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提高你学习英语的动机
在这篇文章中,我们来分享一下如何提高将英语作为一门外语来学习的动机的方法。当我们学习英语的时候,我们一直在使用这些方法,而且当我们需要提高除英语以外其它领域的学习动机时,我们也使用着这些方法。
想象未来的你
想象你可以与以英语为本土语言的人谈话就如同与别人说自己的母语一样。想象其他人就像你一样也想用英语谈话。想象给世界各地的人写电子邮件的可能性。
读一篇关于对英语有很好的了解的优势的文章是很有帮助的。你应该知道真正地学好英语是可能的。可以看看其他曾经这样做的人。
记住你自己已经很好了
你已经了解了一些英语了(你现在就在读一篇英文文章)。这是个很大的成功!现在是获得更大成功的时候了!是开始使用有效的学习方法的时候了。是获得给人印象深刻的英语知识的时间了。
记住你还有很多不懂的东西
你现在很不错,但是你的英语很有可能达不到非常出色的程度。你很可能还听不懂英语电视节目,读不懂英语书,不能很容易地与以英语为母语的人谈话,不能没有丝毫错误地写英文信,等等。
你应该永远也不要认为你的英语非常出色。即使你是班里最好的学生,也要经常努力去发现你的弱势并且多下功夫。当你已经学说英语并且成绩不错时,你的问题就小多了:标点符号,很少被使用的语法结构,不常见的单词,理解“街道语言”,现在,你的问题很可能就更基础了:发音上的错误,小的词汇量,带有现在完成时和条件结构从句的语法问题。
只要你能就尽量用英语
这是非常,非常重要的。你使用的英语越多,你就会越想学习英语。
因为英语是如此流行,你在任何地方都可以使用它。你可以使用Google(一个网站的搜索引擎)去搜索那些有有趣信息的英语网站,你可以看美国卡通,你可以用电脑玩冒险游戏,你可以读有趣的英文书,或者你还可以做其他我们所涉及到的事情。
如果你做这些事,你将不仅仅获得乐趣和对英语的学习。如果你发现一个新的英文单词使你理解了你最下的电视节目(或者是与人们交往,或者是玩一个电脑游戏),你就会想学到更多的单词。因此你将要学习更多的英语,更多地使用英语,再更多地学习它,再更多地使用它……如果你还使用有效的学习方法,你的英语水平将会进步很快,甚至超乎你的想象。
How to love learning English
Improving your motivation for learning English
In this article, we share our techniques for improving your motivation for learning English as a foreign language. We used them all the time when we were learning English and we still use them when we need to boost our motivation in areas other than English.
Imagine yourself in the future
Imagine you can talk to native speakers just like you talk in your first language. Imagine other people wanting to speak English as well as you do. Imagine the possibility of writing e-mail to people from all over the world.It is helpful to read an article about the advantages of knowing English well. You should know that it is possible to learn English really well. Just look at other people who have done it.
Remember that you are already good
You already know some English (you’re reading an article in English right now). That’s a big success! Now it’s time for more successes. Time to start using powerful methods of effective learning. Time to gain an impressive knowledge of English.
Remember there is a lot that you don’t know
You are good, but your English probably isn’t perfect. You probably can’t understand English-language TV, read books in English, talk to native speakers easily, write letters without mistakes, etc.
You should never think your English is perfect. Even if you are the best student in your class, always try to find your weak areas and work on them. When you’ve learned to speak English well, your problems will be quite small: punctuation, rarely used grammar structures, rare words, understanding ’street language’. Right now, your problems are probably more basic: mistakes in pronunciation, small vocabulary, grammar problems with the present perfect tense and conditional structures.
Use your English whenever you can
This is very, very important. The more you use English, the more you will want to learn it.
Because English is so popular, you can use it everywhere. You can use Google to find English-language websites with interesting information, you can watch American cartoons, you can play adventure games on your computer, you can read interesting books in English, or you can do other things that we write about.
If you do these things, you will not only have fun and learn English. If you see that a new English word lets you understand your favorite TV show (or communicate with people, or beat a computer game), you will want to learn more words. So you will learn English more, use it more, learn it more, use it more... If you also use effective learning methods, your English will grow faster than you can imagine.
