionary and use it to build your vocabulary. Learn new words in contexts.
• If you know someone who speaks English well, try to converse with him regularly. Find out from him how he mastered certain language skills.
• If you have access to English language dailies, read stories or news items that you find interesting 10-15 minutes every day. You should make it a habit. It helps you develop your reading skills.
• Watch English news 10-15 minutes regularly on TV to develop your listening skills.
• Watch English movies at least once a week.
• Mingle with others freely. It helps you develop interpersonal and group skills.

This is a summary of the remedies suggested by the students. I’ve discussed most of them in my previous columns. It will be redundant if I discuss them again.

The following is a letter written by one of the readers. It should be a source of inspiration for those who want to quench their thirst for English.

I am a native of a remote village in Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh.

As there was no High school in my village I joined a nearby high school in Parkal which is about six kilometres from my village. We were taught English alphabets in class 6.
I completed my class 11 in 1966 and I didn’t get an opportunity to join any college for reasons more than one: the nearest college was about 40 kilometres from my village, there were financial constraints and I secured only 3rd class in my class 11.

I was forced to go for agricultural work. During free hours I wanted to learn English by reading newspapers and magazines. I made it a habit to go to a public library that was about 12 km from my village every day and tried to read English newspapers.

In the year 1969 I was appointed as a Hindi Teacher in a school. But I had thirst for teaching English. Without knowing proper English myself how can I teach English to my students? So I was determined to learn the language and teach it to those who come from poor background.

My salary was not enough to buy new books to learn English. Anyhow in 1974, I subscribed to Andhra Prabha and Indian Express so that I can read news stories in Telugu in Andhra Prabha and read the same stories in English in The Indian Express. This method helped me a lot in learning English.

After one year I stopped subscribing to the Telugu newspaper and depended only on the Indian Express. I purchased a long note book and started copying two or three news items from The Indian Express every day. I made it a rule to write two pages a day at any cost. Within one year I could grasp the spellings of many words.

I read ‘Letters to the Editor’ column regularly and started composing my own sentences based on the pattern of some sentences.

If I missed my home work one day for any unavoidable reason I would complete it the next day. I spent hours and learnt English on my own.

I became confident and requested my head master to allow me to teach English to class 7 students. He did not consider my request since I didn't have formal qualification. .I invited some students to my house and taught English to them. This experience helped me enrich my English.

Later I did the following degree programmes by distance education mode: MA English, MA History, MA Political Science, B.Ed., LL.B, and a Certificate course in Journalism and Mass Communication.

I am 60+ years of age now and practicing as a lawyer in the district and sessions court at Warangal in Andhra Pradesh. Even today I copy one or two pages of any article of a news paper or any magazine to develop my vocabulary.

Yours sincerely
ArukondaJayashankar

Albert P’Rayan is an English Language Teaching (ELT) resource person.
He can be contacted at rayanal@yahoo.co.uk