Language has input and output. Input is reading and listening, and output is
speaking and writing. Altogether, these are known as the four skills of English,
the four skills you need to work on in order to improve your English.
Let's discuss. Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael. All right,
thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here from Happy English and
I help people speak English better. And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode
six eighty one. The four Skills to improve English. I recently my followers
on social media what questions they had about learning English, and I've been going
through some of those questions over the past few weeks. I'd like to continue
today by talking about the four skills. When it comes to improving your English.
There are four particular skills that you need to focus on in order to
get to the next level in your English. Listening, speaking, and writing.
Each of these skills plays a vital role in growing your English as well
as becoming a well rounded English speaker. First of all, let's talk about
reading. Reading is input. Reading something in English is going to help you
expand your vocabulary, improve your grammar, and and gain a better understanding of
how the language is used. I look at reading as a summary of the
language. It's a review of what you've learned and a window into what's new
for you. So find something you like, a topic you like, and
read. It doesn't matter if it's a book, a website, a restaurant
menu, or the back of a box of cereal. Read something, Read
whatever you find interesting to read and read a little bit each day. Next
comes listening. Listening is also input. Building your listening skills will help make
your English conversations much smoother and fruitful. Listening is also helped full for understanding
how English is spoken and pronounced. Start immersing your ears in the sounds of
English on a daily basis, and you'll start to find that those sounds become
more familiar and easier to understand. Thanks to technology, there's almost an endless
supply of listening material. You can find audiobooks, radio and television programs,
movies, videos, and even the announcements from public transportation. If you live
in an English speaking country, again, find something you enjoy in addition to
this podcast, and be sure to listen to something in English every day.
The next skill is writing. What was that you hate writing. You didn't
say it, but I can sense that you're thinking it. I get it.
It's hard to get into the habit of writing, even in your own
language, let alone English. But writing is output, and that means that
writing is one way for you to use English. Reading and listening are both
passive activities. Writing is active, and you need to take that action on
a daily basis. And I'm not suggesting that you write an essay every day
either. How about posting a comment on social media in English? If you
reply to one post every day in English, that's a good start. It's
something, and doing something is always better than doing nothing. Right. The
last skill is speaking, the other form of output, the other way to
use English. If you don't live in an English speaking country and there are
no English speakers near you, you can still find ways to make English come
out of your mouth. Sing a song in English, read a book aloud,
or talk to your pet, or talk to your house plants in English.
The sounds of English need to come out of your mouth somehow, and
in some way. Talk to yourself. Be the narrator of your day,
no matter how you do it, let the words flow out from your head
and past your lips, reading, listening, and speaking. Those are the
essential four skills you need to work on in order to improve your English communication.
Doing so will help you develop proficiency in English and become a more confident
and effective communicator. By the way, if you'd like to get more practice
using your English, why don't you join my podcast Learners study group. There
you can make new friends, join me and those friends for live group coaching
every week. Plus, get the pdf transcript in audio download for every Happy
English podcast in the past and in the future, and each episode has exercises
where you can practice this English point with speaking and writing checked by. To
learn more, just visit my Happy English dot com and choose podcast lesson six
eighty one. Remember, learning another language is not easy, but it's not
impossible, and I'm here to help you on your journey. This podcast is
brought to you by Happy English. Please visit my Happy English dot com show
your support for Happy English by leaving us a review. Get English, Get
Happy, Happy English.