Three Tips of Improving Oral English For Visiting Scholars Whose Mother Tongue Isn't English

As a visiting scholar, during the first month I arrived, I really found it very difficult to communicate with Professors, colleges, and local guys, especially when they talk fast, although they regard they just speak at their regular speeds, even though I have the certification which could prove my English is OK. I was confused very much about how to improve my hearing and oral English, and tried different ways, wishing to be talking like a near-native in no time, and Communicate with professors and colleagues on research progress and share the achievements as soon as possible.

Time flies and now seven months passed away. While letting myself trying to integrate into American lives, I found three useful ways to expand my English vocabulary and improve my English conversation skills.

1.Try to immerse and surround myself in English enviroments.

Here is American where there are so many people who can help to learn English . So I tried to take part in different kinds of interesting English activities, English conversations, English corners and English classes, trying to hang out with those local people or visiting scholars, friends who want to practice English too. I invited them over to meet together or have dinner together. Always went to a regular place to find a tutor to do some one-on-one with. Sometimes we will do a language exchange, but not a lot of times, where I taught them Chinese and they taught me English. And also I used high technology to learn English, internet, correct websites, TV, radio……..Wherever, and whenever, just immerse myself in English as much as I can! And also I got successfully to rend a house to live with a local woman and a PHD girl form Morocco whose major is philology about English, so that I could force myself immerse and surround in the English environments.

2.Read children's books, adults’ fiction books together with the professional articles.

Here are so many great libraries where I could borrow and took out children’s books, adults’ fiction books and professional articles. When I felt the professional articles became boring and I couldn’t suffer them, I would prefer to have a short rest to read some children’s books or adults’ fiction books, cause they are always really attractive, well-illustrated and tend to have many short articles or simple plot lines, and also they come in many subjects Whenever I read them, I 'll go faster and get more enjoyment, more new easy words out of it, so that after a while,I could go back to the professional articles as fast as possible.

3.Try describe your ideas and speak, speak, speak, never being afraid of making mistakes.

In learning new language, making mistakes is crucial and unavoidable. If we don't, we couldn’t learn what's right and wrong, we couldn’t take risks, and we couldn’t truly grasp the concepts we're learning. It's unfortunate, it is, but it's necessary. So never be afraid to talk to native speakers, never be afraid to go outside our comfort zone, never be afraid to truly expand and grow. Actually we couldn’t imagine if Edison would've stopped at his first mistake. In the university, There is a English bookclub and a news-reading meeting in the university, including people from different countries, both once a week. I took part in them and tried to describe what I found or considered about the book, the news etc, never thinking about whether there would be any mistakes. Actually if there would be some oral mistakes, there would be always somebody to help to correct them.