18年春英语学习报告

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本文是2018年春季学期我提交给田力男老师的英语课程作业，记录了2018年春季学期的4个月我的完整英语学习历程。

5月底写下这篇文字之后，我顺利地在6月16号的英语六级考试中拿到600分，在6月底的英语课程期末考试中拿到92分，在7月14号的托福考试中拿到111分（阅读29，听力29，口语23，写作30）。

白驹过隙，一年后的我再回首18年春自己为英语学习所做的种种努力，心中不只有感动与欣慰，还有高三以来一直不能忘怀的一句禅语：功不唐捐。正如乔布斯所说：

“蓦然回首我才发现，我随自己的好奇心与直觉所探索过的一切事物，后来都成为了多么珍贵的人生财富。你永远无法事先预知自己的人生轨迹，进而试图把人生的节点向未来连接，你只能把它们向过去连接。所以，你必须相信这些人生的节点总会连接起你的未来，因为当你的好奇心与直觉促使你走出早已被多数人踏遍的康庄大道去面对未知时，只有相信这些节点会互相连接起通往未来的大路，你才能拥有足够的自信心去勇敢地踏出第一步。“

推出这篇文章，并不只是为了纪念自己的过去，也是为了帮助其他同学们的英语学习。愿诸位认可我的英语能力，进而选择向我咨询六级、托福和英语学习建议的同学，能在本文中获得一些英语学习的经验、方法与灵感。若有学习上的疑问，欢迎来信交流：CUPL_CaoJiahao@163.com.

以下为正文。

English Learning Report

Derek Cao

In this semester, I have made substantial efforts to enhance my language skills in English in the following four aspects and satisfyingly obtained great achievements.

1. Reciting words

Since winter vacation when I was in the free TOEFL course organized by our university and taught by senior students with high scores in TOEFL tests, I have been using the app Maimemo（墨墨背单词）, which was recommended by my tutor in the course, to remember at least 50 words at TOEFL level or above.

The basic idea of this app is to utilize the scientific discoveries of human memories, which were made in 1885 by the prestigious psychologist and memory specialist Hermann Ebbinghaus from Germany. 

赫尔曼·艾宾浩斯（Hermann Ebbinghaus 1850年1月24日－1909年2月26日），德国心理学家。

Through an experiment conducted on himself in which he recited irregular numbers and recorded how much and how quickly he forgot them, Ebbinghaus found that people forget things much faster when they have just experience those things, than after a long period of time; and he also found that if you repeatedly see the same thing that you try to remember, it will be forgotten increasingly slower until it cannot be forgotten in a short time. And if we can find the exact right time and frequency to review the material, the effect of each review to slow down the forgetting process will be functioning at full extent. After a deliberate and elaborate calculation, Ebbinghaus finally found the best way to remember most materials at the cost of least time: reviewing the material you want to remember 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 4 days, 7 days, 15 days after you first see the material.

Inspired by the innovative findings of Ebbinghaus, Maimemo designed a nearly perfect algorithm for students to learn words. For each and every word or phrase, it automatically records how much time has passed since your last encounter with the word or phrase, as well as the response you gave to the app last time you saw it indicating whether or not you have fully remembered the material. Then it puts the information contained in these recordings into the algorithm and precisely drafts a deliberate plan for you to review the words or phrases, which decides when and how frequent you should see the material again. Although the whole process sounds complicated and perplexing, it is actually done automatically by the app and you just need to open the app every day to enjoy this highly efficient and worry-free journey of English learning.

Via constant endeavor on this journey every day, I have learned 3090 words and phrases, and according to the estimation of Maimemo, I can recognize at least 10000 words now. With a good comprehension of approximately 10000 vocabularies, I have no or little difficulty in most cases requiring a certain degree of competence of English skills, whether it is reading original English classic works like The Federalist Papers（《联邦党人文集》）or listening to original English audios like BBC News.

 2. Learning the textbook

In last semester, I found the texts in our textbooks of high value in cultivating a sense of native language style. Additionally, I found the efficiency of paraphrasing and translation to comprehend this writing style far outweighs that of perfunctorily reading through the text and not remembering anything at all afterwards.

Therefore, at the start of this semester, I found translations of all the texts we would study, which are the works of warm-hearted senior students. And every morning, I will first read the Chinese translation and translate it into English in my mind, then compare my translation with the original English text. Through comparison, I am able to find the beauty in the design of each sentence’s structure and the propriety of vocabulary selection.

