My  Way  of  English  Learning

By Zhong Wanting

 It has been 6 years since I first got in touch with English and ever since then, these cute little letters have brought joy and wonder to my life. How did I learn English? Now let me show you my way of English learning which is interesting and colorful.

 One thing that troubles many English learners, especially students, is how to enlarge their vocabulary. It’s common to see students staring at a vocabulary list, dully repeating word by word, ‘study, s-t-u-d-y, study …… method, m-e-t-h-o-d, method ……’ This is surely boring and inefficient. Another significant drawback to this traditional way of word memorization is that you never know how to utilize your seemingly large vocabulary. In addition, you may know only one meaning of each word. So what else can we do to enlarge our vocabulary?

 I suggest that words be memorized in phrases, in sentences and in passages. In a context, words are much easier to understand. Also, in this way, you can master the usage of each word. If a word appears frequently in an article, you may memorize it after you finish reading the article. If it doesn’t, you can read the article over and over again so as to memorize it. It’s far more interesting to enlarge your vocabulary in this way, isn’t it?

 Maybe some students will ask, ‘Even if I can understand many words using this technique, I still don’t know how to spell them.’ Before memorizing the spelling of a word, you should first master its pronunciation and ‘shape’, namely letter combinations, prefixes and suffixes. According to these, you can spell the word out.

 It’s always fun to play word games. In the meantime, you can deepen your understanding of words. Two traditional word games I recommend are crossword puzzles and ‘Hangman’. These games are easy to play and may help you memorize words better.

 Have you ever had trouble listening to authentic English? Maybe you have. Listening is important in English learning but it’s also a frontier which is rather difficult to conquer. Some students complain that after years of English learning, they’re still ‘deaf’. What should they do?

 My method of practicing listening skills can be described in a sentence, ‘Listen and repeat’. First, you must choose the suitable listening materials, such as VOA, BBC or movie scripts. Then, you can start practicing. During the listening practices, you must repeat after the recordings sentence by sentence. You must repeat word by word in detail, instead of just reciting the ‘main idea’.  In the meantime, you cannot read the material. You can ask you parents or your friends to assist you by looking at the material and reminding you of any mistakes you may have made. When you do have errors, you should listen to the sentence again and again until you can repeat it correctly. If you cannot recognize a word, your companion can help you with body language.

 This kind of practice may seem tough in the beginning, but soon, you will become accustomed to it. And slowly, you’ll discover that your listening skills have improved a great deal.

 Many English learners have had this painful experience of being dumb when it comes to communicating. The main reason is that they are afraid of committing mistakes and ‘losing faces’. However, who can learn things without committing mistakes? The three most important qualities you must possess to become a good English learner are courage, confidence and persistence.  Without these, you’ll never be able to improve.

 Thus, when you meet foreigners in city streets, parks and shops, you can walk up with a smile and chat with them casually for a few minutes if they don’t object. While talking, you can use phrases and sentences you have just learned. Only in real life conversations can you really master the usage of phrases.

 Another good choice is to go to English Corners and English Saloons. There are now many English Corners in libraries, schools and other public places. For instance, there is an English Corner in my own school, hosted by our foreign teachers. Here, we can exchange our opinions on a wide variety of topics, including entertainment, politics, education, culture and science. Here, apart from practicing my oral English, I can also make a lot of friends.

 If you have the right conditions, you can practice your oral English using computer software. I have once used a software which contained a lot of interesting English courses and dialogues. Repeat the sentences after the computer demonstration voice and the software will score you and congratulate you vocally. If you score more than 80 points, it will say ‘Excellent!’; around 70, ‘Good!’; only 60, ‘Not bad’. But if you really fail, it will encourage you by saying ‘Try it again’ instead of criticizing you. Interesting, isn’t it?

 These are some of my study methods. With these, I manage to learn English well. Each time I win a prize in an English competition, I feel stimulated. I can also feel the joy and sweetness of success. This is my own way of English learning, interesting and colorful.

      广东实验中学   初二（1）班    钟琬婷