I often hear teachers say that I must think in English. How can I do that?
Thinking in a second language is difficult, because you must be quite comfortable with that language in order to do it. There is no real way to train yourself; it just happens naturally as you get more and more comfortable with English. However, here are some things to keep in mind.
* Try to answer questions that the teachers or other people ask you in English, without first trying to think of how you would say it in Chinese.
* Think of how you would say it in Chinese only when you get really stuck.
* You can also try and memorize some basic grammatical structures of English sentences to help you construct your own sentences.
* Lastly, keep listening to English. As you hear the way others use certain words and phrases, make note of it and try to use it yourself. Keep practicing!
Is above useful to you?
How can I improve my reading and writing skills?
Here are some ideas you can try. There is a magazine, it's name is Studio Classroom and you can use it!
* Read aloud with the teachers. You will learn to read more smoothly, and your intonation and expression will improve. Don"t stop when you stumble on a word. Mark it and continue reading. After you finish reading, go back and practice your problem words.
* Don"t stop to look up every new word in your dictionary. Read an entire paragraph. Underline words you do not understand. After reading the paragraph, try to guess the meanings of the words. Then check your dictionary. You will remember more words this way. Use an English/English dictionary whenever possible.
* Practice writing mechanics. Rewrite a paragraph, changing it in some way. For example, if the paragraph is in present tense, change it to past. If the subject is "he" or "she," change it to "I" or "you."
* Choose a sentence pattern from an article. Write three or four new sentences using that pattern. Examples: I enjoy listening to the songs he sings. They enjoy eating the food she cooks. She enjoys reading the articles we wrote.
* Write sentences with the Word Bank words. Share them with your friends, or keep them in a journal.
* Choose an article topic to write about. If the topic is a foreign country, write what you know about it or what you would do if you went there.
* After studying a conversation article, write your own conversation on the same topic. Use words and phrases from the article.
* Write your opinion of an article topic. Share it with a friend. Find a Studio Classroom pen pal. Agree to write each other once a week and discuss an article by letter
How can I practice speaking in English if I don't have any foreign friends?
Don't wait till you meet a foreigner before you try speaking English. In fact, you can use your magazine to improve your speaking. Practice using some of the tips below, and next time you talk to a foreigner, you should already see the difference.
* To improve your pronunciation, record the daily reading. Choose one paragraph and record yourself reading it. Then compare the teacher"s reading with your own. You will discover sounds you need to practice, and you will learn more about phrasing and intonation.
* To increase your understanding of the teachers' discussions, read the article first. If you do not understand it, read the Chinese translation. Then read the English article again. Do not go back and forth between English and Chinese. Learn English in English.
* Don't get distracted when you do not understand a word. Listen for ideas and meanings, not just individual words. To increase your understanding, record the program and listen again.
* Be an active listener. When the teacher asks a question, try to answer it yourself. Make a list of questions about the lesson. Then answer them yourself, or ask a friend.
* Listen to the program with a friend. After the program, talk about it in English. Share your opinions and what you learned about the articles.
* Use the words and phrases you learn in the articles. Speak to someone every day in English.
* Call Studio Classroom on "Call Your Teacher." Talk to your teachers about the articles. Before you call, think of several questions to discuss. Studying English can be fun. But you must be patient with yourself. Learning to use a foreign language takes time and effort. Keep a positive attitude and try to enjoy learning. Knowing a second language opens up a whole new world. Try some of these ideas and have fun learning!
Please give me some tips on making a speech. Ok, there are some tips on making a speech, perhaps, it's useful for you:
* Know your audience. Understanding who you are speaking to will guide you in choosing a topic or topic angle.
* Set a purpose. Know what you want to accomplish, how you will do it, and why you are presenting the subject to the listeners.
* Write an outline before preparing the speech. Write the body first. Then write the introduction and the conclusion last.
* The body of the speech should hold the listeners" attention. Give the main points and back them up with specific viewpoints. Use plenty of details.
* Make the introduction lively. Use a question, a joke or a short story to draw your audience into the topic.
* State a strong conclusion. Quote a famous person or challenge the audience to use the information you"ve just given to them.
* Practice in front of a mirror. Then present the speech to a friend or relative. You might want to tape-record (or videotape) your speech and listen to it yourself, too.
* Don"t wait until the last minute to prepare.
* Don"t write out the speech word-for-word and memorize it.
