When it comes to communication, it's all about acquiring the message from one end to another. An individual needs adequate speaking and writing abilities to accomplish proper communication. Barriers in communication [1] can be diverse. Language is one of the most vital barriers to communication. The importance of communication can be found in the lines [2]:
"Your success as an academic will depend heavily on your ability to communicate to fellow researchers in your discipline, to colleagues in your department and university, to undergraduate and graduate students, and perhaps even to the public at large."
English is important for all; especially for those who are associated with academic spaces. Researchers [3] mentioned the value and use of English at the international level. However, understanding English is not so easy for individuals whose native language is not English. For instance, I am (the author) a Bengali-speaking person, who got primary and higher secondary education from Bengali medium. Since Bengali is my first language, I have faced difficulties understanding the grammar and vocabulary of English. There are thousands of people like me who have experienced or are experiencing this problem. There are some major reasons for low proficiency in English (communication) [4]:
1. Complex nature of speaking and writing.
2. Lack of instruction.
3. Educator's low proficiency.
4. Psychological factors.
5. Cultural aspects.
6. Insufficient resources.
Some good ways can help in bridging the gap: collaborative learning [4,5], task-based learning [4,6], and cognition [4, 7]. There are also some non-traditional methods that can be used: watching English news channels and movies; reading English newspapers and magazines. These are truly important for learning and understanding the language pattern. At present many kinds of MOOCs [8] have emerged for building communication skills. I am not going to discuss more that. Pointing to the question: "Can sports commentary aid in the development of communication and academic writing skills?", I have found some informal and unfamiliar ways to learn English; that can be applied in academia as per needs. Yes! I am talking about Sports Commentary. This short discussion is restricted to only Football and Cricket commentaries.
Despite the names of a few people in my mind, I just Googled and got some results from Quora [9] revealing some big names of Cricket commentators such as Tony Greg, Alan Wilkins, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar, Danny Morrison, Sunil Gavaskar, Harsha Bhogle, Ramiz Raza, and Nasir Hussain, etc. Every individual has their own preferences. I also have some pickings. The following names are my favourite.
1. Mark Howard (Cricket: Australia)
2. Ravi Shastri (Cricket: India)
3. Harsha Bhogle (Cricket: India)
4. Danny Morrison (Cricket: New Zealand)
5. Sanjay Manjrekar (Cricket: India)
6. Peter Drury (Football: British)
However, Mark Howard, Ravi Shastri, and Peter Drury are my first three choices. It can't be hypothesized that commentary will help in academic writing but it can be said that communication and presentation skills of interacting within a group of people and mass can be enhanced. The commentary makes sports more beautiful. The more attractive and powerful the commentary, the more enjoyable it is to watch the game on TV. Why listening (watching) commentary is important? Few key reasons I would refer to:
1. Modern English
2. Use of vocabulary
3. Presentation skills
4. Humour
5. Pronunciation
Academic communications can benefit from the manner they comment, speak, and present. Although there are sports-related terms, we can replace them with academic terms and phrases. Because the syntax in both circumstances is the same. It's possible that many people will disagree with me. There is no evidence that commentary would help academic communication. Since this article is purely based on opinion, more research should be rendered. We can have many types of writing assistant tools [10] available in the market and communication development institutions. Apart from these, if anyone wants to learn by himself/herself, he/she can listen to commentary (which I have followed) to learn communication and presentation skills. I will mention some euphonious quotes.
First, Mark Howard, an Australian sports commentator, commented [11] on the bowling of Scott Bolland who got six wickets on his debut:
"Edged! taken, Bolland got six at the G! Build the man a statue."
This is the beauty of English and its application. The video link is given in the reference section.
Second, Ravi Shastri, one of the powerful voices in the world cricket, commented [12] the iconic lines on the Cricket World cup, 2011 final match between India and Sri Lanka:
"Dhoni.. finishes off in style, a magnificant strike into the crowd. India lift the world cup after 28 years......"
Every Indian would remember it for a long time.
Third, Peter Drury is one of the finest commentators in world football. We can listen to him in English Premier League and UEFA Champions League [13]. It was the season of 2011-12 when Manchester City beat Manchester United (I support) in the EPL title race at the last moment by thrashing QPR by 3-2. The commentary by Peter Drury [14] was completely breathtaking:
"Aguero... Staggering! Just Staggering! He has won the league with 90 seconds of stoppage time to play!"
Vocabularies that they used are well enough to acquire insights. This could be useful for anyone who is interested in sports and learning English at the same time. We can learn about English from a variety of sources, including sports broadcasts. To develop good academic communication skills, we need to answer the following questions.
1. What are the alternatives to traditional learning methods involved in speaking and writing?
2. What are the informal ways of learning?
3. How can sports commentary be utilized in learning methods?
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References
[1] Button, Kenneth, and Fabio Rossera. "Barriers to communication." The annals of regional science 24.4 (1990): 337-357.
[2] Joanne Yates. 15.289 Communication Skills for Academics. Spring 2002. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.
[3] Tananuraksakul, Noparat. "Value and Use of English as a Global Language in a Bulgarian Higher Education Internationalization Context." Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education 13.1 (2021): 66-81.
[4] Islam, Md Shaiful, and Mahani Bt Stapa. "Students’ low proficiency in spoken English in private universities in Bangladesh: reasons and remedies." Language Testing in Asia 11.1 (2021): 1-31.
[5] Chen, Ruiying. "A review of cooperative learning in EFL Classroom." Asian Pendidikan 1.1 (2021): 1-9.
[6] Toyoda, Junko, Tomoko Yashima, and Scott Aubrey. "Enhancing situational willingness to communicate in novice EFL learners through task-based learning." JALT Journal 43.2 (2021): 185-214.
[7] Cai, Jia-Ye, et al. "The influence of learners’ cognitive style and testing environment supported by virtual reality on English-speaking learning achievement." Sustainability 13.21 (2021): 11751.
[8] Wikipedia contributors. "Massive open online course." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 Jan. 2022. Web. 3 Feb. 2022.
[9] https://www.quora.com/Who-is-the-best-cricket-commentator-of-all-time-Why
[10] https://rigorousthemes.com/blog/best-free-writing-assistant-software/
[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz6YxAYj15Q
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0alThHNb0Y
[13] Wikipedia contributors. "List of association football competitions." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2 Feb. 2022. Web. 3 Feb. 2022.
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV-KPbuiTUU
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