My English study

Conclusion Notes References Acknowledgement [Abstract] it is acknowledged that people have always been attaching much significance to the English study on account of the globalization trend of the world to the importance of language communication. Although many people are learning English, it does not mean that every person is certain to have good command of English. I’m no exception too. This paper is concerned about my English study in three stages?in middle school, in high school and at the university.
Meanwhile, this paper also gives detailed discussions about the factors: English pronunciation, Autonomous learning ability, English learning motivations and the influence of personal attitudes towards English study. Key Words] Pronunciation; Autonomous learning; Learning motivations; Personal attitudes Economical and technological advances have tremendous impact on our ways of communication. Moreover, the globalization trend of the world also indicates the importance of language communication.
Therefore, English, as a widely used foreign language, has been always meeting with great popularity. However, it is notable that not every person is doomed to have good command of English. I’m no exception too. I have gone through three stages in the process of English study, which are filled with airdrops and happiness actually. It is acknowledged that English pronunciation is essential for every English learner who expects to have a good command of English. However, it is by no means easy.

Pronunciation is closely related to the study of vocabulary, listening and so on. To correctly command English phonetic symbols, a learner must not only precisely grasp the articulation of a word and Judge its meanings, but also memorize new words flexibly. The former situation was that not only many students but the teachers themselves in middle school were not truly showing solicitude for the phonetic ours. When I was in middle school, I could remember being taught the phonetics only once. Later on, I had to learn by myself.
Therefore, it has been no easy Job for me to clearly make distinction between English and Chinese in the Phonemic and phonological pronunciation. Besides, I do not completely correct my English pronunciation until now. 1. 1. 1 Phonemic and phonological distinction between English and Chinese Wan Shining (2004) argues the Chinese belongs to the oriented phylum, whereas English is an occidental one, and that the two languages share many similarities as ell as large divergences both phonemically and phonologically; their Phonetic system are distinct from each other mainly following by three aspects: (1) absolutely.
The vowels and consonants in English differentiate from the tones (shunned) and the finals (yummy) in Chinese to a large extent even if they seem to be similar with their counterparts in pronunciation. (2) The ways of distinguishing meanings. Chinese distinguishes by tones, thus labeled as “tonal language”,@while English distinguishes meaning by the intonations of a sentence. Therefore, it named s “language with intonation” (3) Phonemic structure. The phonemes, which are restricted in the latter, are able t be combined freely in the former. Take spelling rules of the consonant for example.
In English, [f] and [h] can be spelled together with which is not allowed in Chinese. Besides, all the consonants in English can come at the end of a syllable, while in Chinese only [n] and [Eng] are permitted. These differences cause great difficulties for the Chinese students in their acquisition of English pronunciation. Another difficulty for them is that the two languages differ in rhythms as well. Each possesses its characteristics on applying on tone or place of stress to distinguish the word’s meaning, and on the conveying a speaker tone or attitudes by means of various intonations. 1] @ Besides, there exist any other difficulties. 1. 1. 2 The transfer of mother tongue Chin Ling holds that the influence of the mother tongue on the foreign language learning is mainly illustrated on the course of “transfer” between external and internal languages. External language refers too language which a person utters in his daily talks, while the internal language refers to a language which a person utilizes when thinking with his brain instead of speaking it out. Both languages serve as materials, basis as well as tools for thinking activity.
A person is used applying his mother tongue or native dialect as his internal language at the beginning of learning a foreign language. Nevertheless, he may be forced to use external language that is understandable for both interlocutors in real communications. As a result, a problem arises in that external language is different from internal language. Consequently, the differences will produce the “negative transfer”. @The greater the preference is, the greater the difficulty is. [2] Totally speaking, I was tired of English study in view of these difficulties during that time. 1. 2 Difficulties of inaccurate memory of English vocabulary.
As we all know, vocabulary is vital for Chinese English learner, especially for the middle school students. Because only in this stage can we have a specific idea of the English. When I was in middle school, my English teacher would teach students many vocabularies every single day that we could not memory in one night. Gradually, I ran into many difficulties in English study. Recently, I read a paper with respect to the study of vocabulary learning in middle school. The author said,” The appearance of such difficulties is because the burden of English learning, the compulsory learning mode and the lacking of vocabulary learning strategies. [3]Len order to verify his assumptions, the author did experiment among the students in are divided into two classes. They are comparative class and experimental class. During the experiment, they used the old and direct vocabulary teaching mode in the former and the associative vocabulary teaching in the latter. Finally, the date shows hat after 12-week training in vocabulary learning strategy, the students of the experimental class improved their vocabulary learning ability, which is higher than that in the comparative class.
The survey showed that if the students who are to meet the requirement of teacher and confine the vocabulary memory to the word lists, are proved to be less active. By comparing my English study in middle school, I thought those phenomena are also occurred on me. 2. The second acquaintance with English in high school?enthusiasm of English study Fortunately, these obstacles had not accompanied me into high school. I met excellent teachers, then grasped the method of English learning and finally set a goal for me. 2. 1 The improvement of English autonomous learning ability English teaching is not simply to teach students knowledge.
