For English Learners，here is the help! 别老说自己的口语不好：
i like to share my understanding with you about learning english. no matter which skill you want to emphasize, there is only one way to achieve that. this is what i call to know and to practice.
1. to know what?
A. knowing reading is the first step if one wants to improve his/her english. the correct way to enhance our english 4 skills starts from reading. in this case, “READ RIGHT” is a very important goal.
for instances, when first time encountering a word, phrase, or sentence, try to spell and read them correctly. many people keep making mistakes on the same issue because they have their mind set from the beginning. and it is very hard to change later, such as wrong pronunciations, incorrect usages, etc... so when you learn a new word, try your best to spell it out loud and carefully pronounce it. If you are not sure about the pronunciation, go check or ask it.
B. when practicing reading skills, there are three groups of objects to approach:
a. the meaningful paragraphs: these are too large to be easily handled.
b. sentences:
c. and words: from our experience we all know reciting vocabularies alone is not going to help us. i have seen so many people reciting vocabularies and when it comes to time of using them, they know a little.
thus, knowing sentence level reading skill practice is the stage where we start from. for the past 27 years of teaching, i have developed a way to do this. and i call it "sentence structure analysis." this is not new to english learners. based on the sentence you have, try to break it down to different parts of speech, such as subject nouns, verbs, and object nouns, adjectives, adverbs. analyze about 10 sentences a day. by analyzing the sentence structure correctly, one can improve his/her reading skill within one month even s/he does not necessarily know the meaning of all words in a sentence. also through this practice, you learn the usages of words or phrases.
C. after this practice, then what?
during the time of practicing "READ RIGHT," one can also apply the usages and knowledge learnt from reading in writing. start to write simple sentences with subject + verb + object. write nothing more other than those three. complicated sentence writing will not necessarily bring you to high level of writing skill. write short but right is our emphasis.
Know that you can write right based on the skills and technologies learnt from read right.
D. then what?
a. do your best to turn on english programs from tv, radio, or any other device which will make you a simulated english environment. it is not necessary for you to understand all contents coming from that program at this stage. by doing this, you are getting your ears familiar with the wave and tone of english expressions. thus, english music is not as good as cartoons, news broadcastings, soap operas, etc. the only requirement is the correct english pronunciation for those you are listening. let it play as long as you can even if you are not paying attention to it.
b. the second stage of listening skill practice combines the skills of reading and listening by recording and playing what you are reading. if there are tapes or cds to go with the materials you are reading, play them before, while, and after you do all careful analysis on what you are reading. if there is no tape or cd, just read and record slowly your own. you can record from those with better pronunciations and those who are willing to help you. read slowly but clearly. Please play them even you are about to go to sleep. "let it play from time to time" is the key. continuing playing and listening to meaningful materials will be a way to help your skills of listening and speaking. remember, at this stage, you will do your best to understand all what you are listening.
2. to practice
there is no short cut in english skills improving. practice is the only way. but please practice correctly. otherwise, you are wasting your time and/or others. if you just keep talking nonsense and this will not help at all. there are only two inputs in these 4 skills, listening and reading. one has to have meaningful inputs in order for her/him to have meaningful outputs. remember, one has to read and listen to meaningful sentences then these will help her/his writing and speaking skills later.
to practice those i mentioned above takes very short time. do sentence structure analysis with simple and short sentences in the beginning. after doing a few times, your confidence will be built up. then go pick up any sentence or more from any magazine or article, even writings with non- understandable subjects, or those in weird fields with difficult vocabularies, and do the analysis accordingly.
once you get to know this very well, you can start write things according to the same principle. and add more and more words, phrases, or clauses to the sentences you are writing. then, your writing skill is improved.
remember: DON'T GIVE UP. find one or two friends to do this together. have fun. this practice costs you nothing. i see so many people complainning about the cost of those english teaching programs.
will you please stop saying my english is not good and do nothing to help. from what I said above, it takes less time but gain the highest benefit if you just do it. this is the way to reach the goal of improving your 4 skills in english. to know and to practice! again, try mine and through which, you gain the most in the shortest time. trust me, friends. all my students and student teachers who practice and/or teach this find it beneficial. many get high scores in toefl and other english tests within a very short time.
REMEMBER: the sequence is reading, writing, listening, then speaking. don't waste your time and money finding short cuts other than this. all materials are good as long as you use it right. these are my sincerest advices.
[ Last edited by zhiren on 2005-9-16 at 10:28 ]
