Five common problems in the process of English learning

1: Incorrect or inaccurate pronunciation

Some people pronounce words incorrectly or inaccurately, which makes English difficult to be understood. The first step to learn to speak well is to find a master to correct all the phonetic pronunciations so that you can pronounce a word accurately as soon as you look it up in the dictionary. Another way is to learn to compare and discriminate between other people’s pronunciation and your own. It is common to see people who hear English speakers pronounce the same word differently than they do, but they don’t mind being wrong in their own way. If you do not know how to observe and compare carefully, you will not learn English well.

2: Grammatical errors

Some people say that to learn to speak English well is to speak more. This is not enough. The foundation of grammar is important. Illiterate English speakers can not write English, but speak English fluently. Other non-native English speaking students have a hard time doing this because we don’t have the environment. That is why it is important to master the collocation of words, sentence patterns, and tenses. For example, does and did do not distinguish. If you cannot master these basic language structures, it is very difficult to speak English well.

3: Mother Tongue

If you want to learn to speak English well, you have to learn to think in English. I have seen many students think of their mother tongue first and then put it into English. Such English sounds very funny. One of my principles is not to speak words that are not definitely authentic English. At first, this would limit my ability to express myself. However, this creates a pressure to verify whether a certain expression is authentic or not. It also motivated me to pay attention to how English speakers around me expressed some ideas and then imitate them. Also, expand your reading. When you read, be a mindful reader and memorize phrases or sentences that you can translate into your own oral expressions. Learning a language is a kind of imitation. It’s not good to have too much creativity.

4: Bring the speed down

Some students or employees speak quickly and think that is fluency. English speakers have a lot of alliteration. It is not something that can be learned or mastered all at once. But continuous reading is not fast reading. Reading fast eats up some of the sounds that should be pronounced and can affect the listener’s understanding. At first, you have to speak slowly, so that you can say every word clearly and pronounce some basic sounds. On this basis, you can then train to read together.

5: Variety of expressions

Some people can only use one way to express a meaning. This is to a certain extent an inertia. For example, I find that many Chinese students only say “It’s hot today, isn’t it?” when they want to say “It’s hot today, isn’t it? but not “It’s very warm, isn’t it?”. In fact, we have learnt antithetical questions in junior high school, but not many students know how to use them. Therefore, after you reach a certain level of speaking, you should study how to avoid a monotonous expression and how to use a more appropriate expression.