《新概念英語》之父L.G.Alexander：關(guān)于提高英語聽說能力的建議

L.G.Alexander(1932.1.15-2002.6.17)生于英國。世界著名的英語教學(xué)權(quán)威，曾任歐洲現(xiàn)代語言教學(xué)委員會理事。其著作為交際教學(xué)法奠定基礎(chǔ)，其中一些已成經(jīng)典教材。他和何其莘教授主編的《新概念英語》 成為英語學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)久不衰的經(jīng)典教材。

亞歷山大先生潛心研究英語教學(xué)法，結(jié)合實際教學(xué)經(jīng)驗(他曾在歐洲多所大學(xué)任教)，就廣大教師和學(xué)生廣泛關(guān)注的教學(xué)和學(xué)習(xí)問題，提供了專家指導(dǎo)和建議。

What’s the way to practise speaking in a non-English environment?

在非英語環(huán)境中練習(xí)說英語能力的最佳途徑是什么?

Lack of opportunity to use the language is every student’s problem. That’s why, in China for example, foreigners are often rapidly surrounded by young people who want to practise their English. (I know, because it’s often happened to me.) Unfortunately, the visitors have their own agenda, which doesn’t necessarily include being used for English practice!

The only natural way to use English in a non-English speaking environment occurs when you are dealing with foreigners who are visiting your country and who are using English as the medium of communication. (A visitor’s English might be non-native as well.) You will then use English quite naturally when you are entertaining, showing your visitors the sights, etc. Human beings love to exchange information about themselves and their families, so there is always plenty to talk about.

If you don’t come into contact with foreigners for professional purposes, then arrange to meet other local people who want to practise speaking English, just as you do. You collectively decide that you will use English only and help and correct each other as necessary. Do this regularly. Choose a topic in advance, so that members of the group can think about it and prepare some of the vocabulary they will need. Turn it into a pleasant social occasion when you meet at someone's house or go out together as a group. It will do wonders for your spoken English.

缺少機會運用語言是每一個學(xué)生所面臨的問題。這也是為什么在中國外國人能夠很快被想練習(xí)說英語的年輕人圍住。(我當(dāng)然知道，因為類似的事經(jīng)常發(fā)生在我身上。)遺憾的是，來訪的人都有自己的日程安排，不一定能騰出時間與中國學(xué)生練習(xí)英語!

那么在非英語環(huán)境中使用英語的惟一可行辦法是與在你的國家參觀訪問的外國人交往：與把英語作為交際媒介的人交往。(外國人講的英語未必是自己的母語。)這樣，你會在帶領(lǐng)外國朋友進行旅游消遣活動時，很自然地使用英語。人們喜歡互相交流有關(guān)他們自己及家庭方面的情況，所以總是有很多東西可以談。

如果你的職業(yè)無法使你接觸到外國人，那么可以找一些想練習(xí)說英語的本地人彼此談?wù)劇４蠹铱梢詻Q定只準(zhǔn)許用英語交談，必要時互相幫助修改錯誤。定期做這種練習(xí)。事先選定一個題目，以便小組中的成員可以事先思考，準(zhǔn)備所需的詞匯。當(dāng)你們相聚在某人家里或者作為一個集體外出時，你們之間的談話就會變成一次溫馨的社交活動。你們的英語口語水平也就會因此突飛猛進了。

Which is more important, fluency or accuracy?

說英語的流利程度和精確性哪個更重要呢?

The idea that there is a clash between fluency and accuracy is quite false: they are equally important. There are times when we concentrate on fluency and times when we concentrate on accuracy. We don’t give or require grammatical explanations with the same high level of intensity all the time. For example, if we are conducting a conversation lesson, our main objective is to build up the student’s confidence and to give the student the opportunity to express him/herself freely. In this situation, fluency takes precedence over accuracy. We tolerate a great deal of error. If, for example, a student says *He go* (for He goes) we might completely ignore the mistake and leave it uncorrected. Our main criterion is that the student is making him/herself understood. We listen. We don’t interrupt. After the student has finished speaking, we praise the student’s effort and give him/her as much encouragement as possible. We correct only those errors (just one or two) that have really interfered with communication.

If, on the other hand, you are drilling students in some aspect of language like always remembering to add ’s to the third person singular in the simple present (He goes, not *He go*) then you want 100% accuracy and you don’t accept anything less. What is acceptable in one situation may be quite unacceptable in another!

