Practical Ways to Learn English There’s no one correct way to learn English . However, some ways are more effective than the others. How often do you hear the advice: “ Try to speak English as much as you can. Don’t worry about making mistakes. You’ll learn from it .” This is one of the common advices on ways to learn English. But how practical is this advice really? There are two ways to look at it. Speaking for the sake of practice is a type of confidence booster. It allows the new English speaker to break away from their shyness and take that first step to use the language in public. Speaking the language can also help with fluency and increases the speaker’s vocabulary knowledge. On the other hand, the problem with this concept is that many first- time English learners make lots of mistakes. When you make lots of mistakes and there is no one to correct you, you’ll be implanted with the wrong information. What’s worse is that you may end up repeating those wrong information thinking that they’re correct. Speaking can improve fluency, but proper grammar and vocabulary knowledge are needed as well. If not, the student may end up speaking fluently but using all sorts of incorrect words and sentence structures. Some Thai people who have recently come to study the English language often translate the Thai phrase into English word-for-word. The sentence will come out strange. Compare this to using the Google translate tool to translate English into Thai or vice versa. Yes, it certainly doesn't look right does it? Take this example for instance. You and your Thai friend are admiring the view of the temple. Your friend asked you,” It’s beautiful, yes?” The correct way to ask that question should have been: Isn’t it beautiful? In the Thai language, the question word (or interrogative pronoun) such as what, when, and who are placed at the end of the sentence. Sometimes, Thai people translate the Thai version of the phrase or questions directly into English without first re-arranging the sentence structure . So the question “ You don’t like spicy food?” Becomes, “ You not like spicy food?” Or “You like spicy food, no?” In the Thai language, adjective comes after the noun whereas in English the adjective comes before the noun. You might hear some Thai people say, “house beautiful” instead of “beautiful house”. These Thai speakers may be fluent at speaking English to foreigners, but they have all the grammar and sentence structure mixed up or even mispronounced. Unless
There’s no one correct way to learn English. However, some ways are more effective than the others. How often do you hear the advice: “Try to speak English as much as you can. Don’t worry about making mistakes. You’ll learn from it.” This is one of the common advices on ways to learn English. But how practical is this advice really?
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Practical Ways to Learn English
Theres no one correct way tolearn English. However, some ways
are more effective than the others. How often do you hear the
advice: Try to speak English as much as you can. Dont worry about
making mistakes. Youll learn from it. This is one of the
commonadviceson ways to learn English. But how practical is this
advice really? There are two ways to look at it. Speaking for the
sake of practice is a type of confidence booster. It allows the new
English speaker to break away from their shyness and take that
first step to use the language in public. Speaking the language can
also help with fluency and increases the speakers vocabulary
knowledge. On the other hand, the problem with this concept is that
many first-time English learners make lots of mistakes. When you
make lots of mistakes and there is no one to correct you, youll be
implanted with the wrong information. Whats worse is that you may
end up repeating those wrong information thinking that theyre
correct. Speaking can improve fluency, but proper grammar and
vocabulary knowledge are needed as well. If not, the student may
end up speaking fluently but using all sorts of incorrect words and
sentence structures. Some Thai people who have recently come to
study the English language often translate the Thai phrase into
English word-for-word. The sentence will come out strange. Compare
this to using the Google translate tool to translate English into
Thai or vice versa. Yes, it certainlydoesn'tlook right does it?
Take this example for instance. You and your Thai friend are
admiring the view of the temple.Your friend asked you, Its
beautiful, yes? The correct way to ask that question should have
been:Isnt it beautiful? In the Thai language, the question word (or
interrogative pronoun) such aswhat, when, and whoare placed at the
end of the sentence. Sometimes, Thai people translate the Thai
version of the phrase or questions directly into English without
first re-arranging the sentence structure . So the question You
dont like spicy food? Becomes, You not like spicy food? Or You like
spicy food, no?In the Thai language, adjective comesafterthe noun
whereas in English the adjective comesbeforethe noun. You might
hear some Thai people say, house beautiful instead of beautiful
house. These Thai speakers may be fluent at speaking English to
foreigners, but they have all the grammar and sentence structure
mixed up or even mispronounced. Unless someone corrects them, they
will continue repeating these mistakes. Many times, the
English-speaking friend of the Thai person wont bother to correct
their mistakes. The Thai person might continue to use the wrong
wordings because the mistake has not been brought to their
attention. Some common mistakes that Thai people make when speaking
English is using incorrect words such as,noinstead ofdont(e.g. I no
like chicken), andinterestinginstead ofinterested(e.g. Hes not
interesting to come study with us). Communicating in a foreign
language should not only be understandable. It should also be
correctly structured and pronounced. Teachers atlanguage schoolscan
teach the correct ways to form a sentence and pronounce words. But
students will also need to practice outside of class, preferably
with friends who know good English. If there is no one for you
practice with, it is recommended that the student jot down the list
of words or sentences that theyre not sure and bring them to class
to ask the teacher.
