苗淑華

If you ask “How can I learn to speak English better？”， many people will tell you “Practice， practice， practice”. “Speak and write in English whenever you can，” theyll say. All English classes are full of activities of speaking and writing. You make sentences when you do an exercise in your textbook， when your teacher asks you to speak in class， or when you have to do homework.

如果你問(wèn)“我如何能學(xué)會(huì)更好地說(shuō)英語(yǔ)？”，許多人會(huì)告訴你“練習(xí)，練習(xí)，再練習(xí)”。他們會(huì)說(shuō)：“盡可能用英語(yǔ)說(shuō)和寫(xiě)。”所有英語(yǔ)課程都有很多口語(yǔ)和寫(xiě)作的活動(dòng)。當(dāng)你在教科書(shū)中做練習(xí)時(shí)，當(dāng)老師讓你在課堂上發(fā)言或要寫(xiě)家庭作業(yè)時(shí)，你都要造句。

Practice can be very useful. Its even necessary2 to learn English well. So the problem is that for many learners， speaking or writing means making a lot of mistakes. Some people make a mistake in every sentence！

練習(xí)會(huì)非常有用，學(xué)好英語(yǔ)實(shí)際上很有必要。所以問(wèn)題是，對(duì)于許多學(xué)習(xí)者來(lái)說(shuō)，說(shuō)或?qū)懹⒄Z(yǔ)意味著會(huì)犯很多錯(cuò)誤，有些人每句話都會(huì)犯錯(cuò)！

Suppose3 that you are writing an e-mail message in English. Your English is not very good and you want to write it quickly. You write （incorrectly4）： “I want speak English.”

假設(shè)你正在用英語(yǔ)寫(xiě)一封電子郵件。你的英語(yǔ)并不太好，你想快點(diǎn)寫(xiě)完郵件。你（錯(cuò)誤地）寫(xiě)道：“I want speak English.”。

When you write a sentence， you also read it. So the wrong sentence becomes “toxic input5” for you. The next time you will be more likely6 to write “I want finish” or “I want be happy”. Why？ Because “I want speak English” is in your head—you used it！ And when you write “I want do something” a few more times， youll get a bad habit： “I want do something” will become the way of your speaking English. Such bad habits can be very difficult to get over.

當(dāng)你寫(xiě)出一個(gè)句子時(shí)，你也會(huì)讀它。因此，不正確的句子成為你的“有害輸入”。下次你更有可能寫(xiě)出“I want finish”或“I want be happy”。為什么？因?yàn)椤癐 want speak English”在你的腦海中浮現(xiàn)，你最近才用過(guò)它！當(dāng)你再寫(xiě)幾次“I want do something”時(shí)，你會(huì)養(yǎng)成一個(gè)壞習(xí)慣：“I want do something”將成為你習(xí)慣的英語(yǔ)口語(yǔ)用法。這樣的壞習(xí)慣很難消除。

Every time you write or speak with mistakes， you reinforce7 those mistakes. As you repeat8 your mistakes， you get bad habits. If you make a lot of mistakes， practice becomes a harmful9 activity because it teaches you more bad English than good English. Some learners make so many mistakes that the more they practice， the worse their English becomes！

每次你寫(xiě)錯(cuò)或說(shuō)錯(cuò)時(shí)，你都會(huì)強(qiáng)化這些錯(cuò)誤。當(dāng)你重復(fù)錯(cuò)誤時(shí)，就會(huì)養(yǎng)成不良習(xí)慣。如果你犯了很多錯(cuò)，那么練習(xí)就會(huì)成為有害的活動(dòng)，因?yàn)樗虝?huì)你錯(cuò)的英語(yǔ)多于對(duì)的。有些學(xué)習(xí)者犯了太多錯(cuò)誤，以至于他們練習(xí)得越多，英語(yǔ)就學(xué)得越糟！

（英語(yǔ)原文選自：antimoon.com）