How to learn spoken English

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Today, we invite Professor Wang Yanbin, Dean of New Oriental College of Practical English. Tell us how to improve our spoken English. First, please ask Mr. Wang to say hello to us.

Wang Yanbin: I have been a teacher for 30 years and have been teaching English. I went from China to Australia, then to China, and then to teach in the United States and Canada. I returned to New Oriental two years ago and still taught English.

Moderator: Miss Wang is really strong. You have been teaching English for 30 years. What do you think is the reason why China students can't learn English well?

Wang Yanbin: It's not that I can't learn English well. China students are good at grammar, vocabulary and reading. Just poor oral English. Our primary and secondary schools are exam-oriented education. Let's make a brief analysis.

Moderator: Your English is really good. What have you suffered in English or spoken English? Or you are different from others.

Wang Yanbin: Like everyone else, he has no talent. I think there are three aspects to learning English well: confidence, effort and strategy. I graduated from 1976 and became a university teacher. Nobody spoke English at that time. First of all, I made up my mind to do it well, and second, I worked hard. For example, I imitate a lot. A text has to be spelled, imitated and corrected hundreds of times every day. Record every intonation, pronunciation, stress and linking, which is completely imitation. The second is to find a teacher, even if people don't want to, they knock on the door and go in. Talk for a few minutes and find another one when others are bored. It takes six months. There is a misunderstanding that you can learn spoken English well abroad or practice with me through foreign teachers. In fact, not everyone has such an opportunity. I mainly talk about the methods of self-training.

Many people can learn well, such as my spoken English. I think he has taught in Australia, America and Canada. He must have studied there. Actually, I didn't. I studied well in China and was invited to speak English.

Moderator: Do you think there is a difference between learning spoken English at home and abroad? Or is there any difference in the way teachers teach?

Wang Yanbin: First of all, there are basically no oral classes for non-English majors in our primary and secondary schools, including universities. So there is no way to compare. By contrast, English majors have some oral classes. Generally speaking, there is a book in China's oral class. The method is quite boring. We put forward a comprehensive oral English training method. My biggest feeling abroad is that even if students know three or five hundred words, they still study hard abroad. No mistakes, that is to say. The second is writing. One is that our methods do not encourage students to participate, and the other is that students themselves are afraid of making mistakes. Another thing, I don't know how to use these words. I think there is a big gap between us.

Netizen: You have proposed a comprehensive oral English training method. Can you introduce it in detail?

Wang Yanbin: What is omnibearing? Generally speaking, learn to swim in the ocean. Some people say that if you want to learn English, you should go to the United States and Canada, where there is water to learn English. If there is no English ocean, that is, if you can't go to America, Canada and Australia, you can try to think creatively by yourself. Create an environment where you can often use English. Almighty means from morning till night. You can devote yourself to many things. In that case, I'll give you a systematic introduction. The first step is to have a basic knowledge of English. We believe that 80% to 90% people in the United States and Canada will have no problem if vocabulary is properly trained and these applications are fully utilized. A vocabulary of 2000 is enough. If you have enough of these words, the first one is to learn English pronunciation and intonation well. Just find a good textbook, such as the second book of new concepts, and then imitate it again and again. The methods of imitation are as follows: My suggestion is to listen to it 3-4 times first. Listening mainly imitates pronunciation and intonation, so you need to listen to tapes.

Listen to it three or four times first, then don't watch it. Put stress, pause, linking, tone and falling tone in the book, and mark these symbols on the book. Read after the mark, sentence by sentence, and practice this for about ten times. Then read aloud. If you can't figure it out, start over. Repeatedly, the final effect is the same as the original, and the essay lesson 20 has reached this level, which is the first level. Let's talk about misunderstandings first. As we all know, the new concept is very popular and everyone is reciting it. I've seen many students recite backwards, but their spoken English is still not good. Because they repeat like machines. Therefore, the first-level pronunciation and intonation should be completely imitated. After solving this problem, it is necessary to carry out all-round oral training. Is to turn this thing into something to talk about.

