Assalamualaikum w.r.t
First of all , I would like to congratulate the editorial board for being able to produce the second issue of SYTRA Tribune. If I am not mistaken, this is the first time an English Bulletin such as this is produced.
The main purpose of this bulletin is to give students the experience of reporting the events that happened every day in SMSTSP. Students will be exposed to journalism at an early age. This is a good exposure to them and of course it is one of the methods that can improve your English.
In Malaysia, an average student learns English for at least 11 years. If you are a Form 5 student, you have learnt the language for 11 years, but why aren’t you proficient in the language? Well, one main reason, in my opinion, is you never really use the language. You just learn it in class, but you don't practise it outside the class, at home, or at the hostel. . Of course, that is the main reason why students cannot improve on their proficiency level.
There are many theories that suggest this. Given below are proofs to my statement :
* Based upon the principles of Skinnerian behaviorism, RFT posits (suggests) that children acquire language purely through interacting with the environment.
RFT = The relational frame theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, Roche, 2001)
* “Children learn on average 10 to 15 new word meanings each day, but only one of these words can be accounted for by direct instruction. The other nine to 14 word meanings need to be picked up in some other way. “
source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition
Children learn, on average, ten to fifteen new word meanings each day,
but only one of these words can be accounted for by direct instruction.[66]
The other nine to fourteen word meanings need to be picked up in some
other way. It has been proposed that children acquire these meanings
with the use of processes modeled by latent semantic analysis;
that is, when they meet an unfamiliar word, children can use
information in its context to correctly guess its rough area of meaning.[66] A child may expand the meaning and use of certain words that are already part of its mental lexicon
in order to denominate anything that is somehow related but for which
it does not know the specific words yet. For instance, a child may
broaden the use of mummy and dada in order to indicate
anything that belongs to its mother or father, or perhaps every person
who resembles its own parents, or say rain while meaning I don't want to go out.[67]
This means that a language is acquired not only by learning it but also by practising it . To acquire a language , you need to be good in these four skills - Speaking, Reading, Writing and Listening.
So today, I would like to suggest to my students to use the language all the time. What you can do will be :
1. Read materials in English - story books, magazine, newspaper etc
2. Write as much as possible - I would suggest that you keep a diary - a journal of your thought or what happened to you.
3. Listen well, especially when you watch movies, try to listen and understand the dialogue.
4. Speak the language - what else are you going to use the language for - except to communicate with others.
Lastly, we should always remember a quotation from a chinese philosopher, Lao-tzu , "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" which means that you should take that first step to achieve what you want even though every step is painful or just too difficult for you. You should start now ! You should also practise using the language every day as mentioned in the idiom "Practice Makes Perfect" which means the more you practise, the better you will become.
So, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, keep taking steps.... even if they feel like baby steps! Good Luck !!!
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