怎样喜爱学习英语(四) How to love learning English IV
怎样喜爱学习英语(四) How to love learning English IV
Typical learner vs. motivated learner
Paula is a typical learner of English with a generally low level of motivation. She has occasional moments of high
motivation - like the day before her English test or that time when she couldn't communicate with a foreign
customer who called her at work. These kind of situations make her think "I've got to do something about my
English!". However, they happen very rarely - less than once a month. So even if she studies quite intensively
(e.g. for two whole days before an exam), the results are poor, because she forgets 90% of the things she learned
within a month. This is no surprise: The way human memory works, you need to review things all the time; otherwise
you just forget them.
Now let's look at a different English learner: Judy. Judy reads a special novel for English learners (written in
simplified English) almost every day for 30 minutes. She bought an English-English dictionary and uses it to
look up English words whenever she doesn't understand a sentence in her book. It was hard to study regularly at
the beginning: Reading books and using a dictionary were not "normal activities" for her. And every English
sentence was a challenge.
But now, after only two weeks, she can read much faster. While reading, she often sees words that she has learned
in the past two weeks. When she recognizes such a word, she doesn't have to look it up in a dictionary and she
knows she has made good progress. Judy feels she has learned a lot of English recently, and she is eager to
learn more. Every day, she looks forward to reading her book. The book gives her the chance to use what she has
learned (enjoy her progress) and to learn even more. Because she reads regularly, she forgets little and her
vocabulary keeps growing.
Judy is on the