English in the Morning

In junior middle school, I began to study  English. Every morning I arrived at the classroom early and read my textbook aloud. It was boring and tiresome, because, as a beginner, I had to pay attention to spelling, pronunciation and grammar at the same time. I wished I were a bird free in the sky, who didn't have to follow a certain pattern to sing.

Day after day, as I persisted, changes took place. One day I discovered that I could say a full sentence without looking at the text. The sentence had become mine! During the exam, English flew into my mind. I could fill in a blank after reading the sentence just once and I received a high mark. When I heard my classmate reciting a text, I could finish it because I was so familiar with the book.

For the first time I realized that learning English was so interesting and the rewards were abundant. By reading in the morning, I made myself gradually accustomed to the English way of saying things. It helped me express myself and it set me free as a bird in the sky.

 - Daisy(Liu Jia)  -

Just Recite

From junior middle school, when I began to learn English, our English teacher asked us to recite every article. At the very beginning, I obediently recited every article. I found that it was not such a difficult task but other students complained about it. I could accomplish it quickly though sometimes the article was long.

Gradually, I lost interest in reciting. What I used to feel proud of became a torment. I had had enough of it. It was only a simple job of memorizing. And the teacher’s compliment no longer motivated me. The easy task later turned into  a mental burden, which I was afraid might drive me mad.

Until a small quiz.

One day our English teacher unexpectedly gave us a blank-filling quiz . After it was finished, every student cried that most of the grammar had not been taught. Additionally, the new vocabulary was another big obstacle. I was also depressed, as I felt so unsure about the answers I gave. To my great surprise, I got the highest score in the class: 90%. However, I couldn’t explain when asked by the teacher why I chose this preposition rather than another. I blushed, and murmured, "I only had a feeling that this one is right."

This reply, of course, caused laughter from the class. But the teacher gave me a smile of understanding and clarified:

"The more sentences a learner has in his mind, the stronger sense he has of this language. He, without any delay, could create a sentence with few mistakes because of the resources in his brain."

At that moment, I was rewarded for the long mission.

Since then, the happiness of reciting has come back to me. Now I am a senior in the university and I still benefit from the long work.
It is a good way to learn English, I think, if one can stick to it.

 -  Maria (Rong Jieqiong) -

Sing and Improve

I could not make any improvement in my oral English, however hard I tried, reading the texts aloud everyday.

"There is just no way for me", I thought, "my mouth is too small, and my teeth are a mess!"

Then, the year I went to senior high school, I was helplessly obsessed with the British pop band "911", whose albums touched me not only with their melody and beats but also the lyrics. So I made a great effort to imitate their pronunciation so as to sound like them.

Some of the songs were  R&B  and included Rap. I found these most difficult for me since they were faster than I could repeat word for word. However, my passion kept me trying, repeating the lyrics during every pause of my cassette recorder. When I could finally sing these "impossible" R&B parts, I realized it's not because I was able to put together each word at a faster pace. Rather, it was that because of the pressure to speak fast, some of the articulation was naturally omitted, in a way I hadn't been able to learn through  deliberate practice.

 - Rebecca -

Lose your face...or just wash it!

My high school teacher once made a rule that everyone must memorize the whole text and she would ask students to recite the text in the next class. At first, I could never recite the whole text and neither could my classmates. We sometimes omitted words and sentences and even paragraphs.

I tried whatever I could to overcome this problem, but it was no use. I even asked the classmate sitting in front of me to hold up the textbook so that I could read her book if I forgot something. I knew I could only avoid the teacher's scold in this way.

Finally I found a way to solve this problem: that was to recite the text when I brush my teeth and wash my face. I put the textbook on the wall so that I could look at if I forgot some words. And then I concentrated on washing. But in my mind I was reciting the text. Usually, my washing took a lot of time; however, I could recite the text perfectly. When the teacher asked me to recite in the next class, I could recite exactly and fluently.

Reciting texts brought a lot of benefits to my high school study. It improved my grammar, vocabulary and oral English. It is especially helpful for the examination. But I think for university study, it may be something boring and stupid.

 - Martha -

Recite the text so you can tell the story

It happened when I was in my senior middle school. I seemed liable to make mistakes when speaking English. And I couldn't find suitable sentences to express my ideas in English when I was writing. I read grammar books and did many comprehensive exercises, but that just did not help.

It was a study evening and I was very interested in the story in my textbook, which I had learned in the English Class on that day. I wanted to recite the story and then I could retell it to the others. So I did. What happened in the following days was delightful.

I could speak in English Class fluently just using the words, phrase and sentences in the story I had recited. That encouraged me greatly. Ever since then I have made a habit of reciting every good composition or text I am learning. That does work for me, though it is a hard job sometimes. It seems an efficient way to learn a language.

 - Sophia 邵樱 -

 Be Active!

I began to learn Japanese when I was a sophomore. At the beginning, because of the tiresome lessons in the daytime, I always dozed off in Japanese classes in the evening. As a result, I didn’t take in much of what the teacher had said during the class. So I had to make up for it after class. I spent many hours in  making up the work. However, it turned out that I could never keep up with my roommate who  spent almost no time on Japanese after class.

I asked her how she could learn Japanese so efficiently. Her answer was very simple—she concentrated in class and learned everything important by heart during class. Her words made me realize what a serious mistake I had made. Immediately, I decided to get rid of my bad habit. I tried very hard to keep awake and to be active---(i.e. listening to the teacher with questions which I came across in the preview). Amazingly, all the answers came to me easily and remembering new words and typical Japanese dialogues became a piece of cake for me.

Therefore, I’d like to share my experience with you and wish you a happy time in learning  a foreign language.

 - Ally (Dai Zhifei) -

Oral English Improvement

When I first came across English, I wanted to speak English very fluently. Everyday I put the Chinese sentences into English on my paper. Then I forced myself to express it in English. However, the faster I worked, the worse my oral English was. I always leaked the verse or expression unclearly. Once I even thought I could never speak a perfect sentence.

One day, my English teacher asked us to recite the text in the book and she said she would check it. I had to do it. The next day I did it perfectly. At the same time I felt I could speak English fluently.

So if I consider some sentences worth using in my daily life, I will recite them without thinking.

 - Mary -

Remember Words with Sentences

When I began to learn English, I found the new words were very interesting. I could remember them clearly one by one. But as my vocabulary was growing larger and larger as time passed by, new words were hard for me to remember. Until one day, my decreasing scores in the tests drew my English teacher Miss Xu's attention.

It was Wednesday, Miss Xu came to me after class.

"Why did you do bad in the recent tests?" she asked.

"I can't remember words any more. My brain is full of the old words."

"How do you remember words?" she asked.

"Recite. Recite the words and remember them."

"That's the problem. From now on, try another way. Try to recite the words together with sentences."

In the following month, I tried the method that Miss Xu had told me. It worked as I expected. I used this method from then on. All new words became easy to remember.

 - Elizabeth -