a language teacher#39;s personal opinion第三次课.doc

A language teacher’s personal opinion Every day I see advertisements in the newspapers and on the buses claiming that it is easy to learn English. According to these advertisements, with very little effort on the student’s part,he will be able to speak the language fluently in three months or even ten days. There is often a reference to William Shakespeare or Charles Dickens to encourage him even more. When I see advertisements like this, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. If it were as easy to learn English as they say, I would have to look for another job, because very few qualified teachers would be needed. But a large number of people must believe these ridiculous claims, or else the advertisements would not appear. It is natural for student to be attracted to methods that will teach them as quickly and efficiently and cheaply as possible. But it is difficult for anyone to explain in simple language why one method is better than another, and it is no use pretending that anyone has discovered a perfect way of teaching English in every possible situation. Some experts even argue that there are as many good methods of teaching a language as there are good teachers, because every teacher is an individual with his own personality. No doubt this is true to a certain extent, but it is not very helpful to students. For a long time people believed that the only way to learn a language was to spend a great deal of time in a country where it was spoken. Of course it is clear that students who go to England, America, or Australia to learn English have a great advantage over others, but a large number of students cannot afford to do so. Some students go to the opposite extreme and think they can teach themselves at home with dictionaries. But it is wrong to assume that each word in English has a precise equivalent in another language and vice versa, and it is impossible for any translation method to provide students with the natural forms of a language in speech, let