We must see that language is, in the final analysis, a tool for people to exchange ideas and engage in social interaction. Its own attributes determine that it is best to learn in some form of * * *. Especially when we want to learn a language comprehensively, that is, to learn and master it from five aspects: listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation, that is, to achieve the "five skills", if
Without external conditions, it will be difficult to have a book (textbook) in your hand. The so-called external conditions include teachers' strength (or proportion)
People who walk a few steps first sometimes give directions (orally or in writing), English TV and radio programs, computer network materials, and recording.
Computers and tapes, radios, reference books, reference books and some reading materials. As we know, Marx often put himself
Articles written in English are sent to Engels for revision (including content, of course); Although Lenin and Krupskaya passed by.
I taught myself seriously for a while, but when I first arrived in London, I found that no one could understand my English. What the locals said was like a gobbledygook, so I had to learn oral English from scratch through various channels. As you can imagine, you have to learn English pronunciation and reading aloud, but you have never heard anyone or anyone make these sounds through machines (computers, televisions, tapes or radios, etc.). ). How to learn pronunciation correctly only by describing the position of the pronunciation organ with words? How can you learn to understand English without a chance to hear it? As for those who only aim at cultivating reading ability, at least they should read what they have read in their hearts (even if it is inaccurate). Otherwise, even reading is very difficult and slow. Because the so-called "reading", that is, reading, is actually a silent "reading". Therefore, my first opinion on how to teach yourself a foreign language is that if you want to achieve the goal of "Five Meetings", you must try your best to obtain or create certain external conditions, especially the conditions for listening to foreign languages.
Second, create English listening and speaking opportunities
For self-taught English learners, if they can get a chance to "listen" through TV, radio, tapes and the Internet, there will be even fewer opportunities to "speak" English. In this case, try the following methods:
(1) Try to combine listening and speaking exercises.
When we listen to the tape, we should first understand the content and avoid simply learning pronunciation and intonation without understanding the meaning.
From the perspective of imitation. If you don't understand it once, you can listen to it several times. After understanding, you can imitate it. First, listen and say.
In a word; Then listen, say a paragraph, and finally repeat the full text. If you have a high demand for pronunciation, you can say it sentence by sentence.
Imitate sentences until they become vivid. When we listen to a conversation, an article or a story, we should listen to it "in person", and at the same time, we will have a picture or image of this person in our mind. In this way, what you hear will leave a deep impression in your mind, which will help you to better translate what you hear into what you have verbally mastered.
(B) improve oral English by reciting.
When there is really no one else to practice conversation, if you want to cultivate your oral English, you have to recite more. Recite the text, recite the dialogue (each person plays several roles), and recite it thoroughly. But we should not stop at reciting, but gradually turn to "speaking", that is, develop on the basis of reciting, and gradually add some of our own words from less to more. Both content and language can be changed, from "scripted" to flexible use. In this way, you can gradually transform the words or conversation materials of "dead" things in books and tapes into your own "living" language.
(C) choose the appropriate oral teaching materials
To teach yourself English conversation, you should choose appropriate teaching materials for oral conversation. At present, many English self-learners choose various foreign textbooks. These textbooks, each with its own characteristics and advantages and disadvantages, can be used. However, for beginners of English conversation, it is better to use the conversation textbooks published in China and combined with their daily life. The theme of this daily life can also include the scene of our contact with foreign friends at work. In this way, you are familiar with the subject matter, and the language you have learned can also be applied to real life and work, and you can achieve better learning results. Of course, we will never exclude the use of foreign textbooks. On the contrary, in the process of learning a foreign language, we should also contact foreign textbooks as soon as possible, and gradually transition from shallow to deep to the original textbooks. As far as listening and speaking ability is concerned, it is necessary to listen to foreigners' voices through tapes and get familiar with their authentic English intonation and speaking habits.
Third, systematically understand English grammar.
Self-taught English learners must systematically study one or two English grammar books.
