Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! I'm Gloria from a vocational school in Lanzhou. I'm thankful for TIP to give me this opportunity to share my opinions with you here. The topic of my speech is:
What Is the Most Effective Way to Improve Your English?
First, I what to ask you a question: What's the biggest problem for Chinese people in learning English? Yes, we have spent many years, maybe more than 10 or 20 years studying English, but we cannot speak English well.
Before I went to college, I had learned English for 6 years in a middle school. I got the highest score for English in that year's national college-entering examinations in our county. Then I got an offer from a university, majoring in English. Though I had got a good score, I could not say a complete sentence, what's worst, I could hardly follow my teachers at classes and could hardly understand one word. I just looked at my classmates and did what they did. I had no idea what assignments our teachers gave us every day. This situation lasted for several months.
Why did this happen? I did learn a lot of English, I did well in grammar, in vocabulary, and in reading comprehension, but I had just learned the knowledge of English, not the English language itself! It's just like a person who learns swimming, he may know a lot of knowledge about swimming, but he has never jumped into the water and sunk, how can he learn to swim?
Yes, we adults often make English learning so complicated. We should learn from children how they learn a language, it will be much easier and faster. Here Dr. Yu Guoliang gives us some advice:
First, communication is more than just words. Second, the easiest way to learn a new language is via communication. Third, the fastest way to learn a language is to learn like a child.
If a child lives in an English only environment, he can learn to speak English easily and quickly, because he is surrounded by an English only environment, he can listen to people speak English anywhere anytime.
But what if an adult is put into an English only environment? I don't think the same things will happen as to the children. Here I want to share with you some experiences I had when I was in the United States.
Last year I went to Los Angeles to attend my daughter's commencement--her graduation ceremony. I lived with her in a house she rented. We lived on the second floor, and on the third floor lived an old lady who came from China, maybe Guangdong province. She has lived in USA for many years. I greeted her in Chinese first, but she just shook her hand, it seemed that she could not understand me, then I greeted her in English, to my surprise, she shook her hand again! At that moment, I felt very sorry and sympathetic for her. How lonely she is!
Another day, I went to the supermarket nearby to buy some vegetables and meat. When I came to the meat counter, a middle-aged Chinese man was standing behind it. I asked him to cut a kilo of meat for me, but he seemed not to understand my English. Then we chatted in Chinese. He told me he came from Fujian province, before he immigrated to the United States, he had just studied at school for a few years and had not got much education.
The old lady and the middle-aged man are living in an English only environment, but why can't they speak English? I will never get the right answer until I come to TIP. Now I know the reason. They are not willing to attack their limitations, they fear to change themselves, they just remain unchanged.
For us adults, it's really very hard to change ourselves. We build a lot of limitations for ourselves. If we don't attack our limitations, don't change ourselves from within, how can we improve ourselves?
Here I take Selina as the best example to show how TIP's "ABC" works on her.
On the third day afternoon at TIP, Selina sat just next to me when we had big classes in the hall. Facilitator Roland told us to introduce ourselves to our partner to make a new friend.
Selina told me before she came to TIP, she thought her spoken English was very poor, she wanted to improve it, so her husband searched for some English training organizations online and finally selected TIP. He thought the training at TIP is the most suitable for her. Actually he made a good choice. She paid the training tuition herself and becomes a TIP member just like you and me.
She is the only person that comes from Zhejiang province, she has no colleagues, no friends here, besides, she didn't have any confidence. On the first two days, she could not find anybody to talk with, nobody could understand her because of her poor English. She was always alone, and lonely.
I listened to her attentively and patiently, and asked her to repeat the parts that was not so clear or try to say in another way. Thanks to my patience, I understood her completely. I told her she really spoke good English, not poor English, because she could express herself in a good way and could be understood by me. Other people couldn't understand her, maybe they just lacked patience to listen to her, that's their problem, not her problem. Hearing this, she felt greatly encouraged.
Ever since, she would find any chance to meet me and talk to me. She has committed herself completely to English learning, she works so hard every day, and what's more, she's mart, she has a strong desire to change herself from both outside and inside, she's attacking her limitations. I encouraged her a lot. I just help her to build her confidence.
These days, she has made an amazing progress in speaking English. Her persistence also encourages me in my English learning, especially in finishing my speech.
Attitude is everything. God help those who help themselves. Just as Grandma Moses says, "And life is what we make it. Always has been, always will be." Selina is on her way to success, I am sure for that.
At TIP, we have not only attacked our limitations, built our confidence, committed ourselves, we also have many interesting activities, we learn English in a childlike way.
There is a Learning Pyramid, the research shows that we get 90% of our memory retention by teaching others, 75% by doing practices, 50% from discussion, 30% from demonstration, 20% from audiovisual, 10% from reading, and only 5% from lecture.
Luckily for us, TIP provides us with all these wonderful things.
So, what is the most effective way to improve your English? Yes, it's TIP! At TIP, you'll be encouraged by your facilitators, your classmates, and your friends. You will be your own teachers. "When you are your own teacher, the world is your classroom!" You will attack your limitations, build your confidence, commit yourself!
So let's say it together:
When you are your own teacher, the world is your classroom! Attack Your Limitations, Build Your Confidence, Commit Yourself!
That's all. Thank you for your listening!