Spoken English vs.. Written English

Spoken English vs. Written English (Most common problem of South-Asian students)

True spoken English is quite different from the kind of English South-Asian student learnt at school or college. What they learnt at school or college were mostly written English, and not spoken English. Generally, at school or college, they do not even get to learn the real difference between the two kinds of English.

As a Result?

When you(South-Asian student) speak, you try to copy the style of written English. You start thinking in terms of written English grammar and usage… and written English vocabulary. In terms of translating… And you get lost. You try hard to complete whatever you say into ‘perfectly-formed sentences’ – because you’re under the (wrong) impression that they’re the units of speech! And you end up gasping in the middle. And you find it impossible to speak on – without faltering.

Of course, some written-English-minded people might manage to complete their spoken ‘sentences’ – after straining hard. But mind you, they wouldn’t sound natural. Instead, they’d sound phoney and highbrow. When they speak, they wouldn’t sound as if they were speaking… they’d sound as if they were reading! Yes. And what many of them say would often sound like a composition read aloud.

Broken English can’t lead you to fluent English!

Suppose that a few people who can only speak broken English sit around a table and try to do speech practice in English. You see, they’ll only be able to do the speech practice in broken English. And not in fluent English – because you see, they can’t speak fluent English. And if they keep on doing this kind of speech practice for a few months, broken English becomes their habit. And not fluent English. This is so, no matter how highly educated they are in English.

Mind you, even the presence of a teacher can’t improve the situation. No. This is because fluent English is not ‘corrected’ broken English. Broken English, however improved, is still broken English. Only, it’s a kind of ‘improved’ broken English. That’s all. But not fluent English. Fluent English is something wholly different. Totally separate. This is one reason why classroom speech practice can’t help you achieve true fluency.

Learning by heart: Impossible

Mind you, you can’t learn by heart all (or even a small proportion of) the ‘speech-units’ that are possible in a language, and then reproduce them as and when required. There are millions and millions of them. People don’t, and can’t, speak that way. And you can’t anticipate all the contexts and situations you’ll have to speak in. And you cant tell beforehand what kinds of questions others might ask. Or what replies you might like to give. Or how a conversation might progress.