It is not enough to rely only on grammar notes and exercises in textbooks. Read the grammar book once or twice from beginning to end, and have a comprehensive concept of English grammar. Then, read chapter by chapter carefully and learn to use these grammar rules. In this way, on the basis of a comprehensive understanding of English grammar as a whole, and then in-depth study of its various parts, you will master it more deeply. More importantly, we should apply grammar rules to language practice and avoid memorizing grammar rules and "grammar for grammar's sake". In short, we should use grammar rules to improve our language practice and master grammar more deeply in practice.
English grammar is generally divided into two parts: morphology and syntax; Describe morphology first, then syntax. In language practice, this
The two are inseparable. When learning grammar, it is necessary to learn words and sentences in chapters and paragraphs, but we must pay attention to them.
The relationship. For example, when learning parts of speech, it is necessary to find out what parts of speech can act as what components in a sentence, and how the form of words changes because of its position in the sentence; When learning syntax, it is also necessary to find out what kind of sentence components need what kind of part-of-speech words and what kind of morphological changes are needed from the syntactic point of view. It is particularly important to find out the verb patterns required by different verbs when learning verbs. Give a simple example:
I made him do it.
I asked him to do that.
The sentence pattern required by the verb ask here is:
"Transitive verb+object+infinitive (as the complement of the object)".
Similarly, tell, order, beg and want can all use this sentence pattern. However, if we use the word "stop" to express "I stopped him from doing that", it would be a big mistake, because it belongs to the same category as Chinese verbs such as request, tell, command, beg and want. In English, the correct expression of this sentence is:
I stopped him from doing that.
The sentence pattern required by the verb stop here is:
"Transitive verb+object (+preposition from)+ gerund"
Similarly, the words prohibit and prevent similar to stop in this sentence require this sentence pattern, and the same sentence pattern as ask, tell, beg or want cannot be used. And another word forbidden, which has similar meaning to stop, stop and prohibit, requires the same sentence pattern as asking, telling, begging and asking, not the same sentence pattern as stopping, stopping and prohibiting, that is to say:
I forbid you to do that.
I forbid you to do that.
I forbade him to do that.
I forbade him to do that.
Some of these complicated situations are really hard to understand. However, any English verb has its idiomatic usage and needs certain sentence patterns, so we can't change it at will. These examples mainly show that morphology and syntax can't actually.
Separate. We should pay special attention to this point when we teach ourselves English.
In short, self-taught English learners need to study one or two grammar books carefully. Besides, after we have mastered English to a certain extent, we have to learn a grammar book written by foreigners in English. In the traditional grammar books edited by C.E. Eckersley and J.M. Eckersley? A comprehensive English grammar (for international students, translated into a comprehensive English grammar), although it looks old, is a practical one.
Fourth, gradually improve reading ability.
(1) Reading should be both intensive and extensive.
Fine, that is, intensive reading, less but fine; The article should be short and read carefully. We should use dictionaries and other reference books to clarify the meaning and usage of the main words in the article, especially verbs and verb phrases, so that they can be reused and learn useful sentence patterns and new grammatical phenomena in the article. Further, you can also write paragraphs, summaries and so on. The so-called extensive reading is a large-scale reading. At this time, not all new words are looked up in the dictionary, but through the repeated appearance of words in a large number of pages and different contexts, the meaning and usage are gradually mastered. Intensive reading materials may be difficult to choose; Extensive reading materials should be easy to read quickly and in large quantities. In this way, the combination of essence and generalization can improve reading ability quickly and solidly.
(2) Gradually transition to reading the original text.
To improve reading comprehension, we must read the original text, or gradually transition from the simplified version of the original text to the original text, instead of reading Chinese-English translation. To translate a text, one is familiar with the content, and the other is that the translation is somewhat influenced by Chinese, which can't really improve reading comprehension. Sometimes I even have the illusion that my English reading level is already very high, but in fact, even if the original text is quite shallow, I will find it difficult. All the new words have been checked, but I still don't know what to say. English beginners should read a lot of simplified original novels or stories, British and American literary masterpieces, etc. Although these simple reading materials have been rewritten, they still maintain the style of the original text, and the text also strives to use the original text more. At the same time, they have been rewritten to varying degrees, and we can read from shallow to deep according to the difficulty, and gradually transition to reading the original text.
