How to even out your Language Skills: A guide to improving your Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing.
If you're looking to even out your language skills, you're in the right place. Whether you're learning English or French, mastering the four key language skills - speaking, listening, reading, and writing - is essential. In this post, I’ll explain how to figure out which skill area you need to improve the most and provide practical tips to help you advance in that area.
Assessing Your Language Skills
First you need to do a little self assessment to decide which skill to focus on, and then follow the three steps I have provided for your chosen skill.
It could be that you are already fully aware of which skill you need to improve in. For example, I can understand most of the conversations my husband has in Italian with our Italian friends, but I can only say a few phrases in Italian myself, and certainly don’t feel ready to join in a conversation in Italian yet! As speaking and listening pair well together (as do reading and writing), I would focus on the speaking skill when studying Italian.
So, to assess your own language skills, ask yourself these questions, and be honest with your answers!
- Do I struggle to express myself verbally?
- Do I find it challenging to understand native speakers?
- Do I stumble upon unfamiliar vocabulary while reading?
- Do I struggle to write coherently and effectively?
If you’re not sure, get an objective assessment from a language teacher or native speaker. Their insights will help you decide which skills to focus on.
Below you’ll find a list of three suggested steps to take for improving each language skill.
Speaking
If you need to improve your speaking skills, try following these three steps:
Have a conversation: Regularly practice speaking with native speakers or language partners. You could join a language exchange group, find a conversation partner online or take some lessons with a language teacher. If you’ve hardly spoken a second language yet, start with some basic questions and answers.
Record yourself: Record your voice while speaking and listen critically. Identify areas for improvement such as pronunciation, intonation, or grammar. Then go and practice before repeating the exercise.
Mimic native speakers: Listen to native speakers and imitate their pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation. Pay attention to their choice of words and idiomatic expressions to sound more natural.
Listening
To improve your listening skills, try these three steps:
Active listening: Active listening is watch a movie or TV show, or listening to a podcast in your target language - rather than simply overhearing snippets of conversation in the street. Focus on understanding the context, idiomatic expressions, and nuances of the language. The advantage of this exercise is if you are stronger at reading, you can read the subtitles and listen at the same time.
Dictation exercises: Practice dictation exercises to improve listening accuracy and concentration. Start with shorter passages and gradually increase the difficulty level.
Use authentic materials: Utilise authentic listening materials such as news articles, interviews, or podcasts to expose yourself to different accents, dialects, and speech patterns.
Reading
To enhance your reading skills, try these three steps:
Read a lot! Read as much as you can in your target language, and from a variety of resources, such as newspapers, magazines, novels, or online articles. Choose topics that interest you to maintain motivation. If you’re a beginner, I suggest starting with some kids books. Find out more about why here.
Vocabulary expansion: Keep a vocabulary notebook to jot down new words and phrases you come across whilst reading. Review and practise using these words.
Reading aloud: Read aloud to improve pronunciation, fluency, and rhythm. This exercise helps you remember the words and phrases more easily than by reading silently.
Writing
If you're looking to improve your writing skills, try these three steps:
Regular writing practice: Dedicate time to write daily, even if it's just a short paragraph or a journal entry. What you write will obviously depend on your level. If you’re a beginner, start with asking and answering questions about yourself and as you progress move on to what you did that day or your plans next week. Consistent practice will help improve sentence structure, grammar, and vocabulary.
Seek feedback: Ask a language teacher, native speaker, or language exchange partner to review your writing and provide constructive feedback. This will help identify areas for improvement and refine your skills.
Study grammar and sentence structures: Develop a solid understanding of grammar rules and sentence structures specific to your target language. There are plenty of grammar books and exercises out there that will help.
By regularly checking in with yourself and reviewing your abilities in each language skill, you can keep them even and become a confident communicator in all skill areas in your target language. Remember to practise regularly and happy language learning!
I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions or need help assessing your own skill levels, feel free to reach out to me, Victoria, at info@alpinelanguagecentre.com or via the button below.
