Filed under: Communication Strategies | Tags: communication, English fluency
Top 3 Communication Strategies
Use these strategies in your own native language, and abuse or exagerate them when you are communicating in English.
The idea with these strategies is that they give you a simple structure to follow for good, clear communication. The result is more sharing of ideas, more enjoyable conversations and ultimately, more FLUENCY.
1. LISTEN
Listening is not a passive activity. In fact, the term “Active Listening” is the form of listening I´m talking about.
When I really listen to people, I exclaim, “really!” or “Wow!” or just a “hmmmm”.
And sometimes I rephrase what they are saying in a natural way, such as, “So you´re saying…” or “To sum up your last ideas, you think…”
2. ASK QUESTIONS
The next stage in effective communication is asking questions.
What are you questions? Make a list of questions you could ask in almost any conversation: …
Take a look at Scott’s list if you would like: click here
Make your own list. Be ready to ask questions.
3. SHAPE YOUR IDEAS
Expressing ideas is an art.
- Think of your idea as a painting: Where are the “hot spots” – the bright colors – and where are the dark shades?
- Is there one main object in the painting or are there many? Let me suggest between 1 and 3, especially in a foreign language.
- What´s the texture of the painting? What´s the feeling? Is it funny, serious, informative..? What feeling do you want to communicate?
- Keep it simple. Paint like a child. Enjoy simplicity!
These are ‘la creme de la creme’ of communication strategies for me. But let me ask you this: Do they work for you?
Feel free to comment and add to any of these ideas on this blog, or send me an email at:
info@barcelona-ingles.com
What is the most common objectives my clients have?
They say: I want to speak English – I want to speak English FLUENTLY.
So, what is a definition of FLUENCY:
FLUENCY is an ability to speak a language comfortably and confidently. Fluent is related to the word flow, so fluency is the ability to continue the flow and the ideas of the conversation.
Fluency is: continuous, clear, ideas communicated simply in the language
Fluency is not: stopping and starting, distracted and confusion, a translation of another language
OK. That is the definition. So…
Fluency: How can we get it?
let’s imagine you are a profession in Barcelona. It’s December 2008. You have personal and work responsibilities. You don’t live with an English speaker. Maybe you have almost no contact at all with this wonderful language.
What can you do?
1. Love speaking this language.
Or learn to love it. If you don’t really love it, then you aren’t really ever going to be motivated to speak it.
2. Think and speak to yourself in English.
You must guide yourself though. Let’s take some contexts:
Context 1: you are on the metro… you look at a person and think: Who is this person? Imagine, where did they grow up? What did they like doing as a kid? When did they move to Barcelona? How old are they? What kind of job to they have now. describe it. imagine. imagine. Where are they going now? Where will they go later? Be silly, funny, have a sense of humor and “morbo” even for a person who looks like they have neither.
Context 2: you are in the shower. the bathroom door is closed. or almost closed. You start talking to yourself. What did I do yesterday? where did i go? Where did my Mom/Dad/brother/sister/… go recently? stay in one time zone if you like. don’t move too much between tenses. remember, you are going for fluency
3. Record yourself speaking on an iPod or MP3.
Listen to it 1 time. then delete it. Make a few observations:
What is the thing you like the most about your Engish?
What is one thing you can change?
4. Write. Write. Write.
Write for 5 minutes without stopping. if you are writing and can’t think of what to write just start writing “i don’t know what i want to say…. i don’t know what i’m writing about…. i only know i’m writing because Rachel says write for 5 minutes per day.” That was at least 1 minute.
5. Video yourself speaking on you digital camera.
Look at it one time with the sound off. What do you look like speaking English? Do you have an image of yourself as an English speaker? What is it?
Do at least one of these at least once a day. Give yourself 1 month of consistancy. Then start to evaluate your change in Fluency. I use a scale of 0-10. 0 is no fluency. 10 is a non-native English speaker who can communicate ideas comfortably, consistantly, confidently.
Ask yourself, “Which one works for me?”
Then try it, and send me your observations, feedback or comments.
It’s probably the most common question my clients have, but they never really ask it. I suppose it is because they expect help with accuracy and that fluency is a magical experience that only happens to some people.
5 Important Ideas for much more Speaking Fluency
1. Prepare what you are going to say.
Even if it is the 2 seconds while you say, “soooooooo, i mean…”. If you have time, make a picture in your mind – or a list, or a chart. Prepare a mini Powerpoint presentation in you mind.
2. Go slow. (or should I say, “slowly”
Think fast, but speak slowly. Give yourself time to find the words. Use filler words such as, “So, OK, anyhow, well, let’s see, I mean…”
3. Simplify your idea and use the language you have to express it.
You can´t use what you don´t have, so don´t try. If you can´t remember the word… find a simpler one – or a wrong one that will work. later you can change it.
4. Stay in the language.
This means, DON’T TRANSLATE. DON’T EVEN BEGIN TO TRANSLATE. IF YOU FIND YOURSELF TRANSLATING. STOP. TRY AGAIN. just think in english. i realize it is easier for me to say, but this is what i do in spanish, catalan, french and 20 years ago, in german
5. Enjoy the experience – even LOVE the experience of speaking in a different language.
Speaking another language is a deeply enjoyable experience, but as adults, we can easily turn it into a stressful and discouraging experience. It’s also easy to feel stupid or even childish if we can’t express ourselves as we can in our native language. Sometimes we can get so nervous it feels like a life or death experience. It’s not. It’s really just a game.
Look at language learning from the perspective of a kid. They play with each language they speak. They learn constantly. They find ways to communicate when we don’t understand them.
So, let me ask you, “How can you become fluent in English?”
Let me suggest this. Try playing with English for 5 minutes a day. Speak or write for at least 5 minutes. Find a way to enjoy the experience. Don’t worry about accuracy – all the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation… just focus on the idea and enjoy it.
Then write me what your comments, feedback and ideas on this.
