For a person who is new to Crazy English, the most puzzling thing is why he chose such a name. In this regard, Li Yang's own explanation is: "Crazy is 100% investment! Forget me, forget things, forget time! Eliminate all distractions, overcome timidity and build confidence! Break the tradition, break the limit and challenge your potential to the maximum. " "Copy a sentence on a small piece of paper, carry it with you, practice crazily, practice clearly and roundly, practice from morning till night, and repeat a sentence hundreds of times a day until you blurt it out in your sleep. This is the realm of madness. " Obviously, madness should be every English learner's attitude towards learning English.
Emphasize "speaking"
Li Yang has a famous saying: "Swim out, piano out, car out, language out!" "Only by blurting out, only by practicing your mouth, can you really learn a language. The enemies of conquering English are "mouth" and "sentence". In order to achieve the purpose of blurting out, Li Yang constantly improved Crazy English, from the initial shouting English to the present "one-breath method, three-breath oral muscle training method, five pronunciation secrets, sentence-centered theory and gesture breakthrough pronunciation method". These are simple and easy to learn, and the purpose is clear, that is, to fundamentally improve the level of spoken English and improve the practical application ability.
3. Pay attention to the originality and richness of the input materials.
In order to expose readers of Crazy English to authentic American spoken language and its pure pronunciation, Crazy English audio-visual products include a large number of original English movies, songs, news, plays and speeches. These colorful contents not only provide authentic imitation objects for readers to learn English, but also open a window for people to understand and learn American culture.
Second, the positive impact of Crazy English from the perspective of second language acquisition
1. provides a large number of language input materials for English learners.
Before Crazy English appeared, it was very sad for China students to learn English. I have studied English for more than ten years from primary school to university. However, how many people can really speak fluent and authentic English? In fact, don't speak fluently, many people can't speak at all! What is the reason for it
According to Krashen's Input Hypothesis, a necessary condition for language acquisition is that learners can understand a little more language materials than their current language ability through listening and reading input, which is the famous i+ 1 formula. Assuming that the learner's current level is I, then the input he understands should be i+ 1 "Understandable" refers to the understanding in the sense, the understanding of information, not the understanding of form. If there is enough input, there will be enough i+ 1 for learners to succeed. Therefore, the theory holds that people do not need to teach speech directly. When learners have established enough language expression ability through input, words will naturally come. Input is very important, because listening comes before speaking and reading comes before writing. The best input of language is listening and reading, which are both a means and an end.
Based on this, we can think that the reason why so many people in China only learn some dumb English is that there is not enough authentic language input to help them build up enough language expression ability. A large number of real and vivid listening materials and colorful reading texts in Crazy English series provide readers with enough language input materials and imitation objects. No wonder once it appears, applied learners scramble to buy it, and even many people are "crazy".
2. Stimulate Chinese people's confidence and enthusiasm in learning spoken English.
More and more researches on second language acquisition show that emotional factors play a great role in promoting the success of language acquisition. Among them, Krashen's affective filter hypothesis and Gardner and Lambert's motivation or attitude research are the most prominent.
Krashen believes that learners' emotional factors will affect second language acquisition. The related emotional factors are: (1) motivation. Generally speaking, highly motivated learners tend to learn better. Gardner and Lambert define motivation as "the effort and desire of learners to achieve the goal of language learning and form a good learning attitude." "They think that motivation can be divided into integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. Combinatorial motivation means that you like learning the target language, are interested in the culture of the country where the target language is located, and want to know about the humanities, science and technology, politics and economy of that country. In some cases, mixed motivation is more helpful to second language learning. Instrumental motivation, also known as shallow motivation, mainly comes from the outside, such as learning the target language well, finding a good job, being admitted to graduate school, going abroad for further study and so on. (2) self-confidence. Learners who have confidence in themselves and have a good self-image are more likely to succeed. (3) anxiety. Anxiety often shows that learners pay too much attention to their academic performance, worry about possible failure, and care too much about what others think of them, which eventually leads to their inability to concentrate and interfere with the study of specific tasks. Krashen believes that people with low self-esteem are easy to worry about others' evaluation of themselves, and unconsciously regard pleasing others as the standard to measure their academic performance, thus causing anxiety. The study also found that oral expression is the most likely to cause learners' anxiety. Learners with low personal anxiety are more likely to succeed in second language acquisition.
