Appreciate Your Strengths
I have said it is important to recognize your achievements. It is also important to appreciate your strengths. Failure to do so leads to misplaced anxiety and misdirected effort. In my experience Chinese students usually have (relative to the stage they have reached) a large vocabulary. In addition, they are good at spelling. (Many intelligent native speakers fail to come to terms with the writing system of English, which is not irrational, but is complex, and spell badly.) Chinese students have some characteristic weaknesses too. Even when they can distinguish unfamiliar English sounds quite well, they often fail to do so because they speak much too fast. Then they wonder why native speakers have trouble understanding someone whose English is so fluent! They need someone to say – just slow down! Take it easy! Stop trying to prove how fluent you are, and your spoken English will improve.

重视学习的成果 重视学习的成果
我曾提过，认清自己学习的进展成效十分重要，而体认并珍视自己的长处，更是重要。如果说不重视自己的进展和长处，在学习过程中，就会因步骤零乱而焦躁不安，目标错误而徒劳无功。我发现，中国学生（以他们所达到的学习阶段而言）通常都拥有相当丰富的词汇。而且，他们也擅长于拼字。（许多受过教育的英美人士对于那套还算合理，但颇为复杂的英语书写体系，不见得能得心应手，反而拙于拼字。）中国学生也有一些独特的缺点，他们讲英语时，常因为速度太急促，往往把原本可十分简易辨识的一些不熟悉的英语语音，发得模糊不清。于是，他们觉得奇怪，怎么有些人讲这么流利的英语，英美人士竟然不易听懂。他们需要有人来提醒他们：只要把速度放慢就行！放轻松一点，不要再试图表现自己讲得多么流利，那么，你的英语口语能力，必定会大为提高。

Compositions Not Too Soon
Some-not all of the weaknesses students display in writing English are, I believe, aggravated by the educational system, and the pressures it exerts on teachers and students alike. In particular, I believe that students are often required to write English compositions too soon. Writing so as to express your own thoughts, opinions and observations is difficult even in your mother tongue. There are pitfalls and opportunities to error at every turn when you are using your second language! The stage of guided writing, the exercises where you are given the ideas or where you are expected to complete or change or adapt sentences, rather than to invent them, is a very important stage, and should be an extended one. I think it is too often cut short in case students get bored. If the exercises are suitable though, they are difficult enough to be interesting, but not so difficult that most students have no real expectation of success.

英语作文不嫌迟
我相信，学生在英文书写方面军的某些缺点，当然不是指所有的缺点，之所以会每况愈下，应归咎于教育制度以及教师与同学所加诸的压力。尤其是教师常常太早要求学生写英文作文，我认为这并不恰当。因为 即使是使用母语来表达自己的想法、意见和观感都不是件容易的事， 而使用第二种语言来写，更免不了随时都有陷阱和犯错的机会！引导写作的这一重要阶段应该拉长，这个阶段的练习，在于提示你一个中心思想，在于要你完成句子，变换句型或修饰句子，而不要你急着自行独创句子。我认为，这个阶段，往往一遇到学生感到厌倦就予于缩短，实在不该。只要练习合乎需要，就该难度适当，足以引起学生的乐趣，而不应太过艰难，使得大多数的学生缺乏成就感。

待续。。。