Language is a way of expressing oneself, and it has a lot to do with how we feel, how we think, and even our personality. This is best illustrated by the fact that people who are bilingual exhibit different personality traits when they use different languages. If you haven't felt this yet, then maybe your English learning is still at the level of word memorization and rule learning, and you haven't been able to experience the charm of a language in all aspects. 6-12 months is a common preparation cycle for students, but I prefer to think of it as a process of gradually developing an interest in English and thus improving our abilities, and this article will explain the three behavioral principles that need to be done in this process to bring about a fundamental change in language learning and completely liberate our enthusiasm for learning.
1. Genuine recognition of identity change
当我们决心好好学习一门语言从而出国留学时，我们也拥有了两个新身份——English learner 和future English user.
When you really start to realize that you will be able to read dozens or hundreds of literature, buy all kinds of items in various shops on the streets, and collaborate with group members from different countries to complete homework and even become friends, you will lay the foundation for learning English - making English relevant to youself.
English represents these beautiful visions of your future and your future self. Only with this belief and awareness can learning English not be a painful thing, but will it become a process of self-fulfillment, which is active, voluntary, and self-fulfilling. English is a part of you.
2. Establish an English learning context
This may seem like a difficult thing to do in China, but it is actually feasible in practice, and it is also an important way to get in touch with a language in all aspects, constantly strengthen one's identity, and increase interest.
In my teaching of younger students, I will ask him to use three adjectives in Chinese to describe a good friend he can see every day, the more common and distinctive the better, because this word will be constantly reinforced in daily life; In other words, every time the student sees his good friend, he thinks of the newly learned adjective (with the teacher's hint and encouragement), and the student has a real conceptual externalization of the word, that is, his friend, so that it is easy to achieve high-quality learning. In fact, learning a new English word is like discovering a meme that can accurately express the meaning, you just need to carefully remember the image it represents, and use it a few times at the right time.
In the same way, we may not be exposed to so many English sounds when we are not in English class, but there are many images and sounds that can exist in our brains (just like I am sitting in the classroom writing this article at this moment, silent on the surface but brainstorming in Chinese and English in my heart), which is an inner language.
We need a little curiosity to look up the English expressions of some of our own small ideas in each scene, or have a teacher who can point them out, so that the learning scene you build in your mind is actually very close to the language we feel in a foreign country or in an English class. When we are willing to actively express these "inner dramas" of ourselves - the things themselves and their thoughts and feelings in English, you have completed the construction of English learning scenarios, and then you will inevitably come into contact with those people and things again, and these ideas will emerge in your life (after all, the essence of people is a repeater), and then review the expressions that you can't remember, and you will naturally complete the learning and improvement process. Over time, English may become more important when you come up with some ideas.
Of course, in addition to thinking about building scenes in your mind, it is also a good way to get scenes from American and British dramas, character speeches, and classroom learning.
3. Find an English partner
You must have had a situation where you have memorized words in a notebook until you collapse but still can't remember them, as if the previous intensive reading and listening have been done in vain, and the accumulated words should not be remembered or remembered. If so, then first of all, congratulations on the fact that you are already in a very active state of learning, and what is lacking is only a natural space for you to learn the language you have learned "temporarily".
Language is used to communicate, and rote memorization is never as good as having someone to communicate with to tell him what he has learned. During the lesson, I will ask the students to tell me the synopsis of the passage through storytelling after learning a reading to serve as a review. I would tell him that the ultimate goal of speaking in Chinese or English is for me to understand and let me know more information, and if he has difficulties, he can also use the notes he has accumulated before, so that the review will be more interesting and the memory effect will be better. As his "partner", I will not interrupt him to correct his mistakes throughout the whole process, but try to maintain a natural and authentic environment for speaking English, as long as we can understand each other, it is appropriate, I think this is also the correct principle of each pair of partners when practicing, and the correction work is put to the end to achieve the purpose of improvement.
So an English partner not only serves to encourage each other, but also allows the language to flow in a more natural environment, stimulating the expressions that have been accumulated under the second principle. Of course, it is best for the other party's level to be a little higher, but even if it is about the same or slightly lower, it does not affect you to use your own better expression to play the effect of training and consolidation.
These three principles all point to one thing, that is, to truly integrate English learning into life, not just for one or two hours in class, and to make English closely related to oneself from three aspects: self-awareness, inner thinking, and external expression, so as to achieve sustainable and efficient English learning.