Improving Your Language Skills
It is thought that a great deal of our language abilities are innate and that they may even be language specific, for instance having a propensity to pick-up and learn how to speak in certain languages. There are many interesting cases where children who have been adopted, unbeknown to themselves, from another country have actually discovered this through a propensity to learn a foreign language later in life.
Improving your language skills can be split into two elements - the construction of sentences, thoughts and ideas, and secondly, the actual range of vocabulary available at your disposal.
Whilst grammar and syntax used to be taught quite rigorously, this is less so no. Knowing how to structure a good argument and write good English is important because syntax and clarity go hand in hand. The better you are at writing coherently, the easier it will be to both structure your thoughts and arguments, and the more effortlessly you can interpret the world around you.
This is an important point, because language is a form of communication, more generally, it is a key way of interacting with the world around us. We usually respond to the world around us when using language, whether it is in response to the physical environment around us or in dialogue with another human (or, indeed, something else alive).
How can you develop a good working knowledge of grammar, syntax and sentence construction and so forth? Well, there are many books on the subject, so these are as good a place as any to start. If you struggle learning through the written word then you could even consider night classes or tutoring to help.
The second important element mentioned above is the vocabulary you have at your disposal. This can be seen as the toolbox you have at your disposal to describe and interpret the world around you. Thoughts, and the range of thoughts and ideas you have - coupled with your level of understanding of the world around you - are directly linked to language.
The richer your vocabularly, the more accurately you can describe the world around you, and also the easier it is to understand it in depth. As a simple example, imagine that there is a bird sitting on a signpost outside your house, and you wish to point it out to someone next to you.
If you do not know the word 'signpost' then it will hinder your ability to communicate, and instead you might point and say 'look at the bird over there' - this is less accurate than being able to isolate the object in question.
Words and their meaning can also aid understanding as well as your communication abilities. This can even help to keep you safe! If someone tells you that all halogens are dangerous, and then you are asked if it would be a good idea to breathe in chlorine, then your answer is dependent on recognising that chlorine is a halogen, for example.
So how can you improve your vocabulary?
- Reading - a great way of developing vocabulary. Look up any words you are unsure of.
- Synonyms - look up a word in a synonym dictionary and learn other ways of expressing the same sentiment. Then look up the synonyms in the dictionary to see the subtleties in meaning between the words that mean roughly the same.
- Crosswords - and perhaps other word puzzles. Many crosswords will contain the occasional (or frequent!) fairly obscure word that will enable us to expand our vocabulary. They can also help develop our understanding by helping us to relate words to each other and form connections between words with similar meanings that we may not have previously
If you have found any methods particularly useful for improving your vocabulary, then please do let us know and we will list them here.
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