A language to learn

A language to learn    13/9/2013

        To learn a language well, I believe in using the language and reading widely for vocabulary as well as getting familiar with the structures.  Text reading intensively in school is mainly to learn grammar and pronunciation.  Text reading extensively that you can do it at your own pace is to acquire vocabulary and to get familiarised with the structures.    It is reading for knowledge as well as for pleasure.  Constant exposure to the language enables a person to become spontaneous / natural with the language.   You will culitivate the linguistic intuition without knowing it just as how you use your mother tongue intuitively and creatively.

        I  started speaking English to my son when he was a few days old.  Yes, I created the environment for English learning at home though I also spoke Foochow to him at times when I thought I could tell the point exactly culturally to his understanding.    All his friends spoke Chinese and Foochow.

        Besides speaking English to him, I also read English story books to him.   Look, children learn by hearing.   He liked certain books and so there were a lot of repetitions and rehearsals of the books.   He could say them here and there from memory before I came to the points though he did not recognise the words then.    It was the depth and width he explored in the language when he went through the stories by listening to them. 

        When he was about nine years old, you could read books geared to his level on his own.  Ya, I had bought many English story books for him to read.  He enjoyed reading, too.  So, he could cope with the English language quite easily in school though he did not score A results most of the time.   He could not sit still at his desk for long except when he was playing computer games.

        When he was in Form 2, he could read Harry Potter on his own.   My youngest sister’s eldest sister-in-law’s (大姆) daughter just a few days younger than my son could such thickness of books when she was 9 or 10 years old.   She was really good at English and always got good results for her English.  She did not have tuition in the English language at all.  

       The 3 children of my youngest sister also speak English at home and read English story books.  They can also cope with the English language so well.    

        Hence I believe in reading widely to learn a language.   For many who do not have the English speaking home environment, our school should play the part well for the development of the language.    Don’t confine the learning of English to the textbooks and commercially produced workbooks / just workbooks alone.  Exploring the language through stories, to me, is the best way to inspire and get children spellbound and learn the language in fun ways.