The most important thing is to develop their autonomous learning ability through teaching activities. My English teacher gave me a lot of help. Her guidance in the process of my English study aroused my great interest in English. My English teacher tried to progress from traditional teacher-centered teaching to the student-centered method. She liked to cultivate our independent learning ability. She inspired us to interact with her, proposed to audaciously ask questions and let us to do English presentations in open forms. Thanks to my dear English teacher, I regained the enthusiasm about English learning.
Admittedly, it is essential for the students to have teacher’s innovative guideline. The American psychologist Moscow believes that this is the best way to encourage students to express their opinion and foster their enthusiasm to learn the knowledge and build the formation of healthy personality by establishing the sincere mutual understanding teacher-student relationship. The reason for why I could become enthusiastic about English study was not only owing to my teacher’s help, but also the changing of my English learning method.
The reason for why I could improve my English is as follows: Firstly, grasp teacher’s lecture feature and the characteristics of the various disciplines. Secondly, review and prepare for new knowledge. Thirdly, interact with teacher in class. Gradually, I found that my English scored higher than the previous. Until now, I am deeply aware of the importance of independent learning. As a Chinese saying goes, “give man a sis, he will have a meal; teach him to fish, he will have the food all his life. ” focuses on students’ subjectivity and initiative in order to make students how to study and achieve life-long learning and development.
And it is not the one side of my story. It has already been studied by others. The concept of “autonomous learning” (Holes) ($) originated in the asses. He expresses, “English as a conceptual tool which further developed its definition. ” [4] Benson and Evolve believe, “autonomous learning is not only the freedom of learning, but a good opportunity to form independent thinking ability as adult. [5] Little believes that the essence of the “autonomous learning” is a kind of ability such as “independent, critical reflection and decision-making. [6] Learners need to arouse their awareness of what to learn and how to learn. Also American futurist Alvin-Toffee once said,” The illiteracy in the future is not the one who don’t know the word, but the one who do not know how to learn. ” In addition to the previous factors, learning motivation is proved to be the essential factor. Motivation is the prime power of all activities. In the process of learning, many psychological factors can convert into the inner motivation, including interest, values and so on. As Www [email protected] in his A Review of research on foreign language Learner’s motivation. [email protected] Arouse appropriate learning deeds, it can make students go into learning state and learn English initiative. ” [7] I can not agree with his idea any more. When I was in high school, I still remembered that even a little achievement could take me great motivation. And this motivation accompanied me to go to university. 3. The third acquaintance with English at the university?passiveness of English After I come into university, I find that I become less positive towards English earning than ever before.
And the reasons are as follows: A study of engineering students in Yemen by Taft AY-Tamil Candy Minor Squib cited previous research that found two classes of motivation for learning English: instrumental and integrative orientation. A person, who learns the language in hopes of gaining some tangible benefit, such as success in a Job or fulfilling an academic requirement, is instrumentally motivated. A person with integrative motivation learns English because he or she wishes to learn more about the culture of the Western world or become more integrated into English-speaking society. ] And I belong to the former. I learn the English in order to regard it as a tool for my future occupation. 3. 1 Personal attitudes towards English study determined by his attitudes towards the other group in particular and by his orientation towards the learning task itself. And I totally agree with it. ” [9] A positive attitude toward learning the English language is one of the leading predictors of success in gaining fluency. However, as mentioned above, I am not truly love English, but regard it as a tool of getting a Job. During this stage, my English study doe not make much progress.
In the above paragraphs, I have made detailed explanation about my three stages of English study. From this paper, people can see that if one wants to get a good command of English, he must perfectly grasp these aspects: have a series of learning methods, take positive attitude toward English (namely the understanding of autonomous English learning) and pay particular attention to the pronunciation of English. Besides, the external factors are also of great importance such as the teacher’s teaching methods, the environment that people are situated in and so on. As for me, my English study does not do a good Job.
No matter what stage do you belong to, I believe that this paper can be beneficial to your English study. Serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect. @Tonal language: A tonal language is a language in which pitch is used as a part of speech, changing the meaning of a word. An example of how tone can change the meaning of a word can be found in English: the word “present” can be used as a verb or a noun, with a stress on the first or second syllable changing the meaning. In tonal languages, the way in which you say a word is very important, as it radically hinges the meaning.
Tonal languages are found primarily in Asia, Africa, and South America. @alienation: Intonation is a word used to refer to how a sentence sounds. How a sentence sounds if it’s a question sounds different from how a sentence sounds if it’s a statement @Negative transfer: Negative transfer is a situation where a person transfers old learning and knowledge to a new situation, and the old information interferes with new information acquisition and task performance. This can be inconvenient or dangerous, depending on the type of situation involved.