* Don"t make your speech too long or too short.
* Don"t try to cover too much material.
* Don"t go to bed too late the night before your speech.
* Don"t look at your notes the entire time.
* Don"t stand like a statue or move around too much.
* Don"t talk too fast.
I need to make an impromptu speech tomorrow. How can I prepare?
Impromptu speeches make everyone nervous. When given an impromptu topic, plan carefully. Take a minute and write down a few ideas that you might talk about. For example, if your topic is chewing gum, think about things like colors, flavors, why people use it, etc. Then choose the best two or three. Organize them in order of importance. Don't worry about using fancy vocabulary words. Just try to be clear and direct. Stick to your subject. Like anything else, giving impromptu speeches takes practice. Try to prepare a two-minute impromptu speech on one of the following topics. Then give it in front of the mirror.
* A childhood memory
* Your ultimate dream house
* Something you"d love to do but will never have the time
* A famous person you would like to meet
* What you think you will be doing in five years
How to love learning English ― improving your motivation
Before you start reading, you should know this: Learning English requires action. You may know all the learning tips, but if you don"t start doing things, you will achieve nothing. Therefore our method is not just for reading; it is for reading and doing.
You need two things to learn English well ― passion and effective learning methods ― and passion is the more important one. Why? Because passion makes you want to learn English; the learning methods only tell you how to do it faster.
If you love learning English:
You will do it regularly and spend more time on it. Learning English will be easier for you. It will be easy for you to remember new words and grammar structures. It"s because the brain easily remembers information on a subject that you like. (For example, some people like history and know everything about World War II. If you told a "normal person" to memorize all these facts, they would never do it.)
We know you may not love learning English. And even if you love it, you will sometimes not want to do it. This is how human psychology works ― sometimes we are so lazy, bored, and tired that we don"t want to do even the things that we like.
Here is what you can do when you don't feel like learning English:
Imagine yourself in the future
Imagine you can talk to native speakers just like you talk in your first language. Imagine other people wanting to speak English as well as you do. Imagine the possibility of writing e-mail to people from all over the world.
It is helpful to read an article about the advantages of knowing English well. There are two such articles on Antimoon: Why learn English and English makes you feel good. You should know that it is possible to learn English really well. Just look at other people who have done it.
Remember that you are already good. You already know some English (you're reading an article in English right now). That"s a big success! Now it"s time for more successes. Time to start using powerful methods of effective learning. Time to gain an impressive knowledge of English.
Remember there is a lot that you don't know. You are good, but your English probably isn"t perfect. You probably can't understand English-language TV, read books in English, talk to native speakers easily, write letters without mistakes, etc.
You should never think your English is perfect. Even if you are the best student in your class, always try to find your weak areas and work on them. When you"ve learned to speak English well, your problems will be quite small: punctuation, rarely used grammar structures, rare words, understanding "street language". Right now, your problems are probably more basic: mistakes in pronunciation, small vocabulary, grammar problems with the present perfect tense and conditional structures.
Use your English whenever you can. This is very, very important. The more you use English, the more you will want to learn it. Because English is so popular, you can use it everywhere. You can use Yahoo to find English-language websites with interesting information, you can watch American cartoons, you can play adventure games on your computer, you can read interesting books in English, or you can do other things that we write about.
If you do these things, you will not only have fun and learn English. If you see that a new English word lets you understand your favorite TV show (or communicate with people, or beat a computer game), you will want to learn more words. So you will learn English more, use it more, learn it more, use it more... If you also use effective learning methods, your English will grow faster than you can imagine.
Talk to people about English. This is a very simple method, but it is very effective. Here's how it works:
* You usually talk about things which interest you. But the opposite is true, too. If you start talking about a boring subject, you will begin to get interested in it.
* Imagine you are studying a subject that you hate. You are bored and tired, but you have to pass the test tomorrow. If there are people near you, you have two options: you can tell everybody how much you are suffering or you can tell those people about the things you"ve learned. If you choose the first option, you will only feel worse.
If you choose the second option, and start a conversation on the "boring" subject, you will begin to look at it in a totally different way. Suddenly it will become a subject worth talking about ― therefore, an interesting subject.
How can you begin such a conversation? If you're studying English, you can surprise another person by talking to him/her in English. Say (in English): Hi, I'm studying English and I hate it. Or you can say (in your first language): Hey, I've learned 50 English words today. Do you know what's the English word for ...? If there are no people near you, you can telephone or send an e-mail message to your friend.