Let's assume that I can't go abroad and there is no one to practice with me. Can I practice by myself? The answer is yes. First, get up for three to five minutes in the morning and plan your life in English, such as "What am I going to do today? Oh, I have two classes this morning. This afternoon, Wang Chris will talk about how to improve our spoken English. Wonderful! I'll go. " If there is no one around, speak up. If there are a few people around, just think to yourself silently. This is the first thing. Then get up and do things. When you get dressed, you can say something, such as, "I'm wearing pants." I am going to brush my teeth. Oh, the water is so cold. I need some hot water. " This is the second rule: what to do and what to say. Speak out when you have the opportunity, and speak out silently when you don't have the opportunity. In fact, many times no one is monitoring, which can be said. When you go to bed at night, close your eyes as soon as you go to bed, see what happened today, sum up your life today, and say it all in English. For example, "What happened today? Oh, I chatted with my friends this morning, and I had a cup of coffee this afternoon. Coffee is delicious. I like it so much. I feel very happy today. " You see, if junior high school students can say what happened in English, then senior high school students are more likely. I also want to talk about my feelings, feelings and moods, which can be summarized. Plan to use the future tense in the morning and summarize the past tense in the evening. Say it again after the training process.

Then look at what and describe what. Describe what you see in English. Wherever you go, you will see houses, flowers and the climate. You can say all these things. For example, when I am being interviewed, you can say, "Look at Mr. Wang talking there. Oh, he is a teacher from Fang Xingdong. He looks so young. " When you see me, you can describe your opinion of me in English. If a college student walks from the dormitory to the canteen classroom, there will always be dozens of minutes on the road, and many scenic spots can be seen, all of which can be expressed in English.

Another point is what to listen to and what to translate. For example, if you listen to me speak Chinese now, why don't you try to translate my Chinese into English? If you watch TV in Chinese, translate it into English. Don't say that it must be translated beautifully, but it's nothing. If you do it for a long time, these ideas will come out. When listening to the radio, you can also translate it. For example, on the bus, I saw many people talking, such as "Lao Zhang, has the salary gone up?" He said no, I went up by fifty cents. It sounds boring, but you can translate it into English. This kind of resource is very rich. More importantly, you can translate what you read into English. For example, you will see some newspapers, books and magazines, and spend 10-20 minutes every day to find a topic to translate. Walking, I saw a big advertisement, such as "Practical English College is a good place to learn English", which was translated in English. In this way, you will be immersed in the ocean of English every day.

Another point is to tell short stories in English. After listening to Chinese stories, you can tell them in English. Another kind of self-training is to see a text and repeat it by yourself, and say it in your own words. I think at least you can do these things yourself, and of course there are many details These parts are all self-training parts. You can do them yourself. This is the first link.

Moderator: For example, describe what you did today or what happened every day, or retell a composition. Can these be done every day? Or step by step?

Wang Yanbin: You can do it every day. It would be better if you master this method.

Moderator: Will there be any problems? For example, improper use or collocation of words. It is wrong to repeat it every day.

Wang Yanbin: If I'm wrong, if I keep repeating myself, I'll be wrong. First, if you are nervous about talking to others, you can't go wrong in speaking English to yourself at first. Speaking English requires translation. First, you should think of Chinese and translate it into Chinese in English. In fact, you find that all these Chinese words have appeared in textbooks, but you just can't remember them. I suggest some learning methods. You should always think about it. How do people in China speak Chinese? After reading it for a long time, both English and Chinese in Britain are like this. When you are proficient, you will find that the British often say "have a cup of tea". People in China drink it. You can say "have a cup of tea" or "have a cup of tea" in English. What should I do if I make a mistake again? Let me give you a small example. When I spoke English in Canada, my students came from all over the world. Generally speaking, it is difficult for China students to be placed in classes after assessment. Grammar band 8, reading band 7 and writing band 5 or 6. Listening may be Grade 2 or 3, and speaking is Grade 1. The characteristic of South Americans is that these are all similar. Why? The words they use will be used as soon as they learn, and they are not afraid of making mistakes. In America and Canada, if you say something wrong, no one will pay attention to you. General mistakes are not special mistakes, even special mistakes should be made.

For example, if I go to Shanghai tomorrow, I may have made a mistake. I will go to Shanghai tomorrow. The correct answer is that I will go to Shanghai. But you will find that this is caused by nervousness. Talk too much and you won't make this mistake. So there's nothing to be afraid of making mistakes. 80% can be corrected, and the rest cannot be corrected, which will not affect communication. These mistakes are not much better than yours.

Moderator: How dare you lose face?

Wang Yanbin: Yes. People who have just learned English have no face. Their faces are earned by themselves. I only have a small face now. (Laughter)

Netizen: I want to ask how to solve the contradiction between fluency and pronunciation standards.

