Tan Shanpeng, Class 9, Senior 1, Shenzhen Xin’an Middle School Instructed by Tang Ying

Last week, my oral English teacher Ms. Tang gave us an unforgettable lesson and some details were still clearly visible in my mind. The teacher’s unique teaching methods stimulated our interest in learning English.

At the beginning of the class, my teacher first showed us a famous aphorism from two schoolmates. When she asked if we thought we could speak English well, many students shook their heads.

However, she had confidence in us and believed everyone could be a top English student. What’s more, she said she would do her best to help us become top students. To a great extent, it inspired us and got rid of our worries. Her encouragement gave us the motivation to learn English well.

Next, my teacher showed us a video of a conversation between a couple, which showcased the oral communication of native speakers. In the video, the couple were choosing a name for their newborn son.

At first, the man named his child Wilbur, but the woman didn’t agree because it was not trendy. The woman then suggested the name Rambo, but the man disagreed because he disliked the name. After some more thinking, the woman advised using Sami as the name for their newborn child. The man thought it over and agreed happily. With the woman’s happy smile, the video ended.

After watching the video for the first time, my teacher chose two students for role play. It was obvious that the resulting conversation was not fluent and was unnatural.

We thought it was difficult for us to imitate that couple. Tang pointed out their shortcomings. She listed some rules that we should pay attention to in our oral English such as stress, liaisons, and the rising and falling tones.

What’s more, from the video, she summarized the methods for her “acquiring good pronunciation and intonation” learning strategy that we had never seen before. It made us understand more clearly.

Her methods include pronouncing new words clearly and correctly. Read the liaisons aloud correctly. Identify sentence stress and read them aloud correctly. Identify language chunks and read a passage aloud with the right pauses. Read a passage aloud with the rising and falling tones.

These methods gave us a new understanding of oral English and made us have a stronger interest in spoken English.

After that, she asked us to practice role play. After a while, she invited the two students who had just played the roles to present the dialogue again.

The coherence, intonation and emotion of their spoken language had improved significantly. The learning methods she summed up helped our spoken English level improve greatly.

Tang then gave us a short passage from a mock listening and speaking test of the National College Entrance English Examination for us to practice. Applying the strategy “acquiring good pronunciation and intonation,” we listened and imitated.

Then, I found I could read the passage fluently and correctly and I felt proud of myself. Towards the end of the class, we were still immersed in Tang’s teaching.