How to Aquire English? 如何习得英语？

On what it takes to be a fluent English speaker, what I am gonna share is maybe the opposite of what we’ve been teaching at school. I did not invent this, most of my idea actually follow the Natrual Approach, advocated by Stephen Krashen. However I will put it in a simples, just 4 principles we need to follow and 5 actions to take.

最近觉得很有道理的一句话，英语是学不会的，需要习得。下面我要分享的观点可能跟学校里面的方法正好相反。大部分方法也不是我发明的，而是来自在第二语言学习界很有影响力的，自然法。主要代表人物是 Stephen Krashen 。我这里只分享4个原则和5个操作。如果你觉得我论证的不充分，可以去网上找自然法相关的视频去做进一步的学习。

Principles 原则

Principle #1: Learn by Ears. Unlike school, most kids pick up their monther tongue by listening, not reading. So I beleieve videos are best learning material for Chinese students, not books. And kids does not have to learn words to be fluent at English, cause languange is about sound groups, not words. And, there is no need to learn grammer either, grammer is only useful when you are advanced and you want your languge to be formal. But at the stage of just picking up the language, it slow down the process, there is no doubt on this.

第一个原则是，用耳朵学。世界上绝大多数的孩子学习语言的方法，都是跟学校学习思路不一样的。因为孩子主要靠听，而不是读。所以对咱们来说，我觉得视频是比书更好的学习材料。英语母语的小孩子根本也不需要学单词，上学前，英语已经流利了，或者说，已经习得成功了。说英语，其实主要是要掌握声音块，而不是单词。并且，也不需要学语法，语法的作用是语言习得发生之后，或者说已经说的很流利之后，想要让自己的语言更上一层楼的时候去学的。在习得这个阶段，学语法会适得其反，这一点是板上钉钉的。

Principle #2: start from real English. Unlike text-book attached audios, real English meaning connected language, which is hard for chinese students who learned from text books and memorized a ton of words. But again, if you learn sound groups, rather than words, this is not a issue at all. And the benefit is that, once you learn a bit real English, you can start to merge English into your life style by listening to English videos you can actually enjoy, and this transfer will make all the difference. In other words, our goal is different from the one of school, rather than chaseing after high score, our short term goal is to understand 3-5 yo kid’s cartoon. Mid term one movies. And long term goal is to open your mouth and speak.

第二个原则，第一天就学真实的英语。跟课本配的听力材料不同，真实的英语都是有连读的，对于我这种通过课本一点点背单词，做阅读过来的学生，会觉得好复杂。但是还是像刚才说的，学说英语就不该从单词出手，应该从语音块开始学，或者粗略的说就是从句子开始学。那么从这个角度其实真实口语一般要比对应的书面形式要更剪短，比如，what are you going to do? 变成口语就是 Wadaya gonna do? ，简单太多了。学真实英语的好处就是，可以在最短的时间内听懂纯英文的视频节目，把把学英语变成一种生活方式，这一点可能会成为英语学习成败的关键。换句话说，学真实英语到底是不是正确的做法，跟咱们要追求的目标有关，如果目标是试卷分数，不一定，但是如果目标是用最短的时间去看懂小孩子的动画片，然后看美剧，那么第一天学真实口语就是非常顺理成章的思路了。

Principle #3: set scope. So principle #2 means, we strive to create us a enviroment of English, which is great, but does not garentee the sucess of English Acquisition. You need to make sure to start where you are, and try not to learn too many things at one time. Firstly, we need to find relevant content that interets us most, which needs to be simple and comprehensable to use. As research showed, 3000 words will cover 98% of your daily usage of English, so let’s focus on the core! Just focus on simple content that covers these 3000 words, and keep using the often within different context. This is the way, how language acquisition happens to kids in real life, and I beleive this is also the best way for older people who want to pick up English too. In real life Amarican school leveled reading practice, the rule is that don’t move on to the next level before you finish around 1 million words of reading. Same logic apply here to leveled listening we are talking about here. Be patient control the scope of what you listen.

第三个原则是设定学习范围。从简入难的学习规律还是要尊重的。所以一定还是要先找到适合自己难度的视频来学，完全听不懂的视频听多少遍也没用的。另外，自己不感兴趣的内容也不适合学。有统计说，其实3000词就够覆盖到日常口语使用的98%的情景了。我们的思路就是尽量找到简单有趣的视频，让这3000词反复在不同场景下出现。孩子学语言不是靠字典的，甚至主要也不是靠父母一个词一个词的解释，而是靠猜的，见得场景越多猜的越准，这就是习得英语和学英语的一个显著的区别。国外学校里面通过分级阅读的方式让学生去提升阅读能力，据说是大概读一百万字的内容就可以提升一个阅读级别，我们这里也算是分级听力了，不要急着去学很难的东西，从简单入手，控制好学习范围，量变之后才有质变。

Principle #4: Treat your second language as if it’s your mother tongue. The idea is to think in English, don’t let Chinese goes between. For example, we want to set up direct connection from the word fire, to the image of fire in your head, not to the Chinese language counterpart Huo. Only in this way, can we really ship the word to our tongue tip when we need to blurt it out.

第四个也是最后一个原则，把英语当母语对待。要学会用英语思考，不要让中文夹在英语和实物之间。举个例子，我们大脑中有火这个图像，正确的学英语方式是，一听到 fire 这个词，直接就能调出脑子中火这个图像，而不是先调出中文的火这个词。只有这种样，当我们想说这个词的时候，这个词才会直接脱口而出。而用中英文对应的词汇书去背单词，恰恰就是违背这个规律的，这大概就是我自己学的是哑巴英语的最大原因了。

All right, these are the 4 principles I think is essential.

