迷思二，学外语最好方法是开口说

本文英语原文节选自 antimoon，略有删改并增加中文译文 Myth #2: "The best way to learn a foreign language is to speak it"

This is probably the most frequently repeated piece of advice for language learners. You will hear it from teachers, webmasters of ESL sites, and people in the Antimoon Forum (e.g. see Jeff Hook’s posts in this discussion).

For most language teachers, the goal is to have you talking as early as possible and as much as possible. They believe that they should be quiet during their classes, while their students should have the opportunity to speak. 这也许是给学习者的忠告中最经常反覆强调的。你会从你的教师、英语学习网的网主、或者Antimoon论坛的人（例如这个讨论中Jeff Hook的帖子）听到这番话。

事实Fact

Speaking is imitation. When you speak your native language, you don’t make up your own grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. You use the same grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation as people around you. Similarly, when trying to speak a foreign language, your goal is to imitate the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of native speakers, so that your way of speaking is correct and natural.

说话是模仿出来的。你说你的母语时，不会自己去造一套语法、词汇和发音。你用的是和你身旁的人相同的语法、词汇和发音。同理，你尝试说外语时，目标也是在模仿母语者的语法、词汇和发音，令你说得正确而自然。

It’s pretty obvious that, in order to talk like the native speakers, you have to listen to the things they say and read the things they write. When you do so, you learn new words and grammar structures that you can use to express your thoughts. As a result, it becomes easier and easier for you to build your own sentences in the foreign language. 很明显地，要说得像母语者一样，你要听他们所说的话语，读他们所写的文字。你这样就能学到新的单词和语法结构，用以表达你的思想。如此一来，你将愈来愈容易用外语造出你的句子。

By contrast, if you follow the popular advice and concentrate on speaking rather than listening and reading, you will learn few new words and structures and, like so many learners, will be stuck with your limited vocabulary and grammar. It will always be hard for you to express your thoughts in the foreign language. 相反，如你照主流建议去行，集中练说，忽视听读，你将学到很少的新单词和语法，并且像很多学习者一样，受制於有限的词汇和语法中。你会一直难以用外语表达你的思想。

练说的好处Benefits of speaking

While speaking practice does not develop your vocabulary or grammar, it does offer a few important benefits:练说不会增进你的词汇和语法，但带来一些重要益处：

• It helps improve your fluency (moves your knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation from your “slow memory” to your “quick memory” — however, first you must put something in your “slow memory” through input)
• Communicating in a foreign language is quite exciting and motivates you to keep learning
• It helps expose gaps in your vocabulary and grammar (shows you what you don’t know and encourages you to look it up)
• 能帮助你变得更流畅，（把你的语法、词汇、发音的知识，从「慢速记忆」移到「快速记忆」——不过，你首先得往慢速记忆输入东西。）
• 以外语交往令你兴奋，刺激你继续学习，
• 帮助你发现自己的词汇和语法上的缺陷（揭露你所不知道的地方，并鼓励你去查出来。）

你应做什麼What you should do

• If you don’t know how to begin your sentence, even after thinking for a while,
• If you stop in the middle of a sentence, and can’t continue because you don’t know a word,
• If you produce awkward-sounding sentences because you don’t know how to say something in a natural way,
• If you often make mistakes and are not aware of it,
• 如果你即使想了一会，还是不知道一句话要如何开始，
• 如果你在一句话中间停下来，因為不认识一个单词而无法接下去说，
• 如果你造出奇怪句子，因為不知道怎样自然地说出来，
• 如果你常常犯错而不自知，

you need more input, not more speaking practice. Such problems show that you simply don’t know how to say certain things in the language, and should look at how native speakers say them. More speaking will not improve your vocabulary and grammar; actually, it can make things worse. 你需要更多的输入，不是更多的说话练习。以上问题反映出有些话你根本不懂得用外语说，你应该观察母语者是怎样说的。说得多不会改进你的词汇和语法；实际上，可能导致反效果。

From the very beginning, you should spend all of your time on reading and listening (thus acquiring the necessary vocabulary and grammar) until you can write a few simple — but 100% correct — sentences in the language. For example, you can start by writing an e-mail message to someone who speaks the language. (It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to write that message. It may be two hours, if you have that kind of patience.) 你从最初起就应该把时间都花在读和听上（以便获得所需的词汇和语法），直至你能够用外语写一些简单——但100%正确——的句子。例如，开始时你可以写一封电邮给说那语言的人。（你用了多少时间去写并不要紧。你可能要用两小时，若你有此等耐性的话。）

At the same time, you should study the phonetics of the language, practice pronouncing its sounds, and learn the pronunciations of words. 同时，你应该学习那语言的语音，练习发出其声音，及学会词汇的唸法。

Then, you should continue getting input and writing until you can produce simple and correct sentences without consulting the dictionary or the Web. This is when you should start speaking — again, slowly and carefully. However, you should still spend most of your time on reading and listening, because input is the only way to develop your vocabulary and grammar. 然后，你应该继续获得输入并练习写作，直至你可以写出简单正确的句子，而不用参考词典或互联网。这正是你应该开始说话的时候——同样要缓慢小心地说。但是，你仍然应该把绝大部份时间用在读和听上，因為输入是唯一增进你的词汇和语法的方法。

外语课发生了什麼事What happens in language classes

Sadly, the importance of input has been greatly underestimated in the past years. The monopoly of the Communicative Approach in English language teaching means that students are expected to speak in class and write compositions almost from the first lesson, even though they have had almost no chance to absorb the grammar and vocabulary of English. A typical teacher demands output from his students, but does nothing to ensure they have had enough input. A few hours of English classes every week, where the teacher tries to speak as little as possible (to give his students the opportunity to speak), are not nearly enough.

令人不快的是，输入的重要在过去多年来被严重低估。沟通教学法独霸英语教育，因此差不多从第一堂起学生便被期望在课堂上说话和作文，即使他们几乎没机会吸收英语词汇和语法。典型的教师会要求学生输出，却不做任何事确保他们已有足够输入。英语课每周才数小时，课堂上教师又尽量少说话（给学生机会说话），这样连差点足够也算不上。