Chapter 3: Grammar and Writing in Spoken English Study
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Chapter Summary: Any language is unintelligible without grammar because grammar consists of the rules used to put words together in ways which convey meaning. The issue is not whether or not you need to know English grammar. The question is, "How do you learn English grammar best?"
My personal experience:
I had the great advantage (优势) of growing up in a home in which grammatically correct English was spoken. As I progressed through primary school and on into secondary school, my language ability matured (成熟) as a result of my home and school environments.
In retrospect (回顾), I believe this is what happened: for the most part, I used proper sentence structure and pronunciation because that is what I heard in my home. However, when I went to school, I needed to learn grammar. I—like probably most of my classmates—did not learn to speak because I studied grammar. Rather, I was able to learn how to do grammar exercises because I already knew how to speak.
Certainly, I learned many important things about English through grammar study. But it was of importance to me only because I had already achieved Basic English fluency. I did not learn to speak English as a result of English grammar lessons.
Traditional English instruction:
Traditional English instruction for non-English-speaking students has reversed the process with poor results. Most English classes teach grammar as a foundation for spoken English.
The quickest way to teach students to read English is to teach them to speak it first. The fastest way to teach them sufficient (充足的) grammar to pass college entrance exams is to build a foundation by teaching them to speak English fluently. Whenever the process is reversed, it takes a needlessly long time to succeed in teaching grammar and writing skills, much less fluent spoken English.
If you are in a school that is using the Spoken English Master Course lessons and the instructors are also trying to teach supplementary grammar lessons, your progress will be hindered. The fastest way for you to learn excellent English grammar is to learn it while speaking. Every sentence you speak in this Spoken English Master Course course will teach you grammar. When you have repeated the sentences enough times so that they sound correct to you, you will have learned English grammar. The Spoken English Master Course lessons are full of grammar. But the grammar is learned by speaking, not by writing.
Do not misunderstand what I am saying. You cannot speak any language well without knowing its grammar because grammar consists of the rules used to put words together into meaningful (有意义的) sentences. In English, we can use a given number of words to make a statement or ask a question by the way in which we order the words and use inflection. Simply stated, placing the words in the correct order is applied grammar.
The issue is not whether or not you need to know English grammar. English is unintelligible (难领会的) without it. The question is, "How will you learn English grammar best?" I think you will learn English grammar better and faster by learning it as a spoken language.
The best time to study grammar:
In Chapter 1, I said that effective spoken English instruction simultaneously trains all of your cognitive and sensory centers of speech. When is the best time to learn that the sentence, "That is a book," is an English statement, and the sentence, "Is that a book?" is an English question? The best time is when you simultaneously learn to speak these two sentences. That would take place while you are learning many other similar sentences so that you will develop a cognitive sense reinforced by motor skill and auditory feedback. You will learn that the order and inflection of the one sentence is a question, while the other is a statement. The sound of the sentence is as much an indicator of its meaning as its written form. Right? Right!
There is also a relationship between good pronunciation and good spelling. I am a poor speller. I understand that I misspell many words because I probably mispronounce them. At some point, everyone who expects to write English well must learn to spell. Yet, it will probably be faster for you to learn good spelling after learning good pronunciation than it will be for you to learn good spelling without being able to speak. In practice, you will learn the spelling of new English words as they are added to the vocabulary of each new lesson.
I am not saying that grammar or spelling are unnecessary. Rather, I am saying that grammar can be taught more effectively—and in less time—by using audio language drills. Teaching grammar by means of spoken language has the great advantage of reinforcing (加筋) the cognitive learning of grammar while using two additional(额外) functions found in normal speech—motor skill feedback and auditory feedback. Teaching grammar as a written exercise does develop cognitive learning, but it reinforces it with visual feedback.
Though visual feedback has some merit, it is outside the context of spoken English. The single reinforcement of visual feedback outside of the spoken English context is far less effective than motor skill feedback and auditory feedback which are both inside the spoken language context. The trade-off is costly and retards progress. Far more is gained when you learn to identify correct grammar by the way a sentence sounds, rather than by the way it looks. Though it would not typically be explained this way, it is also important on a subconscious (潜意识的) level that you learn how correct grammar feels. As a function of the proprioceptive sense, a statement produces a certain sequence of sensory feedback from the mouth, tongue, and air passages that feels different than a question.
It would take considerably longer to teach a language student how to write English grammar exercises, and then speak English correctly, than it would to teach the same student to first speak English correctly, and then introduce rules of grammar. This gain would be greatly augmented, however, if the rules of grammar were incorporated into the spoken language lessons themselves as they are in Spoken English Learned Quickly.
If you study spoken English for a year, you will gain a great deal of fluency. With that spoken English fluency, you will have a good understanding of English grammar. If you spend the same amount of time in English grammar study, you will have limited English fluency and will have little practical understanding of English grammar.
That is probably why you are reading this book. You have undoubtedly studied written English for a long time, but you still can't speak English very well.
3/04/2009
Chapter 2: Four Rules for Learning Spoken English
Chapter 2: Four Rules for Learning Spoken English
( 当您学英语时 您必须遵循的四个简单规则)
________________________________________
Chapter Summary: This chapter explains four rules which you must follow in order to learn spoken English. These four rules help you retrain your mind and tongue simultaneously so that you will learn to speak fluent English quickly.
You will be surprised by the fourth rule which states, "You must never make a mistake when you are speaking English."