(3) About intensive reading
To read an article intensively, you must first read it through and understand the main idea, and then you can understand the meaning. If some sentences are difficult to understand, it is necessary to analyze the grammatical structure. As mentioned above, the two are interrelated. When analyzing simple sentences, we should find out the subject-predicate relationship according to the part of speech, word form and sentence structure, and then analyze the functions of other words in the sentence (
Attribute, adverbial, etc. If it is a long compound sentence or a main sentence, we should first find out all the clauses, and then determine the relationship between the clauses according to the conjunction and the meaning of each clause to find out the exact meaning.
You'll notice that in contemporary English, the periods after appellations such as Mr. and Mrs. are often omitted. Capitalized words are generally either names or places. Obviously Privet Drive is a street name. It is natural to use the names of plants as place names and street names at all times and in all countries. But there are many words to explain the street, such as street, avenue, avenue, path and so on. Drive is a street solution, derived from the verb meaning of the word drive. In the past, the verb to drive animals to the market was drive. Slowly, this road dedicated to driving animals is called drive. After that, houses were built on both sides, and carriages and cars were connected to form a street in a small city. That's why drive is a street solution. Zhushikou, like Beijing, is the reputation of the original hog market (but Shi Yang Street has not changed).
In the following passage, thank you very much is an idiom in modern English structure, that is, a quotation without quotation marks. Because the Dursleys often proudly claim that their family is normal, they always have kind neighbors who care about them, so "thank you (care)".
This is the last place to be involved ...) is a very useful sentence pattern, which means "someone who won't be involved in anything weird and mysterious" According to this sentence pattern, we can say:
Wang Ping was the last student who was late for school.
Wang Ping is the last person to be late for school.
She is the last person to become a surgeon, because she is afraid of seeing blood.
She is afraid of bleeding, so she is the last person to become a surgeon.
Looking up the dictionary, we can know that hold with means "agree", but when used in a negative sentence like this sentence, it means "unbearable". It is hardly a very useful word. Learning to use this word will take English a small step forward. Of course, first of all, it must be clear that it is not an adverb form of the adjective hard; Hard is also an adverb (he works hard). Hardly means "not at all, not at all", which is an indirect negative statement.
For example:
I can't believe it!
I can't believe it!
After trying to read the first paragraph of this contemporary work, let's choose another paragraph that belongs to the classical school although it was written in the19th century. 5. Teach yourself English writing and translation.
Learning to write and translate is best corrected by teachers, but this is not easy to do in rural and remote areas. How can we achieve "self-learning without a teacher"? Several methods are recommended here.
copy
Imitation can also be called "painting red"-just like when primary school students just learn to write, they use brush strokes to write the scarlet letter. Find a short essay (or a paragraph in a long article) with concise words that you like, and after carefully studying its structure, brushwork and rhetoric, write a short essay with a similar theme. For example, if the original text is a description of a child, we can take a child who is familiar with life as a typical example, imitate the article structure of the original text, and use phrases and sentences to write an article by ourselves. In ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literary circles, many masters have used this method in juvenile works. 1894, an English writer in the 9th century and the author of Treasure Island, once said that this writing style benefited him a lot.
(2) Retelling
After getting familiar with an article or a paragraph, forget the original text and repeat it in your own language according to your own memory. At first, it can be an outline composed of single sentences, and then it will develop into a summary of the content, a synopsis of the story, a more detailed retelling, and even my own comments. Don't copy sentence by sentence, it will become a "silent book". But when you start to practice retelling, you can make more use of the words and sentences in the original text and gradually turn to use your own language more. For example, the original text is written in the first person (me, us) and can be conveyed in the third person (him, her, them); Direct speech can be transformed into indirect speech; Long sentences can be broken down into short sentences; Flashback can be reversed; You can add descriptions omitted from the original text; The subplots can be omitted. The advantage of this practice method is that it has a basis in content and language, and it will not be written out of thin air. There are many mistakes and no one will correct them. This method of combining writing with reading and practicing writing on the basis of reading can make us gradually improve our writing ability with the improvement of reading level. As for writing the content of the script into a narrative story, it is a very profound writing. Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb, English writers in the18th century, wrote many novels and letters, but today they mainly use their Shakespeare's Yuefu skills (? Shakespeare's story? ) and known to future generations.
