How to improve my language skills

Although I have been learning English as my second language for years, a higher level of English language skills is required as I become a student in a university. On the university level, we should not only just understand the grammar and be able to do basic conversations, but also be able to think critically, to communicate efficiently and to write academically. In order to make progress in my English language skills, I think I will try my best to listen more, to speak more, to read more, and to write more.

To listen more is actually very beneficial for developing language skills and it’s easy to be ignored by us. Rather than catching the ideas, we could learn from the speakers by understanding the way they represent and express their ideas.

To speak more is also very important. Since we are trying to improve our language skills and language is “invented” to be spoken by people to communicate, we should practice more on the way we express our ideas in order to make our ideas or arguments clear, impressive and convincible. For instance, when we do a presentation in class, it’s important and necessary for us to speak clearly, organized, and confidently with specific and typical examples, vivid illustrations and solid evidences.

To read more is essential and crucial for us to improve. We obtain most of the information from reading in university. So we should read more to improve the efficiency we retrieve information and the ability to comprehend others and obtain knowledge. It’s also a good way to learn from others. However, if we read something not so good, we should try to figure out the shortcomings and weak points in order not to make the same mistake.

To write more is the last one but also the most important one. We will have to write many essays and our dissertation. Just reading is not enough. In order to write critically and academically, we have to write frequently. Every time we write, try to learn from others’ good writings and try to avoid unnecessary mistakes. Practice makes perfect, the more you write, the better you will be.

In conclusion, in order to develop my language skills, I have to do more exercise and practice more. I believe that my language skills will be improved if I do my best to listen more, to speak more, to read more and to write more.

My common grammar mistakes

Though I have been learning English as a second language for years, I still always make many grammar mistakes in my writings. I’m going to talk about three kinds of my common grammar mistakes.

The first kind of mistakes is mistakes in articles. I often forget to add articles, for example, in the sentence “Many applications have come into our lives like solar water heater.” There should be a definite article “the ” before the noun “solar water heater” as we refer to a particular application, so the correct version is “Many applications have come into our lives like the solar water heater.”

Another kind of my common mistakes is in the use of transition words. Sometimes I use inappropriate or even wrong transition words. Let’s look at a couple of wrong sentences first. “In a word, solar energy is the most ideal renewable energy”, “At last, the opponents may argue that …” In the first sentence, the transition phrase, “in a word ” is wrong and actually rather than a transition, it’s an informal phrase that we use orally. In the other sentence, “at last” is not appropriate, we had better replace it with “lastly” or rephrase the sentence. The correct versions could be, “On the whole, solar energy is the most ideal renewable energy.” and “Lastly, the opponents may argue that …” or “Another issue the opponents could consider is that …”

The last type of my common grammar mistakes is the misuse of prepositions. In the sentence “Compared with running, walking is good for people who have knee problems.” It is better to use “to” rather than “with” because we use “with” for more extended or in-depth comparisons, and “to” for simpler ones. The correct version should be “Compared to running, walking is good for people who have knee problems.” Another example is that “… several independent research groups reported a surge in emissions on methane, …”. I this sentence, we should use emissions “of” methane rather than “on” methane because we are talking about methane’s emissions and it’s methane that is emitted. The correct one should be “… several independent research groups reported a surge in emissions of methane…”.

After identifying three kinds of my common grammar mistakes, I will be more careful when dealing with articles, transitions and prepositions and try my best to avoid grammar mistakes in my future writings.