A guide to English Learning.doc

Classroom InstructionsØ Clean up the teachers desk and the blackboard, and get everything ready before class.Ø Theres no need to stand up at the beginning or end of each lesson.Ø Youll have two minutes warming-up exercise before each lesson，that is, before the bell rings, start practising speaking or reading aloud by yourself, or with your partner, with your books open or without your books. Keep on until the bell rings.Ø Dont do anything about your books until you are asked to. That is, dont open it, don't write a single word on it, don't make any marks on it until you know how to do them.Ø Dont droop your head in class. When your teacher is speaking, look at him or her, paying special attention to her body language, that is, his or her mouth, facial expressions and gestures, which will enable you to have a better understanding of what she is saying.Ø Be active in thinking and speaking so as to give your teacher quick responses.The more we get together, the happier well be The more we get together, together, together The more we get together, the happier well be.For your friends are my friends, and my friends are your friends.The more we get together, the happier well be. Say something about yourself and your studies according to the following questions: 1. Whats your name? How old are you? 2. Are you a city boy / girl or a country boy / girl? 3. You are the only child in the family, arent you? 4. Where do you come from? Or where are you from? 5. Which school were you at last year? 6. Of all the school subjects you have learnt, which are you most interested in? 7. Which subject do you like best, Chinese, Maths or English? And which do you prefer, English or Physics? 8. How do you like English? Do you enjoy learning it? Or has it always been a headache to you? Do you feel it easy or difficult to learn Junior English? Are you quite good at or not very good at or even poor at it? 9. What do you find difficult in learning English?10. Have you found anything different between junior English and senior English? What is it? Do you think you can learn senior English well? Why? How to Learn English well Questions to think about1. How did you feel when you first began to learn English?2. When you had to remember more and more words and grammatical rules and found it hard to do so, How did you feel? Did you still find it a joy or a headache for you to go on learning? What did you want to do then? Give up or keep on?3. Whenever you came to any difficulties, that is, anything you didnt know, what would you do? Ask your teacher for help or pass them by?4. Did you often practise listening and speaking in and out of class? Do you think grammar is the most important thing in learning English?5. Which did you prefer in learning English, having oral practice or doing a lot of written exercises?6. Which would you rather do in class, try to answer your teachers questions or just sit there silently, waiting for the answer to be spoken out by your teacher or your classmate?7. When you failed again and again in the English examinations, did you still believe that you could learn it well? Would you keep on trying your best?Part One To learn English well, we should, first of all, remember three important words: Confidence (believe in oneself), Determination (try ones best) and Perseverance (keep on trying). We cannot avoid meeting with all kinds of difficulties. Its quite natural for us to fail, perhaps sometimes again and again. But always remember: No matter what happens, keep on beginning. Each time you fail, start all over again. You will grow stronger each time, until you can do and finish what you started out to do. So whatever we do, we should always believe in ourselves. And once we have make up our mind to do something, we should try our best to do it well. Whats more, no matter what difficulties we may come across, we should not be discouraged, nor should we give up. Instead, we should keep on trying until we succeed. Everybody should be sure of his success in English learning. So long as you can speak, you will certainly be able to learn English well. But be realistic in your language learning at the same time. If you set impossible goals for yourself, you can only be discouraged in your progress. Learning English is like taking Chinese medicine - the effects come slowly but surely. Thus dont expect to learn it all overnight and dont give up along the way. With the three words in heart, learn slowly, slowly every day and the effects of your study will come - like Chinese medicine.Part Two Now that you have confidence, determination and perseverance in learning English, you should have to know whats language for. That is, whats the use of a language? For the exchange of ideas, for communication. So the purpose of learning a language is to understand and to be understood. To do that, we have to learn a language in a communicative way so as to develop our skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, that is, the ability to use the language to communicate. Its no good knowing all about a language if you cant use it. Many students know hundreds of grammatical rules but they cant speak correctly, because they put grammar first, and not communication. And if you cant speak English after six years of study in middle school, its simply waste of time and energy! Then what should we do and not do to learn English well?Firstly, be an active rather than a passive student in class, that is, actively participate in the learning process. Don't expect your teacher to fill you like an old vinegar bottle, which can only make you become deaf and mute learners of English. Listen attentively in class no matter how much you can understand. Be bold enough to open your mouth to speak as much and often as possible. Look at your teacher when she is speaking and try to imitate. Use your head to understand what you hear and to think and remember what you have learned. Make use of your hand to take some notes when necessary.Try to be masters of your own, that is, learn to do what you should do willingly and rationally after class in your spare time without being asked to do this or that by your teachers. Secondly, dont be afraid of losing face, that is, dont be shy. This is the biggest obstacle which prevents you from learning English well. Dont be afraid of making mistakes. Perhaps, at present, the more you speak, the more mistakes you will make. But the more mistakes you make, the more chances