刘涛静
As economic globalization accelerates, English is playing an increasingly vital role in international cooperation and exchange as well as in personal development. It is difficult to think of one single area that has not been affected by this language. It goes without saying that it has become quite a necessary part of our life. From my point of view, there’s every reason to learn English well. But how to achieve that aim is a question. Shall we go to evening classes in our spare time or go abroad for further education? Personally speaking, neither will I choose. Now that the earth is becoming smaller and smaller because of the Internet, why don’t we study English online?
There are many reasons for my choosing to learn English online. For the first thing, with the development of science and technology, computers have entered our home and most of us have access to the Internet. It has influenced us so much that it has become part of our life. It seems that our life will be hard to cope with without the Internet. Given the importance of the Internet and English, I don’t think it is a bad way to learn English online. For another, the Internet offers us unlimited learning resources. As soon as we surf on the internet, we can easily find materials that can help us learn English. For example, if we want to read articles about the history of the colored people in the U.S.A, we can browse the e-library of congress and soon we can find what we want. We can also use the search engine like google to get the information. If we search “introduction to African American history”, we won’t be disappointed. Besides reading materials, we can find materials about listening, speaking, as well as writing. I’m sure we can benefit a lot from the treasure house of knowledge.
The third reason is that the Internet offers us a large number of online schools of good quality, which are suitable for English learners of all levels. No matter how poor we are at English, we will feel satisfied with the courses provided by these schools. Last but not least, we can save much time and money by learning English online at home because we needn’t spend long time on the way to go to a certain place. How good it is to learn English without leaving home!
As far as I’m concerned, to learn English online is one thing, but how to learn it well is another. Once we make up our mind to learn English online, we may as well learn it well. To realize the aim, we can enroll an appropriate online school at first. When we start our study, we learn the things we need to improve in our free time. The more time we spend, the better our English will become. One of my friends used to be poor at English, which brought much trouble to his work. In order to learn English well and deal with his work easily, he took a course at an online school at weekends. Though he had little time to have a rest, he was happy that he could learn English at home and get answers immediately after he asked questions. As time went by, his English improved a lot. Now expressing his ideas in English freely is a piece of cake to him and his working performance has impressed his boss and colleagues deeply.
Secondly, we can take part in English discussion groups online and exchange our ideas with the group members so as to learn English better. There are many such groups online and we can easily find one we are interested in. I’m a member of a group now. In the group, we can discuss the learning obstacles we face with our friends and look for effective ways of solving them. For example, when one of my friends expressed his concern about how to enlarge his vocabulary in a short time, many tips were offered to him from the group members. In addition, we can share some successful experiences with each other and enhance our friendship. For instance, after I wrote an article about how to write a good article, many group members thought it very helpful with them and from then on I became quite popular.
Thirdly, we can make international friends online and express ideas about things of common interest in English. For example, I’ve made friends with several Canadians through the Internet, with whom I had a lot in common. We still keep in touch with each other through e-mails until now. Sometimes we talk about the happy hours we spent at home and abroad. Sometimes we inform each other of what has happened recently in our life. As for the Canadian customs I’m not sure of or the Chinese traditions they are not familiar with, we won’t hesitate to ask each other questions. To be honest, I have learned a lot from them through e-mails. In this way, not only can we practise our writing, but also we can know more about cultures of other nations.
Fourthly, we can make full use of the Internet to practice our all-round abilities. There are many websites that offer large amount of English learning materials such as grammar and vocabulary tests, and background knowledge about English cultures. Some of the materials can even be downloaded. Suppose we want to practise your spoken English, we can enter a chatting room and find a partner to discuss whatever we like; If we want to download some materials, we can browse the website like http://www.icansay.com or http://www.52en.com and I’m sure we will acquire what we aim at. Suppose we’d like to practise our writing, we can have a try at http://www.4ewriting.com/, where there are many topics for you to choose from. After we email our articles, we can even gain remarks or advice on it.
Besides what is mentioned above, I’m sure there are many other effective ways to improve our English. Whatever they are, I firmly believe that where there is a will, there is a way. |
