外语学习中的7种常见误区

1、外语学习中的7种常见误区7 Common Misconceptions About Language Learning by Steve KaufmannThere are over 6,000 languages in the world. Some are more important than others, not better or more advanced, just more important. Why? Because they are spoken by more p eople, in more countries. That does not mean that Fi

2、nnish is not important to the Finns, a nd Maori is not important to the Maoris. It is just that these languages are not so importan t to the rest of us.On the other hand, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by over one billion people. Chinese origi n words account for 60% of Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese v

3、ocabulary. Knowing Chi nese will help you learn these languages too. It helped me. Chinese culture has influence d the world for thousands of years with its art, philosophy, technology, food, medicine and performing arts. Today Chinas economy is booming. Chinese seems well worth learning.Spanish, Fr

4、ench, Italian and Portuguese are essentially dialects of the same language. If you learn one, you can learn the others. I did. If you learn Spanish, you open the door to t he culture, music, history and possible business dealings with 800 million people in 60 co untries, including the US and Canada.

5、If you get ambitious you could try Russian, as I have been doing for the last two years. O nce you have Russian you can probably communicate with other Slav speakers.But hold it here! Before getting carried away, lets look at the present situation of languag e teaching. According to one Canadian sur

6、vey, after 12 years of daily French classes, onl y one high school graduate out of 147 (0.68%) achieved “intermediate proficiency. Anoth er survey of immigrants learning English in the US showed that “classroom instructional h ours” had little impact on progress.If we cannot teach our own official l

7、anguages in North America, what hope is there for oth er languages like Chinese or Spanish, let alone Russian, Arabic or Hindi?As a speaker of 10 languages I know the benefits of speaking more than one language. We simply have to change the way we go about teaching languages. To start with we nee d

8、to dispel seven common misconceptions about language learning.Language learning is difficultIt is only difficult to learn a language if you dont want to. Learning a language takes time, but is not difficult. You mostly need to listen and read. Believe me, it is that simple. I have done it many times

9、. Soon you feel the satisfaction of understanding another language. B efore you know it you start speaking. It is the way languages are usually taught that make s language learning hard to like.You have to have a gift for learning languagesNo you dont. Anyone who wants to, can learn. In Sweden and H

10、olland most people spea k more than one language. They cant just all be gifted at languages. Foreign athletes in North America usually learn to speak English faster than people in more formal learning e nvironments. In language learning it is attitude, not aptitude, that determines success.You have

11、to live where the language is spokenSome immigrants to North America never learn to speak more than halting English. Yet w e meet people in other countries who speak flawless English. In 1968, I learned to speakMandarin fluently while living in Hong Kong, where few people spoke it. With the Internet

12、, language content is available to anyone with a computer, and you can download it to you r iPod and listen. Where you live is not an obstacle.Only children can learn to speak another language wellRecent brain research has demonstrated that our brains remain plastic well into old age. Adults who los

13、e their eyesight have to learn a new language, braille, for example. Adults have a wide vocabulary in their own language and are better language learners than chil dren. I have learned 4 languages since the age of 55. Adults only need thechilds willingn ess to experiment and desire to communicate, w

14、ithout the fear of ridicule.To learn a language you need formal classroom instructionThis is the crux of the problem. Classrooms may be economical to run and a great place t o meet others. They have the weight of history and tradition behind them. Unfortunately, a classroom is an inefficient place t

15、o learn a language. The more students in the class, th e more inefficient it is. Languages cannot be taught, they can only be learned. Theoretical grammatical explanations are hard to understand, hard to remember, and even harder to use. Drills and exercises are annoying to most people. A majority o

16、f school kids graduate unable to communicate in languages that they study for 10 or more years.You need to speak in order to learn (and I have nobody to speak to)Speaking the language is usually the goal of language learning, but speaking can wait. O nce you have acquired the language, you will find

17、 the opportunity to speak. When you ar e learning the language it is more important to listen. Trying to just pick up a few“handy” phrases to say is likely to just get you into trouble. If you meet a native speaker, you will i nevitably spend most of your time listening unless you already know the l

18、anguage. You d o not need to speak in order to learn, you need to learn in order to speak.I would love to learn but I don have the timeHow about the time you spend waiting in line, commuting, doing things around the house, going for a walk? Why not use that time to listen to a language on your iPod?