What will your friends say? Probably they won't be very interested, but it doesn"t matter! The important thing is this: After talking about English, you will study it with much more passion. Try it.
Find a friend who is learning English
If you can find a friend who is learning English and is on a similar level of skill, you will be in an excellent situation:
you will have someone to talk about English with. These conversations will increase your interest in English, as explained in the previous section.
Learning English will be easier, because you will be able to discuss your problems with your friend.
You will study English more, because you will want to be better than your friends.
You should meet your friend regularly. Ideally, he/she should live near you, or go to the same school as you. If you absolutely can"t find anybody willing to learn English with you, you can try to find somebody by e-mail. This is a worse solution: your conversations will probably be less frequent, and it is difficult to compete with someone who you don"t know well.
Spend some money on learning English
If you spend your money on something, you will want to use it. For example, if you buy an expensive tennis racket, you will probably go out and play tennis every day.
This rule is also true for learning English. If you want to increase your desire to learn English, buy a new dictionary, a new SuperMemo collection, an interesting English-language book, English-language cable TV, etc. The idea is simple: You paid for it, so you will want to use it, and you will improve your English.
There is a problem with this method. It only works for a short time. You usually lose your desire to learn English after a few days. To keep learning, you would have to buy something every week!
However, this method is helpful, because it gives you an impulse to start learning. For example, if you buy a dictionary of phrasal verbs, you will probably learn some words from it. Then you should try to use them. For example, write an e-mail message with these words. This will increase your motivation (as explained before), and you will learn more.
Read Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
Anthony Robbins" book Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement gives excellent advice on how to achieve any kind of goal. This book has changed the lives of many people, so you might want to take a look at it.
Remember that learning English requires action
We have said this many times. One small action is more powerful than reading hundreds of articles. Yes, we know it is very hard to do things, even if they are good for us. We humans are lazy creatures. That is why not many people speak English well.
Still, we hope you can do the things we talk about in our English learning method ― not only read about them. You will be successful only if you change something about your life.
Don"t put it off. Begin now.
Thinking in a second language is difficult, because you must be quite comfortable with that language in order to do it. There is no real way to train yourself; it just happens naturally as you get more and more comfortable with English. However, here are some things to keep in mind.
* Try to answer questions that the teachers or other people ask you in English, without first trying to think of how you would say it in Chinese.
* Think of how you would say it in Chinese only when you get really stuck.
* You can also try and memorize some basic grammatical structures of English sentences to help you construct your own sentences.
* Lastly, keep listening to English. As you hear the way others use certain words and phrases, make note of it and try to use it yourself. Keep practicing!
Is above useful to you?
How can I improve my reading and writing skills?
Here are some ideas you can try. There is a magazine, it's name is Studio Classroom and you can use it!
* Read aloud with the teachers. You will learn to read more smoothly, and your intonation and expression will improve. Don"t stop when you stumble on a word. Mark it and continue reading. After you finish reading, go back and practice your problem words.
* Don"t stop to look up every new word in your dictionary. Read an entire paragraph. Underline words you do not understand. After reading the paragraph, try to guess the meanings of the words. Then check your dictionary. You will remember more words this way. Use an English/English dictionary whenever possible.
* Practice writing mechanics. Rewrite a paragraph, changing it in some way. For example, if the paragraph is in present tense, change it to past. If the subject is "he" or "she," change it to "I" or "you."
* Choose a sentence pattern from an article. Write three or four new sentences using that pattern. Examples: I enjoy listening to the songs he sings. They enjoy eating the food she cooks. She enjoys reading the articles we wrote.
* Write sentences with the Word Bank words. Share them with your friends, or keep them in a journal.
* Choose an article topic to write about. If the topic is a foreign country, write what you know about it or what you would do if you went there.
* After studying a conversation article, write your own conversation on the same topic. Use words and phrases from the article.
* Write your opinion of an article topic. Share it with a friend. Find a Studio Classroom pen pal. Agree to write each other once a week and discuss an article by letter
How can I practice speaking in English if I don't have any foreign friends?
Don't wait till you meet a foreigner before you try speaking English. In fact, you can use your magazine to improve your speaking. Practice using some of the tips below, and next time you talk to a foreigner, you should already see the difference.
