新編大學(xué)英語第二冊unit4 Text B: Take Charge of Your Learning You Know

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UNIT 4 AFTER-CLASS READING 1; New College English (II)

Take Charge of Your Learning You Know Yourself Best

1 Remember that unless you can take charge of your own learning, you will probably not succeed in mastering a new language. You know yourself best, so you should use your self-knowledge to guide your studies, even if it means that sometimes you will have to disregard some of your teacher's approaches or other people's suggestions.

2 People tend to learn in different ways. Some are very analytical and need a rule for everything. Others are more intuitive; they prefer to gather examples and imitate them. Some need lots of repetition, while others require less. In a classroom situation, the teacher cannot tailor the approach to each individual student. Therefore, you cannot always rely on your teacher to provide you with an approach that is specifically designed for you. You need to experiment in order to discover what works best.

3 So in order to master another language, you need to be personally involved. You need to play with the language to develop a feel for how it works. 1 The language must, in some sense, become a part of you rather than remain an external mechanical system that you manipulate according to a set of instructions. Learning a language is a little like learning to ride a bicycle. One can describe rather precisely what is involved in bicycle riding, but until a learner actually gets on the bike and falls off a few times, no meaningful learning can take place.

Set Clear Goals

4 You need to decide for yourself what the overall goals for your language study are. This will help you to develop a clearer direction and to measure your performance. For the same reasons, it is helpful to set clear goals for your daily and weekly study. Follow the goals you have set for yourself, even if this means supplementing the work that is done in your course. For instance, if your goal is to have a good accent, you can work independently on your pronunciation if it is not stressed in your course.

Establish a Regular Schedule

5 Language is learned in small bits, so try to establish a regular schedule for studying and then stick to it. You achieve little by occasional cramming; after all, you didn't learn your native language all at once. In fact, it took you quite a while to master all its intricacies, so give yourself the same chance when learning a new language. Do some studying every day, even on weekends and when there is no homework assignment. Work through your exercises as they are assigned, rather than doing them at the last possible minute. Exercises do little good if they don't have time to sink in. Finally, find the best time of day to do your studying. Don't do it when you have many other things on your mind or when you are exhausted. Your mind has to be receptive for learning to take place.

Pay Attention to the Learning Successes of Yours and Others

6 As you proceed in your learning, notice your successes and especially note what you did to achieve these successes. Determine which exercises seem to help you most and for which kind of tasks: translations, mechanical drills, answering questions, compositions, and so forth. Also, note whether you find written or oral exercises more helpful and whether you retain a rule better when it is given to you before practice or when you deduce your own rule from examples presented to you.

7 Ask other students how they got the right answers or how they successfully learned something, and then see if their strategies will also work for you. For example, if someone guessed a word that you did not recognize, ask how he or she did it. Sometimes it is helpful to look at how others organize their notes, rules, and vocabulary lists as well. You can also ask other students how they go about preparing for class.

Experiment to Determine Your Learning Preference

8 Experiment to see if some tasks are better accomplished by using the eye, while others are better accomplished with the ear. For example, you may find that listening to tapes helps you improve your oral comprehension and memorize dialogues, but you may retain vocabulary better if you use flash cards. Remember that applying the same strategy to all tasks will not work. If you tend to rely too much on the eye, as many adults do, you may slow down your progress because so much of language requires learners to use their hearing. You may need to consciously work on strengthening your listening skills.

Notice Which Strategies Work and Which Don't

9 As you proceed with your learning, you should be on the lookout for what works and what doesn't. Once you have identified the strategies that work best for you, continue to use them. At the same time, be on the lookout for strategies that aren't effective. For instance, if you "choke up" in class when performing a dialogue with another student, could it be that you prepared for this task by reading and rereading the dialogue by yourself? If this strategy doesn't work, try working with a classmate. After all, it takes two to talk.

10 Define your problems clearly. Be on the lookout for your learning problems, and try to determine what you can do to solve them. If you keep examining this process, you will find that you will be better able to define your problems and thus better able to find solutions.