Александр Чумаков – Boost up your English (страница 3)
Story-telling is one of the best methods for learning foreign languages.
We, human beings, are storytelling creatures. Our brains love stories and we all learn from stories. Stories are vital. We convey our feelings, our mood, our energy and the truth with stories. We convey the mystery of the language. And most importantly, we learn English grammar intuitively like children do. That’s why stories.
I don’t mean, don’t learn Grammar. No. Grammar is important. I am saying that Grammar is difficult. Grammar is very difficult. Grammar is boring. It is hard to say anything interesting and comprehensible to people when teaching them languages and you have to focus on Grammar rules a lot.
“There is a big difference between language learning and language acquisition. When you learn a language, for example, you learn English. You learn grammar rules, right? You learn all about the sentences and how words work together. And when you want to say something in English you make the sentence in your own language first, and then you drag out of your memory the words you need and put them into the sentence. That is painful. That is difficult. That is boring and it takes time.
When you acquire the language you understand what you hear. You can only acquire the language when you understand the language, you understand the message. The message has to be interesting and comprehensible. The message has to be compelling and understandable. Only when you are totally involved in the story, the world disappears around you. You forget that it is in another language. You acquire the language. Language acquisition happens.
I don’t mean, don’t learn Grammar. I don’t mean, if you study Grammar, go to jail. No, Grammar is important. I am saying that Grammar is difficult. Grammar is very difficult. Grammar is boring. It is really hard to say anything interesting and comprehensible to people when teaching them languages and you have to focus on Grammar rules a lot. What I have to do as a teacher is say things that are interesting, comprehensible, and then Grammar will take care of itself. And this is hard enough. All I need, as a teacher, is to make sure that you are paying attention and you are interested in what I am saying. It’s a good story. That is what you need. My job is to spread the story.”
Yes, Steven Krashen is absolutely correct and I cannot but agree with him.
It is very easy to give people input, information that is comprehensible, which means understandable, but not interesting. That is school.
It is very easy to give people input, information that is interesting, but not comprehensible, not understandable. That is the outside world.
Some teachers in Universities devote their lives to giving us input that is neither comprehensible nor interesting.
My job is to do both and that is hard. But this is the most important task of language teaching. The easy part is the theory: comprehensible and interesting. Fine! But tough, difficult part is how do you make input interesting and comprehensible? Not just interesting and understandable, but compelling. Compelling means extremely or very interesting. Compelling means so interesting you forget that it is in another language. That is the goal. That is why I sit down and create these compelling and comprehensible, interesting and understandable stories for you.
When you tell a story something remarkable happens: imagination flies and magic begins. What’s why stories.
By the way, there is a good and useful video on my YouTube Channel about the same topic. I am encouraging you to go and watch it. Here is the direct link there. Just scan the QR code and you will be there. Enjoy watching it.
MY JOURNEY
In this article, in this part of the book, I want to tell you about my interesting, exciting and adventurous journey, the time of my life, when I was an ordinary English teacher. After university, I got a job as an English teacher at a small school. I was very happy. And I said to my self, “Oh, my God, I have a job”. But soon I began to have a feeling that I wanted to become someone bigger that just an ordinary teacher of English in a small local school. I began to feel bored and everything began to look wretched to me. And then came a day that turned my life around. I learned about Oprah Winfrey and about her show with the same name “Oprah Winfrey Show”. This show literally revolutionized my life. It changed my life completely. The show that she had had for 25 years in the heart of America. The show that became a life-changing event for millions of people from more than 150 counties across the globe.
That was the beginning of my journey from being a mediocre, average, typical English teacher to becoming a total master of English. Everything was done. I went back to school. I attended a lot of master classes, seminars and workshops of great, fantastic and enthusiastic teachers. I learned a lot from them. Finally, I got my master degree. I became who I am now – a total master of English. I’ve learned the method that I am going to share with you here. It is a story-telling method. It is one of the best methods in the world for learning foreign languages.
I want to tell you that when you have that point of view, that mindset of a winner – then literally the world of English becomes your library to help you to become a curious learner, an excellent speaker and a fantastic human being.
And your job now is to perfect your craft at speaking English.
And my job now is to help you to do it.
If you read daily from that library book by book. If you learn more and more every single day and you practice consistently. You will certainly become a brilliant, excellent and fantastic English speaker.
I became a teacher of English many years ago. But still I am committed to serving people. Still I am excited and curious about what I am doing. Still I am devoted to my calling – to teach you to speak true, real and excellent English.
I think I should mention just a few words about my other courses. I have to tell you about what I have created, I have done by now. You have to know that, because how else will you know what I have to offer if I don’t tell you about it, right?
My bestselling book is my first book which is Unique English Course. Speak real English. This book has the same structure as the book you are holding now in your hands. It has crazy, funny and stupid stories. It has the vocabulary lessons and it has the mini-story lessons. This is a very good book for those who already can understand English, but still have some difficulty speaking English. Who are still afraid of making mistakes; for those who want to improve.
My second book is Super English Course. Speak like a native. This is a big book. I mean, it is not as easy as the first one, but it has the same structure but the level of English is higher and the vocabulary is more advanced and the stories are even crazier, funnier and it has some lectures and a lot of interesting, instructive and compelling things to learn and to use in every day life to become a fantastic human being.
Number three is the course for beginners with a fantastic and very optimistic name which is “I want to speak English”. One of the reasons I created this course is because I know how difficult it is to find a truly remarkable book to start learning English. After many years of studying, learning, teaching and practicing English, I have learned how to teach beginners English much better, more efficiently and more compelling.
I also have a business English course called “Secrets of Success”. This book is for those who already speak English pretty well, and now want to understand business in general and to speak true, real and excellent business English. But you can go and try it, if you want to. So try these books. You have nothing to loose, but you have a life to win. And I guarantee it will help you to speak English the way you never did before.
So you can go and chose any you like to start with. See you soon.
Story 1 «Harry the Hamster»
Harry was a small, smart and significant hamster. Harry the hamster lived in a spacious, gorgeous and very comfortable cage. The reason he was significant was that Harry never slept in his life. He couldn’t sleep. As a result, he never had dreams. No dreams for Harry.
But of course, Harry the hamster wanted to have dreams. Harry often said, «How much I want to have colorful, fantastic and vivid dreams! But I cannot.»
Every day hundreds of people came to see him. Every day many reporters interviewed him. Every day a lot of scientists examined him, but no one could solve his problem. No one could help Harry the hamster to start having dreams.
How did Harry the hamster feel?