Mistakes and methods in English Learning (1): main mistakes in Foreign Language Learning

Series of articles Directory Index :《 Mistakes and methods in English Learning"

　　 Preface

Greg Thomson, a famous linguistics, said: "The principle of foreign language learning is so complicated that no one can clearly understand it. However, the process of mastering a language is so simple that it does not need to be clear ." It is very complicated to discuss the principles of language learning. Of course, we cannot clearly describe it. In addition, even academic circles have a lot of sharp debates about foreign language learning, and I dare not say that I am sure I can resolve the debate. But I decided to start with a simple process and start with some valuable work to explore the true meaning of foreign language learning, especially to analyze and clarify the common misunderstandings in foreign language learning, I hope to be helpful to foreign language learners and be satisfied with the work of teaching foreign languages.

I have been giving lectures on how to learn English to colleges and universities, enterprises, and other English learners for many years. I never talk about it, I never rely on performances, and I am not motivated. Every time I speak, I will give you a serious scientific basis. Over the past five years, we have received over million audience members and are still quite popular. A considerable number of them have been able to fully understand and agree with each other and have raised many sharp questions and suggestions for improvement. I would like to express my deep gratitude for this. Many people have suggested that the style should be changed to an emotional and encouraging style, so that they will be able to gain traction throughout the country and accumulate wealth. I am not interested in the name, or else I have already done so. I don't want to talk nonsense and miss people. As for wealth, I don't like it, but I already have enough. So I am very lucky. Now I can get rid of the troubles of money and calm down to read and think. Now I will sort out some of my previous speeches here and hope to discuss them with you.

　　Main mistakes in foreign language learning:

Our general understanding of foreign language learning methods is:

1. To have a language environment and communicate with foreigners more, it is best to go abroad. It will be said soon.

2. To learn a foreign language, you must remember more. That is to say, you must use the memory to learn the language.

3. To correct pronunciation, you must listen to and imitate pure pronunciation, such as BBC or VOA.

4. If you want to learn the syntax of a foreign language, the sentence is correct.

5. You must have a certain vocabulary and a large number of words. However, it is difficult to recite English words.

6. I used to learn written or outdated English, which is different from my current oral English.

7. learn a foreign language must be very hard and practice repeatedly for a long time.

"All wrong! And not only is it wrong, but the opposite is true !"

You are not mistaken. I am saying: "These conclusions are not only incorrect, but basically the opposite of the facts ." The deep misunderstanding and wide range of foreign language learning have reached the level that others are amazed. Even with the development of science and technology, misunderstandings about the language acquisition process are still quite common, especially for Chinese people. Chinese People's misunderstanding of language learning comes from China's profound cultural traditions and a single nation and a single language. I will help you analyze and provide analysis bases one by one. You can draw correct conclusions by yourself.

"Why is it wrong? Isn't it best to learn a foreign language in a language environment? Isn't it necessary to correct the accent to listen to standard pronunciation? Isn't that a matter of course ?"

Well, the opposite is true. First, let's look for a simple analysis. Let's talk about 3rd items first. "correct pronunciation.

Everyone must think that if you want to learn pronunciation well or correct your non-standard pronunciation, you must listen to pure and standard pronunciation, preferably authentic English or American, can this still happen? Unfortunately, it is just wrong, and the opposite is true. Voice experts have found that to correct their pronunciation, adults should not only listen to standard pronunciation, but also listen to a large number of "non-standard pronunciation", that is, accent-based pronunciation. Such as German, French, Italian, Indian, and Chinese accents. The more types, the better. What's going on? The source of this conclusion is from the speech experts at Harvard University, who used Japanese to do experiments in accent studies.

Do you know why Japanese people are used for voice experiments? The answer is generally because Japanese people are hard to pronounce and speak English. Then I asked, why is the Japanese pronunciation hard to hear? Every time I asked this question, there was always a bit of laughter in the audience. Many people say that the Japanese tongue is hard. In fact, Japanese people have the same tongue as everyone else. The reason is that their tongue is not special. We all know that there are about 44 English pronunciations (vowels and consonants), while there are only about 30 Japanese. Didn't I hear that there are 50 music maps in Japanese? Unfortunately, many Japanese 50-tone diagrams are repeated. For example, the first line of the vowel is: "Ah, Yi, Wu". It is indeed different, but the second line is "ka7ku open" (similar Chinese representation. Don't be too real ), however, there is only one more consonant K, and the others are spelled out by the first line of vowels (Ka, KI, Ku, Kai, Ko), so there are no 50 voices. When the Japanese speak English, many voices cannot be sent. For example, the sound of "day R" does not exist in Japanese (No Ra, Yi Ru, Rai ro. The commonly used read and write statements can only be described as lead and light. Replacing "R" with "L" is a typical example. So at that time, Harvard University was looking for an adult in the United States before the Japanese people to do experiments in the United States. First, I would like to ask these experimenters, read and lead, if they can understand them? The differences between the answers are as follows. Again, why are they wrong? Some Japanese people say, "Our oral structure is different ." Some people say, "We have different pronunciation locations. We are on the top, and you are on the back ." Some people also say, "Our tongue is hard and our tongue is soft ." Next, I conducted an experiment to let the Japanese listen to many "R" or "L" headers (not for spelling). I chose one of them and completed the test, we found that the correct rate is 50%. You have already found the problem. Either of them can answer the question in half. Actually, it doesn't mean that it is purely blind. The hit rate is of course half. When this result is displayed, the tester and the testee are all silly. If it is all right, it can be solved by analyzing and adjusting the tongue position or mouth type. If it is all wrong, it doesn't matter. But half of them are saved. You may not hear the difference between the two sounds. How can you tell clearly the pronunciation and correct pronunciation. But the conclusion has come out: the main reason for incorrect pronunciation is not the mouth problem, but the ear problem.

