Introduction
In order to improve the skills in learning, majority of people have opted to use online learning. This is a journey to discover oneself and it assist to test the capacity of an individual to learn. It requires the individual to have inner motivation because one can become discouraged easily. The individual needs to set goals that can be achieved (Garder, 2005). One is said to be good in a language if his communication skills are effective. Studies conducted show that majority of people are good at reading and writing.
Main body
Listening
Listening is mostly done during conversations of other people online and this helps to build their vocabulary. Improving the listening skills helps individuals to pass the listening comprehension in an exam. It is very difficult to listen to materials when one is not well equipped with vocabulary. Practice needs to be done when it comes to listening because when one is able to hear the words well and understand them, and then speaking the same will not be difficult. The skill depends on the interest that the individual has on the language and topic being discussed online for him or her to listen. Listening becomes interesting when the topic being listened to is familiar to the individual. The individual relates well and hence understanding becomes very easy (Warschauer, 2000).
In listening, there are three stages. The first one is pre-listening where the individual is just given a small briefing on what he or she is about to listen to so that interest can be created. The other stage is called while listening. This is the stage that poses a great challenge to people because a lot of focus is required in order to process the information being listened to. The last stage is called post listening, this is the stage where the individual checks whether he has understood anything from the context of the discussion. This stage is important too because it tests the ability of the listener to remember things. Sometimes one can understand the content that he is listening but after he is through he cannot remember what the context was about.
Speaking
Speaking and listening work hand in hand, speaking requires an individual to construct sentences that are grammatically correct and ones that have the right structure of the sentence. Practice is required here too. Speaking means that one can be able to communicate with another person face to face. Speaking is about being able to adapt to the person one is holding the conversation with. When one is speaking, he or she has the advantage of being able to express him and effectively explain (Rich, 2009). One is able to read the facial expression to the person they are speaking to and know the extent to which the topic they are talking about is of interest. This way the person is able to know the various temperaments that people have. This is important because people sometimes do not know how to choose their words when they are in different situations (MacDonald & Creanor, 2010).
Speaking lays out the thoughts that people have stored in the mind and this helps with reasoning. With excellent speaking skills individuals gain the confidence to give presentations that are well done. Online speaking presents the individual with the chance to talk to an audience that is different from the usual crowd that one is used to. This helps individuals to predict situations. This also helps with the organization of thoughts. This is of utmost importance when one goes to an interview. This is either a phone interview or a face to face interview. Some interviews are very keen on the confidence that is exhibited by checking the words that come from the interviewee’s mouth. By being able to have excellent skills, individuals get hired for the job. Some of the rules that are applied when speaking are; respecting opinions of the other person, individuals have to say why they support their opinions, and also they have to be able to build on the information shared by the other person or persons. Being able to pronounce words correctly is what makes speaking complete. When one pronounces words the wrong way they tend to come out as other words that are not related to the context of the conversation (Blackburn, 2008).
Pronunciation of words is acquired by a repeated exercise in online listening. The sounds that are different are required to be repeated quite often. The buildup in vocabulary makes one sound very knowledgeable. Sometimes, in order to attain fluency one needs to tape him or herself and then play it to see if one detects a wrong in the pronunciation of the words that are disturbing. Online speaking changes what we think by giving an individual room to relax and say words with a lot of ease.
Reading
Reading is the skill that enables individuals to gain information even if they cannot efficiently pronounce some of the words that they are reading. Practice needs to be done in order to test the speed that one takes to read. That is why teachers who teach through face to face teaching ask students to read one sentence after the other in a comprehension. This helps to test if all the students are able to read. When reading an individual is bound to find words that he or she has never seen or heard before (Lapp & Flood, 2006).What one is required to do is guess. Sometimes the guess can be right or wrong. When one guesses wrong, he or she is corrected and that is how learning skills are acquired. One is not supposed to fear making mistakes because that is what learning is all about.
The speed of reading is affected by the practice of reading where individuals read by using their fingers to point to every word that they are using. Sometimes people blink a lot when reading and this affects the speed of reading. Some people shake their heads when reading and this distracts their reading concentration (Littlejohn & Hicks, 2000). When reading it is important to first read the title of the reading material that you are dealing with. This helps in the understanding of the contents in the material and efficiency in reading. Gaining speed when reading questions in exam ensures one understands the questions quickly and hence finish the exam in the required time. When reading it is important to have a dictionary nearby so that one can look up the words that he or she is not familiar with. Nowadays with internet being available one just types the word to get the meaning right away (Heller, 2000).
Writing
Writing shows that the individual has learnt well. The improvements made in gaining learning skills are shown in the content that an individual writes. All the vocabulary gained in listening and reading is presented in writing. Online activities of the learning skills affect how we think because we get to learn so many things from the internet. Some of the things learnt help to change our ideologies about life. It is very educative as long one is able to read, because one gets insight in very many things (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006).
Being able to build capacity is the most important thing. Internet helps us to know that we can do things that we think we cannot do. In the internet we get some information through the listening of clips that are uploaded. Online reading helps us to solve some of the problems that we experience in our lives. All one needs is to follow the steps that are given in order to solve the problem and this happens when fixing something (Blackburn, 2008).
Conclusion
Online learning helps us to gain skills that are very essential in our careers. Some of this aspects are leadership, ability to manage stress and most important improve the human memory for creativity. The capacity to think is greatly enhanced and this leads to innovativeness. Online learning leads to exposure which allows people to be kept up to date with the current happenings in the globe. However online learning is for those who can afford it and sometimes the content people get to read, write, listen and speak can be damaging to their lives and it needs to be approached with a lot of caution (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007).
References
Blackburn, B. (2008). Literacy from A to Z: Engaging Students in Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. Larchmont: Eye on Education.
Garder, P. (2005). New directions: reading, writing, and critical thinking. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heller, M. (2000). Reading-Writing Connections: From Theory to Practice. London: Routledge.
Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2007). A new literacies sampler. New York: Peter Lang.
Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2006). New literacies: everyday practices and classroom learning. New York: McGraw-Hill International.
Lapp, D. & Flood, F. (2006). Teaching Reading to Every Child. London: Routledge.
Littlejohn, A. & Hicks, D. (2000). Cambridge English for schools. Cambridge: University Press.
MacDonald, J. & Creanor, L. (2010). Learning With Online and Mobile Technologies: A Student Survival Guide. Brookfield: Gower Publishing Ltd
Rich, C. (2009). Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method. New York: Cengage Learning
Warschauer, M. (2000). Virtual connections: online activities & projects for networking language learners. London: Natl Foreign Lg Resource Ctr.