- Take calculated risks.
While you are practicing English freely, don't
forget to think a little bit about what you are going
to say before you
speak. Make sure your risks are calculated; that is, make sure you feel
that most of the time your guesses about what you should say will be right.
Don't make wild guesses that will
be wrong most of the time. Try to be an accurate guesser.
One of my American friends told me about a time in Japan when she was
eating with some friends in a restaurant. The food was really
good, so she wanted to tell the waiter the food was great.
She asked one of her friends how to say "great" in Japanese.
Her friend gave her the word oishi, which actually means
"delicious." You
use the word to describe food. When the waiter came by; the
American smiled, pointed to the food,
and said; "Oishi." The
waiter was very happy. Later in the evening at a nightclub,
when a very handsome man finished a wonderful performance
of a romantic song, she stood
up and yelled out to him above the noise of the audience,
"Oishi!" Everyone
in the place laughed.
My friend was a risk taker. People laughed because the word oishi is
never used for people or songs. But she learned something.
She used the information people gave her and always used that word conectly
after that.
EXERCISES
Understanding Reading and Vocabulary
Do the following three activities.
- On your own, skim (quickly read) this chapter again in 5 minutes or less.
- Write some notes about what the main ideas of the chapter are.
- With a partner, tell each other what you think the main ideas were. Use your own words.
Speaking and Listening with a Partner
- Look again at your score on Questionnaire 6 on page 31. Then look
at the strategies that were suggested if your language
ego is weak/moderate or
strong. Write specific examples of things you can
do to improve your score. Share them with your partner, and add
your partner's ideas that you like.
- Look at the following list of suggested strategies.
Think of other strategies to add to the list. Then
each choose three or four things to do right away
this week. Write these strategies on Post-its. Put your list where you will see it every day.
H. Douglas Brown. Strategies for Success: A Practical Guide to
Learning English (White Plains. NY: Pearson Education. 2002.)
Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education. Jrces 176
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