Learning any language demands mastery in four skills, i.e. Listening reading, writing and speaking. Reading newspapers, magazines, English stories, watching movies, listening to BBC and CNN and even having a chat in different chat rooms are few of the techniques used nowadays. But there are different solutions for distinctive problems. Improving knowledge in speaking is a different task and improving at spoken language is a different story. As far as written language is concerned, good and healthy reading is essential for good writing. You can never improve at writing unless, you read some good writers. Before moving on with my argument, I would like to make one thing very clear that language learning is a slow process that works at an unconscious level. When you read good material written with good vocabulary and in a good style, you will start following the same kind of writing unconsciously. But you must keep one thing in mind, always read whatever you want to read. Don't push yourself into reading what you are not interested in. If you will compel yourself to read unwillingly, you will lose interest in reading and you will ultimately quit reading. So, read only those articles or stories that strike to your mind. Regarding spoken language, one thing is very important and that is your medium of thinking. As I have already mentioned that language learning is a slow process and works at an unconscious level. So, the language in which you think is very important. Mostly the foreign speakers of English think in their native language and then translate it into English. In this way, your mind has to do double work. You must think in the language you are going to speak. A question takes place in mind how we can limit our thinking, as we cannot enforce our mind to think in one particular language. The solution for this problem is very simple: Start talking with yourself in English. Make small sentences and talk to yourself. For example, if you are driving, you can say to yourself "there are a lot of cars moving on the road today. People seem to be in a hurry." Or things like that. Listening can be improved by watching good movies or listening to CNN or BBC. Lastly, practice is very much essential for improvement of both written and spoken English. It is only and only through practice that you can perfect yourself. You must write and you must speak if you really want to improve.
