A reflection on my English learning History
Indeed, I found that using English every day and to enjoy it is the best way to improve my English skills though the independent learning class.
Actually, I already recognized the fact that English ability would be bad unless using English everyday, when I was a high school student.
However, I haven’t understood the deep truth of my thoughts. Surely, I tried to use English in daily life when I was a high school student. Anyway, I just tried to speak English. However, it was not enough. That is because there are few people who can speak English correctly. What is more, I had to use a lot of Japanese with my friends and family because they were not able to speak English and they didn’t have any interest in using English. Thus, my English ability got really bad.
I am not good at reading English. So, in the Independent learning class, I set my goal to “read novels and short stories fast”, and I chose my material and considered what strategy was the best for me. Actually, these processes were really helpful for me. Because I had not realized what was the week point on my reading skills. Yet, finally I found them through these steps. I was not used to read English sentences so I couldn’t concentrate on reading English sentences.
I chose “Harry Potter” as a first material. Because I have a same story book but it is written in Japanese so I thought it was easy for me to read the book in English. However, it took so long time to read one chapter though I did my best. Through this material I learned a lot of things, mainly two things.
One is the fact that I didn’t have much vocabulary skills. During the reading, there were so many unknown words or some unknown expressions. That is why it took so long time to read that book.
The other is comparison is really fun. As I mentioned above, I have a same story book but it is written in Japanese, so I tried to compare some English sentences with Japanese sentences. There were some interesting differences between them. I think those happened because of some grammatical and even cultural differences, but actually I am not sure. I hope I can study such a difference.
At the end of this material, I found I could concentrate on long English sentences at least for one hour and half.
Anyway, I decided to change my first material into “CNN English Express”. There are also a lot of unknown words and difficult words in the text book. But the good point of this material is that it’s MD has two types of speed; natural speed and slow speed. I tried to do shadowing and reading aloud this time. It was really helpful because I could memorize some English expressions and words more clearly. In addition to this, I found I could read English sentences gradually faster and faster. What is more, I tried to make flash cards when I found some useful English expressions. I always carry them in my bag, and sometimes review them.
I think that it is obvious that my mother language is Japanese. So I have a clear perception on Japanese. Yet, on English, it is very difficult to have such a perception. It is said that we never forget our mother tongue, but as for foreign languages, we do. So, I thought that I should use English in daily life as much as possible.
Now I understood the deep truth of my thoughts. Using English is not only Speaking but also thinking in English and so on. My teacher always said “speak in English”. First, it was so difficult for me to use English for Everything. But now, I really love to speak English and to think in English in the class and even in daily life.
I was not used to using English so I didn’t know what my weak point was. However, finally, through independent learning class, I could find it.
I want to continue to use English everyday. Of course, I will do my best on my TOEFL test. Yet, I want to enjoy using English in daily life and in classes. In fact, I think that is the most important thing to learn English.
Indeed, I found that using English every day and to enjoy it is the best way to improve my English skills though the independent learning class.
Actually, I already recognized the fact that English ability would be bad unless using English everyday, when I was a high school student.
However, I haven’t understood the deep truth of my thoughts. Surely, I tried to use English in daily life when I was a high school student. Anyway, I just tried to speak English. However, it was not enough. That is because there are few people who can speak English correctly. What is more, I had to use a lot of Japanese with my friends and family because they were not able to speak English and they didn’t have any interest in using English. Thus, my English ability got really bad.
I am not good at reading English. So, in the Independent learning class, I set my goal to “read novels and short stories fast”, and I chose my material and considered what strategy was the best for me. Actually, these processes were really helpful for me. Because I had not realized what was the week point on my reading skills. Yet, finally I found them through these steps. I was not used to read English sentences so I couldn’t concentrate on reading English sentences.
I chose “Harry Potter” as a first material. Because I have a same story book but it is written in Japanese so I thought it was easy for me to read the book in English. However, it took so long time to read one chapter though I did my best. Through this material I learned a lot of things, mainly two things.
One is the fact that I didn’t have much vocabulary skills. During the reading, there were so many unknown words or some unknown expressions. That is why it took so long time to read that book.
The other is comparison is really fun. As I mentioned above, I have a same story book but it is written in Japanese, so I tried to compare some English sentences with Japanese sentences. There were some interesting differences between them. I think those happened because of some grammatical and even cultural differences, but actually I am not sure. I hope I can study such a difference.
At the end of this material, I found I could concentrate on long English sentences at least for one hour and half.
Anyway, I decided to change my first material into “CNN English Express”. There are also a lot of unknown words and difficult words in the text book. But the good point of this material is that it’s MD has two types of speed; natural speed and slow speed. I tried to do shadowing and reading aloud this time. It was really helpful because I could memorize some English expressions and words more clearly. In addition to this, I found I could read English sentences gradually faster and faster. What is more, I tried to make flash cards when I found some useful English expressions. I always carry them in my bag, and sometimes review them.
I think that it is obvious that my mother language is Japanese. So I have a clear perception on Japanese. Yet, on English, it is very difficult to have such a perception. It is said that we never forget our mother tongue, but as for foreign languages, we do. So, I thought that I should use English in daily life as much as possible.
Now I understood the deep truth of my thoughts. Using English is not only Speaking but also thinking in English and so on. My teacher always said “speak in English”. First, it was so difficult for me to use English for Everything. But now, I really love to speak English and to think in English in the class and even in daily life.
I was not used to using English so I didn’t know what my weak point was. However, finally, through independent learning class, I could find it.
I want to continue to use English everyday. Of course, I will do my best on my TOEFL test. Yet, I want to enjoy using English in daily life and in classes. In fact, I think that is the most important thing to learn English.
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