HowtolearnEnglishwell--VantageMisconceptionⅢIneedarichvocabularybeforebeginningtospeak.OftenIhearstudentscomplainthattheybecometonguetied,meaningthattheycan’tfindtherightwords.Studentswillattributeittoalackofvocabularyandmemorizemorewordstocompensate.ThentheyfindafterafewmorethousandwordsthattheirEnglishimprovesonlyslightly.Why?Yourmemoryisakeyelementtolearningalanguageandnooneshouldminimizeitsimportance.Withoutamemory,youwouldn’tbeabletospeak.However,itisalsotruethatalackofvocabularyisnottheculpritofcommunicationproblemsinmanyinstances.Itisimportanttolookatotherissues,beforeblamingitasthesourceofthesecommunicationdifficulties.IhaveobservedagreatmanyCET-6graduateswhostillhaveagreatdealoftroubleevenutteringsimplesentences,whileotherCET-4studentscanspeakwithmuchgreaterease.Howcanthatbe,youmightask?TheEnglishlanguageiscomposedofahierarchyofvocabularyintermsofusefulness.Somewordshavebroadandsweepingusessuchas"thing","get","place"or"do",whileothersareusefulonlyforaveryspecificcontextsuchas"export","endanger","identify",or"interrupt".Researchhasshownthatwithapproximately800(somehaveevensuggested500)keywordspeoplecancommunicateveryeffectivelyinEnglish,withfewinstancesofgettingstuck.Inthetimeswhentheywerestuck,theycouldeasilyaskforassistance.Nowweknowthat800wordsisfarbelowthelevelmostbeginnerstudentshaveevenbeforetheybegintheirGET-4bandlevel.Whycan’tallCET-4studentscommunicatewithease?Wedonotneedacomplicatedlinguisticanswertothisquestion.Whenwethinkaboutittheanswerissimple.Thequantityofvocabularyhasonlyanindirectrelationshiptothequantityandqualityofspeech.Toillustrate,childrenlearningtheirfirstlanguagestartoutwithalimitedvocabulary,theydonotknowhalfofthewordsthataChineseCET-6studentknows,butstilltheyareabletomakerapidsentencesandcommunicatewithease.Thismakescommonsense,forweallknowthatinEnglishwecanoftensubstituteasimplewordforamorecomplexone.Forexample,theword"facilitate"canbesubstitutedwith"help".Thus,thekeyistolearnthemostusefulfunctionalwordsinEnglishfirstandapplythemofteninavarietyofcircumstances,beforetryingtolearnwordsthataremorecomplexandusedmuchlessoften.MisconceptionⅣIhavestudiedEnglishgrammarfortoolong,sothelastthingIneedismoregrammar.ChinesestudentsattributetheirlackofcommunicationinEnglishtoanoveremphasisongrammarandthusresistgrammarpracticeandreviewsintheirself-studyprograms.TheytendtowantoralEnglishvocabulary,phrases,expressions,andpronunciationpractice.Aboveall,theywantanEnglishenvironment.However,itsoonbecomesapparentthatstudentsstrugglewhentheytrytocreatesentencesandtheirgrammaristypicallyriddledwitherrors.Nevertheless,studentswanttohavenothingtodowithgrammarstructureswhiledoingself-study.Theyignoreitcompletely,andconcentrateinsteadonotheraspects.Agoodknowledgeofgrammarrulesandpatternsisabsolutelynecessarybecausethetransferofstructuresfromonelanguagetothenextisanythingbutsmooth.Itistruethatdirectwrittengrammarexercises,wherestudentsmerelymanipulatesentencestructurestofitapattern,maybeunnecessaryifyouareawareofthepatternalready.However,grammardefinitelyisanimportantpartofyourself-studyprogramwhenitisusedforcommunicativepurposes.WhatstudentsoftenfailtodoistointegrategrammarstudyintotheprocessofcreatingEnglish,ratherthanjustmanipulatingsentencesinexercisebooks.Forexample,withthestructure"IfIwereyou,Iwould…"astudentshouldbethinkingoftheoccasionshecanusethiss...
