The first key: listening to English weather reports
Some teaching tapes deliberately slow down their speech speed to match the learning of beginners, which is not enough for the training of English listening. If you listen to English with normal speaking speed, beginners will feel overwhelmed. Although the English weather report is fast, its vocabulary is simple and fixed, its content is simple, it is likely to be repeated, and it can be confirmed at any time in life. It is a good teaching material for listening comprehension.
the second trick: listen to the English broadcast of China Radio International
Every morning, China Radio International has an hour-long English program from 7: to 8: and from 11: to 12: . The content includes domestic and foreign news, newspaper clippings and various series of special reports. In addition to domestic announcers who are fluent in English, there are also recorded interviews with foreigners or visitors on a certain topic. The content is extensive, but the vocabulary is simple and the speaking speed is moderate, which can be used to train or improve English listening.
the third key: make good use of tapes to exercise listening and speaking ability
Some learners are always used to listening to tapes while reading, and use tapes as an auxiliary tool for reading, which can't achieve the purpose of practicing listening. Tapes should be based on the training of listening and speaking ability. Learners should choose listening tapes that are suitable for their own abilities, and don't rush for success, so as not to be frustrated. Listen to the tape repeatedly first. At first, just grasp the outline. After listening to it several times, you will know more and more about the details. People with poor hearing can read the text first, and then concentrate on understanding the meaning of each paragraph and sentence. This kind of practice is helpful to cultivate the concentration when listening, and make your listening progress rapidly.
The fourth key: Only by listening to English at a normal speed can the progress of listening be accelerated.
Many radio teaching and listening textbooks always deliberately slow down their speaking speed in order to match the level of the audience or learners. Although this is an understandable alternative, it will also have some bad side effects. For example: 1. Accustomed to slow-down English, it is difficult to adapt to or even understand the English they speak at normal speed in actual communication with foreigners. 2. When you deliberately slow down your speech, you will usually read every word in a sentence clearly, but in normal conversation, there will be many assimilation, reduction and liaision. Therefore, listening to English with normal speaking speed is extremely important for listening and conversation.
Fifth secret: Learn English from TV and movies
Watching English TV and movies can not only help you understand the culture and life of westerners, but also provide a good opportunity to learn authentic English and improve your English listening. It is best to choose a literary film or comedy film with modern life as the background. If your hearing is good, get into the habit of not reading subtitles. Don't force yourself if you are a little poor, otherwise your failure in English will ruin your good mood of enjoying movies. In this case, you can read the subtitles first to understand the plot (if it is a TV program, you should record it first), and then watch it again for one or several times, so that your listening ability can be improved rapidly with your increased understanding of the plot in a relaxed mood.
the sixth trick: act out the plot with friends
In English learning, we often meet friends or classmates to talk in English to improve our English conversation ability, but we often feel that our language is poor and our content is limited. Now we might as well try this method: in line with the "learning English from TV and movies" mentioned in the previous section, first select one or more clips according to the plot of the movie, personally choose a role, then try to transcribe the lines into words and memorize them after the movie is familiar, and finally rehearse and perform. Doing this kind of exercise often is not only good for English conversation and listening, but also good exercise for grammar and writing.
Seventh Tip: Reciting English Poems
Fluency in English depends on mastering the rhythm correctly. English is rhythmic according to the stress of words and sentences. English poetry is one of the best materials for practicing English rhythm. For example, Worth's famous "The Daffodils" (daffodils): "I wanted lonely as a cloud/that floats
on high o 'er vales and hills ..." (I wander alone like a white cloud, drifting over valleys and mountains ...) is a typical weak and strong rhythm. After reading it, reading it aloud will definitely benefit you a lot.
Eighth Tip: Singing to learn English
Singing English songs is more effective than reciting English poems. Singing English songs can help you practice pronunciation, intonation and rhythm, and also help you memorize many words and sentence patterns in a happy mood, which is really killing two birds with one stone. The selected English songs should be beautiful in language and regular in grammar. You can start with nursery rhymes at first, and then gradually learn to sing lyric songs. Read the lyrics several times before learning to sing, and then learn to sing with the tape. You can recite them better after singing.
Ninth Tip: Pay special attention to the pronunciation that is not available in English
Some pronunciations in English are not available in Chinese, and these are also the most confusing pronunciations for English learners, such as the pronunciation of "th". When pronouncing this pronunciation, we should pay special attention to the correct mouth shape.
The tenth trick: Recite the speeches of famous people and find opportunities to repeat them.
A good speech is the best teaching material for practicing English expression, not only for its beautiful diction, but also for its communication and persuasiveness. Learners don't have to recite the speech from beginning to end, just choose their favorite paragraphs or sentences to recite. For example, President Kennedy's famous saying "Ask not
what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." (Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. ) After this kind of Miao Yan Jia sentence is recited more, it will be helpful for speaking and writing.
eleventh tip: overcoming the shortcomings of pronunciation with English tongue twisters
Tongue twisters often put together sounds that are easy to be confused or mispronounced. However, because they often appear in the form of ballads or rhymes, they will feel smooth and pleasant after reading them. Therefore, English tongue twisters can be used as an auxiliary teaching material to practice English pronunciation and conversation.
the twelfth trick: remember more humorous jokes and be ready to use them at any time.
It is human nature to love jokes. Inserting a few jokes at any time in social occasions can make the atmosphere relaxed and lively, and it is easier to win friendship. When you use English, you can use jokes to eliminate your discomfort and enhance your confidence in English conversation ability.
