A starry view on English study – part 1
Due to various reasons, I have stopped dedicating any exclusive hour to English study a couple of months ago. Yet my plan to write down something to sum up the lessons learnt on this serendipitous journey is thwarted by the uneasy qualms about past acquaintance with some big brands, such as Crazy English and Reverse Method, which claim to offer fantastic solutions for the persistent headache that has been inflicted upon Chinese students for many years. In my opinion, their merits lie mostly with their inspirational power instead of instructional efficacy. For instance, the Crazy English has more value in encouraging us to be bold and not to be afraid of losing face than in memorizing some sentences. What we have learned from the Reverse Method is perhaps the relentless perseverance and determination of Professor Zhong Daolong, its main advocate, rather than the mundane strategy of transcribing VOA Special English letter for letter. Technically speaking, these methods are boilerplate platitudes, retold by many generations and barely breaking new ground at all. Unfortunately, what I am going to write is at the risk of becoming yet another obscure and anonymous stereotype gibberish. The reason that I am still typing now, with some tremulous strokes, is that Miss Bloggie is angrily staring at me, her eyes seemingly saying: don’t you dare break your oath again! Being a hopeless pagan goddess-worshiper, I have no choice but to subdue. Yet I still hope the lessons, which are distilled from years of learning experience and carefully mulled for some time, might help English enthusiasts to better advance their study.
Before touching anything substantial, I would like to clarify two points that I think are crucial to the approach to English study and that, to the detriment of many, have been treated unusually lightly in the past: “where are we ” and “where are we going?”
(to be continued)
posted @ 2007-12-17 23:01
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