(3) Self-translation and self-examination
Since there is no teacher's correction, we should give full play to our own strength. After writing exercises, we should analyze and scrutinize them repeatedly from the aspects of grammar, words, structure and content, correct mistakes and improve quality. Not once, many times. You can also save what you have written and take it out after studying for a period of time, such as three or two months, and revise what you have written in the past with your improved foreign language.
(4) Comparative translation
At present, some English versions of China's classical and modern novels have been published, and many English magazines have translated government documents, newspaper articles and short stories. After we have a certain grammar and vocabulary foundation and do a writing exercise according to the above suggestions, we can choose a novel (or other words) with relatively simple content and learn translation by ourselves instead of reading its English version. I revised it several times myself and compared it with the English version. Don't just make a rough comparison, but carefully study how other people's translations are better than your own, or what mistakes there are. Then, use this translation as reading material and learn what you think is new. When selecting materials, we should pay attention to the fact that even if we want to translate political papers or news articles in English in the future, we should not rush to choose newspaper editorials and other genres for trial translation. Personally, I think it's better to choose something of literary genre. Political papers or news articles are much easier to translate than literary works; The language of literary works is the richest, closest to life, and can best reflect the characteristics and essence of a national language. Learning to translate literary works is the most solid training to improve English. Of course, there are also simple and profound articles in literary works. When we try to translate, we can choose materials from the simple to the deep. For example, beginners should start with simple things such as children's stories; Nine times out of ten, rushing to translate Mr. Lu Xun's works will hit a wall.
The above suggested methods of learning to write and translate, from "painting red" to comparative translation, are all for self-learners who really can't find a teacher to consult. In addition, many books have been published to guide young people to learn writing (Chinese practice), which is also helpful for us to learn English writing.
Six, be good at using reference books
Without a teacher, a good dictionary is our best, or at least indispensable "tutor".
When using a dictionary, you should pay attention to the following points:
(a) At least one "existing dictionary"
Even for English beginners, a so-called pocket dictionary is absolutely not enough, and sometimes it even hurts people. Similarly, we can't just rely on the "vocabulary" in the textbook. Generally, small dictionaries or "lists of new words" simply explain one or two Chinese words, but do not tell us the usage of a word, and the latter is the most important. An available dictionary must provide a word's pronunciation, morphological changes, part of speech, basic meaning and various escapes, collocation with other words, phrases and idioms formed with other words, example sentences, etc. If it is a verb, it must also point out the various sentence patterns it requires in the sentence. As for etymology, there is no need to indicate it in every dictionary, and beginners don't have to delve into it. Those who are interested in learning English well should have at least one such dictionary.
(2) Use Ying Ying Dictionary as soon as possible.
We must learn to use the "Ying Ying Dictionary" which explains the meaning in English as soon as possible. Explaining a word only in Chinese sometimes does not explain the exact meaning of a word. Take the word smog as an example. Some dictionaries only write: smoke [smoke] n. According to this definition, if we use the word smog in the sentence "Many people smoke during the meeting, which makes the room full of smoke" or "The chef is steaming steamed bread, and the kitchen is full of smoke", it will make a joke. Because, look up the English-English dictionary, such as the latest one? Macmillan Advanced English Dictionary? (Macmillan Advanced English Dictionary) On page 135 1, you can see: smog/ smog/noun [u] The polluted air is mixed with smoke and fog. In this way, the meaning is clear and will not be misused. Of course, if we can further explain that from the word formation point of view, smog is a new word composed of the first and last words of smoke and fog, which will be more conducive to our understanding and memory.
(3) Understand the characteristics of dictionaries and make full use of them.