The benefits of listening, speaking and studying English jokes go far beyond that. More importantly, you can increase your understanding of western culture and society through concise words or language in humor or jokes. Look at the following two examples:
1. Teenager: "I'm off to the party."
(teenager: "I'm going to the party". )
Father: "Well, have a good time."
(Father: "Have a good time." ）
Teenager:"Look Dad,don't tell me what to do! "
(teenager:" Hey, Dad, don't tell me what to do. " )
satirize the fact that some teenagers in the United States put too much emphasis on their independent and uncontrolled personality. ）
2.The policeman stopped the driver and said,"I'm afraid your wife fell out your car about one kilometer back."
"Thank godness, "Said the driver," I thought I had gone dead. "(The policeman stopped the driver and said to him," I'm afraid your wife has fallen from your car for one kilometer. " "Thank God," said the driver. "I thought I was deaf.". ) satirize the long-winded nagging of American wives.
the thirteenth trick: when listening to English, repeat it in your mouth
when listening to English speeches and watching English TV and movies, listen with your ears and repeat it in your mouth. This will not only help to concentrate attention and improve the understanding of the content, but also imitate the pronunciation and intonation of native speakers. When doing this exercise, if the sentence is long and complicated and difficult to repeat, you don't have to force it. You can start with a shorter or simpler sentence. If you practice more, you will form a habit. Another useful exercise is sentence-by-sentence interpretation. Translating the heard sentences into Chinese one by one is also a good exercise for listening, correct understanding and reaction ability.
14th tip: There are many benefits in practicing reading aloud.
English learners often pay little attention to reading aloud. In fact, reading aloud is of great use! 1. Exercise English pronunciation, intonation and rhythm; 2. Make the pronunciation parts of the oral cavity flexible and improve the fluency in speaking English; 3. Make the ears have more opportunities to listen to English, thus improving English listening; 4. Make full use of the four aspects of reading: eyes, mouth, ears and heart-you can remember the textbooks you read better than when you read silently. We can also say that reading aloud is the basic practice of conversation, and it is difficult for people who have no habit of reading aloud to learn a conversation.
Fifteenth Tip: Deduce from the back to the front when practicing reading aloud
When practicing reading aloud, we sometimes find it difficult to read a long sentence fluently. For example, President Reagan's second inaugural speech: "So we go forward today, a nation still strong in its youth and powerful in its purpose." (So we are going to move forward today. Our nation is still strong because of its youth and strong because of its definite goals. In this case, we suggest that you start with the last word and add one word forward at a time. For example: "... purpose", ... it's purpose ",... in it's purpose" and "powerful in its purpose". This back-to-front reading contact method is designed to help you grasp the correct intonation. We know that the rise or fall of intonation is most obvious at the end of a sentence. This kind of exercise can make you pay attention to the correct intonation every time you read aloud.
16th tip: When reading long sentences, you can pause between "phrases"
Another problem that may occur in reading aloud is sentence breaking. Because the sentence is long, it can't be read in one breath, and there is often a phenomenon of haste or discontinuity, and the sentence is read in pieces, which is very unnatural. Some people pause in the sentence at will, or pause in the wrong place, so that they can't read it fluently and sweetly, and the listener will feel unintelligible. For example, President Reagan's second inaugural address: "We must do what we know is right, and do it with all our might." (We must do what we know is right and do it with all our might. ) Never pronounce it as "we/must/do what/we/know/isright,/and do/it with all/out possible."
There is a short pause in a long sentence, which is a natural phenomenon, but the pause must be just right. Usually in: 1. Where there are punctuation marks; 2. Between phrases or thought units. Phrases, clauses and other thought units must be a unit, but there can be a short pause between them. For example, "We must do/what we know is right,/and do it/with all your might." (The diagonal lines indicate where you can pause a little).
17th Tip: Read for fun
The learning method of studying hard at a cold window is not only boring, but also often ineffective. If you read for interest or even "recreation", it will be full of interest and make progress invisibly. For example, people who like jazz will read English books and periodicals on jazz much more efficiently than English textbooks. Similarly, people who like cars read English books and periodicals about cars, and people who like cooking read English books and periodicals about cars, which can not only satisfy their hobbies, but also improve their English ability, killing two birds with one stone.
If you are not particularly interested, you might as well read stories. Novels, especially detective novels, can make people concentrate more and have a sense of unity. This can be regarded as a pleasant learning method.
18th Tip: Intensive reading and extensive reading are parallel
Intensive reading materials don't need to be greedy. It's better to choose short and pithy articles, make clear all the vocabulary and grammatical structure in them, then read aloud, recite them again, and finally it's better to be able to write them silently several times.
There is a method that can give consideration to intensive reading and extensive reading, that is, select some of the most beautiful and fluent sentences from the materials to be read intensively.
You should try your best to apply the recited and written paragraphs and sentences in conversation or writing. Application also helps to understand and remember them.
19th Tip: Read the latest news published in English newspapers and magazines
The vocabulary used is also the most modern and practical. Reading English newspapers and magazines often can improve your English ability quickly through daily and practical study.
At present, the most common English newspapers in China are China Daily and 21st Century. If you read newspapers with the purpose of increasing your vocabulary and improving your English reading ability, then don't limit yourself to the parts you are interested in. It is best to read through every column and page of the newspaper. Including news, editorials and even advertisements. It is worth mentioning that English comic books published in newspapers can not only cultivate your sense of humor, but also let you know the cultural and social information of a country while smiling. People with poor English can read the Chinese newspaper of the day before reading English newspapers, which is very helpful for understanding English newspapers.
in addition, you can use newspapers to improve your writing ability. Choose an editorial (or one or more paragraphs) and translate it into Chinese to test your understanding of the editorial. And then put this article