英語教育學essay：The Importance of English Learning Environment

【Abstract】
English learning is not simply doing papers but we should put English into practice and we should use it in life. Only in this way can we master English rather than getting high points in exams but without ability to use it.

【Key words】
English  Environment  Speaking  Willingness

【Body】
  As a student，I have learnt English for more than ten years. Frankly speaking, I can’t communicate with English-speaking foreigners very easily. Not only I but also many other college students in China can’t easily do so.
  How about other Chinese people in English-speaking countries？Yao Ming, basketball player in NBA now, entered NBA in 2002 with a translator for helping him communicate with American people. But after about 2 years, Yao “fired” his translator because Yao didn’t need him any more. He could communicate with others in English very easily. Another famous Chinese person Zhang Ziyi, world wide famous movie actress, had hardly learnt English before she started to act in Hollywood. But now she can speak English very well after working and living in USA for several years and successfully finds a rich boyfriend Vivid in America.
  How could this happen? Ten-year study in China can’t beat several years’ living in USA, an English speaking country. We haven’t got an environment to study English well, especially the spoken-English. Yes, we can’t deny that we can get high points in so many exams if we do enough practice. And many of us can easily pass CET4 even CET6 so that we may get jobs easier. But the certificate given to you is used to prove that you have the ability to use English rather than helping you get a good job while you have the certificate but don’t have the ability.
  In China, if you get high points in English exams then you are thought to be good at English. In my opinion, we do not learn English, we just do the papers again and again. When I was in senior school, the beginning two years I was taught by Mr. Lee who studied in America and got a Master’s degree of Education. He had some new methods which were different from other ways most teachers used. I could get my English ability improved by using the special ways, I mean the ability rather than the points I got in exam. Most of my classmates couldn’t get satisfying points in exams even though we liked English we studied hard as Mr. Lee’s methods. While in senior 3, Mr. Lee was replaced by an experienced teacher who had taught English for almost 20 years. Yeah, it’s “effectively”, our class’s English points got improved gradually, but just points.   
  I have some friends and classmates who study abroad. Most of them went to study after National College Entrance Examination in China. After studying about 2 years abroad, some of them can easily communicate with English-speaking foreigners. Others’ English ability is much better than that when they were in China. At least they now dare to speak with foreigners initiatively and they have much more opportunities to listen, to think and to speak while it is almost a luxury in China. I don’t mean that we all should go abroad to study English. What I want to say is that the English learning environment is very important to us. Yes, there are some places and chances for us to practice our spoken English. For example, you can go to Starbucks, there are always some foreigners whom you can speak to if it is convenient to them. And there is an English corner near Jin Jiang Hotel at every Tuesday and every Thursday night. At most schools, there is also an English corner in Thursday afternoon or at Thursday night. But it is really not enough for us. And our surroundings are almost related to Chinese things. We can’t see, can’t listen, can’t think about, can’t write and can’t speak English all day long. Even we do some, we just translate Chinese into English at most. #p#分頁標題#e#
Someone says, if you want to study a foreign language you should forget your mother language first. There are many differences between two languages. While we think in Chinese way so that the English we write down or speak out is not local. And there are many special phrases you can’t simply get the right meaning from the surface translation. Here are some examples, “white elephant” means something useless, “rain cats and dogs” means a downpour or a rainstorm, “black sheep” means a person wastes money getting from his or her parents, “a piece of cake” means something can be done easily. How can we get in touch with local English? First, we should say “Thanks” to the internet. Now we can surf the internet to browse the local English web sites like MSN.com, Yahoo.com, BBC.com and so on. There are so many local English articles you can read on the web pages. You can also download some English audios and videos from the internet. We must put us into an English environment if we want to learn English well, not just get high points. English is tool, we use it to get more advanced and useful information which we can’t receive easily without English. Some news, knowledge and current affairs we get in China are simply translated from English. If we know English we can get them directly rather than waiting for Chinese ones.
English learning environment is important but it doesn’t mean everything. If you don’t have the willingness to learn English, the good environment means nothing to you. Ding Jun hui, 24-year old and now a snooker world champion, began attending matches in Britain when he was a boy. After competing and living in Britain for many years although not living there all the time Ding doesn’t master English because he is not willing to communicate with others. I have watched a TV advertisement, there is an announcement in it, “You can get it if you really want!” Yeah, you can get it, but you can’t without having the willingness.
 English learning environment and willingness are both necessary while studying English.