Many students hesitate when they speak English. They hesitate because they often have to think in Japanese then translate into English or because the English words do not come quickly and naturally to them.
Even though you live in Japan, you can train yourself to think in English. This will help speed up you speak more smoothly and quickly. Here are some techniques and ideas for helping you think in English:
Read in English:
Many students read in English to help them study but they often choose materials that are too difficult for them. They have to stop reading very often and check words in a dictionary.
- You should choose reading material that is easy to understand. You should be able to read the content without stopping more than once or twice per page to check the meaning of new words in a dictionary.
- You should choose a book, magazine, web site or newspaper which is about a topic you really enjoy. If you like sports, fashion, cooking, etc., read about those topics. Don't read the newspaper because you think it's good to know a lot of difficult words.
- Read a little everyday even if it is just one page or one article. It's better to do a little often than a lot once a week.
One of the easiest ways to learn a language is by repeating the same thing over and over. Unfortunately, this can be very boring when you are saying sentences over and over. Singing songs in English is fun and will get your mind used to patterns of grammar and sounds. At first, you can sing along with a recorded song. After you know the words, you can sing the entire song along.
Tips for singing in English:
- Choose a simple song such as a children's song. You can listen, sing along to and read the lyrics for some simple songs at this web site: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/musicchild.htm
- Try to do this at least once a week.
- Sing with your family members (especially children) to have more fun and help them learn some English, too.
"Parallel" means doing something at the same time. In this case, you want to train yourself to think in both Japanese and English at the same time.
Everyday, we think the same things again and again as we have the same types of daily experiences. For example, we will be shopping and think, "that's expensive," or "I want to buy that."
You can use these situations where you have the same thoughts again and again as a chance to think in English. To start, you should choose an experience you have almost everyday in Japanese. For instance:
- "I need to brush my teeth."
- "The train is coming."
- "I need to comb my hair."
- "I should leave for work now."
After you have done this for one repeated experience, choose another and do it for that experience. By doing this, you are training your mind to think in two languages instead of one.
This material is (c) The Home Sensei
2 comments:
I've had some good results with students using the Oxford or Cambridge readers. (There's at least one more company that makes them, it's slipped my mind at the moment.) I've had quite low students be absolutely delighted to say that they've read an "English Book", and I think they should be!
In one case, I had a high level student read an Oxford version of a book (level 6) and then I asked if she'd like to try the real book...which I happened to have. She borrowed it from me and loved it...and loved the fact that she had read a "real" English book.
When I was at the Eikaiwa, as part of my counseling time with students I'd often suggest using karaoke as a study method...glad to hear I wasn't so off the wall as they thought.
And, one last thing...I used to suggest to students that they "think" in English when they were at home. Do the day to day tasks, brushing teeth and the like in "English". I suggested they do an English Affirmation every day...look in the mirror and say, "I can speak English" or "I'm an English speaker". I'm not sure if anyone tried, but thinking positively is always a good thing.
I've also suggested they pair their repetitive experiences with English thoughts. Commonly, I'll suggest that they do it for things like thinking, "the train is coming" as they see it from the platform or when they are shopping to think "that's expensive" or "that's cheap" but I'm also unsure if students actually do it.
Generally speaking, the student's commitment to improving dictates how hard they'll try to do such exercises.
Thanks for your comment! You're the first one. ;-)
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