English skills: is it a key factor for success - Fintech Ecosystem - the future of banking.

Byline: Mohammad Iqbal

I cannot forget the moments of my 15 minutes demo lecture which was held at one of the top ranked university for teaching one computing course as an adjunct faculty, sometimes back. Demonstrating teaching skills has always been intimidating because you can win (or lose), an opportunity based on your performance during a limited demonstration session. I have been introduced by one of my colleagues and he gave me one tip that I should deliver my whole lecture in English language. Presenting your knowledge in English when you're not a native speaker, is a challenging task for everyone, so for me as well. Anyhow, I started my lecture but quickly I realized that my audience was not taking interest in my lecture, so I switch to my native language (Urdu) to transfer my knowledge to students. It was my wise decision because I was given a good feedback by students. But we do not invalidate the significance of English in academic institutions because most of the literature is in English. I do believe that improving your instructional skills along with good spoken and written English language can bring powerful and positive impact on one's teaching skills, which ultimately result in professional competence.

Fear of public speaking is a common phenomenon but with professional competence, one can overcome on this.

As a professional teacher, I do read a lot; which includes research papers, technical articles, work of fiction, manual, mythopoeia, cli-fi, V-logs etc. even text books. I have to confess that I worked hard to become fluent in English. Pressure to deliver lectures in English at academic institutions is continuously growing because almost all academic literature is available in English and majority of the breed which comes to private Universities are from English medium schools. However, mastering a new language requires time and consistent efforts that unfortunately most of us are not struggling with.

Due to the weight that the English language carries globally, now it becomes an essential component for people who are looking for a job abroad, especially in the USA and Europe. Moreover, one interesting fact about the English language is that around 1.75 billion people are using the English language for communication purposes and most of these people are not native speakers. Furthermore, English is considered to be a language of academia because most of the literature is mostly available in the English language. Even now...