那種認(rèn)為說英語的流利程度和精確性不能兼容的觀點很站不住腳：其實，它們同樣重要。在說英語時，有時我們講求流利，有時我們講求它的準(zhǔn)確。此時，我們對語法解釋的要求不是一成不變的。比如，在組織一堂會話課的教學(xué)時，主要目標(biāo)是增強學(xué)生們的信心以及給學(xué)生們提供一個自由表達的機會。在這種情形下，說英語的流暢程度比準(zhǔn)確更重要。我們允許犯很多錯誤。比如，如果一個學(xué)生把He goes說成*He go*，我們盡可以忽略不計，把它放在一邊。我們此時衡量學(xué)生的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是看他是否讓人懂得他的意思。我們只聽，而不打斷他的講話。在學(xué)生發(fā)言完畢之后，我們要表揚他為此付出努力，盡量給予更多的鼓勵。我們只糾正確實影響交流的一兩處錯誤。

如果你在著重訓(xùn)練學(xué)生其他方面的技能，比如一般現(xiàn)在時第三人稱單數(shù)加-s(說He goes,而不說*He go*)，那么你講求的就是語言上百分之百的正確，否則你不會接受。其實，任何事物都不是一成不變的，在一種情形中可接受的準(zhǔn)則在另一種情況下則很不可接受。

What is the best strategy to get used to listening to natural English? It is impossible for me to understand every word.

聽懂很地道的英語的最佳策略是什么呢? 對我來說，要聽懂每一個詞是非常困難的。

How often I have heard the lament: I can understand my teacher’s English, but I can’t understand anyone else’s! I can only suggest a few tips for improving your listening comprehension:

1) Try to extend the range of English you listen to. This means listening to as much native-speaker English as you can (varieties of British and American English) and different varieties of non-native English (Spanglish, Frenglish, Gerlish, etc.). The BBC World Service is an excellent source of native-speaker English, as are films on video.

2) When listening to English (whatever its source) don’t try to puzzle out the meaning of individual words. Try to get the gist of the whole, by listening for the global meaning and ignoring words you haven’t fully heard or understood.

3) Remember, that native speakers in particular take a lot of short cuts when speaking and you have to get used to them. For example, something that sounds like‘Wodjasay?’would be ‘What did you say?’when written out in full.

4) One of the biggest barriers to understanding is the failure to recognize word boundaries, so that you can’t tell, when English is spoken at speed, where one word ends and another begins. If someone quickly says‘You shouldn’t’ve done that’it may sound like a single word, whereas it is actually six separate words. A good way of training yourself to distinguish word boundaries is to listen to recordings of English, while silently reading the printed text at the same time. There are whole libraries of books on tape, so that you can listen and read at the same time to train the ear and the eye simultaneously.

That’s enough to be getting on with, for the time being, and good luck!

我聽過這樣的抱怨已經(jīng)不止一次了：我可以聽懂我的老師說的英語，但我卻不能理解別人說的英語!這里，我只能就如何提高你的聽力理解提幾點建議：

1) 盡可能擴大你聽英語的范圍。這就是說盡可能多聽說英語的本族人的談話(英國英語和美國英語，等等)。同時也要多聽非英語國家人們的談話(西班牙英語、法國英語、德國英語，等等)。英國廣播公司(BBC)的面向世界的廣播是聽地道的英語的極好來源，觀看電影錄像也是如此。

2) 在聽英語時(不論其來源)，先不要為個別單詞的意思犯愁。一定要先抓住所聽的內(nèi)容的大概意思，即先聽懂內(nèi)容的全貌，忽略個別你沒有完全聽懂或理解的詞。

3) 請你記住，說英語的本族人在說話時，通常省掉一些詞，以求省事，你必須習(xí)慣他們的說話方式。例如：你若聽到他們說Wodjasay?，那么寫全了就是What did you say?

4) 對英語學(xué)習(xí)者來說，聽懂英語的最大困難還有一個，即他們不能正確地辨出詞與詞之間的界線。這就是說當(dāng)別人在快速說英語時，你不能分辨一個單詞在哪兒結(jié)束，一個單詞在哪兒開始。如果有人以很快的速度說You shouldn’t’ve done that(你本不應(yīng)該做那件事)，這句話聽起來就像一個詞一樣，但實際上它卻是由六個單獨的詞組成的。訓(xùn)練你自己分辨詞與詞之間界線的最好方法是一邊聽英語錄音，一邊默讀與之對照的課文。類似這類的材料可說是汗牛充棟，你可以以這種方法同時訓(xùn)練眼和耳。

眼下，你可以開始試試，祝你好運!

It’s difficult to catch the words in the Voice of America sports report. Do you have some skills?

聽美國之音體育報道，對詞的理解有困難。您能介紹一些竅門嗎?