There are four simple rules you must follow when you are learning to speak English:
1. To learn to speak English correctly, you must speak it aloud. ( 为了把英语说正确，您必须大声讲它。)
It is important that you speak loudly and clearly when you are studying spoken English. You are retraining your mind to respond to a new pattern of proprioceptive and auditory stimuli . This can only be done when you are speaking aloud at full volume.
One of the reasons that your English study in school required so much time while producing such poor results is that none of the silent study did anything to train your tongue to speak English.
2. To learn to speak English fluently, you must think in English.( 要学会流利地讲英语，您必须认为用英语。)
The proprioceptive sense is not all that you are retraining when you learn spoken English. There is cognitive learning (memory) which must also take place. Grammar-based English instruction has emphasized cognitive learning to the exclusion of retraining the proprioceptive sense. Nonetheless, cognitive learning is an important part of learning to speak English fluently.
For speech to occur, your mind must be actively involved in syntax development. The more actively your mind is involved in spoken English, the more effective the learning process becomes.
However, just as you will hinder proprioceptive training by trying to study silently, so you will also limit cognitive learning by reading from a text rather than constructing the syntax in your own mind. If you are studying English with Spoken English Master Course, you may use the written text when you first study a new exercise. However, after repeating the exercise two or three times, you must close the text and do the exercise from recall memory as you listen to the audio recording. You must force your mind to think in English by using your recall memory when you are studying spoken exercises. You cannot read from a text.
I will come back to this later in Chapter 5: Selecting a Text, because there will be times when reading from a text such as a newspaper is an effective language learning tool. But when you are doing sentence responses with recorded exercises, you must force your mind to develop the syntax by doing the exercise without reading from a text.
You are not thinking in English if you are reading. Making your mind work in order to think of the answer is an important part of learning to speak English.
3. The more you speak English aloud, the more quickly you will learn to speak it fluently. (大声讲英语的次数越多，你越容易把英语讲得流利)
Proprioceptive retraining is not instantaneous. It will require a great deal of repetition to build the new language patterns in your mind. As these new patterns develop, there will be progression from a laborious, conscious effort, to speech which is reproduced rapidly and unconsciously.
When you speak your first language, you do so with no conscious awareness of tongue or mouth position and the air flow through the vocal cords. In contrast, it requires experimentation and conscious effort when you first attempt to make an unknown discrete sound in English—this single sound, usually represented by one letter, is called a phoneme. Some new sounds will be relatively simple for you to make. Others will be more difficult.
To add to the complexity, each phoneme has other phonemes or stops adjacent to it which change its sound slightly. (A stop is a break caused by momentarily restricting the air flow with the tongue or throat.) For example, the simple English sentence, "Why didn't that work?" may be difficult for you to pronounce if your language does not use the English "th" sound. But it may give you difficulty for another reason as well. There are actually two stops in the sentence. When properly pronounced, there is a stop between the "n" and "t" in "didn't" and another stop between the final "t" in "didn't" and the first "t" in "that." Even though the sentence may be said very quickly, the two stops would make it, "Why didn / t / that work?"
Your objective is not to be able to write the sentence, "Why didn't that work?" accurately in English. Your goal is not even to be able to say it just well enough so that someone could figure out what you meant. Your objective is to be able to say, "Why didn't that work?" so perfectly to an American that she would think she had just been asked the question by a fellow American.
That degree of perfection will require thousands—if not tens of thousands—of repetitions. Therefore—to be somewhat facetious—the more quickly you correctly repeat a particularly difficult phoneme ten thousand times, the more quickly you will be able to use it fluently. That is what I mean when I say, "The more you speak English aloud, the more quickly you will learn to speak fluently."
4. You must never make a mistake when you are practicing spoken English. (当您在练习口语时，不能犯错误.)
When you are learning spoken English using the Spoken English Master Course learn method, you are strongly reinforcing the learning process each time you speak. However, when you construct a sentence incorrectly, you have not only wasted the learning time used to construct that sentence, but you must now invest even more time in order to retrain your mind, mouth, and hearing in order to construct the sentence correctly. The more you use a sentence structure incorrectly, the longer it will take for your mind, mouth, and hearing to identify the correct syntax.
Ideally, if you used only correct syntax and pronunciation, you could retrain your speech in considerably less time. Consequently, you would learn to speak fluent English more quickly.
Yet, before you conclude that this would be impossible, let's look at a way in which it can actually be done using the Spoken English Master language course. (Well, it can almost be done!)
Traditional English study (传统英国研究):
Traditional methods of teaching English attempt to engage the students in free speech as quickly as possible. Though the goal is commendable, in practice it has a serious drawback. A beginning student does not have enough language background to be able to construct sentences properly. More to the point, the instruction program seldom has enough teachers to correct every student's errors. Consequently, beginning students regularly use incomplete sentences having incorrect syntax and verb construction. The instructor often praises them for their valiant effort, in spite of the reality that they are learning to use English incorrectly. The student will now need to spend even more time relearning the correct syntax.
Controlled language study (受限语言研究):
The better alternative is to derive all initial spoken language study from audio recorded materials which contain perfect syntax, perfect use of the verb, and perfect pronunciation. This sounds restrictive, but, in fact, it can be done with the Spoken English Master Course lessons.
Say, for example, that during the first two weeks of English study, you used only the Spoken English Master Course recorded exercises. You would repeat the recorded lesson material which was accurate in every detail. For the entire instruction period, you would work by yourself while repeating the exercise sentences hundreds of times.
