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English
Foreign language study is
unlike most other class as it includes both understanding and development
of four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. You will work
simultaneously on all four skills throughout your foreign language study.
Language is a set of habits: you have to DO things, not just hear about
it. Imitation is an essential part of building new language habits.
You need to use the language REPEATEDLY in each of the four skills,
until it becomes second nature to you.
When you learn by imitation, your surroundings help set the scene. Your
classroom decorations and its atmosphere, your classmates, and your
teacher will contribute to the feeling of the country's environment
and put you in the mood, a mood more to attain when you are with non-speakers
in familiar surroundings at home. Good attendance is important.
When you learn a language, you are learning about the culture too. The
ways people think, feel and behave --their hopes and aspirations, their
customs and habits, their literature and movies, travel, the art-- are
all conveyed in part by language. Find ways to sample food, music, books,
movies, travel, in the culture.
And enjoy!
Your teacher and textbooks set up lessons to help you learn. Follow
their lead in practicing each of the four skills.
1- Concentrate. Casual attention will reduce habit formation.
2- Practice for short periods frequently. For example, carry vocabulary
lists with you so that when you open your notebook, you will see new
words.
3- When listening
or reading, try to get a general understanding. Do not let one little
word lose you.
4- Practice aloud, acting out the meaning.
5- Review the previous lessons frequently, re-doing the assignments
to keep your knowledge fresh. You will build a foundation with words
and ideas that you will use often and again.
6- Tips for reading effectively also work for foreign language: get
a general idea, use context clues, and make lists of new expressions.
However, make sure you do not confuse translating with reading--they
are different skills--
7- Learn the spelling of new words. Sound them out, have your best friend
quiz you on meaning and spelling, copy the words repeatedly until they
become automatic.
8- Remember that you can express complicated ideas in your native language,
but right now you do not have as many resources in your new language.
Keep things simple; find other ways to express the same idea.
Nafissatou Mbodj, English Teacher Saidou Nourou Tall High School
Dakar, Senegal