Wang Yanbin: The standard pronunciation, intonation and fluency of English, that is, the contradiction between fluency and standard, is still a question of thinking and positioning. Although it is smooth and beautiful, it is a perfect realm. Fluent but not perfect, a perfect but not fluent, we pursue the first. If you want to teach English, you should do both, preferably beautiful. But everyone learns English for English communication. If you have a chance to go to an international company, you will know Motorola, IBM or Sony. Among these companies, there are people from various countries, including Indians, Americans and Malaysians. If you listen carefully, they speak fluently, but they will definitely have some questions. For example, Indians, Brazilians and Singaporeans speak English, which is quite bad according to the calibrated pronunciation, but I don't find that they affect communication. Therefore, fluency is the first priority. As long as it does not affect communication, the other party basically understands what you say, because it is difficult to pursue perfection. 90% people can't pursue it. Since they can't pursue it, they should pursue fluency first.

People who pursue perfection will never open their mouths in the end.

Netizen: When it comes to the pronunciation rules of spoken English, many teachers have never taught them. What should they do without professional teachers to guide them now? Some people say that if you want to pronounce correctly, you must contain stones. Is this necessary?

Wang Yanbin: I don't advocate crazy and extreme remarks, and I don't think there are any tricks. For example, how long will it take you to attend my training to achieve perfect English? These are all fake. I have been teaching English for more than 30 years, and I have never found any tricks. The situation of English teachers in primary schools is not very good, so many teachers in junior and senior high schools have nonstandard pronunciation. They went to college and passed grammar, writing and reading, but your pronunciation and intonation are not very good. What should we do? First of all, we should have confidence. I may change my age again. I estimate that the person listening is about 2 or 30 years old, and you are all fine. First, find a friend or teacher and learn the international phonetic symbols again. Never mind our pronunciation that was inaccurate once or twice in Hunan and Hubei, we basically made the phonetic symbols accurate. Because I can't read words, I need to look up the dictionary and then look at the phonetic symbols. So I learned phonetic symbols first.

In the future, if you look up new words in the dictionary, you will be able to pronounce them accurately. Second, find a set of teaching materials, and the recording must be standard. I want to learn pronunciation and intonation when listening, so the first level is to call a fixed sign, tone and falling tone, standard reading and stress to the original reading, then repeat it five or six times, and then read it aloud. The best way is to record your own, listen to your own again and compare with others. Imitate about 20 articles, and you can be sure after imitation. Because you can improve 80% and accept 20% imperfections.

Netizen: When we watch the original English movies now, we all think that the English spoken by the protagonist is very good. Why don't we feel this way when we say it?

Wang Yanbin: You see, an American speaks fluent English, just like a foreigner watching your China movie. He can also speak your Chinese. It's beautiful. I think as long as you practice more, you may not be able to achieve perfection. It is impossible to pursue the perfection of a film actor. As long as you try to imitate and imitate more, you can improve yourself. But I don't know if you can reach the level of an actor, and I can't deny it, but there is still hope.

Netizen: There are more foreign teachers now. I think China people should be taught English by China people. Foreigners don't know China people. Please ask Mr. Wang to express his opinion.

Wang Yanbin: There are two kinds of understandings that are extremely wrong. One is that the spoken English of China people must be taught by foreigners, and the netizen said that the spoken English of China people should be taught by China people. I think it's a little extreme. First of all, many things are beyond our control. Whether we teach foreigners or China people depends on many factors, which are beyond our control. Secondly, it doesn't matter whether we are taught well by foreigners or by China people. What are the benefits of China people teaching you? He knows China people. They will realize your mistakes more easily and help you more easily. The downside is that many teachers in China may not speak well even if they have been abroad. Although he can help you point out your mistakes, I really can't speak Chinese with you. In fact, there are two kinds of foreigners who teach English. What are the disadvantages? It is more difficult if the foundation is too low. I think it may be better for foreigners to teach English in high school. Mr. China is basically right, but he cannot guarantee the tunnel. Foreigners are more authentic. You may not say it at first, but it's embarrassing. In fact, don't talk too much about face in your study. So I don't think it's a big problem, but foreigners will have a chance to teach you oral English better than China people.

Netizen: Teacher Wang, what should I do if I can understand but can't say it?

Wang Yanbin: Then you need to keep listening to me. There are several reasons for understanding. First, it can be replayed. Understandably, 50% and 60% are guesses. Listening and guessing are better than understanding. But to say something different is to say it completely by yourself and really say it. So it is natural that you can't say it if you understand it. You must listen before you speak. How to turn it into talking? What you have to do is to say that spoken English is "speaking". First, I translate what I read and say, and read the English text and repeat it in English. Practice a lot every day, that is, you can say everything you do every day.