Needless to say, in two weeks' time, you would have spoken English correctly far more than had you been passively sitting in a traditional English class. But more to the point, everything you would have learned would have been correct. Your syntax would have been correct. Your use of the English verb would have been correct. And, as much as possible, your pronunciation would have been correct.
To continue the example, say that it was now time for you to begin trying free speech. Yet, we still would not want you to make mistakes. Consequently, all free speaking would be taken directly from the many sentences you would have already learned. Your teacher would ask questions from the Spoken English Master Course exercises so that you could answer in the exact words of the sentences you would have studied. Subsequently, you would be given questions to answer which would use the same structure as the sentences you already knew, but now you would substitute other vocabulary words which would be in the same lessons.
Making the application (提出申请。):
I assume that you are a college student or a young professional and that you are highly motivated to learn to speak English fluently.
You will do much better if you seek ways in which you can speak English correctly from the very beginning. Strike a careful balance between free speech and forcing yourself to follow a pattern of correct English use. Do everything in your power to use English correctly.
In the early weeks of English study, this may require that you spend more time repeating recorded Spoken English Master Course exercises than in trying to engage in free speech. Later, however, you will need to spend a great deal of time talking with others.
Nonetheless, every time you encounter new syntax in English, use controlled language drills long enough so that your mind becomes thoroughly familiar with correct sentence structure and pronunciation. If you are using the Spoken English Master Course lessons, repeat the exercises until you can say them quickly and accurately with perfect pronunciation. As you progress in your English study, begin reading English newspaper articles aloud. Look for examples of new vocabulary and sentence format. Mark the sentences, verify the vocabulary, and then read—and repeat from recall memory—the sentences aloud until they become a part of your speech.
( 当您学英语时 您必须遵循的四个简单规则)
________________________________________
Chapter Summary: This chapter explains four rules which you must follow in order to learn spoken English. These four rules help you retrain your mind and tongue simultaneously so that you will learn to speak fluent English quickly.
You will be surprised by the fourth rule which states, "You must never make a mistake when you are speaking English."
There are four simple rules you must follow when you are learning to speak English:
1. To learn to speak English correctly, you must speak it aloud. ( 为了把英语说正确，您必须大声讲它。)
It is important that you speak loudly and clearly when you are studying spoken English. You are retraining your mind to respond to a new pattern of proprioceptive and auditory stimuli . This can only be done when you are speaking aloud at full volume.
One of the reasons that your English study in school required so much time while producing such poor results is that none of the silent study did anything to train your tongue to speak English.
2. To learn to speak English fluently, you must think in English.( 要学会流利地讲英语，您必须认为用英语。)
The proprioceptive sense is not all that you are retraining when you learn spoken English. There is cognitive learning (memory) which must also take place. Grammar-based English instruction has emphasized cognitive learning to the exclusion of retraining the proprioceptive sense. Nonetheless, cognitive learning is an important part of learning to speak English fluently.
For speech to occur, your mind must be actively involved in syntax development. The more actively your mind is involved in spoken English, the more effective the learning process becomes.
However, just as you will hinder proprioceptive training by trying to study silently, so you will also limit cognitive learning by reading from a text rather than constructing the syntax in your own mind. If you are studying English with Spoken English Master Course, you may use the written text when you first study a new exercise. However, after repeating the exercise two or three times, you must close the text and do the exercise from recall memory as you listen to the audio recording. You must force your mind to think in English by using your recall memory when you are studying spoken exercises. You cannot read from a text.
I will come back to this later in Chapter 5: Selecting a Text, because there will be times when reading from a text such as a newspaper is an effective language learning tool. But when you are doing sentence responses with recorded exercises, you must force your mind to develop the syntax by doing the exercise without reading from a text.
You are not thinking in English if you are reading. Making your mind work in order to think of the answer is an important part of learning to speak English.
3. The more you speak English aloud, the more quickly you will learn to speak it fluently. (大声讲英语的次数越多，你越容易把英语讲得流利)
Proprioceptive retraining is not instantaneous. It will require a great deal of repetition to build the new language patterns in your mind. As these new patterns develop, there will be progression from a laborious, conscious effort, to speech which is reproduced rapidly and unconsciously.
When you speak your first language, you do so with no conscious awareness of tongue or mouth position and the air flow through the vocal cords. In contrast, it requires experimentation and conscious effort when you first attempt to make an unknown discrete sound in English—this single sound, usually represented by one letter, is called a phoneme. Some new sounds will be relatively simple for you to make. Others will be more difficult.
To add to the complexity, each phoneme has other phonemes or stops adjacent to it which change its sound slightly. (A stop is a break caused by momentarily restricting the air flow with the tongue or throat.) For example, the simple English sentence, "Why didn't that work?" may be difficult for you to pronounce if your language does not use the English "th" sound. But it may give you difficulty for another reason as well. There are actually two stops in the sentence. When properly pronounced, there is a stop between the "n" and "t" in "didn't" and another stop between the final "t" in "didn't" and the first "t" in "that." Even though the sentence may be said very quickly, the two stops would make it, "Why didn / t / that work?"
Your objective is not to be able to write the sentence, "Why didn't that work?" accurately in English. Your goal is not even to be able to say it just well enough so that someone could figure out what you meant. Your objective is to be able to say, "Why didn't that work?" so perfectly to an American that she would think she had just been asked the question by a fellow American.