We should understand the characteristics of different dictionaries and give full play to their advantages. When you use a dictionary for the first time, you should read its preface and editing style carefully to understand how to use it. For example, the Macmillan dictionary mentioned above is characterized by the fact that there are no more than 2,500 English words used in the definition of entries. It is very convenient for English learners to use and avoids the fatigue of repeated verification because there are new words in the definition. In addition, this dictionary is specially attached with "What are the disadvantages of language suggestion?" Page 2), briefly introduces English idioms, rhetorical devices, word formation, spoken discourse, differences between Britain and the United States, and computer terminology.
Another example? Oxford Advanced Learning Dictionary of Contemporary English? (Oxford Modern Advanced English Dictionary), its biggest feature is that it divides the sentence patterns required by English verbs into 25 categories. The "Verb Patterns" section at the beginning of this book gives examples; In each verb entry in the dictionary, the sentence patterns required by the verb are listed according to the numbers in 25 categories, and examples are given. It can be said that this is the most practical dictionary for learning the basic usage of English verbs.
(D) Remember the diversity of words.
When we use dictionaries, we should remember the polysemy of English words. Some common English words, including related phrases, can have more than one hundred meanings. Therefore, when looking up a new word, we should not just look at the first one or two explanations in the entry and think that we have mastered the meaning, but first understand its basic meaning, so as to understand its escape more accurately; Read the explanations given in the entry line by line in order until you find the meaning of the word in the reading context; To learn the usage of a word, especially a verb, you must also learn the whole entry from beginning to end, and don't skip the example sentences. For beginners, pay special attention not to take it for granted, even for a familiar and commonly used word.
For example, English beginners will soon come into contact with the word "fast". It can be an adjective (an express train) or an adverb (the train goes very fast). Some people see a quick friend in the reading materials, and don't look it up in the dictionary, but take it for granted that it is a "friend who will get acquainted soon". In fact, fast means "faithful and reliable" here, which is transformed from the meaning of "firm and strict".
In a word, we should always look up the dictionary and know how to look it up.
Seven, professional foreign language learning
Learning the so-called professional foreign language means reading professional materials and books. There is a word called ESP, that is, ESP, which is similar to what we usually call ESP. In addition, there is the so-called "English for Science and Technology". But we know that as far as the three components of language-pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary are concerned, there is no general English pronunciation and professional or scientific English pronunciation. Nor can it be divided into general English grammar and scientific English grammar. It's just that English for science and engineering majors has its own characteristics in sentence structure and so on. For example, passive voice, impersonal forms of verbs (infinitive, participle, gerund), leading word it, attributive clauses (especially non-restrictive attributive clauses) and other structures are often used, with long sentences and few tense changes. But even so, it can't be said that it is different from ordinary English grammar. In terms of vocabulary, technical or professional English does have a large number of words that are not needed in daily English, but it is still inseparable from the basic vocabulary. For any ESP, the basic vocabulary is the same. What's more, many so-called scientific words are also escaped, synthesized or derived from basic words. For example, the optical word scatter is actually the escape of the commonly used word scatter; Radioactivity is a combination of radioactivity and activity; Semiconductor is escaped from the conductor followed by the suffix -or and the prefix semi-. Therefore, no matter what kind of ESP our ultimate goal is to learn, we should start from the basic pronunciation, grammar and core vocabulary. Of course, if you just read and translate scientific vocabulary, you don't have to spend too much time on pronunciation, intonation and listening and speaking. If you know the basic grammar and master some common words, you can quickly enter ESP learning. After a period of professional vocabulary assault, you can read and translate professional books and materials.
A little advice
Finally, by the way, I would like to make a little suggestion: we should teach ourselves English, and we should never learn from each other. It's a waste of time to write this book today and change it tomorrow. Many English textbooks have been published in China. There are also various foreign teaching materials. These textbooks have their own characteristics. When we choose one of them, we must stick to it and don't give up halfway. Of course, this does not prevent us from contacting other teaching materials (including tapes, CDs, etc. At the same time, as a supplement, but always focus on a set of books, don't have too many ideas or be picky. As for someone asking: Is there any panacea for learning a foreign language? Are there any shortcuts? The answer is: there are methods, and we must pay attention to methods. However, there is no panacea, no shortcut, and it is not "crazy" to learn a foreign language for a while. Still a word: to learn a foreign language, only "study hard and practice hard"!