You have learned a lot of English, and now you are looking for opportunities. Because spoken English is spoken English, I always speak it whenever I have the chance. You can't even say it. Just think about it. During the Cultural Revolution, I was a middle school student studying English. Nobody said anything. I find that after studying politics every Wednesday, I have to read newspaper documents for several hours. I did one thing. At that time, everyone thought I was particularly honest, that is, what I read above, and I translated below. There are many translations, because it is very difficult for China to learn spoken English. The first step is the thinking stage, which is the way you think. So language and thinking are consistent to some extent.

Netizen: Is Ying Ying better, or the United States and Britain?

Wang Yanbin: That shouldn't be a problem. The earliest China people began to learn from Ying Ying in 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In the late 1980s, he began to learn from the United States and Britain. I will make a comparison later, and I don't think it is necessary. If you are Ying Ying, continue to practice Ying Ying; If you are American and British, practice American and British. In fact, communication is irrelevant. I study in Ying Ying. I speak Australian English in Australia and American English in America. I sometimes talk to Americans or give lectures to students in China. You know everything anyway. Some people say it's best not to mix, but I don't think so. I think people are not artificial, but for communication.

Netizen: Do all foreign teachers in Wang Chuang New Oriental speak English? I graduated last year, and now I want to learn spoken English and then work in a foreign company.

Wang Yanbin: This is also to practice our ideas. China students are good at reading, writing and grammar, but their spoken English is not very good. Because of the primary and secondary school exams, it is difficult for someone to train your spoken English. This is the bottleneck problem. There are many people who have passed CET-4 and CET-6, but few people have good spoken English. In March this year, we held the first special oral English class for all foreign teachers. Because practicing oral English means that all the courses we offer are for you to speak. In that case, we have bimonthly. The first stage is from March to April. This period is from May 16 to July 10. Such classes are taught in small classes. Usually we learn British English for hundreds of classes, so we can't practice it. But small classes are different, with up to 30 students, ranging from 20 to 30, so that you can practice your spoken English a lot. The progress of students is very obvious. The minimum students we require are high school students who are good at English, that is, they have mastered 2000 words and basic grammar. On this basis, as long as you make up your mind, you should make full use of oral training every day, according to the methods in class and after class. I don't believe you can't learn well if you soak in the ocean from morning till night.

Netizen: I am very nervous at work, but I have no time and care about the progress. I don't know when I can learn it well.

Wang Yanbin: I can understand your idea. I remind students and netizens not to be eager for quick success and instant benefit. I think young people in China have a tendency to be eager for quick success and instant benefit. But the result is haste makes waste. As long as you divide what you can bear every day according to your actual situation, half an hour is not less than two hours, and you will certainly make progress if you do it in a down-to-earth manner. If you set a goal that you must achieve in ten hours, it will be good to achieve it. If you can't reach it, you will feel that this method is invalid. So I think as long as I do it, I can get something.

Netizen: I heard that using some small words can make oral English more fluent. Is that so?

Wang Yanbin: The host just asked me about the difference between Chinese and foreign languages. After returning to China for more than two years, I found that one of the biggest problems is that China students have a large vocabulary. There are 4000 to 8000 words. They use these big words to talk to Americans, and many foreign teachers can't understand them. My survey found that the British and Americans only use more than 2,000 words in their daily spoken language. This is 8 or 90% of their daily vocabulary, while we use 4 or 5 thousand words to speak. This is a big obstacle to oral English. Daily small words, such as 20 words, say three or five sentences and you will know what I want to say. For example, have, do, get, take, take, do and go, and you will find that the phrase composed of these 20 words is your daily life. It can express too many meanings. The biggest problem for China students is that they can't use these small words. For example, when I was driving today, my feet glared a few times and the engine wouldn't catch fire. I can think, fight is fight, fire is fire, and saying "my engine doesn't work" means work. You will find that learning to work has solved many problems. If the nose can't smell, why not say that the nose doesn't work? Or my pen is not in the water, and my pen doesn't work well. Everyone will know when they look at the action. As the saying goes, get can express hundreds of meanings, and the key is the application of small words. We can talk about the usage of small words later.

Moderator: Does the use of small words make English more authentic?