In fact, inaccurate pronunciation is mainly caused by inaccurate ears. We have practical observation experience. For example, why is it because someone is singing or playing? Isn't it awkward? No, the main reason is that the ears are not accurate. So the person singing and playing thought they were doing the right thing. How do you say that I'm playing? The reason is that their ears are not allowed to listen, and they are unable to listen. (If you do not want to adjust your singing skills, just plug your ears and try it. Others promise that you have gone ). The Japanese who have been doing experiments have lived in the United States for a while. Why can't they change their accents if they listen to standard voices every day? The reason is: the ears of adults are inaccurate, the resolution is low, and a new standard pronunciation that is not within the voice range of their mother tongue is not allowed, I cannot hear the differences between myself and the standard sound (I may think there are some differences, but I cannot understand them). I think I have already delivered the standard, but there is still a gap. Japanese do not have many native voices, so they suffer the most. (You can find the number of testing websites on the Internet that are used by the Japanese to test the R-l resolution. You can try it. Students in most northern China or Mandarin-standard students scored high)

Scientific experiments tell us that only children's ears have a high resolution for various languages can listen to the pronunciation of any language and imitate it in place. adults cannot. Specifically, most people who are over 12 years old will not be able to do so, and this capability will be lost. This leads to the inability of adults to simply listen to and imitate standard foreign language pronunciation in order to correct foreign language pronunciation or improve pronunciation accuracy, therefore, the most important part of how to correct the pronunciation of adults is to improve the accuracy of adult listening. Practical experience has proved that listening to a variety of non-standard sounds can help adults improve their listening sensitivity and resolution, so as to achieve the effect of determining the accuracy and correcting their pronunciation. (What are various non-standard audios? For example, in English "very interesting", the French accent is "vehi intehisting", the Japanese accent is "Veli indelisding", and the Chinese accent is "kerui-injez stop "). After a period of time to carefully listen to and distinguish different accents for Adaptive Training (of course, not just to listen to non-standard sounds, but to compare the standard sounds of the sentence and Their Imitation pronunciations ), the listener's listening sensitivity has been improved, and even the speaker can accurately identify the country from which the speaker came from, so the pronunciation has naturally improved. This is a scientific way for adults to correct their pronunciation, which is the opposite of what everyone assumes.

At this point, do you still have questions about this conclusion? In fact, Chinese students are the easiest to understand this conclusion. Because the Chinese accent has changed a lot, it is more obvious than English. The difference between English and American voices cannot catch up with the difference between Mandarin and Tianjin (only 120 kilometers away from Beijing ). Chinese students are sensitive to accents. Interestingly, there is a standard voice in China called Mandarin, but not in English. In the United States, the English language is not standard, and the English language is not standard, and other British sometimes feel strange. (Do you know that people in London often omit the "h" and "T" sounds? For example, "head" is said to be "Ed" and "better" is said to be-R ". Therefore, there is no strict absolute standard in these English-speaking countries. Chinese people should speak standard Mandarin. But in the same way, when I was a child (before the age of 12), I would have an accent when I was a child (before the age of 12), especially in the south, because of lack of sound. How should we correct the pronunciation? If, by taking it for granted, you can only listen to the standard sound every day, can you correct the pronunciation when you watch the news broadcast or broadcast? The result is invalid. Can I change my accent after living in Beijing for a few years? The result is not enough (or a child .) Can someone who speaks standard Mandarin still help to correct the problem? Everyone laughed. Many people have helped their parents correct their accents for years, but they have not yet been able to help them. What should we do? The principle is the same: Listen to the accents of people from all over the world and perform comparative training. The ears become more sensitive and the accents become smaller and smaller. This is a scientific way for adults to correct their pronunciation. (Some film schools adopt a similar approach when correcting adult actors from other places .) This is exactly the opposite of what we thought at the beginning, but now everyone understands. Unfortunately, many English teachers do not understand this. Therefore, we recommend that you listen to a standard voice or catch up with a Chinese speaker. This misunderstanding should be corrected now