第七届希望之星高中组决赛选手沈哲：学习经验

　　我是这样学英语的

　　How I learn English

　　Nowadays there are a lot of people learning English. I am simply an individual among billions across the world. If there is one piece of information I can offer you, then it is that you should always wear a hat in summer. The benefits of wearing a hat have been proved by scientists. Where as the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

　　English is as much a tool as a screwdriver, yet it is also a form of art refined over centuries of study. Many Chinese students have strived to find more efficient ways of learning English. Most have found to their dismay that these attempts have come to no avail. What we must first know about English is that it is a form of language, which means that it is growing, evolving and for ever changing. Therefore you must be as flexible as the language you seek to master.

　　The first thing to learn English is that you must get involved. Don’t stick to the basic elements such as grammar or the phonetic symbols. These things can only take you so far in certain areas. Of course I am not saying that you should throw them out of the window, everything will come to some use at some time one way or another. They are indeed the basic things and therefore you must still learn to use them.

　　I have found that to learn English more efficiently, you have to first settle yourself in an English environment. When in Rome do as the Romans do. So since you are learning English, you should start acting like a native English speaker. You can start by listening to CDs in English. This will help you think in English. Many sentences that you hear can be use in daily life and you do not have to worry about pronunciation because all you have to do is to imitate the person in the CD. You might find it difficult at first, and what you hear at first (especially if the person is speaking very quickly) is a blur of sounds. But as you listen more you will start to understand it. It is a good way to improve your listening comprehension, even if you are listening to English songs. Besides, this will also give you an excuse to buy lots of CDs, but please respect the copyrights and don’t buy the pirated ones.

　　Listening is very important but it might seem a bit dull to use only one of your senses. So you might want to watch a few English movies. I know that when I say this you might jump up and order your parents to buy you like 200 DVDs. But do choose the ones you are going to buy carefully. Those movies that have 2 hours of shooting and 5 minutes of speaking are totally useless. Buy the ones that have a fair amount of conversations and they are best if they are normally used. It would also help if you turn the subtitles on when you are watching them because when you find something you don’t understand, you can always pause it and go back.

　　Now that I have told you how to improve your listening skills, we might want to get down to some other facts such as writing and reading. What I recommend for these two is that you read as much as you can. Reading really helps a lot. But you must first find a book that you truly like, because if you force yourself to read things that you find utterly boring then you might as well stop reading. The book that opened my door was ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. Even now, when I have read it about 30 times, I still like to go back and read it again. Each time you read a book, you find something new and this is what makes reading so much fun. When you find a sentence that you like, write it down in a notebook and before you know it. You have a whole store of words and phrases at your disposal.

　　The last thing I have advice for is speaking. There is really no shortcut to it. You have just got to speak a lot to learn how to speak. I suggest finding you a friend to practice with. If you have a friend who can use English with you all the time then that would be superb, because you can both improve at the same time. But don’t be too shy to open your mouth and don’t worry about people laughing at you. It’s a natural thing and nobody would care.

　　Always have confidence when using English and never hesitate to seize an opportunity when it comes your way! But trust me on wearing a hat!

　　家长或老师文章

　　多读、多听、多练

　　在沈哲的书架上，放置的几乎全是原版小说(其他的书籍都“退居”到了爸爸的书房)，有Harry Potter 系列, Animorphs 系列, Goosebumps 系列, Star Wars 系列等等。一百几十本书都是他认真读过的，尤其是Horry Potter 系列，每一本都读过很多遍，正是从这套书开始，他真正喜欢上了阅读。因为接触了太多原汁原味的句子，所以无论是做题还是写作，他从不深究语法，完全凭语感。很少看到他花时间单纯地记忆英语单词，他的词汇大部分都是从阅读中反复接触记住的。也正因为这样，在考试时他经常用一些课本中没有出现过的生词(有时也许更恰当)而失分。

　　沈哲不仅喜欢阅读原版小说，也很喜欢看原版电影，听英语歌曲和英语故事。只要他发现喜欢的外国电影或歌曲的碟片，一定会买回来欣赏。他的零花钱有很大一部分就是这样消费的。他有一个“不好”的习惯，边听歌曲(主要是英文歌，国内的偶尔听听周杰伦的)边学习。他还有一个习惯，听着英文故事入睡。从买来第一套Harry Potter的故事碟片开始，几年来一直如此。同一个故事可以不厌其烦听上n遍，对他来说，其中的每一句话都是那么熟悉和亲切。

　　沈哲就读于南京外国语学校。在校的学习不仅使他学到了英语知识，提高了英语水平，更重要的是给了他很多锻炼听说读写能力的机会。小到每周必做的project，大到由学生自编自导自演节目代表班级参加学校每年一次的外语节，千锤百炼。能力提高的同时也获得了自信。

　　感谢本次大赛组委会，使沈哲有了展示自己风采的机会，更重要的是给了他一次难得的学习机会。

　　(选手家长：张小萍)