好，这就是今天要聊的四个学英语的原则了。

Actions

Now, let’s move on to the 5 actions. What to do in every day, to be the English guru.

接下来聊，5个具体行动。想要习得英语，每天都需要做些什么呢？

Action #1: find a coach. Find a person has the patience to listen to u, and you feel safe to communicate with. It’s a person that does not correct your mistakes too often. Instead, when he is replying you, he will use correct way in his answer. And he will only use the words that you already know. I’ve heard the three rules of natrual acquisition: 1. No mother tongue(it’s not important and let’s move on when stuck), 2. No grammer 3. No correction. And in my opinion, if you focus on the language, you can not really learn it the efficiently, using it as if it’s the only language you know in everyday life instead.

行动一。找个教练。这个人会耐心的听你说英语，让你感觉说错了也不要紧。就像小孩子跟父母一样，说错了也没什么大不了。教练要像父母一样，不要纠正所有的问题，而是要在回答中把正确的表达方式融入进去，这样学习者既没有尴尬，还学到了东西。教练要注意尽量之去使用学习者会说的单词来跟学习者沟通。自然法主张英语课堂上有这么三个原则。第一是，不允许说母语，对咱们来说就是全英文授课，不要说中文。第二是，不要学语法。第三是，不要纠正学员的错误。另外，我自己想要补充的是，必须让学员不要去过多关注语言本身，而是要关注交流的有效性，这样才是学习语言最佳的状态。那么跟教练一起聊点什么呢？最好是学一些自己感兴趣的话题，例如音乐美术舞蹈哲学设计，然后互相沟通，这个有点难度。简单一点的，可以做一些角色扮演，故事复述，看图说话，看词造句等等这些我们小学语文课上的活动，以便开发用我们用英文思考的能力。

Action #2: PA, cultivate sound awareness. Get yourself familiar with the 44 English sounds. This is especially efficient for grown-ups, who tend to pronounce many sounds in the wrong way already. Sth like the A A A Apple Video.

第二个行动就是，纠正发音。英语一共就44个音，可以专门的去强化一下。尤其对我这种原来很多音都发的不准的成年人还是特别有帮助的。可以去看一下自然拼读的相关视频，类似这种，AAA Apple 的视频。

Action #3 Soaking your brain. I beleive, 1hr listening per day at least is necessary. Turn on the video, try to understand the videos from Bibili, Youtube, and channels like English Sing Sing, baby bus, Doraemon, Pipapig. No need to pause, if you r not interested in one video, just move to the next.

第三个行动是要磨耳朵。一天至少保证一个小时的听英语的时间。打开视频，尝试去听懂 B 站或者油管上的视频，初学推荐 English Sing Sing, Baby Bus 这样的幼儿频道，进阶一些可以看机器猫英文版或者 Blippi 或者 Pipa Pig 。磨耳朵的内容不用太较真，只要大致听懂就行，不感兴趣的内容直接跳过。关键就是保证量。

Action #4 shadowing. Shadowing means you try to imitate the sounds of the lines in the video, not only the pronoucaition, but also the tones. The natrual approach believe the ability to speak correctly comes naturally when you take enough Comprehensive input. So how much shadowing do you need to do may vary from one person to another. But one pitfall to watch here is not to pick up a book and do aloud reading, casuse then you make up your own sounds of the languange, as a beginner, you know you will just repeat and enhance your own mistakes this way.

第四个行动是影子跟读，英文叫 shadowing 。也就是打开视频，一句句的模仿老外的发音和语气。自然法的很多老师认为，只要听的够多，说是个逐渐的自然发生的过程，不需要太多的训练。我觉得这个说法很有道理，不过如果平时开口机会太少，影子跟读还是不错的一个帮我们形成肌肉记忆的方式。相关的一个我认为错误的方法，是朗读课本，作为初学者，咱们读出来东西肯定跟母语人士说的不一样的，反复朗读可以说就是反复强化自己的错误方式。

Action #5 Memorizing. The idea of natural approach stress on enjoy more, and don’t try too hard to memorize things. But learn to sing some songs, and recite some poems will certainly increase the understanding of the languange and build up a lot of confidence of using it.

第五个行动就是背诵。自然法习得英语，不是很赞成背诵。但是我觉得去学唱一些英文歌曲，背一下常用的句型，还是非常能提升学习兴趣和自信的。

I am sure there are more useful actions you can take, but this is the 5 for now.

其他的方法肯定还有很多，但是我们这里就先列举上面这五个。

Conculsion 总结

So again, we talked 4 principles, #1 learn by ears, #2 start from real English, #3 set scope, #4 Treat it as your mother tongue. and 5 actions: #1 find a coach, #2 sound awareness #3 soaking your brain #4 shadowing #5 Memorizing. To concude, don’t be a students, be a baby, don’t learn English, Live English.

至此，我们介绍了四个学习原则，分别是，第一，用耳朵去学。第二，第一天就学真实英语。第三，限定学习范围。第四，把英语当母语去学。对应有五个推荐的行动：找教练，纠发音，磨耳朵，影子跟读还有背诵。总之就是不要像学生那么学习，而是要像婴儿一样，不要去学习英语，而是要让英语融入生活。