you will get to correct your mistakes. And the more chances you get to correct your mistakes, the more progress you will make. Thus you are forming a good circle of language learning, which will prove to be of great help to you in your further studies. Don't be afraid of asking questions. Theres nothing wrong with not knowing, but there is something wrong with not asking. When you have any questions, the most important thing you need is courage. With courage, youll get knowledge, and ability will come to you. Lastly and most importantly, you should have a strong sense of cooperation as well as participation in the learning process. A closed-door policy can only perpetuate backwardness. In a word, to learn Senior English well, youll have to keep on practising. Practise listening, speaking, reading and writing. Practise in class and out of class. Practise by yourself, with your partner and with your teacher. You should not stop practising for even a day, because Practice makes perfect. If you keep on practising , youll soon be able to make rapid progress. I sincerely wish you every success in learning Senior English for China.Two Poems * The beginning is always difficult We should not be afraid of difficulty Our failure mostly lies in the lack of perseverance Not in the lack of ability * If you wish to succeed Take perseverance as your friend Experience as your advisor Prudence as your brother And hope as your guiding starHow to develop reading habitImportance of reading First of all, Id like to make it clear to you the importance of reading. As Ive told you, there are four basic skills of a language. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. We call listening and reading input, and speaking and writing output. Only when we have enough input, can we have some output. So reading becomes the most important of the four basic skills, especially for senior middle school students, for reading can not only help improve your listening, speaking and writing, but also increase your imaginative power as well as enlarge your vocabulary. Whats more, you can learn a lot more that cannot be learnt in class by doing reading after class. And while reading, you wont feel lonely - you see all kinds of characters moving and acting on the pages, and you hear all kinds of good sayings, which will do much good to you in your studies and lives. So by reading, your are killing two birds with one stone. Thats why to improve reading ability becomes one of the most important teaching aims of Senior English in middle school.How to improve reading How to improve it? In fact, reading habit or ability is formed by reading itself. Thats to say, the more one reads, the better one will understand, and the better one understand, the more one will read. What you must pay special attention to while reading is not to stop every time you come to an unknown word. Just get on the reading and try to get the main idea of what you are reading. With the help of the context, youll understand the unknown word when it appears again and again later on. In a word, you neednt look up every single new word in the dictionary, for you might guess its meaning as you read on. If, after reading, you fail to understand a certain word, which happens to be an important one that prevent you from enjoying the story or understanding the passage, you may consult the dictionary when you read for the second time, which will enable you to have a better understanding of what you are reading. To ensure the quantity of reading, you should also try to read all kinds of materials like newspapers, magazines, story-books, simplified novels and so on. Meanwhile dont forget to improve your reading quality. Here are two suggestions to help you achieve this goal. One is to mark out what you think is useful and important or new to you. You may underline useful expressions, frame importance sentence patterns, circle little words like some prepositions, and you may even use waved line or colored pen to highlight some special uses of certain words. By this means, you can be clear at a glance about what you have learned from your reading when you go over it. The other is to take notes after reading. That is to copy down what you think is wonderful either in the language learning or in character-training, or anything else you may find useful. It may be a phrase or an expression, a sentence or a paragraph, or even, perhaps a complete passage, which can serve as materials for reading aloud as well as writing. You may even draw some pictures to add color to your notebook. What to read Textbooks: Senior English for China Reading Practice Outside reading materials: New Concept English 书虫 English Coaching Paper 英语辅导报 Reference books: Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary (Fourth edition)牛津高阶英汉双解词典 建宏词典When to read Find yourself sometime every day to read for knowledge, for ability and for pleasure. Summary How to read Read different kinds of materials. Dont stop every time you come to an unknown word. Just get on with the reading and try to get the main idea of what you are reading. Use dictionary when necessary. Mark out what you think is useful and important or new to you. Take notes after reading. How to read aloudProblems in reading aloud Poor pronunciation and intonation (语音，语调差) As if singing (唱读) In broken sentences (读破句) Without sentence stress (无句子重音) Without understanding (有口无心)Way and skills to read aloud Imitate. Put stress on notional words (实词) like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Read a bit slowly but louder (放慢语速，抬高音量) when coming to words you want to emphasize, even if they are not notional words. Take one deep breath to finish a complete sentence with several proper pauses between groups of words (音断气不断). “连读” and “失去爆破”.Practise step by step - first slowly, then at normal speed, and finally as quickly and clearly as possible.What to read aloud Textbooks Anything you find interesting or important or useful.When to read aloud Morning reading ever other day 5 to 10 minutes after each meal every day, or before going to sleep every night 2 minutes warming-up before each lesson附1： 英语48个音素 前元音： 单元音 中元音： 元音 后元音： 双元音: 音素 爆破音: - - - 摩擦音: - - - - 破擦音: - - - 辅音 鼻 音: 舌边音: 半元音: 附2：英语十大词类 Noun (n.) 名词 Pronoun (pron.) 代词 Verb (vt. vi.) 动词 Notional words Adjective (adj.) 形容词 实词 Adverb (adv.) 副词Parts of Speech Numeral (num.) 数词 Article (art.) 冠词 Preposition (prep.) 介词 Form words Conjunction (conj.) 连词 虚词 Interjection (interj.) 感叹词10