something to think about
I have had a few comments left by students who have read my blog entries. Thank you. You know it takes time and thought to produce these entries and by leaving a response YOU let me know that my effort to help you has not been in vain [wasted time].
A very sincere and frustrated student who i believe is very typical of most of you reading these blog entries posted a comment to my last entry and i typed an answer for her under comments. I would like to enter it here for all of you to read since i believe all of you can benefit from reading it.By the way, if you won’t bother to read these entries, please don’t ask me how to improve your English when you see me. If you HAVE read these entries and still have questions THEN it is great. The point is i want to help people who are willing to help themselves. Not those looking for quick and easy answers. Guess what, there are none !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Here is the comment i mentioned above:
- johnslinn Says:
October 1st, 2007 at 8:35 am editDear Tulika, thank you for your comment. You are like many other people I have taught over the years since I first came to China. In fact, it is people like you who have motivated me to create this blog in the first place. Do not be discouraged by your current results with your English. Keep reading this blog and think carefully about each entry I post and your English WILL improve. In fact, read each entry several times if you can. Your conscious mind can only grasp a small amount of what you are ‘taking in’ at any moment through your eyes, ears and other senses. Re-reading the entries here will allow you to understand at a deeper and deeper level - each and every time you re-read them. To help you improve your reading skills, pay attention not only to the ‘meaning’ of what I write but look at the ’structure’ - the way the words are put together to form phrases and sentences. I usually rewrite each blog entry four or five times. I write it and then I read it. As I read it I look for ways to make it clearer and better. I keep doing this with each blog entry until I feel it is helpful for the reader - you. Editing in this way by going over and over what I have written helps me to arrive at a better ‘end product’ which is what you read.Unfortunately the school system indirectly trained you NOT to do this with your own ‘work’ because you were so loaded down with so much homework that you did everything as quickly as possible so that you could move on to the next piece of homework. The result was that you developed a habit of doing things quickly and ‘moving on’ to the next thing without ever going back to edit or correct anything you had done.
Do yourself a favor, from now on, decide to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n and enjoy learning from one ‘thing’ by going over and over it - each time looking for MORE from the same thing, be it a movie, a song or an article you are reading.
I often tell students like you that it is much better for your language skill development to watch one [1] English language movie five [5] times than it is to watch five [5] movies one [1] time each. The reason is; as i have been telling you, that EACH time you re-watch the movie [or re-listen to an English song, or re-read a passage] your brain/mind will get MORE FROM THE SAME THING. Of course part of you wants to see the ‘5′ different movies instead of re-watching one five times. That’s great for ‘fun’. But for purposes of learning, repetition [doing something over and over again] will bring you many more benefits. I promise this is true!!!!!!!!!!!!
By the way, when watching western movies, choose some with language that is not too quick and have the English subtitles on so your eyes will see the words as your ears hear them. This helps your brain connect the written word with it’s sound. Very useful!!!! [fast ACTION movies are not a great choice]
There is a site you may like to visit that may also give you some help. But please, before you click on this link and go there, STOP, Close Your Eyes For A Moment and Let your brain ‘digest’ what you just read.
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Here is the link i just mentioned: http://www.englishclub.com/listening/everywhere.htm
November 6th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Hi, John,
I keep practising listening everyday whenever I go home on the road. But I become a little confused now because most of my materials are Radio, like BBC/VOA which are all about political news. I found these political news might not be suitable to listen because even though I can understand those, sometimes, I still can’t understand the oral English in the normal life, in other words, my listening and speaking proficiency are still not be improved. So, I was wondering whether I shouldn’t listen those Radio again? Is it better to choose another more suitable listening materials? If you think so, what kind of materials should I choose?
Thanks so much.