19、 Once you get started, even 10 or 15 minutes a day will soon grow to 30 minutes a day, or one hour. If you believe you will achieve significant results, and if you enjoy doing it, as I do, you wil l find the time.外语学习中的7种常见误区简介大部分人在学习外语的过程中都会存在着一些错误的想法，这篇文章举出了其中最常见的7 种误区。在这个地球上大约有着超过6000种不同的语言。其中的一些

20、语言往往要比其他的语言更为 重要，这并不是因为它们是一种更高级的语言。为什么？因为相比其他的语言，这些语言有 着更广泛的使用人群。当然，这并不是说芬兰语对芬兰人来说不重要、毛利语对毛利人来说 不重要。只是因为这些语言对于地球上其他的人们来说，它们并不是那么重要。另一方面来说，地球上有超过10亿人在使用中国普通话。在日语、韩语和越南语的词汇中， 有60%都是来自于汉语。因此学习汉语对于你学习这几种语言也是有帮助的。中国文化通 过艺术、哲学、科技、食物、医学已经影响整个世界几千年了。当今的中国经济正在持续发 展，这样看起来汉语是很值得我们去学习的一门外语。从本质上来说，西班牙语、法语、意大利语和葡

21、萄牙语属于同一语系。如果你学会了其中的 一种，那么剩下的对你来说也很简单。至少对我来说是这样子。学习西班牙语等于你打开了 一扇门，在门的另一面是分布在60个不同国家中的8亿西班牙语使用者，其中包括美国和 加拿大。如果你很有抱负的话你可以试着学习下俄语，正如我过去的两年中所做的一样。当你学会了 俄语之后，也许可以与其他的使用斯拉夫语言的人们交流。但是这里要打断一下！在你进入状态之前，让我们先来看看目前的语言教学形势。一个加拿 大人的调查表明，在经历了 12年的日常法语课程教学之后，一所高中里只有147人（约 0.68%）能够达到“中等”水平。另一个有关美国外来移民学习英语的调查表明，“课堂教学”

22、 对语言学习的提高并没有太大作用。如果我们连自己的官方语言教学都搞不好的话，那么对于别的语言来说希望在哪里？譬如汉 语或者西班牙语，更别提俄语、阿拉伯语或者印度语了。作为一名掌握了 10种语言的语言学习者，我很清楚学会更多的语言所带来的好处。但是我 们应该改变一下目前的语言教学方式。开始之前我们需要先驱除有关语言学习的7种常见 误区。误区1、学习外语是一件很困难的事情只有当你不想去学的时候它才会成为一件困难的事情。学习外语并不困难，它只是需要时间。 大部分时间你需要做的是听和读。相信我，就是这么简单。我已经这样做了很多次。不久之 后你就会因为理解了另一种语言而感到满足。误区2、你必须要有学习外语的天赋不。不需要天赋。只要你想学，你就没问题。在瑞典和荷兰，大部分人都至少掌握了 2种 语言。他们不可能每个人都具有语言天赋吧？与那些在常规学习环境下学习英语的人们相 比，从国外来到北美的运动员学习英语的速度更快。态度决定一切，在语言学习中也是如此。误区3、你必须生活在使用那种语言的地方 我们可以看到，一些来到北美的移民在居住很久之后依然说着蹩脚的英语，而在另一些非英 语国家却有人说着流利的英语。1968年，我在香港学会了一口标准的普通话，虽然在那里 很少有人讲普通话。通过互联网你可以下载到很多听力资源进行练习。不管你住在哪里，这 都不会成为你学习语言的障碍。误区4、只有儿童才能很好的