* To improve your pronunciation, record the daily reading. Choose one paragraph and record yourself reading it. Then compare the teacher"s reading with your own. You will discover sounds you need to practice, and you will learn more about phrasing and intonation.
* To increase your understanding of the teachers' discussions, read the article first. If you do not understand it, read the Chinese translation. Then read the English article again. Do not go back and forth between English and Chinese. Learn English in English.
* Don't get distracted when you do not understand a word. Listen for ideas and meanings, not just individual words. To increase your understanding, record the program and listen again.
* Be an active listener. When the teacher asks a question, try to answer it yourself. Make a list of questions about the lesson. Then answer them yourself, or ask a friend.
* Listen to the program with a friend. After the program, talk about it in English. Share your opinions and what you learned about the articles.
* Use the words and phrases you learn in the articles. Speak to someone every day in English.
* Call Studio Classroom on "Call Your Teacher." Talk to your teachers about the articles. Before you call, think of several questions to discuss. Studying English can be fun. But you must be patient with yourself. Learning to use a foreign language takes time and effort. Keep a positive attitude and try to enjoy learning. Knowing a second language opens up a whole new world. Try some of these ideas and have fun learning!
Please give me some tips on making a speech. Ok, there are some tips on making a speech, perhaps, it's useful for you:
* Know your audience. Understanding who you are speaking to will guide you in choosing a topic or topic angle.
* Set a purpose. Know what you want to accomplish, how you will do it, and why you are presenting the subject to the listeners.
* Write an outline before preparing the speech. Write the body first. Then write the introduction and the conclusion last.
* The body of the speech should hold the listeners" attention. Give the main points and back them up with specific viewpoints. Use plenty of details.
* Make the introduction lively. Use a question, a joke or a short story to draw your audience into the topic.
* State a strong conclusion. Quote a famous person or challenge the audience to use the information you"ve just given to them.
* Practice in front of a mirror. Then present the speech to a friend or relative. You might want to tape-record (or videotape) your speech and listen to it yourself, too.
* Don"t wait until the last minute to prepare.
* Don"t write out the speech word-for-word and memorize it.
* Don"t make your speech too long or too short.
* Don"t try to cover too much material.
* Don"t go to bed too late the night before your speech.
* Don"t look at your notes the entire time.
* Don"t stand like a statue or move around too much.
* Don"t talk too fast.
I need to make an impromptu speech tomorrow. How can I prepare?
Impromptu speeches make everyone nervous. When given an impromptu topic, plan carefully. Take a minute and write down a few ideas that you might talk about. For example, if your topic is chewing gum, think about things like colors, flavors, why people use it, etc. Then choose the best two or three. Organize them in order of importance. Don't worry about using fancy vocabulary words. Just try to be clear and direct. Stick to your subject. Like anything else, giving impromptu speeches takes practice. Try to prepare a two-minute impromptu speech on one of the following topics. Then give it in front of the mirror.
* A childhood memory
* Your ultimate dream house
* Something you"d love to do but will never have the time
* A famous person you would like to meet
* What you think you will be doing in five years
How to love learning English ― improving your motivation
Before you start reading, you should know this: Learning English requires action. You may know all the learning tips, but if you don"t start doing things, you will achieve nothing. Therefore our method is not just for reading; it is for reading and doing.
You need two things to learn English well ― passion and effective learning methods ― and passion is the more important one. Why? Because passion makes you want to learn English; the learning methods only tell you how to do it faster.
If you love learning English:
You will do it regularly and spend more time on it. Learning English will be easier for you. It will be easy for you to remember new words and grammar structures. It"s because the brain easily remembers information on a subject that you like. (For example, some people like history and know everything about World War II. If you told a "normal person" to memorize all these facts, they would never do it.)
We know you may not love learning English. And even if you love it, you will sometimes not want to do it. This is how human psychology works ― sometimes we are so lazy, bored, and tired that we don"t want to do even the things that we like.
Here is what you can do when you don't feel like learning English:
Imagine yourself in the future
Imagine you can talk to native speakers just like you talk in your first language. Imagine other people wanting to speak English as well as you do. Imagine the possibility of writing e-mail to people from all over the world.
It is helpful to read an article about the advantages of knowing English well. There are two such articles on Antimoon: Why learn English and English makes you feel good. You should know that it is possible to learn English really well. Just look at other people who have done it.
