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“我如何能學(xué)會更好地說英語？”，許多人會告訴你“練習(xí)，練習(xí)，再練習(xí)”。他們會說：“盡可能用英語說和寫?！彼杏⒄Z課程都有很多口語和寫作的活動。當(dāng)你在教科書中做練習(xí)時，當(dāng)老師讓你在課堂上發(fā)言或要寫家庭作業(yè)時，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)會非常有用，學(xué)好英語實際上很有必要。所以問題是，對于許多學(xué)習(xí)者來說，說或?qū)懹⒄Z意味著會犯很多錯誤，有些人每句話都會犯錯！

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)你正在用英語寫一封電子郵件。你的英語并不太好，你想快點寫完郵件。你（錯誤地）寫道：“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)你寫出一個句子時，你也會讀它。因此，不正確的句子成為你的“有害輸入”。下次你更有可能寫出“I want finish”或“I want be happy”。為什么？因為“I want speak English”在你的腦海中浮現(xiàn)，你最近才用過它！當(dāng)你再寫幾次“I want do something”時，你會養(yǎng)成一個壞習(xí)慣：“I want do something”將成為你習(xí)慣的英語口語用法。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！

每次你寫錯或說錯時，你都會強(qiáng)化這些錯誤。當(dāng)你重復(fù)錯誤時，就會養(yǎng)成不良習(xí)慣。如果你犯了很多錯，那么練習(xí)就會成為有害的活動，因為它教會你錯的英語多于對的。有些學(xué)習(xí)者犯了太多錯誤，以至于他們練習(xí)得越多，英語就學(xué)得越糟！

（英語原文選自：antimoon.com）