中国学生口语自学的误区
该文作者内文·布卢默（Nevin Blumer）先生以理论与实践相结合为原则，讨论了英语口语自学的四大误区：一、中国学生不愿跟与自己水平差不多的中国学生练习口语，以为这样会对自己的口语带来不良影响，殊不知与自己在水平上相差太大的人练习口语易使自己丧失信心；二、学英语只能向美国人学，刻意模仿美国口音，殊不知只能语音语调正确，用词得当，就是好英语；三、词汇量不大时不开口，殊不知只需掌握一定量的词汇，尤其是功能词，就能用英语进行交流；四、只知死背语法，殊不知必须根据上下文，不断使用固定句型以达到熟练的程度。针对这些误区的存在，他给英语口语自学者提出了一些学习建议：1.自创英语口语学习环境，而不必担心交流的对方不是以英语为母语的人；2.每日抽出一定时间接触生动而有意义的英语原文；3.持之以恒，自我鼓励。
A good English class is a valuable means for acquiring and practicing English,but still the reality is that much of your progress will arise from your own self-study strategies. As a teacher for close to 10 years now,I am often asked for advice on how best to self-study English for fast results. I suspect sometimes my students are looking for that magic shortcut or panacea1 which can deliver them from all the “blood,sweat,and tears” that often surrounds the process of learning a second language.
There is,of course,no magic,but on the other hand,there may also be no need to engage in self-torturous2 activities that drain3 your energy. Part of the self-torture that students inflict upon themselves results from misconceptions formed along the way. I would like in this article to discuss a few of these misconceptions and offer some alternative advice for self-studying English. A.H. Whitehead once said,not ignorance but the ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge. In other words,it is important to understand misconceptions before they inhibit your self-study.
Misconception Ⅰ
If I communicate with a Chinese partner,my English will get worse.
There is a common perspective here in Beijing that the only way to improve your English is by speaking with a native speaker. It stems from the perception that speaking to another second language learner has a negative effect,since the partner speaks Chinglish.
Consequently,many desperately look for native-speaking partners,some paying a small fortune for the luxury of speaking with inexperienced expatriates4 who do little more than chat. Worse yet,opportunities to speak regularly with a Chinese partner at little or no cost are ignored out of fear. In short,the “native speaker's English” craze is somewhat synonymous with the “chinglish”phobia5.
The view that communicating with another student somehow damages your English rests on the age-old,erroneous6 assumption that language acquisition is a linear progression,with the native speaker at the top of the hierarchy7. Perhaps native speaker teachers are guilty of feeding this perception by labeling courses,students,textbooks sequentially in terms of levels （i.e. beginner,pre-intermediate,intermediate etc）; in the arrangement of grammar structures from simple to complex; and in reading and listening passages selected by the number of words they contain （i.e. easy,moderate,difficult）.
Linguists who have studied the actual process of learning a second language know that developing a second langua