Remember that you are already good. You already know some English (you're reading an article in English right now). That"s a big success! Now it"s time for more successes. Time to start using powerful methods of effective learning. Time to gain an impressive knowledge of English.
Remember there is a lot that you don't know. You are good, but your English probably isn"t perfect. You probably can't understand English-language TV, read books in English, talk to native speakers easily, write letters without mistakes, etc.
You should never think your English is perfect. Even if you are the best student in your class, always try to find your weak areas and work on them. When you"ve learned to speak English well, your problems will be quite small: punctuation, rarely used grammar structures, rare words, understanding "street language". Right now, your problems are probably more basic: mistakes in pronunciation, small vocabulary, grammar problems with the present perfect tense and conditional structures.
Use your English whenever you can. This is very, very important. The more you use English, the more you will want to learn it. Because English is so popular, you can use it everywhere. You can use Yahoo to find English-language websites with interesting information, you can watch American cartoons, you can play adventure games on your computer, you can read interesting books in English, or you can do other things that we write about.
If you do these things, you will not only have fun and learn English. If you see that a new English word lets you understand your favorite TV show (or communicate with people, or beat a computer game), you will want to learn more words. So you will learn English more, use it more, learn it more, use it more... If you also use effective learning methods, your English will grow faster than you can imagine.
Talk to people about English. This is a very simple method, but it is very effective. Here's how it works:
* You usually talk about things which interest you. But the opposite is true, too. If you start talking about a boring subject, you will begin to get interested in it.
* Imagine you are studying a subject that you hate. You are bored and tired, but you have to pass the test tomorrow. If there are people near you, you have two options: you can tell everybody how much you are suffering or you can tell those people about the things you"ve learned. If you choose the first option, you will only feel worse.
If you choose the second option, and start a conversation on the "boring" subject, you will begin to look at it in a totally different way. Suddenly it will become a subject worth talking about ― therefore, an interesting subject.
How can you begin such a conversation? If you're studying English, you can surprise another person by talking to him/her in English. Say (in English): Hi, I'm studying English and I hate it. Or you can say (in your first language): Hey, I've learned 50 English words today. Do you know what's the English word for ...? If there are no people near you, you can telephone or send an e-mail message to your friend.
What will your friends say? Probably they won't be very interested, but it doesn"t matter! The important thing is this: After talking about English, you will study it with much more passion. Try it.
Find a friend who is learning English
If you can find a friend who is learning English and is on a similar level of skill, you will be in an excellent situation:
you will have someone to talk about English with. These conversations will increase your interest in English, as explained in the previous section.
Learning English will be easier, because you will be able to discuss your problems with your friend.
You will study English more, because you will want to be better than your friends.
You should meet your friend regularly. Ideally, he/she should live near you, or go to the same school as you. If you absolutely can"t find anybody willing to learn English with you, you can try to find somebody by e-mail. This is a worse solution: your conversations will probably be less frequent, and it is difficult to compete with someone who you don"t know well.
Spend some money on learning English
If you spend your money on something, you will want to use it. For example, if you buy an expensive tennis racket, you will probably go out and play tennis every day.
This rule is also true for learning English. If you want to increase your desire to learn English, buy a new dictionary, a new SuperMemo collection, an interesting English-language book, English-language cable TV, etc. The idea is simple: You paid for it, so you will want to use it, and you will improve your English.
There is a problem with this method. It only works for a short time. You usually lose your desire to learn English after a few days. To keep learning, you would have to buy something every week!
However, this method is helpful, because it gives you an impulse to start learning. For example, if you buy a dictionary of phrasal verbs, you will probably learn some words from it. Then you should try to use them. For example, write an e-mail message with these words. This will increase your motivation (as explained before), and you will learn more.
Read Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
Anthony Robbins" book Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement gives excellent advice on how to achieve any kind of goal. This book has changed the lives of many people, so you might want to take a look at it.
Remember that learning English requires action
We have said this many times. One small action is more powerful than reading hundreds of articles. Yes, we know it is very hard to do things, even if they are good for us. We humans are lazy creatures. That is why not many people speak English well.
Still, we hope you can do the things we talk about in our English learning method ― not only read about them. You will be successful only if you change something about your life.
Don"t put it off. Begin now.
![ㄗs:]杰.](/data/avatars/m/9/9037.jpg?1479389105){kind=avatar}
