Teaching Chinese Students 外教谈英语学习(2)

己确切的评估。他们也和我一样明白，尽管为了学好英语，下过功夫苦读，但成效依然不能令人满意。他们也想知道，自己的英语是否够好，而“够好”的真正定义又是什么？他们更想了解，是否可利用某些捷径，得以有效提升自己的双语沟通与读写的能力；此外，尤其想知道，是否可以找到自己学习英语的先天限制与种种缺失，以及补救之道。

These are some of the answers I think are true, and that I hope are useful. Learning any foreign language takes a long time and a great deal of effort, but learning one that belongs to a different language family from your mother tongue is especially hard. I knew in England experienced teachers of English to speakers of Asian languages belonging (as do the languages of Europe) to the Indo-European language family. When these teachers met primary students from Hong Kong they perceived them as diligent but slow. Those teachers simply failed to recognize that if Cantonese is your mother tongue you simply have more to do than (say) a Punjabi speaker, so of course you need longer to do it. It is easy to get discouraged and, in effect, to give up. Some people do—even if among those who go on attending classes conscientiously! Many more fail to recognize how much they have actually learnt and to respect their own achievements.

我想下面这些答案是千真万确的，也盼望对大家有所帮助。学习任何语言都需要很长的时间和巨大的努力，而学习一门跟你的母语不属于同一语系的语言，尤其艰辛不易。我在英国认识一些经验丰富的英语教师，他们专教（十分接近欧洲语系的）印欧语系的亚裔学生。他们一旦碰到班上有来自香港的小学生，立刻会察觉这些学生虽然用功勤勉，但却成效不佳。这些教师都未能认清一个事实：要是本身的母语是广东话，学起英文来比讲印度加语的人士，就得多花一些功夫，自然学习时间要拉长了。这样他们很容易气馁从而放弃学习。其中还不乏不曾缺课的认真学生！更有不少人对自己所学的实际进展，茫然不知，不晓得珍惜自己的学习成效。

Realistic Targets

It is important to set yourself realistic targets. For all but a small, exceptionally gifted minority, native proficiency is not a realistic target.

A Chinese user of English should not feel that because he sounds and seems Chinese when he uses English that he has been less than successful in acquiring it. To have learned English well is to be fully intelligible to another user of standard English and to understand him, in ordinary

circumstances.” Of course “ordinary circumstances” differ between users. Highly technical vocabulary is entirely ordinary in the context of air traffic control or information technology or any one of the many scientific and technical contexts for which English is the language of international communication. Advanced students of English need to consider what are the