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Language Learning
As a teacher, I am often asked the question “how can I improve my English/use of English/vocabulary?” Today’s post is all about language learning and you will find several phrases which can be used to talk about how you feel about your proficiency in English. In Mario Varga Llosa’s recent book, The Bad Girl the main character is an interpreter and translator. He knows Spanish, English and French very well but he never feels as confident with his Russian. To remedy this he reads more Russian literature and feels that once he is conversant with the novels of Dostoevsky and the like he will be a much more proficient translator.
Do I think you should all go out and buy copies of Dickens’ and Hardy’s novels and start plowing through the complete works of Shakespeare to enable you to stand tall when you speak in English in social or work contexts? Not necessarily. However, I tend to agree with the premise that you will never feel satisfied with your fluency in a language if you approach your learning purely from an instrumental outlook. What I mean by this is learning English with a specific purpose in mind and paying attention only to the language functions associated with that purpose. So, if you want to learn English so that you can work as a member of an airline’s cabin crew, learning enough English to get you by in that context is fine but it will not help you in a different context or with language presented to you in a less familiar setting. In brief, there is no short cut to widening your vocabulary and reading is probably one of the most efficient ways of increasing your exposure to new language as well as giving you the option of going back and looking up words at a later stage if you forget them/don’t want to ruin your enjoyment of reading at the time. My recommended formula for successful language learning is to do the following four ‘R’s:
Read as much as possible and as widely as possible
Record what you can in a notebook/on your lap top (anywhere that works for you)
Review regularly and update your learning with extra information as you acquire it.
Regurgitate what you have learnt and check the reaction you get when you use it.
Challenge: find the phrases in todays' post to talk about how you feel about language learning adn use them in your next post to tell me about you and language learning.
Bye for now and pics and stories about Kandy on Saturday – promise!
Miss you,
Helen
Comments
Hi, I'm a new comer here. It's a fascinating community, just like learning English aboard directly with native speakers. And I don't have to take a long trip to take a course. Could you tell me how to start posting in to this blog? Thanks for your attention.
Hi Helen, I don't need English in my job. But English is an important part of my life because reading English texts is my great source of information. I love reading all my life. Frankly, I don't read very widely. I prefer reading about the universe or our precious planet Earth and life here. I don't read poems or novels at all. Further, I don't read any books but only the Internet. If I want to feel better about my English learning, I'll have to change my approach to reading. I plan to sign up to our local library. I hope I'll find some interesting books. I don't want ruin my enjoyment of reading! I'm attending a local English course. The course gives me a system to study. I'm widening my vocabulary, I review grammar and I communicate with teacher and classmates. In addition I do the progress test after every lesson. It gives me the option of going back and looking up words. Dear Helen, these are my actual ways of exposure to English. I think, the most efficient way of increasing someone's exposure to English is living in an English speaking country. I'll try to establish a regime according to your recommended formula for successful language learning, but I'm not sure about the difference between Review and Regurgitate. My true goal is to feel more satisfied with my fluency in English. I'm looking forward reading your new blog about Kandy on Saturday. Dusan
Thank you very much for your formula of four 'R's. I try to read as much as possible and to do the other things as you said. I know there is no short cut to widening our vocabulary if we want to learn English. Have a nice trip to Kandy.
Hi there, I'm also a newcomer here! I think none has written till now from ALbanina in this blog, or? I'm "watching" you all since some months ago, and I like very much this blogland. I hesitaded to write before.I'll try to remember your four "R"s Helen, Thank you
Hi,Helen,thank you for raising the matter with which we all are struggling here on the BBC LE.For several years,i have been plowing through different methods and ways trying to get to a short cut that could enable me to master and stand tall when talking to native speakers of this language language.But the result was not that covincing .Although, i have reached a point where i can get by in the everyday English,i can`t seem to feel satisfied with my proficiency of this language.But,no more wondring since ,simply,as you said there is no short cut. So,i have come to think that i need to read a lot inorder to feel coversant with it.And i think you ,Helen ,can help us chose the right novels and books that contain a wide vocabulary and yet not the (old)language of THEE,YEE,etc.. thank you and i can not wait to see the trip pics
Hi Helen and thanks a lot for your interesting entry in which you have talked about the main issue that, i suppose, interests everyone in this blog! To begin with,i really appreciate the example you gived about this man who is expecting to be a great translator by mastering the main world languages! To my mind, we tend to consider that learning a language passes obligatorily by reading in a difficult level! As you said it's simply "not necessary" ! I completly agree with your formula, it summarises differents approaches of learning a new language. in fact, that's exacly what i'm trying to do with my language by reading novels, articles on differents issues, listening to news in English (CNN and ALJAZEERA INTERNATIONAL), the only point that i till not have respected is te review what i recorded in my notebook. I'm conscious that reviewing my notes is a crucial step in your formula and i'm planning to begin, GOD willing, this week in this step ;). For the last "R" i'm not sure i have inderstood what you meant! Did you mean that we must use what we learned with friends, on internet... to check our fluency, didn't you? Anyway, i'm expecting to hearing more about this subject in your next entries! In brief, i think what we really need to learn what we want is above all will and determination ! Life is like this and learning a language would not be an exception :).
