This article is suitable for everyone who wants to improve their English, especially reading ability, because I am a programmer, so I will use my own personal experience to help you find ways to improve your English skills.
a little history
First of all, when I was in middle school, although I was very interested in English at first, and I got high scores in the test a few times, but later I gradually disliked learning. When I took the college entrance examination, my English was stuck on the passing line of 90 points. , and then the college entrance examination score was only enough to enter a junior college and started the road of programmers.
motivation
In fact, my motivation for learning English was not because the technical documents were all in English. At that time, I only knew how to read Chinese documents translated by others, and sometimes I didn’t know about mistakes and omissions. At that time, when I was working, I suddenly decided to go to a junior college, so I applied for the online education college of Peking University, and I was successfully admitted. In the second semester, we all need to take a bachelor's degree in English, commonly known as English Level 3, in order to get a degree certificate, and only 60 out of 100 points can pass the test. This test can be taken once every semester before graduation. When I took the test for the first time, I took the test naked. I thought it would be easier than CET 4. Who would have thought that my English level, which I haven’t used for many years, would have dropped long ago, and I only got 56 points in the test. I just stared at the score that was 4 points away! Why is God being so unfair to me, just a little bit (maybe better than 59). Then suddenly aroused my fighting spirit, I want to study English hard!
learning process
After deciding to learn English, I bought a set of New Concept English, from 1 to 4, each set includes textbooks, self-study guides, workbooks, and detailed exercises. Because the teacher in high school said that New Concept English is recognized as the best English textbook, so I chose it without hesitation. I opened the first book and found that they are all relatively simple dialogues and words. This is how I learned it.
- Two lessons per day (the first book is relatively easy, and the next one is a lesson)-
- First learn the new words in each lesson and write them down five times
- Listen to the recording without reading the book and see how much you can understand
- Listen again, this time for intensive listening, repeat if you can’t hear it, until you can’t hear it four or five times at all
- Listen to the complete again, verify it again
- Read the book and listen to it, mark the wrong ones, and remember
- Finally, follow the recording and read it
- Read the detailed explanation part of the text and the self-study guide to understand grammar and sentence patterns.
- Complete all the questions in the textbook and workbook, including the composition, and understand what you did wrong by comparing the answers.
Just such a study routine, the first volume has a total of 144 lessons for about three months, and then the second volume begins. The second volume was changed to one lesson a day due to the longer text and more questions. When I learned more than 20 lessons, it was also time for the second degree exam, and this time I scored 76 points, a big improvement. Then during the study period, I developed a lot of interest in English, and began to listen to English songs and read some simple English news and materials. Thinking that once you have learned English, don't let it go, so continue to study. In the middle, I also successfully read the original English book of Spring MVC in Action. This is also the first English book I have read. Of course, I read it very slowly. I looked up the dictionary and pondered the sentence. Fortunately, this book The style of writing is simple, the words are very normal, and there are not many extended meanings. After reading it, I actually added a lot of confidence to myself, and then I read the official documents when learning new technologies. Although it is very slow, I feel that the new words will only become less and less, and I only need to accumulate them slowly. Fortunately, technical documents are basically on web pages, and it is easy to use various dictionaries to delineate and translate. It is a new word book that will definitely not be read. It is out of context, and it is impossible to remember so many meanings one by one. What we should do is to keep reading, the high-frequency words will always be repeated many times, and we will remember them as we see them more and more. During this period, I read the official documents of Java EE, PHP, JavaScript, Android and other technologies and related frameworks. Then I found that the technical vocabulary is relatively simple. Later, when I read the original English novel of The Revenant, I really didn't know one of every three words, but after seeing it, it gradually got better.
TOEFL and GRE
After graduating from my undergraduate degree, I had a chance in the company and heard someone say studying abroad. Then I suddenly wanted to see the level of foreign technology. Then I chose the United States and started to prepare for the TOEFL test. At that time, I just finished learning the new concept. The second volume, the third volume is about less than ten lessons, and after reading the official TOEFL guide, I went to the naked test to explore the bottom. The first time I took the test with a score of 82, I felt pretty good, and then in two months, I Brush a set of TPO every day, and continue to learn new concepts, and then supplement it with major English sites, including geography, history, biology, culture, etc. In fact, I don’t see much, because just like the last time I learned it, I put what I have learned. Converting to English is really boring. Later, I got 95 points in the second test. Because it was too late to apply, I stopped. I took the GRE naked test, and I didn’t have time to prepare for the test. 309 is not much, and it has no reference value. First, I am not good at mathematics. I can think about 58 in the college entrance examination. Second, the words in the language part are really anti-human. Forget it, this is the score. Then I applied for schools myself, and I applied for about seven or eight schools. Later, I was accepted by NYU Polytechnic, Stevens, and USC. At that time, because USC delayed admission until the spring, and I had already chosen Stevens at that time, the visa and air tickets were completed, so I turned it down. When people can't be capricious.
Summarize
Please don't think that my English is better after I study abroad, because after I go abroad, I basically live with my Chinese classmates, and I also work in teams with Chinese classmates in class. Place names near New Jersey, and some food names. Because our technical documents basically only need reading ability, I was 2 out of 2 in TOEFL reading, so it is enough to deal with these. It's almost completely out of the dictionary by now. Now I have also cultivated a hobby of watching quora. There are many wonderful answers on it, and they are all real people. It can also improve my speaking ability, solve the difficulties of life by the way, and pour chicken soup.
This is basically my personal experience. In fact, it doesn't take much effort to learn. As long as you stick to it and gain a little bit every day, learning English well will come naturally. I am still insisting on learning new concepts, and I have reached the fourth volume. I have been interrupted for a long time between work and study, so let’s make progress together with everyone. We must have the determination to work hard to overcome difficulties, and then have a little bit of self-motivation that is uneasy about the status quo, and try to learn new knowledge. Then, when we look back, we find that we have reached a great level. This is the so-called progress and growing up. I hope this article will inspire you.