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Living
and working in an English environment
For adult learners, an English environment will only become
an effective training ground if they’ve already mastered
fluency techniques. Yes. This fact will become clear to you
as you read on.
This
route will take years
Of course, it’ll certainly be very helpful if you can
live for a long period of time in an environment where people
only speak English. Yes, for a long period of time. There’s
no doubt about it. You’ll then be able to keep on listening
to spoken English and you’ll find yourself forced to
have conversations in English. And this listening experience
and speaking experience would give you a sort of real-life
training. And this training would help you learn to speak
fluent English. But don’t let this fact mislead you or
give you a wrong idea.
Mind
you, just because you spend your time for a short period (like
3 or 6 months) with people who speak English, that alone is
not going to give you the skill of speaking English fluently.
No. Not at all. Of course, that’ll help you pick up a
few formulaic expressions and common phrases. But don’t
think that it’ll give you the fluency skill.
If
you want to achieve fluency by living and working in a place
where people only speak English, that’s going to take
a long time. That’ll take at least 5 years, if the English
environment is ideal. Otherwise, it’ll take longer.
Now,
can adults (from countries where English is not the first
language) afford to leave the place they live and work in
and go and spend that much time in an English speaking country
or area – purely for achieving fluency in English?
And
even if they do this, the end result will not be as satisfactory
as that Prof. Kev Nair’s self-study books can produce.
No. So if you have the opportunity of living and working in
an English-speaking country or area, this is what you should
do: You should first master the fluency techniques Prof. Kev
Nair’s self-study books teach, and then put those techniques
to use in an English environment. You’ll then be able
to reach a high level of fluency within a short period of
time.
English
environment in second-language countries
First let’s consider the kind of English environment
you get in a country where English is a second language (and
not the native language).
Suppose
that you live or work for several years in such a country
among people who often speak English. Of course, you’ll
then have the opportunity of listening to English spoken by
others. And you’ll also find yourself forced to speak
in English in various communicative situations. But do you
think such an experience is going to make you able to speak
English at length and spontaneously? In a short period of
3 months or 6 months or one year?
Even
if you live and work in such an environment for several years
(say 5 years or more), the chances are that you’ll only
become able to communicate certain essential things in English
– through one-line or two-line utterances. That too,
in routine or repetitive communicative situations – and
not in new or unfamiliar situations. The chances are that
this sort of experience in listening and speaking may not
take you to a stage when you can call yourself fluent –
in 5 or 10 years. If you want to call yourself fluent, you
must have the skill of speaking English easily and continuously,
at least for a few seconds at a stretch, in almost all the
real-life situations you face every day.
English
environment in English-speaking countries
Of course, the situation would be quite different if you can
live for a few years in a country like England or America
– where people speak English as their native or first
language. If you live in an English-speaking country for about
5 years or more and if you’re able to have conversations
with the English-speaking people there regularly, then you’re
likely to become fluent in everyday conversational English.
Yes, in everyday conversational speech. That too, not in a
short period of 3 or 6 months, but in about 5 years —
or more.
But
even then, you may find it difficult to become fluent enough
to speak English in detail and spontaneously – to describe
or explain things or to argue or to have a serious conversation.
If you want to reach that stage, you’ll need to learn
fluency techniques deliberately.
Of
course, you’ll have a lot of speaking and listening experience
from the English environment you live and work in. But without
the fluency techniques (that Prof. Kev Nair’s self-study
books teach) to guide you, all that experience is likely to
get your fluency skill to develop in a disorganized and haphazard
way.
All
this also depends on the type of environment you live and
work in. If you live and work in an environment where you
have to make heavy use of oral English, then you’ll become
quite fluent. Otherwise, you’ll only become fluent in
communicating your essential needs and in performing everyday
functions in English. And mind you, you’ll be able to
communicate in good English only if you live and work in an
educated environment. If you live and work in places where
living and working conditions are bad, and where people speak
non-standard English, the English you’ll learn to communicate
in will also be non-standard English. This then becomes a
liability, rather than an advantage.
Without
fluency techniques, English environment alone won’t help
Now here’s something you should think about: Even if
you go to England or America, how are you going to start communicating
in English – if you’re not already fluent at least
to some extent? If you’re already somewhat fluent, then
of course, living and working with educated native speakers
of English will certainly help you become more fluent —
over the years. But if you’re not already somewhat fluent,
won’t your progress be difficult?
So
remember this: Even if you’re someone who has the opportunity
of living and working in an English environment, the thing
you should do first is to learn the fluency techniques that
Prof. Kev Nair’s self-study books teach. You should do
this whether you live and work in an English-speaking country
or a country where English is not the native or first language.
So
you can see that Prof. Kev Nair’s self-study books meet
a pressing need.
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