That degree of perfection will require thousands—if not tens of thousands—of repetitions. Therefore—to be somewhat facetious—the more quickly you correctly repeat a particularly difficult phoneme ten thousand times, the more quickly you will be able to use it fluently. That is what I mean when I say, "The more you speak English aloud, the more quickly you will learn to speak fluently."
4. You must never make a mistake when you are practicing spoken English. (当您在练习口语时，不能犯错误.)
When you are learning spoken English using the Spoken English Master Course learn method, you are strongly reinforcing the learning process each time you speak. However, when you construct a sentence incorrectly, you have not only wasted the learning time used to construct that sentence, but you must now invest even more time in order to retrain your mind, mouth, and hearing in order to construct the sentence correctly. The more you use a sentence structure incorrectly, the longer it will take for your mind, mouth, and hearing to identify the correct syntax.
Ideally, if you used only correct syntax and pronunciation, you could retrain your speech in considerably less time. Consequently, you would learn to speak fluent English more quickly.
Yet, before you conclude that this would be impossible, let's look at a way in which it can actually be done using the Spoken English Master language course. (Well, it can almost be done!)
Traditional English study (传统英国研究):
Traditional methods of teaching English attempt to engage the students in free speech as quickly as possible. Though the goal is commendable, in practice it has a serious drawback. A beginning student does not have enough language background to be able to construct sentences properly. More to the point, the instruction program seldom has enough teachers to correct every student's errors. Consequently, beginning students regularly use incomplete sentences having incorrect syntax and verb construction. The instructor often praises them for their valiant effort, in spite of the reality that they are learning to use English incorrectly. The student will now need to spend even more time relearning the correct syntax.
Controlled language study (受限语言研究):
The better alternative is to derive all initial spoken language study from audio recorded materials which contain perfect syntax, perfect use of the verb, and perfect pronunciation. This sounds restrictive, but, in fact, it can be done with the Spoken English Master Course lessons.
Say, for example, that during the first two weeks of English study, you used only the Spoken English Master Course recorded exercises. You would repeat the recorded lesson material which was accurate in every detail. For the entire instruction period, you would work by yourself while repeating the exercise sentences hundreds of times.
Needless to say, in two weeks' time, you would have spoken English correctly far more than had you been passively sitting in a traditional English class. But more to the point, everything you would have learned would have been correct. Your syntax would have been correct. Your use of the English verb would have been correct. And, as much as possible, your pronunciation would have been correct.
To continue the example, say that it was now time for you to begin trying free speech. Yet, we still would not want you to make mistakes. Consequently, all free speaking would be taken directly from the many sentences you would have already learned. Your teacher would ask questions from the Spoken English Master Course exercises so that you could answer in the exact words of the sentences you would have studied. Subsequently, you would be given questions to answer which would use the same structure as the sentences you already knew, but now you would substitute other vocabulary words which would be in the same lessons.
Making the application (提出申请。):
I assume that you are a college student or a young professional and that you are highly motivated to learn to speak English fluently.
You will do much better if you seek ways in which you can speak English correctly from the very beginning. Strike a careful balance between free speech and forcing yourself to follow a pattern of correct English use. Do everything in your power to use English correctly.
In the early weeks of English study, this may require that you spend more time repeating recorded Spoken English Master Course exercises than in trying to engage in free speech. Later, however, you will need to spend a great deal of time talking with others.
Nonetheless, every time you encounter new syntax in English, use controlled language drills long enough so that your mind becomes thoroughly familiar with correct sentence structure and pronunciation. If you are using the Spoken English Master Course lessons, repeat the exercises until you can say them quickly and accurately with perfect pronunciation. As you progress in your English study, begin reading English newspaper articles aloud. Look for examples of new vocabulary and sentence format. Mark the sentences, verify the vocabulary, and then read—and repeat from recall memory—the sentences aloud until they become a part of your speech.
Chapter 1: TEACHING YOUR TONGUE TO SPEAK ENGLISH.
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Why have you studied English so long in school without learning to speak fluently? It is because your teachers have tried to train your mind with written exercises without retraining your tongue at the same time.
If you want to learn to speak English fluently (流利的), it will help you to understand how the human mind produces speech.
However, before looking at the mechanics of speech, I want to draw an analogy（相似） from machine control because the analogy closely parallels（平行的） neurological responses（神经学反应）in spoken language.
OPEN-LOOP MACHINE CONTROL:
Wikipedia describes an open-loop control system as follows:
An open-loop controller, also called a non-feedback controller, is a type of controller which computes (计算) its input into a system using only the current state . . . of the system. A characteristic (特征的) of the open-loop controller is that it does not use feedback to determine (检测) if its input has achieved the desired goal. This means that the system does not observe the output of the processes that it is controlling. Consequently (所以), a true open-loop system . . . cannot correct any errors that it could make.
For example, a sprinkler (洒水机) system, programmed to turn on at set times could be an example of an open-loop system if it does not measure soil moisture (水分) as a form of feedback. Even if rain is pouring down on the lawn, the sprinkler system would activate on schedule, wasting water.
The open-loop control may be a simple switch, or it could be a combination of a switch and a timer. Yet, all it can do is turn the machine on. It cannot respond to anything the machine is doing.
CLOSED-LOOP MACHINE CONTROL:
Wikipedia then describes closed-loop control as follows:
To avoid the problems of the open-loop controller, control theory introduces feedback. A closed-loop controller uses feedback to control states or outputs of a dynamical (动力的) system. Its name comes from the information path in the system: process inputs (e.g. voltage applied to a motor) have an effect on the process outputs (e.g. velocity (速度). . . of the motor), which is measured with sensors (传感器) and processed by the controller; the result (the control signal) is used as input to the process, closing the loop.
