I need your help
2013-06-19
I have learned English for many years, when I was in high school, my English was very poor. Graduated from college and working, I knew I have to impove it, but I have tried many ways, these aren't good effective, can you guys share with me some successful methods you used in learn English, I will appreciate you guys! thank you!
do you like to read novels? they are a good way to learn and have fun at the same time.
Thank you very much to told me thses way, I think it will be useful. I think the best way is you have a native friend, you can practise the English or Chinese each other. But till now , I haven't the chance
I am using these methods to learn Chinese and also to assist English learners.
1) Understand what your reason is for learning another language and where you want to use it.
2) Determine how much time you can spend on your language study and practice
3) What are your objectives (vocabulary, speak, read, write, listen) and in what settings.
4) Identify where you are on your path now
5) Define goals and reward points both short term and long term
6) Develop a plan to accomplish the first couple goals
Listening
Watch TV programs in that language with that language’s subtitles.(If you are reading Chinese subtitles to an English program it might help you at the start but to develop the skill reading the English while listening to it might reinforce what you hear. I have the problem that without the pinyin I am lost so Chinese subtitles don’t help me much. I can only pick out the characters I know. I assume this will help some but not sure)
Listening & Speaking
Listen to and Sing along with songs in that language
By singing the words even when you do not understand the meaning you are training your brain to hear the words and to pronounce them. Like a child listening to and repeating what their parents or other adults say.
Pronunciation
Get a language exchange partner so that you can help each other with correct pronunciation and progress in to conversation as your skills grow. Set time limits for practice and guidelines. In the beginning start with simple sentences, record the practice exercise so you can listen to it later. Have the native speaker read a sentence out loud, then read the sentence out loud yourself. (If your pronunciation was way off the native speaker could say the full sentence once more.) Repeat this for the dialog for the exercise. Listen carefully when you play back the exercise recording and you will hear the differences between how you and the native speaker say the sentence.
After your skill improves you can alter the exercise so that only you read out loud and when the native speaker hears a significant mistake, they read that sentence out loud. Playing these recordings and rerecording yourself will help you to correct your pronunciation.
Ask the native speaker to listen for common mistakes you make. Once they have identified common mistakes, like saying herda instead of heard they can help you fix those. I have noticed that a lot of Chinese that learn English add vowels to the end of words that end in d or t. One that irritates me is a friend always says lo when he is spelling a word with an l in it.
Example hello is spelled h – e – l – l – o; he spells it h – e – lo – lo – o. I have pointed out to him that this is wrong however he still does it sometimes. On the good side he has stopped adding vowels to the end of words.
Look for opportunities to practice real life situations
Every day force yourself to practice simple phrases in live situations. It will be difficult at first but the practice will teach your brain to think in the new language which you need to join in conversations effectively.
Have someone ask you questions about a topic or from a list of questions. Then agree on how well you responded to the question. Have them answer the question as well and compare answers. It does not mean that yours is wrong and theirs is right but it can provide native speaker examples.
Every time you practice think what did I do right, where did I improve and where do I need to improve. Identify the issues you have and if need be change your approach. Talk about things you are interested in and current events to keep the conversation interesting educational and language practice.
Repetition – If you struggle with a word or a phrase and you finally get it right, repeat it about 10 times to reinforce the correct words and pronunciation.
Writing
Write or translate short paragraphs using a word processor and turn on spell and grammar check. Try to correct each mistake before right clicking it to have the word processor suggest possible words.
When reading and you see a word you do not know. Look it up in the dictionary then in the thesaurus to see words with similar meanings. Then later write a few sentences with the word in it. This will increase your vocabulary and improve writing skills.
These are just some of the things I do for my Mandarin learning and for exchange tutoring. I would be interested in hearing about any other techniques that could speed up my learning. My problem is even though I live in China my friend speaks to me in English 99% of the time. It is a struggle but I am determined to accomplish my goal, to master basic Chinese. I believe I can and will do it and will not let the doubters or naysayers set my timeframe.
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