Advice to students who wish to improve their English

By John Humber

"My oral English is very bad". Foreign teachers hear their Chinese students say this sentence too often. Many students lack the confidence to try and use their English. They dare not open their mouths and speak, in case they make a mistake. Yet it seems that every Chinese student can tell you how bad their English is with perfect pronunciation, rhythm and intonation!

Anyone who wants to improve their English must practise. It is not enough to read a book about speaking, one must speak. The same goes for pronunciation, writing and all aspects of the language.

What follows is a number of suggestions of practical things that you can do to improve your English.

Speaking and Listening

The first aim of speaking and listening, in any language, must be communication. In the context of everyday life, if two people can understand each other then the language is serving its purpose. Most people who speak foreign languages make some mistakes. Even the presenters of the news on CCTV4 are not perfect, but they succeed in communicating the necessary information.

The first step to improving your oral English, then, is to realise that small mistakes don't matter very much. If you make a mistake in front of any of your teachers, they will help you to correct it, and with time you will no longer make the same mistake. Those who dare not speak will never make any mistakes, so they will never be able to learn from their mistakes.

You must take every opportunity you can find to speak English. If you are asked a question in a lesson, be brave enough to try and answer it. Try having English conversations with your fellow students or with your English teachers. Conversation practice is not just helping you to improve your speaking, it equally improves your listening. English Corner takes place on Mondays and Thursdays at 4.40pm. I encourage you to come along, but remember - it's not the only time for you to practise your English!

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is slightly less crucial in English than it is in Chinese. This is because there are fewer words which sound the same. Students shouldn't allow poor pronunciation to stop them speaking altogether. Nevertheless, most students will become teachers when they leave college, and so it is important that they try their best to have good English pronunciation.

Exposure to the English language is important. Those of you who come to my lessons are fortunate to have some exposure to standard English pronunciation. You can also get exposure to good pronunciation by listening to the presenters on CCTV4. I know that most students find that the news programme is too difficult for them to understand, but you can listen for familiar words and repeat them, trying to imitate the pronunciation.

It is largely up to you whether you choose to imitate British or American English. However, you should try to stick to one kind of pronunciation rather than mixing them. I would advise my students to stick to British English, as this is what I speak.

Finally, when you practise your pronunciation, it is important that you practise pronouncing whole words and sentences and not only the individual phonemes. Remember that the pronunciation of some words can change in connected speech.

Writing and Vocabulary

Most students have spent many years practising grammar exercises and learning rules. It is important that they put this knowledge into practice by doing some real writing. There are several ways you can do this, for example, writing a diary in English, writing letters to friends or trying to find an English-speaking pen-friend.

I would also advise students who want to increase their vocabulary, to do so by reading English books and learning English songs. This helps you to learn words in a context which cannot be provided by a dictionary.

Good luck and keep up the hard work!

(这是英国伦敦地区大学的英语教师给本次竞赛的专稿。欢迎英语高手把它译为中文，以便出书时英汉对照）。