英语学习者面临三大挑战

1、英语学习者面临三大挑战!Three biggest challenges facingan English learnerDeveloping a passion for learning EnglishAllEnglish learners would like to speak English well. They are excited at the ideaof being able to communicate in English fluently. However, they usually don tcareabout the learning process itself.

2、For most learners, learning English isa dutysomething that they have to, but don t want to do. They don t seepleasure inlearning English.In short,most learners would like to speak English well but don t like to be learningEnglish. This is the first and biggest problem facing an English learner,becau

3、se a person who doesn t like to learn English will not learn it well.Ifyou don t love English, English won t love you back!If youwant to become a successful learner, you need to like the learning processitself. You need to treat time spent on English as time for pleasure andrelaxation. For example,

4、you need to enjoy:reading English sentences and thinking abouttheir structure learning new words from a dictionarywriting a correct English sentence byconsulting dictionaries, grammar guides, and the Webpracticing the pronunciation of English soundsand words Ideally,learning English should be your h

5、obby. You should think of yourself as anEnglish Learner - a person who has chosen learning English as one of theirfavorite activities.Making the first change to one s lifeThe decision to learn English requires changes in your life. For example, decidingthat one will read a book in English for 30 min

6、utes every day and keeping tothat decision. It s very difficult to make a small, but permanent change toyour life, especially if learni ng English doesn t seem fun ” . However, learnersshould remember that studying English for 15 minutes every day gives you muchbetter results than studying for a who

7、le day once a month.Making further changes toone s lifeWhile thefirst change is the most difficult, each subsequent one is hard, too. A lot oflearners take the first step (e.g. they start reading a book in English everyday) and stop there. They do not engage in other English-building activities.A go

8、odlearner will have a set of activities (reading, watching TV, practicingpronunciation, listening to recordings, etc.) and choose from that setaccording to his or her mood. One activity is not good enough, because youget bored more quickly, and (2) it gives you a range of language skills that istypi

9、cally too narrow. For example, reading in English can t improveyourpronunciation, although it can improve your grammar, vocabulary, readingcomprehension, and writing skills.)Why we don t like English classes我们为什么不喜欢英语课Englishclasses are the most popular way in which people study English. They are so

10、amazingly popular that most people do not even think about how to learn English . The process is automatic: I want to learn English, so I sign up for an English course. I will paysome money, sit in class for a few hours a week, and I will get good English.This isvery surprising, because Englishclass

11、es are a very poor way of learning English. We have spent alarge part of our lives in English classes (in high school, college, and atlanguage schools), and we know what they are like. With all our knowledge ofEnglish classes and courses, we would be surprised if we met a person who haslearned to sp

12、eak English very well by going to English classes.If youattend English classes, you spend many hours a week on them. Often, you alsospend lots of your money. What do you get for your time and money? Hereis what you can do at an Englishclass:? Listen to some bad English. The pronunciation , grammar,

13、and vocabulary of other students (and sometimes the teacher, too) will be bad. Sometimes as bad as this , or worse. Surely listening to these people will not make your English better.? Say five sentences in English. There are usually 10-20 students in the class, so there is little time for you to sp

14、eak English. Normal English classes are very poor speaking practice. (Conversation classes are better.)? Read a boring textbook . Almost all English teachers use textbooks .Want to know why? Because it makes their work easier. They don t haveto prepare for every class. They just do the next unit in

15、the book. Textbooks make teaching easy. And they make learning boring and ineffective. You have to read stupid stories about Michael Jackson or a woman who lived in African jungle for two years. Then you have to answer questions about them and talk about them with other students.This is madness! All

16、 this nonsense that you don t care about. It makesyou think that learning English is boring .? Listen to a few grammar rules, such as the pr esent continuous tense is used for talking about developing and changing situations ” . Learninggrammar rules is the stupidest thing you can do. The two main r

17、easons: 1) It is impossible to memorize all those hundreds of grammar rules anyway, 2) When speaking English, you don t have time td/thiiak:tense should I use? Let s see. I want to present the idea of action continuing up to the present time, so I should use the present perfect tense. You want to us

