How to Improve Your Spoken English The same is true for learning English. It is not sufficient simply to study lot, one must study the right way. If one wants to learn English well, he must have the Foolish Mans spirit, but the Wise Man s method The rest of this book will help you develop a wise mans method. I suggest that you will acquire language best when you study in such a way that you 1) listen to large amounts of comprehensible input, 2 ) have opportunities to use the target language to communicate with others, and 3) input comprehensible and developing awareness ning(focused on making support your learning with some grammatical lear This document may be reproduced and distributed freely. However, the contents must not be changed
How to Improve Your Spoken English This document may be reproduced and distributed freely. However, the contents must not be changed. 6 The same is true for learning English. It is not sufficient simply to study a lot, one must study the right way. If one wants to learn English well, he must have the Foolish Man’s spirit, but the Wise Man’s method. The rest of this book will help you develop a wise man’s method. I suggest that you will acquire language best when you study in such a way that you 1) listen to large amounts of comprehensible input, 2) have opportunities to use the target language to communicate with others, and 3) support your learning with some grammatical learning (focused on making input comprehensible and developing awareness)
How to Improve Your Spoken English COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT I suggest that you will acquire language best when you study in such a way that you 1) listen to large amounts of comprehensible input, 2) have opportunities to use the target language to communicate with others, and 3) support your learning with some grammatical learning(focused on making input comprehensible and developing awareness) A Brief History of Linguistic Theory For much of the 20th century in the West, language researchers thought that children learned language simply by forming habits, by imitating what was heard. In response to this, Noam Chomsky declared that language was too complex to be learned simply through imitation. Furthermore, if children were simply imitating what they heard, how could researchers explain the mistakes of children? It appeared that children were making mistakes because they were applying "rules"where they did not belong, producing speech like"you hurted me. A phrase they would never hear in their environment. Apparently children did not simply imitate speech, but were actively constructing"rules"in their mind from the input they received to govern their speech. More importantly, they did not receive enough nformation about language in their environment to give them all the knowledge they needed to know the things that they knew about language How could children do this? Chomsky hypothesized that humans are born with a"language acquisition device. This device is a part of the brain designed specifically for language acquisition and is separate from its other parts. He believed all that was needed to get this device to start working, was input, exposure to language Later, researchers began noticing that second language learners also produced language that contained mistakes, yet these mistakes were not arbitrary but governed by " rules. However, these"rules" could neither simply be attributed to the influence of the native language nor the target language Researchers refer to this system of rules as "interlanguage This interlanguage is transitional. As learners grow in the language, their In other words, as they make progress their language becomes more and e interlanguage system becomes more and more similar to the target language more correct. This"series of interim systems that a learner constructs in the process of acquiring an L2 [second language " is called the"interlanguage continuum"(Ellis 1997) o This document may be reproduced and distributed freely. However, the contents must not be changed
How to Improve Your Spoken English This document may be reproduced and distributed freely. However, the contents must not be changed. 7 COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT I suggest that you will acquire language best when you study in such a way that you 1) listen to large amounts of comprehensible input, 2) have opportunities to use the target language to communicate with others, and 3) support your learning with some grammatical learning (focused on making input comprehensible and developing awareness). A Brief History of Linguistic Theory For much of the 20th century in the West, language researchers thought that children learned language simply by forming habits, by imitating what was heard. In response to this, Noam Chomsky declared that language was too complex to be learned simply through imitation. Furthermore, if children were simply imitating what they heard, how could researchers explain the mistakes of children? It appeared that children were making mistakes because they were applying “rules” where they did not belong, producing speech like “you hurted me.” A phrase they would never hear in their environment. Apparently children did not simply imitate speech, but were actively constructing “rules” in their mind from the input they received to govern their speech. More importantly, they did not receive enough information about language in their environment to give them all the knowledge they needed to know the things that they knew about language. How