Wikipedia's definition of a closed-loop system subsequently (后来) becomes too technical to use here. However, as Wikipedia suggests above, a sprinkler incorporating (包含)a soil moisture sensor would be a simple closed-loop system. The sprinkler system would have both a timer and a control valve. Either could operate independently, and either could shut the water off, but both would need to be open in order for the sprinkler to operate.
HUMAN SPEECH IS A CLOSED-LOOP SYSTEM:
Human speech is a complex (复杂的) learned skill and is dependent (依赖)on a number of memory and neurological functions. Speech is a closed-loop system because sensors within the system itself give feedback to the control portion of the system. The control then corrects and coordinates ongoing speech. In this case, the mind is in control of the closed-loop system, the mouth produces the desired product (speech), and auditory feedback from the ears and feedback from the nerve sensors in the mouth allow the mind to coordinate the speech process in real time.[1]
When you speak your own language, your mind stores all of the vocabulary you need. Your mind also controls your tongue, mouth, and breathing. Your hearing is also an important part of the control because your ears hear everything your mouth says. Therefore, what you say next is partially dependent on the vocabulary and other information stored in your mind. But what you say next is also dependent on what your ears are hearing your mouth say, and on the feedback that is coming from the nerves in your tongue and mouth.
Because you have spoken your own language all of your life, all of this control is automatic (自动的)—you do not need to think about it. But when you learn to speak English, you must retrain all of these processes so that they will all work together at the same time. It is not enough to simply put new vocabulary words or grammar drills into your memory. You must retrain your mind to use all of the new sounds your ears will hear, as well as the new movements of your tongue, mouth, and breathing. Yet, since all of these things must happen together for you to speak fluent English, all retraining of your memory, hearing, and the nerves in your mouth must be done simultaneously (同时的).
The inter-relationship of these functions is shown in the table below. The meanings of specialized (专用的) words are given below the table.
- - - - - - - - - -
TABLE 1: The three components of human speech and their primary functions:
- - - - - - - - - -
PROPRIOCEPTIVE [2]: Human speech would be impossible without the proprioceptive (本体感受的) sense. (Proprioceptive refers to the sense within the organism itself which detects or controls the movement and location of the muscles（肌肉）, tendons（腱）, and joints（关节） which are used to create speech.) Our mouth, vocal cords, diaphragm, and lungs incorporate thousands of nerve sensors which the brain uses to control the movement and position of these same organs—the mouth, vocal cords（声带）, diaphragm（膈膜）, and lungs（肺）. Imagine the complexity （复杂度）of pronouncing even a single word with the need to coordinate（协调）the tongue, breath control, and jaw （颌）muscles. Now multiply this complexity exponentially (指数的) as sentences are constructed in rapid succession during normal speech.
REAL TIME: Unlike an open-loop control system, a closed-loop control system monitors (监控) feedback and corrects the process as the machine is running. The reciprocal (相互的) path between the control, the feedback sensors, and the process itself is instantaneous (霎时的). That is, information is not stored for later use. Rather, it is used instantaneously as the sensors detect it. In this chapter, I use the term simultaneous to indicate real time feedback during speech.
CALIBRATION (校准 ): In human speech, the mind must constantly monitor the feedback information from both the speaker's own hearing and the proprioceptive senses which enable (使能够) the mind to control muscles and create the desired sounds. Thus, the speaker is constantly "calibrating" the feedback to control speech. To change a tense, the speaker may change "run" to "ran," or change the person from "he" to "she," and so on. These "word" changes are achieved by precise control of the muscles used to produce speech.
We "calibrate" our speech frequently (时常地 ) as we talk. This is why we can misuse a word, verb tense, or some other part of the initial sentence and still make corrections in the remaining words of the sentence so that the listener does not hear our mistake.
Thus, human speech is represented (代表) as the interplay between the mind, the mouth, and its related organs two feedback systems, and conscious (清楚的) calibration as the speaker constructs each sentence. In addition, calibration is continuously (持续不断地) taking place within the control center—the mind. However, because it is acting on feedback from hearing and the proprioceptive senses, I am showing calibration as acting on the source of the feedback.
- - - - - - - - - -
Control and feedback in human speech:
- - - - - - - - - -
When children learn their mother tongue, their natural ability to hear and mimic (模仿) adult speech builds complex proprioceptive response patterns. A French-speaking child effortlessly learns to make nasal sounds. An English-speaking child learns to put her tongue between her teeth and make the "th" sound. A Chinese-speaking child learns to mimic the important tones which change the meaning of words. Each of these unique sounds requires learned muscle control within the mouth.
I make no apology for the intricacy (复杂性) of this explanation. The neurological feedback and resulting control of the muscles involved in speech is extremely complex. The mind is involved in a far greater task than simply remembering vocabulary and organizing words into meaningful sentences.
If you are learning English as a new language, all of its unique sounds and syntax must be learned. This is much more than a memory function involving just your mind. Each of these new sound and syntax patterns requires retraining your entire mind, the nerve feedback in your tongue, mouth, and breathing (which is proprioceptive feedback), and the auditory feedback (your sense of hearing).
