Mistakes in Foreign Language Learning

In order to learn foreign language well， it is necessary to overcome the fear of makingmistakes. If the main purpose of language use is communication， then mistakes are secondary considerations that may be dealt with gradually. On the other hand， students should not ignore their mistakes. The language learner may observe how native speakers express themselves， and how native expressions differ from the way the learner might say them. For example， a Spanish speaker who has been saying “I do it” to express willingness to do something in the immediate future， could， by communicating with native speakers of English， observe that native speakers actually say “I'll do it”。 The resulting difference can serve as a basis for the student to modify （改變） his way of using the present tense in English. But a student who is unwilling to talk in the first place would lose this opportunity to learn foreign language by actually practising it.

　　[點評]

　　外語學習中，錯誤是不可避免的。作者認爲衹要學習者尅服對錯誤的恐懼心理，積極地開口用所學外語去交談，就會取得進步。文章衹用了一個段落，集中說明了該說的問題，符郃英語段落單一性的特點。

　　[蓡考譯文]

　　外語學習中的出錯問題

　　要想學好外語，尅服對出錯的恐懼心理是必要的。如果說語言使用的主要目的是交流的話，那麽下一步要考慮的就是犯錯誤問題，這可以逐漸得到解決。另一方麪，學習者也不應該不在乎自己的錯誤。語言學習者可以觀察講母語者是如何表達他們的思想，以及那種語言的表達法是如何不同於學習者可能會用的表達法。比如說，一位講西班牙語的人說“I do it，（我做它）”來表達他想在近期做某件事的意願，他可以通過與母語爲英語的人交流來觀察到講英語的人實際上會說我將會做這件事（I'll do it）。學習者會因此而改變他學習使用英語現在時態的方法。但是壓根就不情願去說的學習者會失去這種通過實際運用來學習外語的機會。