Wang Yanbin: Yes. Because foreigners just talk a lot.

Netizen: What are the benefits of living in a class? Attract countless white-collar workers to bend over.

Wang Yanbin: Language learning needs to be concentrated and strengthened. It is not impossible to study every day. The best effect is to concentrate on studying for a month or two. If you stay, there will be a class of English-speaking students in the dormitory and classroom from morning. Chances are that you will speak English in your dream. If you concentrate and disperse for two months, the effect will be very different. A person with a career plan, who wants to be promoted in the future, would rather stop at a certain stage to upgrade himself to a higher level or concentrate on his studies for two months. Many people's planning is input and output thinking. So this class solves your huge problem.

A one-time breakthrough, the effect is very good.

Netizen: We have a lot of CDs, movies and cultural materials about English. People can never make good use of them. How can we make effective use of them?

Wang Yanbin: Learning English requires confidence, effort and strategy. At this point, you have no confidence problem, and you have a second effort. CDs and movies are all about listening to audio materials. You can do this, don't be greedy. If you like this movie very much, you can do several things, not only listening, but also watching how people in this scene express themselves and think. Foreigners and China people just have different ideas. You just need to see through this. For example, all set is to do everything. Be a man with a conscience. You can still imitate, but I don't suggest you imitate one of the actors. For example, don't imitate Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump. Imitation is a book tape. The first is to observe what others say, and the second is to see how others use it and how you use it. At the same time make a plan for yourself.

Compere: Can you improve your vocabulary by studying movies and tapes?

Wang Yanbin: Of course. If you hear a general idea, or one day you can say it, many people will know it like this. In the middle of this process, don't look up the first-level vocabulary processing. To cultivate your own guessing and listening questions, you can look up keywords.

Netizen: Just now you said that there are many ways to practice oral English. What other methods are there?

Wang Yanbin: You can find some people and describe how they do it. We can refer to more than two people. The first is to talk about recent events, and each activity lasts for one hour. The first few minutes mean what you have done recently, talking about what happens every day. Then exchange views on something. For example, what happened recently, we can get used to exchanging views. For example, you can talk about your views on the new car regulations and the reduction of private cars. The third is role-playing: for example, a thief was caught, and I said he stole my money, but he said he didn't, so the police let you talk about it. It can be said, "I opened my pocket and all my money was gone, only he sat next to me." He can also say, "I didn't do it. I was the only one sitting next to you, but I didn't do it. I was the only one around, but I didn't steal it. " You can all imitate. Or imitate the dialogue between teachers and students. For example, the teacher said, why are you late again? Why are you late again? You said the dog ran away when I came here this morning. Oh, my dog took my exercise book away before I left this morning. So I'm late. So we can do some practical demonstrations. Do it completely according to the real situation, and you can also interview, report and simulate journalists.

For example, today the host asked me questions, such as "Where are you from?" . It is best not to ask how old you are. . Everyone can say three sentences, as long as it is reasonable. It takes an hour to make up such a story. These are things that everyone can do.

Another explanation is brain differentiation. For example, what if Beijing lacks water? Everyone takes out a lot of their own ideas without judging by themselves. They can record it with a tape recorder. The purpose is to train fluency, not accuracy.

Moderator: These methods will be very good in the English corner.

Wang Yanbin: Yes. Yes, of course. We have prepared brochures in New Oriental, which are all activities. I can sort it out and put it here with my master.

Moderator: You can visit our TOM website then.

Wang Yanbin: Yes.

Moderator: Finally, please ask Mr. Wang to tell us what is the secret of learning English.

Wang Yanbin: The first is confidence, the second is hard work, and the third is strategy. It is enough to understand these. There is no real trick. I found that what China people lack most is self-confidence. Everyone recited grammar fluently, and said that their grammar was not good, so we should overcome this. As long as you can understand what I said today, I believe you can reach 2000 words, so you must have confidence first. The second is payment. The last one is strategy. The so-called strategy is not a trick. This trick is simply broken. The so-called strategy is to make rational use of time, brain and resources, including books. To learn spoken English, you must say it.

Netizen: How old is Teacher Wang? I have been teaching English for 30 years, and I am still so young.

Wang Yanbin: I started to be a university teacher when I was about 2 1 year old.

Moderator: You can guess (laughs). Today, I am very grateful to Wang Chuang and New Oriental College of Practical English for their great support to this interview. If you want to know more information or sign up for oral English classes, you can visit their website. This interview is over, goodbye!