18、e your English naturally. Grammar rules may improve your scores in tests, but they do not improve your English.? Do some grammar exercises. After talking about grammar rules, teachers usually give you some exercises, such as multiple choice or gap filling tests. Grammar exercises have two functions:

19、 1) they make you review the grammar rules, 2) they test your English. The first function is useless because grammar rules are useless (see previous section). The second function, testing, is okay if you want to compare your knowledge with other people. But testing does not teach you any English.? G

20、et a homework assignment. The homework is usually a grammar exercise (see previous section) or a composition . The subject of the composition will usually be something that you don t care about.Examples: Your opinion on the proverb“ Blood is thicker than waterit good to be famous? . What nonsense. D

21、oing boring things is not going to help your English. It will only decrease your motivation .Englishclasses will not teach you good pronunciation (whichis simply necessary for communication!). Most teachers completely ignore it,sometimes because their own pronunciation is bad. Some teachers will cor

22、rect your mistakeswhen you speak. But very few teachers will tell you how you can avoid makingthe same mistakes again. Very few teachers will tell you about the sounds ofEnglish and how to use a dictionary to learn about the pronunciation of words.Mostteachers will not encourageyou to read in Englis

23、h, to buy a good English-English dictionary , to listen to English-language recordings on your own.They will just do their textbook and the exercises in it. If your teacher isdifferent, you are lucky.This iswhat most English classes look like. Think about your classes. If they are likethatboring and

24、 ineffective then you are simply wasting yourtime. (Don t worry: you arenot alone. Millions of people around the world wastetheir time by going to English classes, even though they do not improve theirEnglish.)You canreplace ineffective and boring classes with interesting things which will reallyimp

25、rove your English:? Instead of listening to bad English in the classroom, turn on your TV and watch CNN International or another English-language channel. You will get lots of perfect sentences in excellent English.? Instead of sitting for two hours to say five sentences in English, sign up for a co

26、nversation class with a native speaker . Or start speaking English with your best friend.? Instead of working with a boring textbook , read something interesting. There are so many interesting texts in English! Surf to English-languagesites on the Web. Read a good book in English. Simply, read somet

27、hing that interests you. Something that won t bore you to death.Instead of memorizing grammar rules and doing grammar exercises, read and listen to English. Input is the only way to learn impressive , natural English.Instead of writing compositions about the subject that your teacher gave you, write

28、 about something that you care about. For example, write some e-mail in English. Don t write for your teacher write for yourself!You can damage your English by writing and speaking写英语说英语有可能毁掉你的英语How practice can damage your English“Practice, ll say. All Englishs theprobleIf you ask “ How can I learn

29、 to speak English better? , many people will tell youpractice, practice .Speak and write in English whenever you can” ,theyclasses are full of activities which involve speakingand writing. You produce sentences when you do an exercise in your textbook,when your teacher makes you speak in class, or w

30、hen you have to write acomposition. All these activities are supposed to help you with your English.Practicecan be very useful. It s even necessary to learn English well. So whatThe problem is that for many learners, speaking or writing means making alot of mistakes . Some people make a mistake in e

31、very sentence!Supposeyou are writing an e-mail message in English. Your English is not perfect andyou want to write the message quickly. You write (incorrectly):I want speak English .When youwrite a sentence, you also read it. So the incorrect sentence becomestoxic input for your brain. The next tim

32、e you write a message, you will be more likely towrite I want finish or I want be happy . Why? Because I want speak English is fresh inyour head you recently used it! And when you write I want a few more times, you ll gead habit: I want will become your natural way of speaking English.Such bad habit

33、s can be very difficult to eliminate. Even if somebodylater points out yourmistake and you concentrate very hard to avoid making it again, the bad habitis often stronger. It s aiphill battle .Every timeyou write or speak with mistakes, you reinforce thosemistakes. As you repeat your mistakes, you de

34、velop bad habits. If you make alot of mistakes, practice becomes a harmful activity because it teaches youmore bad English than good English. Some learners make so many mistakes thatthe more they practice, the worse their English becomes!What about a learning from your mistakes ?The onlyway you can

35、learn something from your mistakes is when somebody corrects them.If you say an incorrect sentence, and if someone points out the mistake andtells you the proper way to express your meaning, then your knowledge ofEnglish increases.You maytherefore think that speaking or writing with mistakes is not

