Ways to improve your English

I am still waiting for this year's SYTRA TRIBUNE (2011 issue) to come out. THere's still no news and it is already end of April 2011.... Well, may be I have to wait until July to see the first issue for this year. I don't blame the students , they are so busy with what not... well, for one, this year, they are having the English Month... congratulation to them. Still , I think producing such bulletin should not be left behind. Iknow, it is quite difficult to handle so many things at once, yet , there are many other students who can do the job... Delegation of jobs is also very important when you are at the top. You don't or cannot do everything by yourself, so , delegate the work.. In this way, everything can be done and you will not be exhausted by the end of the day.

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
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 !!!