One of the most difficult skills to acquire in a foreign language is the ability to understand the natural language spoken by native speakers at a normal speed. Additionally, with sports reports, the language is often delivered at speed. Listen to a commentary on a horse race or a car rally and you will find that the commentator can hardly keep up with himself as he tries to keep pace with the events he is witnessing. You can train yourself to cope with native speaker delivery in a number of ways. One way is to use ‘talking books’. These are published on audio tape, compact disc, or on video. They consist mainly of novels or biographies read by famous actors and are aimed at native speakers who like to listen to someone telling them a story, rather than reading one themselves. This is what you could do:

Buy the book and the recorded version (in British or American English according to your preference).

Play a small part of the audio version and concentrate on listening. Confine yourself to about two minutes at a time. Try to understand as much as you can. You will probably find it’s hard to‘keep up with the reader’.

Play the taped version again while reading the text at the same time. Guess the meaning from the context, looking up only those words which seem to you to be essential to the meaning.

Play the same part of the tape again without looking at the book. Contentrate only on listening. This time you will find that you can‘keep up with the reader’much more easily.

Keep doing this until you feel able to cope with native delivery. Of course, it’s not a sports commentary. But following this routine will provide you with the kind of practice you need to cope with English delivered at normal native-speaker speed.

一門外國語最難掌握的一項技巧就是聽懂母語講話人用正常速度所說的自然語言的能力。另外，在體育報道中，語速通常是快的。聽一場賽馬或汽車比賽的評論，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)評論員幾乎都跟不上自己的速度，因為他要努力跟上他所看到的項目的進行速度。你可以通過幾個方法來訓(xùn)練自己聽懂母語講話者說話的能力。一種辦法是使用 “有聲讀物”。這些讀物以錄音帶、CD或錄像帶的形式出版。它們主要包括著名演員朗讀的小說或傳記，這些讀物是面向那些不想親自讀故事而想聽別人讀的母語講話者的。你可以：

購買有聲讀物及其配書(根據(jù)你自己的喜好選擇英國英語或美國英語)。

播放一小部分有聲讀物，集中精力聽。每次限制在兩分鐘內(nèi)。盡量多地理解。你可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)要“跟上朗讀人”有困難。

重復(fù)播放有聲讀物，看著配書聽。根據(jù)上下文猜測意思，只有那些對理解意思起關(guān)鍵作用的詞才去查詞典。

再把磁帶的同一部分播放一遍，不要看書。集中精力聽。這次你會發(fā)現(xiàn)要“跟上朗讀人”就容易多了。

堅持做下去，直到你覺得能夠應(yīng)付母語的講話為止。當(dāng)然，這不是體育評論。這種做法能為你提供實用的練習(xí)，使你聽懂正常語速英語母語講話。

Along with listening to the radio, I always read some books about listening comprehension. I have got little progress in my listening comprehension. How can I improve it?

在聽收音機的同時，我還讀一些有關(guān)如何提高聽力的書。但仍然進步緩慢。我該如何提高呢?

The way to train listening comprehension in a language course is through the technique of‘active listening’, not ‘passive listening’. If a teacher introduces a text with a short commentary and sets a question, students will listen actively. For example, the teacher says: ‘Today I’m going to read you a story about an accident. After I have finished reading, I will ask you how the accident happened.’ This will encourage students to listen actively in order to find out the answer. If, however, the teacher introduces a story by saying: ‘Listen to this story’, the students will have no listening focus. They will listen (perhaps) with their eyes open, but with their minds shut. Here are a few tips to improve your listening skills:

Listen for particular information; don’t worry about the meanings of individual words.

If you have recordings of texts (the listening comprehension books you mention), first listen to the recordings, trying to pick up as much as you can at first hearing. Then listen again, while reading silently at the same time. Then listen to the text a third time (without reading)

Try sharing a listening activity with a friend or with friends, so you can ‘pool’ your listening experience with others.

練習(xí)語言聽力的方法是要采取積極主動而非被動的方式。如果老師在介紹一篇課文時稍加一個短評，并且提出一個問題，學(xué)生們就會積極主動地聆聽。例如，老師說： “今天我準(zhǔn)備給你們讀一則講述一個意外事件的故事。讀完之后，我要問你們這件事是如何發(fā)生的。”這會鼓勵學(xué)生們積極認(rèn)真地聽，以求找到問題的答案。如果老師只是說：“請聽這個故事”，學(xué)生們則沒有聆聽的重點。他們的雙眼可能是睜著的，但頭腦確是封閉的。在此，我給你提供一些建議，供參考：

為汲取特定的信息而聽;不要擔(dān)心個別詞的意思。

如果你所說的聽力課本中的課文有錄音，首先聽錄音，盡量在第一次聽時多聽懂些，然后再聽一遍，同時你可以默讀。之后，你可以再聽第三遍(可以不讀課文了)。

可以試著與一個朋友或幾個朋友一起進行聽力訓(xùn)練，這樣你們可以集思廣益，互相借鑒。