If I asked you to draw a simple scheme of a speechprocess when you speak your native language, you’dprobably come up with something like this:
By and large it’s quite correct – we think in our nativelanguage and after a short while we produce speech in the process.If you think that it’s not true and you’re capable of producingspeech at the exact time of thinking – read this article. You’ll find outthat it actually takes 600 milliseconds for our speechproducing organs to catch up with our brain! It’s not ahuge lag, and in real life we all have an impression we can thinkout loud.
Anyway, the scheme above represents what goes on when you saysomething in your native language, and thinking and speaking aretwo separate processes.
Are you slightly confused? Are you thinking “What is Robbytalking about? What other process takes place in my brain before Ithink? Surely thinking comes first and everything else followsit!”
Well, I haven’t got any proof that my theory is correct, but Ibelieve that an ABSTRACT CONCEPT comes first
It’s not verbalized. It’s an idea. It’s something that you kindof FEEL even before you start having actual thoughts in yourlanguage. It’s not easy to explain, but I’ll try to provide anexample so that can understand what exactly I mean by this abstractconcept.
You have to picture the following scene. You’re waking up in themorning. You open your eyes. You’re feeling unwell–
Maybe I sound mad, but I strongly believe that everything beginswith an abstract concept. Our thoughts. Our plans. Our dailyactivities. They all begin as abstract, vague ideas hovering in ourminds and they have the potential of being transformed intothoughts and then spoken out:
I might even take this concept a step further and claim that atany given time we all have at least one or more dormant abstractconcepts present in our minds. I think it takes some stimuli toawaken them and initiate active thinking process when you canactually make out words floating around your mind.
I won’t, however, elaborate on the above concept in this blogpost – instead let’s get straight to the point and look atthe biggest mistake made by foreign Englishspeakers:
For a number of reasons English learners and even quite advancedEnglish speakers assume that once you speak a foreignlanguage, the translation stage is inevitable. It’s beingmade our second nature in school English studies by using bilingual dictionariesand memorizing new vocabulary as a direct translation from ournative language into English. We also encounter the translationprocess on a regular basis – movie subtitles, manuals that come inmultiple languages, Google translation tool… It all adds to thegeneral consensus that the translation stage between languagescan’t be avoided and you become convinced that once you speak yourown language you need to translate to speak in English.
But what if you could eliminate the translationprocess?
Just think about it for a second. If it takes your mouth morethan half a second to produce speech following a thought in yourbrain, what about the extra time you spend translating the thoughtfrom your native language into English? It definitely adds moretime to the whole process and the resulting speech is oftenslow, hesitant, and it’s easy to get stuck for words if you keeptranslating from your native tongue into English in yourhead.
By the way, these symptoms characterize the typicalEnglish fluency issue and translatingin one’s mind from native language to English is a definite no-noif you want to be fluent!
But here’s the key to improving your spoken English andapproaching near-native English fluency – and I think you’ll be abit surprised reading this…
Yes, you need to eliminate the translation link, but youalso need to eradicate the very process of thinking in yournative language!
If you already think English – fair enough, you’ve mastered theskill and you can skip the rest of this article.
If you still keep having two “l(fā)ayers” of thoughts in your mind –your native language AND English – then keep reading, this is foryou!
So, what you basically need to do is the following – you need tolearn to verbalize the ABSTRACT CONCEPTS into English. You need tomake your speech process look like this:
First you have the abstract concepts and images floating in yourmind. Then comes thinking process in the language you speak, andthen you produce the actual speech. Once you do away with thetranslation between your native language and English, your speechbecomes more fluent and automatic. It’s of course easier said thandone, so here’s a really good piece of advice on how to achieve thestate of mind when you’re able to think in English without gettingyour mother’s tongue involved.
Remember when we analyzed the speech process in the verybeginning? You probably didn’t realize prior to it that ourthinking process and speech are two separate processes becausethey’re so closely bound, right?
Well, you see – now you can use this fact to you advantage andmake your brain THINK in English by SPEAKINGEnglish. The speech process is so closely bound to yourthoughts that it will make it quite hard for you to think in yournative language when you have a steady and controlled speech goingon.
If you try to speak too fast though, you can lose theconcentration and your native language words can start mixing in
I’m not saying it won’t happen AT ALL when you speak in thatslow and controlled manner. But it won’t be as bad as when you tryto match a native English speaker in terms of speed and haveEnglish thoughts mixing with your native language in your head.
So your perfect English speech process follows this pattern – anabstract concept – thinking in English – speech. Well, inreality all you’ll feel is the speech because the feedbackbetween your mind and mouth is nearly instantaneous. However, it isnecessary for you to understand the very nitty-gritty of the speechprocess so that you can accept that it is possible to stoptranslating from your native language when speakingEnglish.
Once you’ve grasped the very concept of abstract ideas being asthe primary source of “content” for your brain to “feed” on (notthoughts in your native language as you might have assumedpreviously), you’ll find it much easier to eliminate thetranslation link from the English speech process equation.
I guess it’s going to take some time for you to master thinkingin English because you’ve been speaking your native language for aslong as you remember yourself, so the very thinking processinevitably associates with mother’s tongue. It’s kind of – “Howcan I stop thinking in my language, it’s so deeply ingrained in mybrain that it’s impossible to start thinking in English!”
Well, as I said, the trick is to actually SPEAK Englishas often as you can. If you try to ONLY THINK inEnglish – yes, you can mess up your mind even more becausethere’s no solid ‘stuff’ (like SPEECH) for your English thoughts tostick to. Once the speech process is engaged, however, it’s mucheasier to maintain clarity of your English thoughts as you wieldmore power over speech than your thoughts which can often takecourse on their own.
I can say it after my own experience over the years – constantEnglish speaking practice will help you think English and gainspoken English fluency! You can even quietly speak with yourself inEnglish when you’ve no-one to talk to instead of thinking somethingsilently at yourself in your native language!
Robby
點(diǎn)評：
1、首先需要建立基本概念的英語(yǔ)詞彙
2、盡量使用英語(yǔ)思考，但不能完全抗拒母語(yǔ)
3、常說(shuō)英語(yǔ)，語(yǔ)速要自然不能太快，如果沒(méi)有人跟自己說(shuō)也可以自己跟自己說(shuō)
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