After translation and comparison, I will read the text out loud in the hallways of Duansheng Building, with a view to enhance oral proficiency in English and heighten understanding of and familiarity with the text.

I also applied this method of intensive reading to The Federalist Papers aside from the eight texts from our textbook.

Through the whole consecutive process of translation, comparison and reading, my overall language skills developed by leaps and bounds toward the ultimate goal of thinking and talking like a native speaker. And I felt a deep sense of proud from the bottom of my heart looking back on this extraordinary achievements in return of extra efforts.

3. Practicing oral English through presentation

Solo and group presentations also constitute a major portion of the activities of our course.

（上图为下文中所说的“有关同性恋婚姻的课堂展示”中的两个案例）

Preparing for presentations was once a challenge for me, because facing the huge issues like abortion, gun control and same sex marriage that our presentations are mainly about, I was often at a loss and didn’t know how to investigate, select, organize and analyze data, examples, and theories, etc. to produce an interesting and convincing presentation. But, no pain no gain, under such pressure I taught myself the methodology of doing research. In Unit 1, my teammates assigned me to introduce two American lawsuits concerning same-sex marriage. With the attention to master the expertise of legal research and thus refine my presentation, I attended the lectures held by librarians of our university and learned how to best utilize legal data bases like Westlaw and LexisNexis. And now I won’t feel as depressed and nervous as I used to be when facing a research task.

Delivering presentations also upgraded my oral proficiency in English. When delivering their presentation, many of my classmates, according to my observation, are just regurgitating the texts displayed on their PowerPoint slides, which are probably copied from Wikipedia, and do not seem to care about whether or not their audiences are paying attention to what he or she is saying, let alone understanding. 

So far as I am concerned, delivering a presentation is another form of conversation where you must notice and respond to your audience instantly throughout the whole process. Clear delivery of meaningful and compelling contents is the essence of letting your audience care about what you are saying and what you are showing. Therefore, every time before I stand on the stage, I will clarify exactly what I want to tell the audience and find the best way to express the contents to be imparted. At the end of this semester, I was pleased to find myself equipped with a constellation of presentation skills.

4. Listening to Podcasts

Fortuitously in the winter vacation I opened the app Podcast （播客）on my iPhone, since then I have been falling deeper and deeper in this rabbit hole. 

A podcast, or generically netcast, is an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download and listen to.

——Wikipedia

Recently in China, there are in fact numerous podcasts in Chinese, for in stance the ones provided by Himalaya Radio and Logic Thinking, but none of them deliver original English podcasts directly published from their producers. However, thanks to Apple, the app Podcast is connected with Apple’s global service of iTunes where thousands of podcasts around the world are accessible at your finger tip. So, with the pleasant surprise of discovering a new world of English learning, I soon become a fan of various podcasts. 

My favorite podcast series is Planet Money from National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S.

In Planet Money, hosts use creative and entertaining dialogue and narrative to vividly explain otherwise abstruse economy phenomenon and theories closely associated with our daily lives. (If you are not using an iPhone, you can simply search Planet Money via Baidu and listen to it on NPR's official website.)

In Episode 337: The Secret Document that Transformed China, hosts of Planet Money went to China and interviewed villagers in Xiaogang of Anhui Province who wrote a secret contract that wound up starting the whole reform and opening-up policy and completely transforming the Chinese economy. Listening to objective opinions from foreigners on our reformand opening-up policy, I gained more insight and reflection on the whole development of our country.

Besides Planet Money, I also listen to BBC Global News Podcast, BBC Documentary, Revolution, Radio Westeros and a variety of other podcasts.

Every day when I am on my way to or from classroom, or when I am running on the sports filed, or anytime when I have the chance, I will put on my wireless earphones (actually also a product by Apple, the AirPods) and listen to podcasts. It has gradually become my unique habit or even a lifestyle to listen to podcast one hour a day in my leisure time. Now, with the accumulation of enjoyable English listening experience in several months from winter vacation to June, I have a good confidence in comprehending any English audio.

Conclusion

English, after all, is a language, a tool. Now that I have a comparative good command of it, it is high time I paid more attention to the ideas delivered by this language, rather than sticking to words, phrases and the language itself. Therefore, I resolve to read classic works originally written in English to absorb insights and wisdoms of western sages, and be forever grateful for my efforts made in the spring of 2018.