could children do this? Chomsky hypothesized that humans are born with a “language acquisition device.” This device is a part of the brain designed specifically for language acquisition and is separate from its other parts. He believed all that was needed to get this device to start working, was input, exposure to language. Later, researchers began noticing that second language learners also produced language that contained mistakes, yet these mistakes were not arbitrary but governed by “rules.” However, these “rules” could neither simply be attributed to the influence of the native language nor the target language. Researchers refer to this system of rules as “interlanguage.” This interlanguage is transitional. As learners grow in the language, their interlanguage system becomes more and more similar to the target language. In other words, as they make progress their language becomes more and more correct. This “series of interim systems that a learner constructs in the process of acquiring an L2 [second language]” is called the “interlanguage continuum” (Ellis 1997)
How to Improve Your Spoken English Listening Stephen Krashen(1985) proposed the Input Hypothesis. The Input Hypothesis claims that learners make progress in English acquisition through exposure to comprehensible input Comprehensible input is defined as"understanding input that contains structures at our next ' stage structures that are a bit beyond our current level of competence"(Krashen 1985, p2). This is often designated with the equation"i+1". The"i' represents the learners current competence in the second language the" +1 symbolizes the features of the input that are beyond the learners competence, and which he is developmentally ready to acquire. According input that is either too simple or complex will not help a learner make progress in spoken English. To explore this, I asked the following questions with the following results Question: On an average da of study, how much time did Less than i hour I hour or more ou spend LISTENING to Successful learners Non-Successful Learners & 6364% 81.81% 18.18% Question: B D How well did you I understood the I could not understand MOST of understood main message but understood understand the english you all of it didn't understand only some of what was listened to while easily some parts. it with great said except learning English? [comprehensive i+ difficulty ds Successful Learners 15.05 84.85% 0% Non-successful Learners 0% 57.58% 36.36% 6.06% The results are clear. The great majority of successful English language learners in this study 1) listen to English for 1 hour or more and 2)listen to the right kind of input input where they can understand the main idea but not some parts. There are many aspects of the full Input Hypothesis that are seriously questionable. Nevertheless, I believe it is safe to claim that exposure to comprehensible input greatly benefits the language learner On the other hand, 57.58 of non-successful learners are listening to this same type ofinput. Why are they still poor speakers? Most likely, the amount of time spent listening to this kind of input is insufficient to achieve a higher 8 o This document may be reproduced and distributed freely. However, the contents must not be changed
How to Improve Your Spoken English This document may be reproduced and distributed freely. However, the contents must not be changed. 8 Listening Stephen Krashen (1985) proposed the Input Hypothesis. The Input Hypothesis claims that learners make progress in English acquisition through exposure to comprehensible input. Comprehensible input is defined as “understanding input that contains structures at our next ‘stage’ – structures that are a bit beyond our current level of competence” (Krashen, 1985, p2). This is often designated with the equation “i + 1”. The “i” represents the learner’s current competence in the second language; the “+ 1” symbolizes the features of the input that are beyond the learner’s competence, and which he is developmentally ready to acquire. Accordingly, input that is either too simple or complex will not help a learner make progress in spoken English. To explore this, I asked the following questions with the following results: Question: On an average day of study, how much time did you spend LISTENING to spoken English? Less than 1 hour 1 hour or more Successful Learners 36.36 % 63.64 % Non-Successful Learners 81.81 % 18.18 % The results are clear. The great majority of successful English language learners in this study 1) listen to English for 1 hour or more and 2) listen to the right kind of input, input where they can understand the main idea but not some parts. There are many aspects of the full Input Hypothesis that are seriously questionable. Nevertheless, I believe it is safe to claim that exposure to comprehensible input greatly benefits the language learner. On the other hand, 57.58 % of non-successful learners are listening to this same type of input. Why are they still poor speakers? Most likely, the amount of time spent listening to this kind of input is insufficient to achieve a higher Question: How well did you understand MOST of the English you listened to while learning English? A I understood all of it easily. B I understood the main message but didn’t understand some parts. [comprehensive i + 1 input] C I understood only some of it with great difficulty. D I could not understand what was said except for a few words. Successful Learners 15.05 % 84.85 % 0 % 0 % Non-successful Learners 0 % 57.58 % 36.36 % 6.06 %