زبان انگلیسی  : اصول یادگیری تدریس ترجمه

The first step is the hardest . . . If someone is eager to learn a foreign language, he or she needs a teacher in taking the first step. This teacher may not only be a human being, but also a tape recording, a computer CD, a radio or a television program. Self-education in learning languages starts with studying the sound system of a language.

Second, a learner must answer the question: "Why do I speak my native language so fluently?" The answer is: "I live with people who use my language every day and I am forced to use it too." Speaking his or her own language, a learner has to repeat the same word or the same phrase a lot of times a day. A learner is doing so day after day, month after month and year after year, in short, all his or her life long. Out of curiosity, one may count how many times a day the word "I" is said. It is the most popular word in every language.

Third, the above situation makes a learner come to several useful conclusions: a) A foreign language is studied through unceasing and regular repetition of one and the same thing in the course of a lengthy period of time. A foreign language recognizes neither days off nor holidays. b) The vocabulary of any language contains thousands of words. A learner needn’t learn and remember every word. Academicians think that a well-educated person makes use of 6,000 to 9,000 words for all kinds of communication. The vocabulary of an ordinary man or woman is naturally smaller. 2,000 or 3,000 words will suffice. c) These must be used and repeated in every possible situation. The recommendation is simple: Go ahead always coming back. The language is easily forgotten and lost as soon as a speaker stops using it. A musician also loses his or her musical habits and skills when the musical instrument remains untouched. The best result comes if a learner spends 15 – 20 minutes studying a language every day. There is no result if he or she spends two hours on it once a week.

Fourth, the choice of a learning method depends upon what object or aim a learner of a foreign language pursues. A specialist usually takes a great interest in getting more information to make his or her work more productive. The larger his or her foreign vocabulary the better. From this point of view a doctor enlarges the medical vocabulary, a teacher—the educational one, a priest – the theological one, and so on.

Many people merely want to speak a foreign language. In this case a method is different. An ordinary speaker needs a limited number of 2,000 or 3,000 words for communication and he or she should be very careful in the choice of words. To learn and remember a single isolated word in this situation is useless. One should memorize a word group or a phrase. For instance, a learner tries to remember the English word "table." He or she had better memorize the ‘word-groups’ to lay the table, to clear the table, a writing-table, and so one. When a learner gets to know the phrase "You can’t eat your cake and have it too," he or she keeps "cake" in mind forever. Moreover, one may remember every single word of their phrase for a long time and recognize them in any other word groups or phrases. At the same time a learner studies grammar through this phrase.

Speaking a foreign language is very important first of all because of its potential practical reasons. Many special conversational guide-books are published in every country today. A learner may find a list of topics for conversation in these books. The topics may be ‘Addressing and Introducing People,’ ‘Congratulations and Good Wishes,’ ‘Profession and Occupation,’ etc. A learner can also make up his or her own list of topics in accordance with own interests.

Fifth, a learner must be sure why he or she is learning a language (because that will determine the area of focus.) There are four uses of a language: reading, speaking, understanding and writing. Some learners are ready to develop all these skills. Yet, sometimes one has to choose between these. For example, if a learner is not eager to speak the foreign language (French, German, etc.), he or she need not pay attention to pronunciation and intonation. The focus can be on grammar that deals with various forms of a word. If the focus is on speaking as opposed to reading or writing, then the needed skills are different.

Sixth, as a benefit, learning a foreign language has an important consequence: It gives a learner a chance to know his or her own native language better. The thing is that every language is greatly influenced by the peculiarities of a people’s political, economic, religious, cultural and everyday life. Reflection of reality is nationally coloured in the human mind. For this reason, names of one and the same thing and the same idea differ from people to people. For example, an Englishman speaks about a wide difference between things and people, a Russian speaker talks about a deep difference between them. The Russian people want to eat their soup, the English people are hungry and they drink their soup. All these differences are reflected in the languages respectively. If a learner is careless, he or she will make mistakes in the choice of foreign words, and his or her speaking will sound awkward to the native inhabitants of the country whose language he or she studies.

Finally, a learner needs a strong will, ample patience, a good memory plus hard well-organized work. Desire and enthusiasm do not always help. Complete success depends only upon a learner. A passionate learner of foreign languages can master several languages. A second or a third foreign language comes easier and easier to him or to her. Every new language gives the person an opportunity to gain even a greater insight of other people’s life and culture, ideas and conceptions, which may be a very useful skill in itself in today’s global society.

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