36、so bad because itis a chance to fix your errors and learn something new. Unfortunately, this istrueonly if youhave a checker a competent person who will correct your mistakes. If youdon t have achecker, speaking or writing with mistakes will only give you bad habits.If you rethinkinghtat an English

37、teacher couldbe your checker, consider this:Many teachers (especially non-native speakers)are simply incompetent. Sometimes they will find“ errors “ in correct sentencesor suggestbad alternatives. I couldn t count the number of times it happenedto me nhigh school.Most teachers correct only the bigge

38、st mistakesand ignore the rest.The reason is simple: class time is limited. If theycorrected every mistake of every student, they wouldn t be able to teach theirlessons. You could gjeiso kind of private tutor, but how much would it costto have him correct everything you write and say in English?What

39、 about randomnative speakers ? This category includes any native speakerswho are not your teachers: your American friends, Australian penpals, nativespeakers on Internet forums, or just regular people around you, if you are inan English-speaking country. Can they be effective checkers?Notlikely. In

40、general, native speakers will not correct your mistakes!As long asthey can understand what you mean, they will completely ignore allyour mistakes in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. For example, themessage below is perfectly understandable and could easily pass uncorrected:I am want make quest

41、ion for knowing how to able speak English proper way.I need of a internet learn book for American word of slang. I will thank yourhelp for life.Why isthat?As a case in point, I get a lot of e-mail from Englishlearners. I love English and I like correcting mistakes. But I almost neverpoint out mistak

42、es. Why? Because if I did, it would often take me 10 moreminutes to reply to a message. And I usually don t have 10 more minutes.Correcting mistakes requires not only greatEnglish skills. To correct someone, you have to pay attention to what he saysor writes. If something is wrong, you have to think

43、 of a better way to sayit. Correction takes time andeffort . And people are lazy and don t have the time to fix someone else ssentences. It s much easier to ignore the mistakesepnd theconversation going .It s always stressful to tell someone that theymade a mistake. Many native speakers will be afra

44、id of an awkward socialsituation and when you make a mistake, they will pretend that nothing hashappened. Some of them will even think they are being polite.“Learning from your mistakes sounds good, butit is not easy, because making mistakesis not enough - you still need someoneto give you feedback

45、. And itis difficult to find a competent person to help you.Besides,even if you had such a person available whenever you speak or write in English,making mistakes would probably still be harmful, since mistakes can lead to badhabits even if they are corrected.The sooner you realize you cannot“ speak

46、 your way to goodEnglish, thesooner you will make some real progress.Solution: Stop making mistakes!We havesaid that when you practice, you reinforce your mistakes, and that you cannotrely on feedback fromother people. We have also said that you need practice to learn English.There is asimple soluti

47、on to this paradox : Never makemistakes! Before you conclude that we havecompletely lost it , pleaseread what Michal has written about his experiences: It is close to the truth that I have neverwritten an incorrect English sentence.I knew many grammatical structures and I usedonly those that I knew.

48、 My sentences were similar to sentences which I knewto be correct.I followed good examples,so all mysentences were good.In the beginning, I could write only verysimple sentences, but all the simple sentences were correct. Then as Iadvanced, I added more and more complicated structures, and again all

49、 mysentences were correct.Because of this approach, I was neverreinforcing bad habits. I never had any bad habits! From the beginning, Icopied only correct sentences. With every sentence that I wrote, I reinforcedmy good habits.You canspeak and write with almost no mistakes, too.FAQ“But if I m afrai

50、d to make amistake, I will never open my mouth!You willnot be afraid to make a mistake if you know how to say things in English. Youwill know how to say things in English if you get enough input that is, if you keep reading and listening to correct English sentences untilcorrect English phrases soun

51、d natural to you and incorrect phrases sound weirdto you. Then you will be sure that young re speakicorrectly.“I make a lot mistakes when Ispeak Englishwhat should I do? Definitely get a lot of input . If youmake mistakes in your Englishsentences, that means you don t know how to saythings in English. You need to learn how to say them. You won t learn that byspeaking or wYkting.must read and listen to correct Englishsentences.There is no otherway.Try to be more careful use the rules of error-free speaking . Ifyoustill make a lot of mistakes, you probab