Path of learning English

Path of learning English

By Ralph Jennings

WANG Qiyan is an English teacher at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun. She has got her master's degree in Education in England and has 16 years English language teaching experience.

But she teaches more than just grammar and vocabulary. Wang also answers the personal and spiritual questions students often raise whilst learning a foreign language. Ralph Jennings, the columnist with 21st Century, learns some pearls of wisdom from the great teacher.

Q: It seems like students want to learn English within months. Why so fast, and can they succeed?

A: My students often ask me, \"Ms Wang, my listening is very poor. How can I improve my listening.\" I say to them, \"Before I answer your question, answer my questions first. How many tapes have you listened to so far? How much time do you spend on listening every day or every week?\"

They immediately understand what I mean. Then I often advise them to focus on the amount of time instead of results.

Focusing on results makes them impatient. Focusing on the amount of effort helps them to have concrete goals in their daily studies. A definite goal can motivate students to keep learning.

Concrete goals can be: Read one English novel a month, read one English article a day, finish one tape a week or write something in English twice a week. You can't see your progress every day. It's a long process. But one day you will realize you have made progress.

For those who ask me a question like \"My English is not good. There'll be an exam next month. What can I do?\" I answer them, \"Right! What can you do? Think about it. Is there any use for you to waste your time feeling worried? Others are also in the same position that you are in. So why not stop worrying and study as much as you can.\"

Q: People often pressure language students to speak faster. But if I speak fast, I make mistakes. What is your recommendation?

A: I don't like the idea of pushing learners to speak faster. It's like teaching to run before teaching how to walk. Without the foundation level, speaking faster can make you mispronounce words and produce more such errors. Language learning is not about being a hero. The best speaker is one who can control his or her speed and get his or her meaning across through a good choice of words. Moreover, speaking fast should be a natural result of practice and improvement.

Also there are people who are naturally fast or slow speakers. I think some Chinese people are influenced by Li Yang, who advocates fast speaking and other techniques. I don't agree with most of his ideas. But he may have motivated some learners and helped them to break the barrier of speaking English, though for a short time. Then after feeling excited and determined, what English learners need is patience and persistence. As they are learning in this way, they will develop their own efficient learning strategies.

Q: Why do some students succeed right away and others fail or learn more slowly?

A: I once roughly grouped students into different types.

1. High IQ and High EQ, 2. High IQ and Low EQ, 3. Mediocre IQ and High EQ, 4. Mediocre IQ and Low EQ, 5. Low IQ and High EQ, 6. Low IQ and Low EQ.

Here IQ can mainly refer to language aptitude for language learners. EQ can mean steady efforts (working hard and with persistence) in learning a language and tolerance of frustration. I hoped to get students to start understanding themselves and know their own positions in order to use their strength on their way to success. Only a few people belong to the first group.

I also told my students that many high IQ students don't work hard and persistently.

They may have incidental achievements or achievements requiring a short-term effort. But in the long run they will lag behind. I gave them examples of my classmates, friends and other people I know to show them that we may not change our IQ but we can develop our EQ. So why not settle down and stop looking for a short cut and wasting our time frustrating ourselves?

Ms Wang is happy to answer your questions about learning English. Her e-mail address is fuyj@public.cc.jl.cn.