Even English syntax is dependent on your proprioceptive sense. The statement, "This is a book," feels different to the nerve receptors in your mouth than the question, "Is this a book?" We can certainly understand that memory is involved in the use of correct grammar. Just as important, however, is the observation that proprioceptive feedback demands that a question evoke a different sequence of feedback than a statement. This is why I have identified partial syntax control in Table 1 as being a shared function of both the mind (memory) and the mouth (as a proprioceptive sense).
If you doubt that the proprioceptive sense is an important part of speech, try this experiment. Read two or three sentences written in your own language. Read it entirely in your mind without moving your lips. You may even speed read it. Now read the same sentences "silently" by moving your lips without making any sound. Your mind will respond to the first way of reading as simple information which is primarily a memory function, but will respond to the second way as speech because of the proprioceptive feedback from your mouth.
Did you also notice a difference between the two readings in terms of your mental intensity? The first reading would elicit (引导出) the mental activity required when you do a written grammar-based English assignment. The second would result in the same kind of mental activity required when you study English using spoken drills. How quickly you learn to speak fluent English will be directly proportional to your mental involvement when you study.
THE BEST WAY TO LEARN ENGLISH:
Two skill areas must be emphasized (强调) if you want to learn to speak English fluently. The first is memory (which is involved in both vocabulary and syntax) and the second is proprioceptive responses (which are involved in both pronunciation and syntax).
You may be able to learn simple vocabulary-related memory skills with equal effectiveness by using either verbal or visual training methods. That is, you may be able to learn pure memory skills equally well with either spoken drills or written exercises.
However, it is impossible for you to retrain your proprioceptive sense without hearing your own voice at full speaking volume. Thus, in my opinion, it is a waste of your time to do written assignments for the purpose of learning spoken English.
Surprisingly, it will take far less time for you to learn both fluent spoken English and excellent English grammar by studying only spoken English first, than it will for you to study written English grammar lessons before you can speak English. This does not mean, however, that grammar is not a necessary part of spoken English instruction. It is impossible to speak English—or any other language—without correct use of its grammar. My statement simply means that the best way to learn English grammar is through spoken English exercises. (See Chapter 3: Grammar and Writing in Spoken English Study.)
Inasmuch as(由于) spoken English involves multiple areas of skill working cooperatively in real time, it is mandatory (强制的) that effective spoken English teaching methods simultaneously train all of these areas of speech.
Control and feedback training must be simultaneous:
It is the important area of the proprioceptive sense which has been most overlooked in current grammar-based teaching methodology (方法论). When any student over the age of about 12 attempts (尝试) to learn a spoken language, his or her proprioceptive sense must be consciously retrained for all of the new sounds and syntax.
Furthermore, to properly retrain the proprioceptive sense of the mouth, the combined feedback from the mouth and hearing must be simultaneously processed in the mind. Simply said, the student must speak out loud for optimum (最佳的 )spoken language learning.
Without simultaneous involvement (眷顾) of all skill areas of speech, it is impossible for you to effectively retrain your proprioceptive sense in order for you to speak fluent English. Yet, this is exactly what grammar-based English instruction has traditionally done by introducing grammar, listening, writing, and reading as segregated (使隔离) activities. It is not surprising that you have studied English so long in school without learning to speak fluently.
Grammar-based instruction has hindered English learning by segregating individual areas of study. Grammar-based English training has not only isolated proprioceptive training areas so that it prevents simultaneous skill development, it has replaced it with visual memory training by using written assignments. Grammar-based language instruction teaches English as though spoken English was an open-loop system. The result for the student is that, gaining English fluency requires far more study time, pronunciation is often faulty, and grammar becomes more difficult to learn.
- - - - - - - - - -
Control and feedback training are not simultaneous in grammar-based English instruction:
- - - - - - - - - -
CONCLUSION:
Why has it taken you so long to learn to speak English fluently?
Grammar-based English language instruction teaches as though spoken English is primarily a function of memory. Consequently, a grammar-based English lesson emphasizes non-verbal (written) studies of grammar, writing, reading, and listening. All of these activities may increase recall memory for written examinations, but they have little benefit in teaching you to speak fluent English.
The only way you can effectively learn spoken English is by using spoken English as the method of instruction. All of your study (including English grammar) should be done by speaking English at full voice volume for the entire study period.
_____________________
[1] Some researchers think human speech is an open-loop system. However, it has been shown that the human brain does many things using both open– and closed-loop control. As suggested in this chapter, spoken English learning would be improved using spoken English study irrespective of whether speech control is open– or closed-loop.
[2] The terms Proprioceptive Method and Feedback Training Method may be used interchangeably in describing this language learning method. An earlier term, Proprio-Kinesthetic Method, was also used for this same language program. I will use the term proprioceptive to describe the neurological process but will call the language learning method the Feedback Training Method.
Why have you studied English so long in school without learning to speak fluently? It is because your teachers have tried to train your mind with written exercises without retraining your tongue at the same time.
If you want to learn to speak English fluently (流利的), it will help you to understand how the human mind produces speech.
However, before looking at the mechanics of speech, I want to draw an analogy（相似） from machine control because the analogy closely parallels（平行的） neurological responses（神经学反应）in spoken language.
OPEN-LOOP MACHINE CONTROL:
Wikipedia describes an open-loop control system as follows:
An open-loop controller, also called a non-feedback controller, is a type of controller which computes (计算) its input into a system using only the current state . . . of the system. A characteristic (特征的) of the open-loop controller is that it does not use feedback to determine (检测) if its input has achieved the desired goal. This means that the system does not observe the output of the processes that it is controlling. Consequently (所以), a true open-loop system . . . cannot correct any errors that it could make.
