Hi! My friends! I’m Hattie, the vice-principle of Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Foreign Language School. I’ve been an English teacher for sixteen years, as well as a learner at the same time. I’m here to share my experience in learning English with all of you.
As it known to us, the problem with learning and teaching English as a foreign language is that all English learners want to speak English well. But how many of us can learn it well, and speak it correctly or fluently? As a matter of fact, to most of the Chinese students, they know every word or phrase they need to use and every grammar point they are to follow, however, the only problem is that they can’t express it orally. Then how can we improve our English, especially our oral English? As far as I'm concerned, the followings are necessary:

First of all, the desire to learn. One of the most successful language learning experiences we know about took place towards the end of the Second World War when the American military needed to train their personnel in the languages of the countries they would have to administer and deal with. In short intensive courses, the students learnt fantastically fast. In this case, students were highly motivated, they really wanted to learn and they had powerful reasons for doing so – including, of course, a fear of failure. According to Gardner and Lambert’s research that students who felt most warmly about a language and who wanted to integrate into the culture of its speakers were more highly motivated(and learnt more successfully)than those who were only learning language as a means to an end(e.g. getting a better job). It is clear that highly motivated students do better than ones without any motivation at all.

Secondly, the most important point, learning English requires action. You may know all the learning tips, but if you don't start doing things, you will achieve nothing. Good learners are willing to experiment, listen, ask questions, think about how to learn and accept correction. They are willing to listen to what’s going on – not just in the sense of paying attention, but also in terms of really listening to the English that is being used, soaking it up with eagerness and intelligence; they are not afraid to ‘have a go’ - they are prepared to take risks, to try things out and see how it works; they urge to find out why (which is part of a successful learner’s equipment); they bring or invent their own study skills when they come to a lesson; they are keen to get feedback from the teacher and act upon what they are told. Good learners, in other words, don’t just wait to be taught.

Further more, the secrets below will show us how to learn English more successfully. The list comes from the book “10 secrets to speaking English” by Dale H Christensen: 1. self-esteem; 2. teach others; 3. sing songs; 4. talk to the TV and radio; 5. read aloud and read a lot; 6. call others on the telephone; 7. group participation; 8. interpret for others; 9. memorize new words and phrases; 10. Read, write and memorize poetry. Most people have found it to be one of the most effective ways to learn English.

Lastly but not the least, we should have confidence in our own abilities to learn English well. The teachers set up the exercise, but the students' performance is the goal. Students are more responsible mangers of their own learning. To participate, students will find they gain confidence in using the target language. In a word, we should take our responsibility for our own learning.

So, my dear friend, move! Time waits nobody. Only if you take the first step, you’ll achieve your goal one day. Just as the saying goes, constant droppings wear the stone away.