学好英语的必要因素
学习英语需要行动。你也许知道所有的学习技巧,但是如果你不开始去做,你就会什么也学不到。其实,如果你想学好说英语,就必须改变你的生活习惯。这里有一些你将要必须做的事例。
1. 每天读一个小时的英文版的书籍,分析句子中的语法并用英语词典查生词
2. 听一本配有音频书籍或者其他英文录音材料,多按停止健,努力理解所说的内容,并且努力模仿朗读者的发音
3. 利用你下午的时间练习带“r”音的英语的发音
4. 仔细地用英文写一封电子邮件,每20秒使用一本词典或是网络搜寻器以确保每个单词的正确性,然后用5分钟的时间写一个句子
5. 回想你读过的一个英文句子,考虑在句子中是否可以用“a”代替“the”,并且试图在网上找出相似的句子来得到答案
6. 在街上漫步时在你的头脑中建立简单的英语句子
什么样的人能够做所有这些狂热的事情?只有一种人:喜欢做这些事的人。如果你想学习说好英语,你将必须成为那种人。你不能厌恶做这些事情。你听说过有人通过做他讨厌的事情而取得成功的吗?
将英语作为一种外国语言进行学习和教学会产生这样的问题,即所有的英语学习者都想说好英语;然而,大多数的学习者不想在学习英语上花费自己的时间。(这很有可能就是为什么他们参加了英语辅导班并希望老师会将知识强迫性地灌输他们地脑中去。)
这种动机的缺乏意味着学习者们基本上不能在学习英语上花费他们自己的时间,即使他们做到了,他们也不会有规律地去做。例如,一个典型的学习者在一次英语考试之前也许会学习12个小时的英语常用动词。但是,他不会每天花30分钟的时间去读一本英文书。他认为对学习英语不够有趣,因此,只有当他必须做的时候才会那样去做。
如果你是这些学习者中的一员并且不喜欢练习带“r”音的英语的发音或者每天都回想回想英语句子,我们有消息给你:你将要必须使得你自己愿意做这些事情。换句话说,你必须要带着动机去学习。幸运的是,有已经被证明了的技术会来帮助你。
How to love learning English II
What is necessary to learn English well?
Learning English requires action. You may know all the learning tips, but if you don"t start doing things, you will achieve nothing. The fact is, if you want to learn to speak English well, you must change your life. Here are some examples of things you will have to do:
1. read a book in English for an hour every day, analyzing the grammar in sentences and looking up words in an English dictionary
2. listen to an audiobook or other recording in English, stopping it frequently, trying to understand what is being said, and trying to imitate the speaker"s pronunciation
3. spend your afternoon practicing the pronunciation of the English "r" sound
4. carefully write an e-mail message in English, using a dictionary or a Web search every 20 seconds to make sure every word is correct, and taking 5 minutes to write one sentence
5. think about an English sentence you"ve read, wondering if it could say "a" instead of "the" in the sentence, and trying to find similar sentences on the Web to find out the answer
6. walk down the street and build simple English sentences in your head (talking to yourself in English about the things you see around you)
What kind of person would do all these crazy things? Only one kind. The kind of person who enjoys doing them. If you want to learn to speak English well, you"re going to have to become that person. You cannot hate doing these things. Have you ever heard of a person who became successful by doing something he hated?
The problem with learning and teaching English as a foreign language is that all English learners want to speak English well; however, most learners don"t want to spend time on learning English on their own. (Which is probably why they sign up for English classes and hope their teacher will force knowledge into their heads.)
This lack of motivation means that learners basically don"t spend their own time on learning English, and if they do, they don"t do it regularly. For example, a typical learner might study English phrasal verbs for 12 hours before an English exam. However, he will not read a book in English for 30 minutes every day. He just doesn"t feel that learning English is pleasant enough, so he will only do it if he has to. The problem is that a huge one-time effort gives you nothing, while small, everyday activities will give you a lot.
If you are one of those learners and don"t feel like practicing the pronunciation of the "r" sound or thinking about English sentences every day, we have news for you: You"re going to have to make yourself want to do these things. In other words, you"ll have to work on your motivation. Fortunately, there are proven techniques to help you with that.