Comparing these theories, if we look back on China students' oral English learning, we will find that the biggest problem is the lack of deep motivation or combined motivation. Their motivation to learn English often comes from an exam. As soon as the exam is over, their English study will be over. Another problem is lack of self-confidence and dare not speak, let alone speak in public. How to learn oral English well without saying anything? The third problem is to care too much about others' opinions on their spoken English, or to set too high a goal for their spoken English, which causes anxiety and is not conducive to English learning.
Li Yang once failed in college English exams again and again, but in the end he conquered English through his "cry" and became a famous English announcer and expert in oral English education. This experience itself is enough to inspire the confidence of any English learner. More importantly, almost every crazy English reading has such a passionate sentence: I must act at once, I must open my mouth to practice, I must surprise people with my perfect English, I must realize my dream, and I must succeed. "(I want to act immediately and practice with my mouth open. I must make people marvel at my English, I must realize my dream, and I must succeed. This can stimulate English learners' deep motivation to learn English, that is, to study for their dreams and personal success!
In view of China people's fear of making mistakes and losing face, Li Yang said, "I especially like making mistakes and losing face, because the more mistakes, the greater progress. I want to make no mistakes all my life, and there is only one result. When you are 80 years old, you can only say' My English is poor' ... Please put your face in your pocket for a while and say it out loud. The important thing is not to lose face now. Therefore, "I like losing face" has become the slogan of Li Yang and the majority of English learners.
It is this kind of encouragement that has aroused the unprecedented confidence and enthusiasm of Chinese people in learning spoken English, and a spectacular scene of "everyone shouting" English has appeared. No one can deny that Crazy English has promoted China people's oral English learning.
It provides a window for English learners to understand British and American culture.
Culture and language are inseparable. Culture is the content of language form and the source of language form characteristics. Conversely, language is the carrier of culture and the main tool for learning culture. Through the study of cultural customs, we can deepen our understanding of language, reduce "cultural differences" and improve our ability to use language. As Mr. Hu Wenzhong said, "Language is a form of expression of culture. It is impossible to learn English well without understanding British and American culture. On the other hand, the deeper and more detailed you know about the history, culture, traditions, customs, lifestyles and even life details of the language country you are learning, the more you can correctly understand and accurately use this language. "
There are rich and colorful contents in various books and audio-visual products of Crazy English, such as excerpts from popular TV dramas, celebrity speeches, current affairs news, sports competitions and fashion information, which provide vivid and interesting materials for English learners to understand British and American cultures and learn English more deeply.
Third, the lack of crazy English.
1. The teaching method is too old.
Li Yang attaches great importance to the mastery of sentences, and believes that English learning should be centered on sentences, and has published books such as Sentence Crash in Crazy English. People who know a little about English teaching theory, as soon as they hear this name, will immediately think of the once popular English 900 sentences, which is the representative of listening and speaking method characterized by practicing sentence patterns. As we all know, as early as 1960s, Chomsky dealt a heavy blow to listening and speaking with his cognitive theory. Cognitive theory holds that language is not a habit structure, but a production transformation structure; There is an innate language acquisition device in the human brain. Learners can create many new languages by internalizing rules, and language ability determines language behavior. Because of Chomsky's criticism and the boring learning process, the sentences learned can't be used flexibly in practical communication, and the listening and speaking method has declined many years ago. Li Yang's regaining sentence-centered theory is obviously due to his ignorance of second language acquisition theory and English teaching theory.
2. The promotion effect has yet to be verified.
In order to highlight the magical effect of Crazy English, Li Yang once claimed that Crazy English "can make you speak authentic American English in three months" and even "master the pure American English pronunciation in ten days". As we all know, although we can make a good breakthrough in language learning in a short time by studying hard and practicing hard, it is not so magical. Moreover, second language acquisition is closely related to personality, emotion, cognitive style and other factors, which vary from person to person. Whether Li Yang's personal successful experience can be transplanted to thousands of people in Qian Qian and succeed, at least according to the current situation, can't give a definite answer.
To sum up, Crazy English introduced by Li Yang based on his own successful experience is true, because it coincides with some second language acquisition theories.
It has certain promotion and reference function for oral English teaching in China. But at the same time, due to the lack of understanding and empiricism of second language acquisition and English teaching theory, Crazy English has obvious shortcomings, such as oversimplification of English learning process and boring and outdated teaching methods. Therefore, we should treat Crazy English correctly, foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and promote oral English teaching in China.
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