Enlarge Your Vocabulary by Reading

As a freshman here in this university, I wanted to enlarge my vocabulary desperately. I had difficulty everywhere: I couldn't understand my teacher sometimes; I dared not speak English; I couldn't do my listening exercises well. It was a terrible period time for me.

I tried many ways to remember new words. Then I found that I didn't know how to use the words I had just recited. The words were not really mine. Just then, my extensive reading teacher advised us to read English newspapers.

I listened to him that time and started to read newspapers. Newspapers contain a lot of interesting things so doing it was not boring. Gradually, I found I could use many new words freely. I remembered them and I knew how to use them. I was really happy then.

Reading newspapers gave me quite a lot. I had a better command of the words and the phrases. I could understand the News on the radio and TV better. I will make it a habit of mine during my life.

 - Jackie 马达 -

Dreaming in English

Recitation was the basic method we were taught to improve English in my senior middle school years. At that time, we had such a small vocabulary that our notebooks were always full of new words. If a dictation test was approaching, it was quite likely for us to stay up late into the night preparing.

The story I am going to tell happened on just such a  night. We went to sleep later than usual. In the middle of the night, I was awoken by an utterance of words.... Not in Chinese!!!

UFO!?!?!

That was the word that flashed through my mind. When I was about to receive the most adventurous experience in my life, I recognized the language was English. What’s more, it came directly from the person in the next bed. The voice was so familiar and the context of her speech was so textbook-like that I couldn’t be wrong. Someone was reciting her new vocabulary in her sleep!

Dr. Freud is right that people always dream about their worries. He is also right that a person’s inner mind still works while she is asleep. I believe the memorization ability of the inner mind is much more powerful than we have thought it to be.

Because of that, my classmate who dreamed in English, as she was supposed to have done, got a nearly perfect performance the next day.

 - Celia -

Learn Your Own Way

As an English learner, I have been studying it for more than ten years. I still remember how difficult it was for me to keep up with my classmates when I was a freshman.

After I entered this university, everything was new to me, especially the new English books. There were so many new words. What’s more, the teachers all spoke English, which was hard for me to understand. At first, I tried to remember all the things in the textbook. But to my disappointment, that was of little help. Until one day, a lecture changed all this.

It was given by a teacher from the New Orient School. He spoke fluent and correct English and told us that he had recited the ‘New Concept English?book more than 200 times. This impressed me. I began to realize that  the English in the textbooks was far from enough. So I borrowed original English novels, I read English newspapers and I began to read and recite ‘New Concept English?too.

Gradually, my vocabulary has enlarged, my spoken English has become more vivid and my listening comprehension has been improved.

So according to my own experience, I think learning English is a bitter process. One can only find his or her own proper way to improve it. Find your own English and learn it!

 - Melody -

Accumulate Idioms

As an English-major, I’ve got used to lingering in bookshops searching for books guiding English learning.

One afternoon I happened to thumb through a book of this kind. It pointed out that a seven year old American boy could freely express himself with the simplest words, most of which were set phrases and expressions. Furthermore, such “simple English?was enough for daily use.

Comparatively, most Chinese students usually preferr using typical words to phrases, which made their writing difficult and awkward. These instructions impressed me a lot.

I began to accumulate English idioms and expressions. I tried to avoid difficult and old-fashioned words. I believe it is a long-term investment.

 - 张伟浩(ZhangWeiHao) -

Use the Dictionary as Your Teacher

We had a new English teacher when I was in grade two in high school. Quite different from other teachers, he asked us to look up new words in the textbook by ourselves. Every time he would ask students to explain the new words instead of teaching us the new words. Every week we were supposed to write a paper about the new words for the class newspaper.

Although it took us much time to use the dictionary, it was very helpful to my English learning. I began to grasp the meaning of the words and sentences much better. And in fact, I saved time in looking up the meaning of many words repeatedly because I could easily memorize those words by looking them up by myself. In that year My English was improved rapidly.

In grade three, I took part in an English contest and got a good result.

The most important result is that ever since then, I have developed a good habit of using the dictionary as my teacher. Also I became interested in English and now I am an English major.

 - Ellie (Song Xia) -

Do it Everyday

It always happens that my hard-work is to no avail, and everything do does not improve my English at all. I always come across so many new words and difficult sentences, but I don’t know what to do after class. Even have I spent a lot of time memorizing those words and phrases, there are new ones. It seems that there are countless words I have to remember; what I have learned is really such a small number. That’s made me tired and disappointed.

All that has changed since I began to keep a small note book two years ago. I wrote down those useful words that I came across during the class or my reading. Any free time I had, I would take out my notebook and read the sentences and words. One day, when I was reading a report from China Daily, I saw a phrase, which had been taught by my foreign teacher several weeks earlier. I knew this phrase because I had added it to my notebook and had read it many times, while many of my friends didn’t remember it after such a long time. I was excited and very satisfied with my perseverance.

That’s what I want to tell you: What you have learned today may not be useful tomorrow; however, it must be helpful and useful in the future.

English can't be learned in one day. Do it everyday, and you will find everything is getting better and better!

 -  Yvonne -