Abstract: Reading and reciting are not merely mechanical activities, and imagination and passion should be involved in.

Key words: Reading, Reciting, Imitating, Passion

SOME of our students, at least about 80 percent of ours here in my school, just feel reading and reciting English rather boring. Actually it’s not easy to say clearly what’s the real root or cause right now. Maybe it is because of the lack of interest or good learning environment. But the lack of imagination and self-confidence are two main causes according to my knowledge. Maybe the real root is the lack of English circumtances—anyway here in China our mother tongue is definitely in a dominating position, therefore we are in great need of imagination and then to build up our self-confidence in language learning—especially for our Chinese, because English is a thorough Foreign Language, not a Second Language here in China. To some of us, the words symbles nothing and the sound of reading English is just meaningless and dull, or rather that you read something in English is just because you have to read and you care little about the concept of words and sound, or maybe you just care about the words or lines themselves, nothing more. Maybe you are not sensitive enough to the sound you make, hence you care little whether you can make yourself understood by a native speaker of this language.

My answer to this question is to exploit your imagination in reading and reciting English to build up your self-confidence.

Using your imagination, to imagine that a native speaker is accompanying with you and helping you with your language learning, is a good way to change this situation more or less.

If so, you can put yourself in a circumstance about English, sort of imagination, of course. For instance, you often listen to VOA or BBC, and you are quite familiar with those “Standard Pronunciation”. When the reading or reciting activities begin, it will be easy for you guys to think of or recall those familiar sound, only if you try, which will not be too difficult, I guess, and will be of great help with your pronunciation and intonation. That will force you or, how to say, push the rhythm, the tunes of your reading or reciting, the speed of speech, etc. into a right way, or comparatively “Standard Way”. Your own way of doing reading and reciting will be replaced by a perfect one. In this way you will soon find your pronunciation perfected or improved.

When you open your mouth and try reading or reciting something in English next time, remember, a foreign friend, your pal, is sitting opposite listening attentively and will respond at any time.

When you read a passage about animals, try recalling the sound of Zhongxiang Zhao, who is a specialist in this field, right? Try imitating or acting, then you will be more active and the reading activity will be more interesting. Similarly, if you are reading a passage in English, try imitating the sound of any anchor of VOA or BBC, or even a native speaker you met in the street. Then you can make your reading, reciting, your pronunciation and intonation developed into a natural and idiomatic way. Eventually you will be more confident when speaking English. And good oral English is a must in languag learning.

“In the depth of the north pole wanders a white-colored north-pole-bear; he stops at times, gazing at the distance; a young baby bear is following his dad...”

“This is VOA, the voice of Ameria...”

“You are listening to VOA, the Voice Of America, and it’s 20:30, VOA News time...”

“Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay a short visit to Latin America next week; Pantogan warns war will break out at any time...brief news for this hour, thanks for listening.”

“BBC World Service. Greenwich Mean time 14:30. This is Steve Pearson, sports news...”

The sound, the rhythm of these words will be kept in our mind for ever, they are just so familiar to us, like an old friend. “Country road, take me home, to the place I belong...”Every time I catch this line, I will recall the sound and the rhythm the melody sung by John Denver in the bottom of my heart; I will imitate the sound and make myself a “John Denvor”; I am not myself. Similarly, you can put yourself in the place of a host or hostess or an anchor of a VOA or BBC program, you can use your head and exploit your imagination. If so, you will be a John Denvor, Steve Pearson, whoever you like. You will find quite a lot of fun in reading and reciting English, because it has been a mutual way, not single, because you are reading to your audience, your pal, because you are a host or hostess of VOA or BBC, millions of people are enjoying your voice, and therefore you will have to make your voice meaningful and clear enough and as natural as possible to be easily understood. Maybe there is no short-cut in language learning, it’s actually a life long process, but it’s really helpful to use your imagination in language learning, especially in practicing your oral English.

Take the following as an example:

“The government is considering plans to allow foreign investors limited access to trade commodity futures contracts to help pave the way for a futures and derivatives exchange, sources said Tuesday.

Direct trade by foreign institutional investors is currently limited to China’s main yuan-denominated A-share markets and the country’s bond markets under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) plan.

That plan limits overall investment to US$10 billion, of which US$6.57 billion has been allocated.

The mechanism by which QFII investors would be allowed to enter China’s futures markets has not been finalized.”

As for the text itself, it might mean little to most of the high school students( at least here in my school, a comparatively distant countryside one). Most of the students will feel bored when opening such a book because that’s just a routine—they have read many such kind of articles before, in or out of their classrooms, but unfortunately the reading made little difference. It is just a text, that’s all.Why? No passion, no immitation, no confidence.

What if we turn on the radio and happenly we have such a program on the air and the students can listen to it—it will be real and practical (It is much convenient now to download whatever we need online nowadays from the official websites of the BBC or VOA or NASA, just click the mouse!). The authentic voice from the anchor will be a sourse of inspiration and imagination, thus the immitation will be much funnier and easier.

Things will be different (That’s what I know clearly because I have tried a couple of times in my own class): the rhythm, stress, sound, intonation, pronunciation and the anchor’s nice voice will make a great difference in helping understanding and remembering.

Let’s look at another example:

“When you smiled you had my undivided attention. When you laughed you had my urge to laugh with you. When you cried you had my urge to hold you. When you said you loved me, you had my heart forever.

When I saw you, I was afraid to meet you... When I met you, I was afraid to kiss you... When I kissed you, I was afraid to love you... Now that I love you, I’m afraid to lose you. 　

If I never met you, I wouldn’t like you. If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t love you. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t miss you. But I did, I do, and I will.”

The sentences above are some of the nice examples when we explain some grammar to our students; for instance, the last group can be used as good examples when we teach the Subjunctive mood—which is quite abstract and difficult for most of the students. I asked Chris, an Australian English teacher working in my school, to read the above first for my students. They just followed the foreign teacher and the learning became much more interesting and fruitful. After a little explanation, they can understand and use some of the patterns above. Here we are not only teaching bunches of dull grammar, whereas we are helping to learn to use it more appropriately, with the intonation, rhythm, stress, and above all immitation and passion invovled in.

We can also, of course it will be much better if possible, choose some nice movies, say, a Harry Potter, or Lion King, or Bamby, or a hot TV play Prison Break and the like, in our language lessons. After watching some clips, ask yourself to immitate and recite what you feel most interesting and impressive.

In short, try reciting something in English every day. Close your eyes and imagine you are just communicating with a foreign friend. So make your voice, the sound of reading and reciting meaningful, make yourself understood by those native speakers, or even fictitious foreign guys, who will always accompany with you and help you with your English.

To sum up, reading and reciting are of great significance in language learning, which actually I don’t talk a lot here; imaginating ability or method is also important, especially for practising your oral English and building up your self-confidence. This is in fact a practical way to create an English background and a proper circumtance to get learning activities moved, and make yourself invovled in the language learning, hence you will develop a natural way to speak English. It will be a lot of fun, I guess.

I am trying to make it clear that reading and reciting are not merely mechanical activities, but imagination and passion should be involved in. What I want to say is, in language learning:

Imitation makes perfect. Self-confidence makes you cuter.