My opinion on the improvement of English listening and speaking ability

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Looking back on my English learning road, I stumbled all the way. Up to now, I have only achieved a little success, and I never dare to be a "master". Therefore, this article only records a little experience that I think is still useful for students' reference.

I want to say a lot, but in the final analysis, it's just a sentence: imitation is the best way to learn. This idea is very simple. Since English is not my mother tongue, I will try my best to get closer to native speakers of English in all aspects through imitation, so as to make my English as authentic as possible. Specifically, it is to use English and American dramas, English movies, English novels, English news and other audio-visual and written resources as learning materials, to extract the essence, to make use of them, and to improve their English level from all aspects. Now let's talk about how to improve the level of English listening and speaking.

Listening and speaking are not separated. Although listening and speaking tests are still set separately in some domestic English tests, there is almost no unilateral speaking or listening in actual communication. When I practice listening and speaking, I basically use audio-visual resources of well-known English news media, English and American dramas and English movies as the main materials to practice in different ways.

Listening to news and learning English

For English news media, I recommend NPR, VOA and BBC, which are very suitable for online learning. For example, figure 1 shows the news "is living with extreme wildfires the new normal" on NPR's official website on September 29, 2013 In addition to text, there is also audio on the web page. You can click the play button on the left side of listen to the story to listen online, or you can click the download button to download MP3 files. In addition, it should be noted that the text and audio content on the web page are not 100% strictly corresponding, and there is a certain degree of difference between the two. It can be seen that the announcer is not reading the manuscript word by word mechanically, but broadcasting the manuscript content to the audience in his own way. The same sentence may be expressed in two ways in words and audio, which can not only exercise our listening, but also help us accumulate different expressions with the same meaning. Take this news as an example, there is a sentence in the text of the webpage: now, the number of deaths from fires every year has decreased to around 3000. In the corresponding MP3 file, the content I heard is: today, the number of deaths from fires every year is around 3000, A fraction of the old number. In the expression of "the number of people killed by fire has dropped to about 3000", the former uses a very traditional expression "has increased to around 3000", while the latter is divided into two parts. This kind of expression is undoubtedly rare and "amazing" for us.

When using the Internet news media to learn English, it is suggested that students practice from different angles. For example, reading the news on the web page directly is regarded as reading training; Or listen to the audio first, then look at the words, as listening practice. For another example, intensive reading of the text, learning the wonderful words, in order to improve their writing level. It is suggested that students usually read and listen more until they understand the news content, and select the news they are interested in for intensive reading and listening, so as to thoroughly understand it. In addition, based on my experience in teaching translation courses in Shanghai New Oriental School, I strongly recommend that students who like translation use these news as materials for listening, visual, interpretation or written translation. They can eat more with one dish and use more with one article. These news resources can not only read, but also listen to and watch (some media such as CNN and BBC also provide videos). They are really essential for learning English!

If you think the above resources are too difficult, you can also choose the famous VOA learning English, that is, the former VOA Special English, whose usage is almost the same as NPR. The only difference is that the website is designed for non English native speakers. The difficulty of writing and the speed of audio are lower than the Standard Version, and it is now divided into two levels: 1 and 2. It is especially suitable for middle school students and junior college students. What's more surprising is that when browsing the website, if there is a word that you don't know, the cursor hovers over the word for one second and an arrow will appear. After clicking, the English interpretation and example sentences of the word in Merriam Webster dictionary will pop up (see Figure 2). Its service is really exciting!