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Before I launch a response to your question, I like to paint a larger scenario for your better understanding about acquiring English proficiency, which necessitates a multi-faceted approach.
First and foremost, you need to have the right frame of mind or mindset in order to attain English proficiency, and ultimately mastery.
This is a harsh reality, by virtue of the fact that English is our global lingua franca today.
As a matter of fact, it's the Language of the 21st Century!
Putting this mindset into tactical terms, this means that you have got to integrate your practising of English from multi-directional and multi-developmental angles into your everyday lifestyle.
Do not approach your practising from the standpoint of ESL or EFL.
[ESL=English as Second Language; EFL=English as Foreign Language].
ENGLISH IS A LIFE SKILL!
In other words, you must not confine your practising of English to the spending of prescribed hours you are studying or learning from a textbook in a classroom, within four walls of a school.
It is important for you to understand that English mastery also involves the acquisition of five critical - integrative and interactive - skills sets:
- Reading;
- Writing
- Thinking;
- Speaking;
- Listening;
as applied in your everyday life and workflow activities, involving real-world communication with real people!
Like the five spokes of the wheel on the Honda motorbike held all together by the metal rim with the rubber tyre revolving around the hub, each of these areas need to be strong in order for the wheel to run smoothly on the road, where rubber meets the road, just as you need the five skill sets in order for you to attain English mastery.
By the way, to me, the hub analogically represents vocabulary building and generation, as well as grammar.
Seek every opportunity in your daily activities to practising English, using a multi-fold approach, starting with baby steps:
1) Read, read, and read widely, and deeply, both mainstream and the fringe: newspapers, magazines, newsletters, novels, books, literary and scholarly works, and even ad blurbs and mailshots, online as well as offline, etc.;
2) Maintain a roving eye for interesting words or phrases or sentences, and see how they are strung masterfully together to express ideas or messages eloquently and succinctly across to the reader;
3) While reading your daily newspaper, pay particular attention to three specific areas:
a) the editorials;
b) the economic analyses;
c) the political commentaries;
These segments - with powerful word choices - are usually written by editors and senior journalists with a seemingly impeccable command of the English Language;
4) While watching movies, maintain a roving eye and ear for interesting as well as intriguing dialogues or fun conversations;
5) Always keep a large note book handy to capture all the stuff in (1) to (4);
This initiative is called sentence mining;
6) Write, write, and write, as much as you can, and make sure you use the captured stuff in (5) to enliven your language expressions, in emails or blogs or reports or proposals, in addition to helping you to internalise the new vocabulary;
Moreover, writing voraciously also naturally enhances your utility of vocabulary and grammar;
7) Explore and use as much of the stuff you have captured in (5) in your daily dynamic speaking and writing activities, too:
conversations, dialogues, discussions, meetings, doing presentations or sales pitches, writing emails, or blogs or reports or proposals, webcasting, pod-casting, public speaking gigs, etc.;
8) Adopt the Index Card Strategy, as an ancillary strategy to your large notebook, say using 4x3 cards for their pocket portability, from the standpoint of self-quizzing or testing while "learning-on-the-go": commuting or waiting in queue.
More suggestions:
9) Watch any Hollywood movie from a DVD, switch it off at 60-minute point, and grab a sheet of paper to write out your prediction about the ending; alternatively, you can describe it, by speaking aloud, onto the recorder of your smartphone;
You can even precede your description, again by speaking aloud, with an outline of your personal impressions and/or feelings about the movie plot up to the 60-minute cut off point;
10) Listen to an international news broadcast, and do your best to jot down your reactions, in the form of an essay;
You can extend this initiative further by probing from your viewpoint, again by speaking aloud, the rationale and motivations of the report as broadcasted;
You can replicate this initiative when reading your daily English news paper;
11) Grab any postcard or photo or picture at random, and proceed to describe in detail, first orally (on to recorder of your smartphone), and later in written form, what's in the picture:
- whats the theme/what's in the foreground/
- what's in the background/what's in the centre or middle/
- what's on the right/what's on the left/
- what's at the top/what's at the bottom/
- what at the top-right/top-left/bottom-right/bottom-left/
- what's happening/is it inside or outside/who's there/
- how's the weather and/or timing; how do you know/
- compare and contrast/how do you feel/
- what do you like/what do you dislike/
- would you like to be in the postcard or photo or picture; why and why not?
12) Once in a while, invite your friendly English teacher or a buddy who is a top dog in English, over a cuppa or a simple quick meal under the pretext of holding social interactions;
13) Identify a few MNCs in your city, and then, one by one, call up their Customer Service to enquire about a product or service, or make a product or service complaint, just for the sake of having an imaginary conversation;
Naturally you need to do your homework first to put some realism;
14) Go to any Starbucks outlet, if any, or any supermarket in your city and strike up a casual English conversation with any seemingly friendly Caucasian waiting in the queue;
15) You can even pop into any large international class hotel in your city, to pretend to talk to the reception about your desire to check out their facilities for an impending group of your visitors from overseas;
16) Urge your overseas English-speaking friends or pen-pals to come to visit your city or country, and volunteer to be their city guide on a pro-bono basis (naturally with all other expenses on their accounts);
17) Volunteer to work for free at your local Tourist Information Bureau, if any, or any local travel agency with inbound tours;
18) Log your name at foreign embassies in your country, if any, or even local chambers of commerce in your city, if any, and volunteer to be their tour guide for visiting businessmen from overseas, again for free;
19) Join a local chapter of the international Toastmasters' Club in your city, if any;
20) You can also watch - and listen to - recordings of popular Talk Shows, TED Talks and/or YouTube business presentations, and do your shadowing practice, if necessary;
21) As part of your vocabulary building and generation, take your pocket notebook with you, and go for a walkabout in your neighbourhood, or a new neighbourhood, to identify various landmarks or interesting places, which you do not know their English designations;
You can extend this initiative to browsing your city shopping mall and/or supermarket, to explore myriad everyday things which you do not know their English designations; then, do a running commentary in your head or by articulating to yourself aloud;
22) There are a lot of internet websites that teach English where you can explore speaking opportunities, e.g. SpeakAlley.com - Speak Online; Learn a language online, etc., they may not be the best, but they will do to serve your purpose in some small ways;
Frankly, with a little bit of personal ingenuity and creative imagination on your part, the possibilities to improve your English are virtually unlimited.
I like to reiterate that your verbal facility and conversational fluency - and even writing prowess - in English can only come from massive usage and consistent practice in your everyday life and/or workflow activities, involving real communication with real people!
Now, back to your question:
The timing depends on your sweat equity of intense effort and focused execution in deliberate and disciplined practice, as I have suggested in the foregoing initiatives.
Meanwhile, I append herewith a nice article for you to read, as I share the author's sentiments about improving English.
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