Part III Ways leading to success
I’d like to like to introduce my experience of learning English after graduation from college. I passed CET4 in the first term of grade two. I failed in CET6 test in the following term for I stopped learning English. I hadn’t learnt English in the following eight years. In 2000 I was assigned to construction site for site service. The factory located in a remote village far from city. I was idle most of time. I began to learn English again. At first I bought a piece of newspaper – “21st century”. There were so many new words for me, and I decided to memorize new words. I bought a dictionary for CET6. There are about 6500 words and phrased in it. I marked all new words and put it down on another notebook. It took me three months to write down all new words of the dictionary. It’s about 3000. I was frustrated by the huge number. I didn’t think my vocabulary was so limited. I spent another six months on memorizing all those new words. I bought another piece of paper and read it confidently. To my surprise, it didn’t work! I could know the meaning of many words if you write it down separately, but I couldn’t when they’re among articles. I got to know I lost my way on learning English. I gave up the way of memorizing words at all. Just then many people were learning oral English. Crazy English were available anywhere. I didn’t like Crazy English, but I appreciate its core callings, which is one must open mouth to speak English if you want to improve English. I selected “American Album USA” as oral English textbook. I watched a section of film several times and tried to catch what they said. Then watched the film again according to text script. Three months later I learnt about three fourth of all content. It seemed that I didn’t make any progress in oral English and listening except for more sensitivity on normal speed. I didn’t know I hadn’t followed the right way.
Last winter I decided to level up my English. I began to listen to VOA Special English by dictating. It took me about 200 hours on dictating (I interrupted several months), now I can feel my listening is improving. I plan to listen to instant VOA Special English news after another three months’ dictating. Now I’m clear what goal I should achieve and how to do. What I need is persistent practice.
You may find that one should learn your motivation and goal to learn English at first. Then evaluate your practical English level. At last make a feasible plan and begin to act follow the plan.
It sounds it’s easy to learn English well. Actually it’s not easy to make it. The best way to learn English well is to find a good teacher. You can overcome many difficulties, such as grammar and pronunciation with teacher’s guidance. Teacher may also help you to form a solid foundation in short period of time. If the teacher isn’t available, you can ask for other people who are good at English. Many students don’t pay attention to English courses. They think the textbook is outdated. They have more interest in fashionable English courses outside. They don’t know they made a rudimentary mistake.
Suppose you’re among the first group. You learn English just for passing examinations (CET4, CET6 or tests for high school students). Just follow what teachers tell you. Read and recite the emphasis of text after class, you will pass the examination without problem.
If you want to improve your oral English and hope to communicate with others on normal topics in English, You can attend short period oral English courses. Trying to learn by Crazy English is another nice way. You will gain confidence soon and the result is obvious in several months. Those training courses, which announce “master English in a month” always help you to make it. You needn’t care for the people you are speaking are native speakers or Chinese. Try your best to follow them and catch up with them.
Many people want to improve practical English skills, not for examinations. They want to improve all English skills fully. Once you decide to learn English, you are on a long way without regretting. You have to bear in mind that it is a long and hard study. Please don’t expect too much in a short period time. It’s better to divide your great goal into several practical sub-goals. It’s easy to achieve every goal and gain more confidence to reach the next one. It’s important for these people to cultivate a solid foundation. You will waste a lot time if you don’t pay attention to the foundation. Remember to evaluate your English level into a low level and never ignore those minor mistakes such as the usage of “a/an” and “the”. “New Conception English” is proper for them to form a solid foundation in short period time and it helps you a lot in English writing. If you want to know more about “New Conception English”, you can get many wonderful posts on http://www.wwenglish.org.
The last problem is how to choose reading or listening materials. If you’re the first two types of learners, you needn’t take materials seriously. Even the article or listening tape are from Chinese, you could still benefit a lot form it, because your English is not good enough to grasp the difference. It’s enough for you to imitate others.
If you’re among those who want to improve practical English skills fully, you’d better have materials from native speakers. Of course you can use other materials at the beginning. As Chinese saying goes, “Gets more following the best; gets less following more “(取法其上，仅得其中；取法其中，仅得其下). When your English is good enough to read original articles, try to read foreign magazines and newspapers. Most articles on English newspaper in China are written by Chinese. There’re still great difference on culture and thinking way between Chinese and native writers. It’s not necessary to parse structure or grammar of every sentence. However we learn English is to appreciate its beauty and communicate, rather than parse its structure.
We also should pay attention to the integrality of five main skills. They are relative and affect each other mutually. To Chinese more listening and oral practice is more essential.
This is the END of the article
Azure