典型学习者与有动机学习者的比较
保拉是一个典型的通常动机不足的英语学习者。她偶尔会有动机较高的时候——比如在她英语考试的前一天或是当她不能与一位工作时打电话给她的外国客户打交道时。这些情况让她认为:“我要为学习英语而努力!”然而,她却很少能做到-平均一个月还不到一次。所以即使非常集中地学习(例如:在考试前复习整整两天的时间),结果很不理想,因为她忘掉了一个月之内所学习的百分之九十的东西。这没有什么值得奇怪的:人类记忆的工作方式是你需要不断地温习所学的东西;否则,你就会把它们忘掉。
现在让我们看一个与保拉不同的英语学习者:朱蒂。朱蒂在读一本适合于英语学习者用的故事书(用简单英语书写的),她几乎每天都要读30分钟。她买了一本英文双解字典,每当她读这本书遇到了不懂的句子时,她就会用字典查找英文单词。一开始很难做到有规律地学习:读书并使用字典对于她来说不是一个 “平常的行为”,每一个英语句子对于她来说都是一种挑战。
但是现在,仅仅两周以后,她能够读得更快了。在阅读的过程中,她经常看自己在前两周里学过的单词。当她认识如此一个单词后,她就不必再去查字典,她也会意识到自己有了很大的进步。朱蒂感觉到她最近学了不少的英语,并且她迫不及待地想学更多的东西。她每天都想读书。书给了她使用所学东西的机会(品尝着自己的成就感),甚至去学更多的东西。由于她有规律地阅读,她很少忘记学过地东西,而且她的词汇量也在不断扩大。
朱蒂应用了正确的方法。她将很快就能够读英文报纸和其它一些为以英语为母语的人写的材料。
快乐带来好的记忆
如果你喜欢学习英语,你就会在上面花费很多的时间,你也会有规律地去做。高度的动机还将给你带来另一个好处:记住新的单词和语法结构对于你来说会更容易些。原因就是大脑很容易记住关于你喜欢的话题的信息。(例如:有些人喜欢历史并且知道关于第二次世界大战的每一件事。如果你让一个平常的人记住所有这些事实,他们总也做不倒。)因此,学习的乐趣给你带来了双倍的好处。
How to love learning English
Typical learner vs. motivated learner
Paula is a typical learner of English with a generally low level of motivation. She has occasional moments of high motivation - like the day before her English test or that time when she couldn"t communicate with a foreign customer who called her at work. These kind of situations make her think "I"ve got to do something about my English!". However, they happen very rarely - less than once a month. So even if she studies quite intensively (e.g. for two whole days before an exam), the results are poor, because she forgets 90% of the things she learned within a month. This is no surprise: The way human memory works, you need to review things all the time; otherwise you just forget them.
Now let"s look at a different English learner: Judy. Judy reads a special novel for English learners (written in simplified English) almost every day for 30 minutes. She bought an English-English dictionary and uses it to look up English words whenever she doesn"t understand a sentence in her book. It was hard to study regularly at the beginning: Reading books and using a dictionary were not "normal activities" for her. And every English sentence was a challenge.
But now, after only two weeks, she can read much faster. While reading, she often sees words that she has learned in the past two weeks. When she recognizes such a word, she doesn"t have to look it up in a dictionary and she knows she has made good progress. Judy feels she has learned a lot of English recently, and she is eager to learn more. Every day, she looks forward to reading her book. The book gives her the chance to use what she has learned (enjoy her progress) and to learn even more. Because she reads regularly, she forgets little and her vocabulary keeps growing.
Judy is on the right track. She will soon be able to read English-language newspapers and other resources written for native speakers.
Enjoyment leads to better memory
If you enjoy learning English, you will spend more time on it, and you will do it regularly. A high level of motivation will also give you another advantage. It will be easier for you to memorize new words and grammar structures. The reason is that the brain easily remembers information on a subject that you like. (For example, some people like history and know everything about World War II. If you told a "normal person" to memorize all these facts, they could never do it.) So enjoyment of learning gives you double benefits.