Hi Helen! There are a few of incidents that you can judge where my proficiency in English stands on as one of my trusty teacher. My friend and I started talking about bandannas about 3weeks ago. Fiona: Have you got the bandanna for Children in need’s day yet? I: No, I haven’t. I have popped into some local shops and I was just told they had been sold like hot pancakes. My friend suddenly collapsed with laugh and said, “ You mean they have been sold like hot cakes, not hot pancakes” another incident happened. one day I had to stay her house for a couple of hours because my house was choked up with horrendous dust, noises and builders. She made me a good cup of coffee and gave wonderful tips for speaking English as usual. Before I left her house I said “thank you for the lovely coffee and hostility”. As soon as I finished my sentence She laughed her head off and said “ it’s hospitality, not hostility”.(Fiona, you are my star and thanks for the corrections).Helen, what do you think? It’s so bad, isn’t it? I am always trying to be conversant with context, sentences and vocabularies whenever I read something, and to guess words before I look them up a dictionary. I badly want to feel satisfied with my fluency in English and hopefully see the improvement soon. Thanks and I will take your premises on board seriously. Have a smashing weekend!XX
Hi Helen, Is it difficult to learn a foreign language? According to your language learning post I must say yes. But sustainable and hard effort makes it easy. We can’t achieve fluency of any language over night. There is no exception for English. Any one who wants to attain proficiency in English must have interest to learn English. That interest makes you to reach a level of stand tall where ever the environment you are. How you are going to stand out from the circumstances depends upon how wisely and widely you read and how you use the words and phrases in day to day communication with others that you have come across in the learning process. Without using it what ever you learn will be useless. I realized this only in the last couple of years. I started reading very big novels in the past but I failed to read and not even completed few pages. Now I read many stories of Cambridge English Readers from lower intermediate to advance level. I am confident of reading other level stories. I have to concentrate other three R’s to make my English language learning process as a successful one in my life. I want to communicate with others using correct and simple English in my working and social settings. I know I can’t reach the level of native speakers of English when I speak and write. But when I make an attempt to use the language, I must use it without much trouble.
Dear Helen, How are you and your beautiful family. How was your Kandy trip? I have been using this BBC Learning english web site since early part of 2007 year to improve my english language. At the start I had problem to write comments for either teacher blog or student blog due to my lack of knowledge in english. Now I have a litte bit confident to write comments, but if I write any official letters in english I have to check with someone who knows english very well. In order to write official letters, we have to learn good vacabularies and writing skills. But anyway first I write by myself then I ask my father to correct that. My problem is I am not consistent, because of work, family and other activities, it is very difficult to get leisure time. I have to dicipline my self to set up a time to learn english. If I am at home, most of the time I do house hold chores cooking, cleaning sewing, etc. To be honest with you, I don't read any stories or novel because it is time consuming and I can't finsh that, but I read magazines readers digest and news papers on internet. I must read books to improve my vocablary. As you said I have to follow your recommened formula four 'R's to improve. My goal is oneday I talk and write like one of the english teacher blogger. To acheive my goal , my objectives are strickly follow your formula. Have a nice weekend. kind regards.
Hi Helen, the 4 r’s rule is really good. I try increasing my exposure to English as much as I can. (reading, listening and talking regularly every week). I don’t have any official degree that could show my proficiency in English but I’m so confident that I would like to change my current job for another which would imply an intensive use of English skills. I’m really conversant with writing mails weekly and my next step is to speak regularly by phone with different people. In facebook there is a group of people that speak regularly by skype. I started plowing through the novels of Alexander McCall Smith. His hilarious series of 44 Scotland Street is very amusing and allows to catch the real Scottish character. See you.
Dear Helen,I am a new comer to this programme.Now fluency and correctness in English language is very essential for my present profession.I think this is the best way of improving my Language.Thank you.
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