For example, a sprinkler (洒水机) system, programmed to turn on at set times could be an example of an open-loop system if it does not measure soil moisture (水分) as a form of feedback. Even if rain is pouring down on the lawn, the sprinkler system would activate on schedule, wasting water.
The open-loop control may be a simple switch, or it could be a combination of a switch and a timer. Yet, all it can do is turn the machine on. It cannot respond to anything the machine is doing.
CLOSED-LOOP MACHINE CONTROL:
Wikipedia then describes closed-loop control as follows:
To avoid the problems of the open-loop controller, control theory introduces feedback. A closed-loop controller uses feedback to control states or outputs of a dynamical (动力的) system. Its name comes from the information path in the system: process inputs (e.g. voltage applied to a motor) have an effect on the process outputs (e.g. velocity (速度). . . of the motor), which is measured with sensors (传感器) and processed by the controller; the result (the control signal) is used as input to the process, closing the loop.
Wikipedia's definition of a closed-loop system subsequently (后来) becomes too technical to use here. However, as Wikipedia suggests above, a sprinkler incorporating (包含)a soil moisture sensor would be a simple closed-loop system. The sprinkler system would have both a timer and a control valve. Either could operate independently, and either could shut the water off, but both would need to be open in order for the sprinkler to operate.
HUMAN SPEECH IS A CLOSED-LOOP SYSTEM:
Human speech is a complex (复杂的) learned skill and is dependent (依赖)on a number of memory and neurological functions. Speech is a closed-loop system because sensors within the system itself give feedback to the control portion of the system. The control then corrects and coordinates ongoing speech. In this case, the mind is in control of the closed-loop system, the mouth produces the desired product (speech), and auditory feedback from the ears and feedback from the nerve sensors in the mouth allow the mind to coordinate the speech process in real time.[1]
When you speak your own language, your mind stores all of the vocabulary you need. Your mind also controls your tongue, mouth, and breathing. Your hearing is also an important part of the control because your ears hear everything your mouth says. Therefore, what you say next is partially dependent on the vocabulary and other information stored in your mind. But what you say next is also dependent on what your ears are hearing your mouth say, and on the feedback that is coming from the nerves in your tongue and mouth.
Because you have spoken your own language all of your life, all of this control is automatic (自动的)—you do not need to think about it. But when you learn to speak English, you must retrain all of these processes so that they will all work together at the same time. It is not enough to simply put new vocabulary words or grammar drills into your memory. You must retrain your mind to use all of the new sounds your ears will hear, as well as the new movements of your tongue, mouth, and breathing. Yet, since all of these things must happen together for you to speak fluent English, all retraining of your memory, hearing, and the nerves in your mouth must be done simultaneously (同时的).
The inter-relationship of these functions is shown in the table below. The meanings of specialized (专用的) words are given below the table.
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TABLE 1: The three components of human speech and their primary functions:
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PROPRIOCEPTIVE [2]: Human speech would be impossible without the proprioceptive (本体感受的) sense. (Proprioceptive refers to the sense within the organism itself which detects or controls the movement and location of the muscles（肌肉）, tendons（腱）, and joints（关节） which are used to create speech.) Our mouth, vocal cords, diaphragm, and lungs incorporate thousands of nerve sensors which the brain uses to control the movement and position of these same organs—the mouth, vocal cords（声带）, diaphragm（膈膜）, and lungs（肺）. Imagine the complexity （复杂度）of pronouncing even a single word with the need to coordinate（协调）the tongue, breath control, and jaw （颌）muscles. Now multiply this complexity exponentially (指数的) as sentences are constructed in rapid succession during normal speech.
REAL TIME: Unlike an open-loop control system, a closed-loop control system monitors (监控) feedback and corrects the process as the machine is running. The reciprocal (相互的) path between the control, the feedback sensors, and the process itself is instantaneous (霎时的). That is, information is not stored for later use. Rather, it is used instantaneously as the sensors detect it. In this chapter, I use the term simultaneous to indicate real time feedback during speech.
CALIBRATION (校准 ): In human speech, the mind must constantly monitor the feedback information from both the speaker's own hearing and the proprioceptive senses which enable (使能够) the mind to control muscles and create the desired sounds. Thus, the speaker is constantly "calibrating" the feedback to control speech. To change a tense, the speaker may change "run" to "ran," or change the person from "he" to "she," and so on. These "word" changes are achieved by precise control of the muscles used to produce speech.
We "calibrate" our speech frequently (时常地 ) as we talk. This is why we can misuse a word, verb tense, or some other part of the initial sentence and still make corrections in the remaining words of the sentence so that the listener does not hear our mistake.
Thus, human speech is represented (代表) as the interplay between the mind, the mouth, and its related organs two feedback systems, and conscious (清楚的) calibration as the speaker constructs each sentence. In addition, calibration is continuously (持续不断地) taking place within the control center—the mind. However, because it is acting on feedback from hearing and the proprioceptive senses, I am showing calibration as acting on the source of the feedback.
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Control and feedback in human speech:
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When children learn their mother tongue, their natural ability to hear and mimic (模仿) adult speech builds complex proprioceptive response patterns. A French-speaking child effortlessly learns to make nasal sounds. An English-speaking child learns to put her tongue between her teeth and make the "th" sound. A Chinese-speaking child learns to mimic the important tones which change the meaning of words. Each of these unique sounds requires learned muscle control within the mouth.
