How can English beginners overcome difficulties in learning English

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This post was last edited by Thank goodness you're here on 2016-3-15 09:05. The turmoil associated with the transition from elementary to middle school has not yet subsided, while the call for the new seventh graders has already sounded, unnoticed. I’m sure everyone still feels uneasy when thinking back to that tough path of transitioning from elementary to middle school. But once we’ve managed to overcome those challenges, how should we prepare next? Do we feel that the road ahead is long and that it’s too early to start preparing? Have we considered that after finally crossing the river, it’s better to take a break first – there’s no need to overexert ourselves? I’m sure everyone has heard the saying: \"The early bird catches the worm.\" Even the math teacher said something like this: “Physical education, just like English, cannot be mastered in a short period of time.” If you can’t solve math problems, I’ll help you do them 100 times and eventually you’ll get it; but if I teach you 1000 words, will you be able to write an English essay? This shows that learning English requires long-term effort and preparation. Now, focus on the high school entrance exam; only by knowing oneself and the opponent can one win every battle. Many people may question why one needs to start preparing for the high school entrance exam as early as the first year of middle school. By preparation, we don’t mean starting to do a large number of practice questions right away; rather, it involves getting ready in advance so that one is well-informed, thereby avoiding last-minute rushes and desperate attempts to cope under pressure. 　　After a lecture by a mother who regretted things regarding her third-year junior high school experience, another mother in the same situation shared her own troubles. The boy in her family focused on Olympiad mathematics when moving up to middle school, giving up English. Given the favorable trends in the policies regarding the transition from primary to middle school, it was expected that students would be selected in advance. But after starting middle school, I found that things had changed. Firstly, middle school math and elementary school Olympiad math are two different systems; secondly, English seems to have become very important in middle school. By the end of the eighth grade, his math skills were still among the best in the class; he also far surpassed his peers in other science subjects. His performance in Chinese was excellent as well. The only subject that posed a constant challenge for him was English. 　　The reason for this is that English was neglected during the transition from primary to middle school, which led children to think that English isn’t important at all; therefore, it didn’t matter if they performed poorly in exams. By middle school, due to a weak foundation, my English scores were always very low. In the child’s mind, the thought now is: My English is already not good, so it’s only natural that my grades aren’t high. Over time, the subconscious tells oneself that one is not good at English and that no matter how hard one tries, there will be no progress. There is no greater sorrow than a dead heart. If one loses interest and confidence, how is it possible to learn well? In response to this situation, we offered a few suggestions to this mother: appreciation-based education. One should learn to appreciate children and notice their small progress in English, rather than blindly focusing on the final scores; choose the right teacher. The teachers with the best reputations or the most experience may not be the most suitable ones for your child. For a teacher, a student might be just one hundredth of something; but for a student, the teacher in the classroom is 100% of everything to them. Online English learning* websites are seeking a breakthrough to drive progress from key areas. Since grammar can yield immediate results, one can start by mastering it. Additionally, the reading comprehension section of the exam consists of four articles, with the first two being quite easy. It is advisable to have children start with these two articles to build confidence, and from there progress to the others. 　　Learning *methods is very important. Some students perform very well in every exam; this is because they have studied English in a systematic manner. That’s why some people can complete exams quickly and accurately. For example, if you choose a word and ask him about its usage, meaning, or how to use it in sentences, he will surely be able to explain it clearly and coherently. In this way, during an exam he can quickly identify what the key points are and select the correct answer right away, which leads to what is known as \"no need for checking.\" It’s actually impossible not to check at all, but let’s consider it from another perspective: if you think you understand everything well, that the questions are simple, and you’re completely confident in your answers, then is checking still necessary?! This is where the importance of learning effective methods lies – they enable you to solve problems quickly and accurately. Specific suggestions for learning such methods will be mentioned later. 　　It is essential to memorize and recall more. The English learned in the first year of middle school serves as a foundation for the future; only when the underlying foundation is solid can the upper structures be built. Therefore, at this time, students should memorize and recall as much as possible; it is a process of input and output. Only after continuous input and the accumulation of knowledge can one be able to produce output. Don’t treat English as a particularly burdensome subject; it’s just a language (I emphasize this point over and over again). Think about learning pinyin in the first grade of elementary school – it was difficult to remember, but still had to be learned. The same is true when learning English phonetics. Also, don’t forget that in elementary school textbooks, there are always new characters in each lesson. What do teachers ask you to do? Nothing more than to provide pronunciations, give explanations, and create sentences using those characters! The same principle applies to English: when you encounter a new word, you should first understand how to pronounce it, what its meaning is, as well as its various meanings; you need to know when to use it as a noun and when to use it as a verb. Additionally, you should memorize some common phrases that involve that word. Further expanding on this, an English sentence is made up of words, and a passage is made up of sentences; therefore, the entire process of learning English involves such input and output. Only by mastering such fundamental elements can one be able to construct sentences, understand sentences that have never been seen before while reading, and figure out what meaning words or sentences that have never been encountered before are intended to convey. 　　Fourth, one must truly engage with the problems seriously and study in a systematic manner. *It doesn’t mean that one has to do a certain number of problems of each type every day; what’s important is to truly focus on them. If you don’t do so, no matter how many problems you solve, it’s useless. You’ll keep thinking, “I think I’ve done this before, but I can’t remember,” or “I’ve memorized this word, but I’ve forgotten it,” and things like that – that won’t work. Humans have a forgetting curve, and an effective way to overcome forgetting is to review the material after some time has passed, treating it as part of everyday Chinese learning and practice. Speaking of this, laptops must be mentioned; they are very important. You rely mostly on this notebook for your input; although you may understand many things at the time, it’s still necessary to write them down so that you can review them later. As for those things you can’t memorize right away, there’s no need even to mention writing them down. 　　Cultural enrichment outside of class. Reading more English-language newspapers, watching movies and music, and listening to English content online are all very beneficial for learning the language. In these forms of cultivation, it’s not enough to just look; one must consciously draw out useful things from them. For example, one should try to memorize the useful things that are commonly used there, such as phrases and common words; it’s not necessary to memorize overly complex items. Such practice is actually a form of learning, and it is very helpful for both speaking and listening skills. It’s not only through doing lots of exercises that one can improve; when communicating with foreigners in the future, what matters more is one’s ability to handle a language effectively. Details to pay attention to when learning English: Ask your teacher more questions about things you don’t understand, but be careful not to get stuck on details; there are certain aspects of language that are established by convention, without any logical explanation – they seem to follow patterns yet also don’t (such as the past participle of verbs). 　　Listening skills improve purely through listening more. For example, in English exams, it’s sometimes impossible to understand what is being said no matter how hard you try to listen; but during the morning meetings, even if you get distracted while chatting with classmates, you can still understand what the teacher is saying. The listening section of the College English Test Band 6 is easier because it’s your native language, so you can understand it even without putting in much effort. So, listen to English more! The more you listen, the more familiar you will become with it; the more words you know, the fewer things there will be that you don’t understand, and that’s inevitable. When reading, speed is important! In exam reading comprehension, it’s not necessary to read every sentence; the text is long, and some parts can be skimmed or ignored, while others require careful attention. Therefore, it is essential to focus on the key points and manage time carefully during each reading.