本文的主角是一位“土著”香港人，他从小在香港教育模式下学习英语，也经历了香港回归以来的“两文三语”潮（两文：中文、英文，三语：粤语、英语和普通话）。在多语言环境下，他的英语学习有哪些优势和难处呢？撇开教育模式和社会环境，我们的学习目标是一致的。细细品读，你一定可以发现值得借鉴之处~

香港语言环境：两文三语

I am a native Cantonese speaker. Cantonese is the language commonly used in my speech community, so it is the only language I use in my daily lives. Besides Cantonese, I can speak two other languages, namely English and Mandarin.

While English is the second language I learned at the age of 3, my first exposure to Mandarin did not start until primary 4. Mandarin is seldom used in Hong Kong, which deters me from practicing this language in almost the whole course of my life. My Mandarin proficiency is fair if I have to judge.

学校英语授课 口语写作棒

With regard to the use of English, I would say I am pretty proficient in terms of spoken and written forms. Though it is not the language we use in daily conversations, it is the medium of instruction in traditional schooling. At secondary school and university, teachers and students communicate with each other mainly in English. Therefore, in this particular setting, I use English most of the time.

在香港 不会英语的人伤不起

In Hong Kong, there is no way in escaping this language because it is a tool for studies and work. For example, as mentioned, English is the medium of instruction at schools. Students are forced to initiate discussions, respond to teachers and complete assignments in English. In the workplace, business letters, minutes and agendas are all written in English. Thus, it is hard to survive without this language in our community. This is the reason why I have to learn this language.

日常生活用粤语 想学地道英语难

However, it took me a very long time to learn English well because there were a lot of hardships in the process of learning. The first one was related to the learning environment. Despite its frequent use in the school campus, nobody was using it in daily lives. I could only learn and practice English in a formal classroom setting and under formal instructions given by teachers. The frequency of input was lower when compared with that of Cantonese input. To a large extent, Hong Kong lacked a natural English language learning environment. I could not be truly immersed in this language. Therefore, up till now, my English use is still limited to certain domains only. This makes me difficult to attain native-like proficiency.

粤语负迁移 时态、拼写是难题

Besides, English and Chinese differ greatly in terms of phonology, vocabulary and grammar. This difference often results in interference. For example, when I was young, the existential construction, i.e. there-be structure, was hard to acquire; the use of tense marking and the spelling system once posed a tremendous burden to me; certain sounds like consonant clusters were almost impossible for me to pronounce (because we do not have these features in Cantonese). These difficult aspects of English lie mainly in the different characteristics between Cantonese and English.

学不会怎么办 老师有“绝招”

To tackle this problem, constant drillings were commonly adopted at secondary school. We were given exercises on different grammatical items so that we could memorize the concepts easily. I still remembered that each academic term, I was instructed to buy at least five exercise books, which basically contained similar grammar questions. To a certain extent, I simply regurgitated every concept I learnt when doing assignments and exams. This was what I hated the most.

批评反馈虽伤人 改进有方向
Instead of receiving repeated drills, I believe that corrective feedback is more important to me. Some people may think that such feedback is discouraging and drives learners away. However, without correction, I would never be able to discover my weaknesses and address the problems as soon as possible. Therefore, since I was in senior secondary school, I started to take the initiative to request comments from teachers in every piece of my assignment.

习惯港式英语 地道英语听不懂

Another challenging aspect was listening comprehension. This problem was brought about by the differences in accents. During my early secondary school life, I could follow pretty well in most of the classes, except for the English one. This problem once puzzled me a lot because if my listening ability was mediocre, I could not have been able to understand other teachers’ English either. Not until 2 months later did I start to realize that my English teacher’s Australian accent was the culprit. The same situation happened when I watched American television drama series. I was so used to the spoken English with Hong Kong accent that I found other varieties of English weird.

痴迷英语电影 语言学习有动力

In spite of the difficulties, I was still interested in learning English. It was not the language itself which appealed to me; instead, I was influenced by the Western culture. In the past, I was deeply fascinated by Western movies, ranging from fantasy works like the Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter series, to science fictions like Matrix and Stars Wars. Besides being a form of entertainment, watching western films stimulated my interest in English. It was probably the only informal context where I learnt English. For me, being able to apply English to my pastime activities was an easy aspect of learning English.

错失国外学习机会遗憾多

One thing that I regret doing was that I missed the chance of studying abroad. I think there would be at least two advantages if I could do so. First, my English use is still limited. Only by immersion in the English environment can I use the language in broader domains. If I had been in an English-speaking country, I would have had more opportunities in using the language not only in formal contexts, but also in my daily lives. Second, I would get to know more about foreign cultures. In the past, my motivation for learning English was that English was a tool for me to climb up the social ladder. But now, I understand that English can provide a window on western cultures as well. It could be more fun to use English in an English-speaking country.

语言学习路漫漫 吾将上下而求索

Learning a second language seems to be lengthy task with a lot of pitfalls. However, in my opinion, with proper instruction, correction, and immersion experience, second language acquisition will still be successful.