I make no apology for the intricacy (复杂性) of this explanation. The neurological feedback and resulting control of the muscles involved in speech is extremely complex. The mind is involved in a far greater task than simply remembering vocabulary and organizing words into meaningful sentences.
If you are learning English as a new language, all of its unique sounds and syntax must be learned. This is much more than a memory function involving just your mind. Each of these new sound and syntax patterns requires retraining your entire mind, the nerve feedback in your tongue, mouth, and breathing (which is proprioceptive feedback), and the auditory feedback (your sense of hearing).
Even English syntax is dependent on your proprioceptive sense. The statement, "This is a book," feels different to the nerve receptors in your mouth than the question, "Is this a book?" We can certainly understand that memory is involved in the use of correct grammar. Just as important, however, is the observation that proprioceptive feedback demands that a question evoke a different sequence of feedback than a statement. This is why I have identified partial syntax control in Table 1 as being a shared function of both the mind (memory) and the mouth (as a proprioceptive sense).
If you doubt that the proprioceptive sense is an important part of speech, try this experiment. Read two or three sentences written in your own language. Read it entirely in your mind without moving your lips. You may even speed read it. Now read the same sentences "silently" by moving your lips without making any sound. Your mind will respond to the first way of reading as simple information which is primarily a memory function, but will respond to the second way as speech because of the proprioceptive feedback from your mouth.
Did you also notice a difference between the two readings in terms of your mental intensity? The first reading would elicit (引导出) the mental activity required when you do a written grammar-based English assignment. The second would result in the same kind of mental activity required when you study English using spoken drills. How quickly you learn to speak fluent English will be directly proportional to your mental involvement when you study.
THE BEST WAY TO LEARN ENGLISH:
Two skill areas must be emphasized (强调) if you want to learn to speak English fluently. The first is memory (which is involved in both vocabulary and syntax) and the second is proprioceptive responses (which are involved in both pronunciation and syntax).
You may be able to learn simple vocabulary-related memory skills with equal effectiveness by using either verbal or visual training methods. That is, you may be able to learn pure memory skills equally well with either spoken drills or written exercises.
However, it is impossible for you to retrain your proprioceptive sense without hearing your own voice at full speaking volume. Thus, in my opinion, it is a waste of your time to do written assignments for the purpose of learning spoken English.
Surprisingly, it will take far less time for you to learn both fluent spoken English and excellent English grammar by studying only spoken English first, than it will for you to study written English grammar lessons before you can speak English. This does not mean, however, that grammar is not a necessary part of spoken English instruction. It is impossible to speak English—or any other language—without correct use of its grammar. My statement simply means that the best way to learn English grammar is through spoken English exercises. (See Chapter 3: Grammar and Writing in Spoken English Study.)
Inasmuch as(由于) spoken English involves multiple areas of skill working cooperatively in real time, it is mandatory (强制的) that effective spoken English teaching methods simultaneously train all of these areas of speech.
Control and feedback training must be simultaneous:
It is the important area of the proprioceptive sense which has been most overlooked in current grammar-based teaching methodology (方法论). When any student over the age of about 12 attempts (尝试) to learn a spoken language, his or her proprioceptive sense must be consciously retrained for all of the new sounds and syntax.
Furthermore, to properly retrain the proprioceptive sense of the mouth, the combined feedback from the mouth and hearing must be simultaneously processed in the mind. Simply said, the student must speak out loud for optimum (最佳的 )spoken language learning.
Without simultaneous involvement (眷顾) of all skill areas of speech, it is impossible for you to effectively retrain your proprioceptive sense in order for you to speak fluent English. Yet, this is exactly what grammar-based English instruction has traditionally done by introducing grammar, listening, writing, and reading as segregated (使隔离) activities. It is not surprising that you have studied English so long in school without learning to speak fluently.
Grammar-based instruction has hindered English learning by segregating individual areas of study. Grammar-based English training has not only isolated proprioceptive training areas so that it prevents simultaneous skill development, it has replaced it with visual memory training by using written assignments. Grammar-based language instruction teaches English as though spoken English was an open-loop system. The result for the student is that, gaining English fluency requires far more study time, pronunciation is often faulty, and grammar becomes more difficult to learn.
- - - - - - - - - -
Control and feedback training are not simultaneous in grammar-based English instruction:
- - - - - - - - - -
CONCLUSION:
Why has it taken you so long to learn to speak English fluently?
Grammar-based English language instruction teaches as though spoken English is primarily a function of memory. Consequently, a grammar-based English lesson emphasizes non-verbal (written) studies of grammar, writing, reading, and listening. All of these activities may increase recall memory for written examinations, but they have little benefit in teaching you to speak fluent English.
The only way you can effectively learn spoken English is by using spoken English as the method of instruction. All of your study (including English grammar) should be done by speaking English at full voice volume for the entire study period.
_____________________
[1] Some researchers think human speech is an open-loop system. However, it has been shown that the human brain does many things using both open– and closed-loop control. As suggested in this chapter, spoken English learning would be improved using spoken English study irrespective of whether speech control is open– or closed-loop.
[2] The terms Proprioceptive Method and Feedback Training Method may be used interchangeably in describing this language learning method. An earlier term, Proprio-Kinesthetic Method, was also used for this same language program. I will use the term proprioceptive to describe the neurological process but will call the language learning method the Feedback Training Method.
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