学习笔记《葛传槼：向英语学习者讲话》

学习笔记《葛传槼：向英语学习者讲话》（共1篇）

学习笔记《葛传槼：向英语学习者讲话》 篇1

关键词：Reading aloud;reading widely;reading carefully;imitating consciously;commit them to your memory.Above all, we should learn to be modest.葛先生的建议：要读英文，就读当代英文，而且要出声读，大声朗读可以避免尴尬，而且避免没有英语学习环境的困境。先生认为，凡我们想要表达的话，别人都已经说过，所以我们在写作时，首先要避免自己根据所谓的语法写，而要根据惯用法写。要写好，写对只有读得多，读得仔细，认真模仿才行。其次先生建议可以编写属于自己的字典。一类是词的用法的字典，便于充分认识单词，把原本是别的字典的词变为真正是自己的词，再者可以编写以主题分类的字典，编字典时不需要逐字逐句摘抄，可以以索引加提示的方式来编写。以下是我的摘抄，原文来自于《葛传槼---向学习英语者讲话》。

1.What to Read My advice to you is to change it for something else.Your chief reading matter must have been written far less than a hundred years ago, a few weeks ago if possible, must have been written in simple English, and must have been written by an Englishman or an American.Your chief reading matter need not be a literary masterpiece.Nor need it be written by a famous author.A volume of short pieces of narration or exposition is better than a novel or some long argumentative essays.You have a book or two for your chief reading matter.You should also read something else, which may be a little more difficult, but which still had better not be a classic of more than a hundred years ago.2.Reading Aloud Reading aloud helps you to learn by heart, and learning by heart is essential to all who aims at writing well.Reading aloud helps you to cultivate good pronunciation and good intonation, and good pronunciation and good intonation are essential to all language learners.Reading aloud helps you to discover certain beauties of language that you may fail to see in your silent reading.Unless you read aloud, you cannot lean to write naturally or to appreciate literature.3.Can You Read Englishmen’s English? I would advise you to read as much as possible in general English literature and to cultivate the habit of thinking in English.I would also advise you to read some concise history of England and commit to memory every bit of knowledge about English life and thought that you may find in reading or study.4.What kind of English? There are English English, American English, Scotch English, Irish English, and other kinds of English.I call it foolish of one to attempt the other English before one has acquired the ability to speak, read and write English as it is used by the average educated Englishman or American of today.One has yet much to learn before one can be properly called an advanced learner of English so long as one cannot read the news or cannot express oneself intelligibly to Englishmen or Americans in speaking and writing.By “English as it is used by the average educated Englishman or American”I mean everyday idiomatic English.It is practical, if that means actually used, but not if that means specially adapted to Chinese psychology The fact is, however, that one cannot master English---that is, what I call practical English---by reading about things Chinese only.I would advise those who are in the habit of confining themselves to Chinese news when reading newspapers in English, to give up the habit.5.The Question of Background It includes history, geography, mythology, the Bible, characters and facts in fiction, proverbs, customs, games, and sports, superstitions, and other things.And in order to understand fully the works of any author, one needs to possess as much knowledge of these things as he does.This is practically impossible with the average Chinese leaner of English.(but would you like to acquire such knowledge?)

6.Books on English and Books in English Language is not an exact science, nor a mere matter of principles, rules, exceptions, definitions, formulas, and diagrams.Books on English are helpful, but no one can master English by reading such books only.This is due to their ignorance of the fact that without wide and careful reading, the mastery of English is impossible.I would advise all learners of English to devote more time to reading books in English and less time to reading books on English.Well, if you happen to spend your days and nights on books on English, it is time you acted on my warning.7.An Easy Sentence to Study Why, after all, did the young man fail to understand the short sentence---They cannot see enough of each other? My answer is that it is because its way of expression does not have its corresponding way in our own language.There are many ways of expression in English that have no corresponding ways in Han.These are puzzling to most Chinese learners of English.In your reading you will do well to pay special attention to those ways of expression for which you do not find corresponding ways in Han.This will help you both in reading and writing.I am sorry to find that many Chinese learners do not realize the importance of doing this, with the result that while they can read English by Chinese authors and write long and tolerably grammatical essays, yet they may not be able to understand an Englishman’s social letter thoroughly or write a short paragraph in purely idiomatic English.8.What Does “Would of Come” Mean? You ought to learn to use English correctly.But you ought as well to learn to understand the incorrect expressions that are common among Englishmen or Americans.It is partly owing to their ignorance of such incorrect expressions that many Chinese leaners can parse and analyze well without being able to read a single page in an English-language magazine published in England or America.There are many mistakes that are common among Englishmen or Americans but from which we Chinese are absolutely free.As I have said, you ought to understand them, but you ought not to adopt them as ornaments of style.9.“More Presently”

Equipped with a good knowledge of grammar, Chinese learners of English are apt to think they are quite able to read general literature without much difficulty so long as they have a good dictionary within reach.What is more, they are too ready to dismiss as wrong any combination of words that does not seem to him to be capable of grammatical analysis.Important as grammar is, there are many turns of expression that are generally considered blameless English though they are not quite defensible from a narrowly grammatical point of view.So that the mastery of English grammar in its narrow sense does not enable one so much as to read English intelligently.When you come across in good writing any construction that you do not find grammatical, I would advise you to note it down instead of calling it a mistake, and to see if you will meet with a similar one in your reading.You will very soon, perhaps, and then you will most likely understand the construction.10.Double Negatives in Current English Double negatives always mean emphatic negation rather than assertion.What I wish to tell you is that this unreasonable fact is not peculiar to Elizabethan literature.It exists at present.I don’t want to you use this unreasonable construction(I want you to talk and write like an educated person).But I believe every learner of English should know it.There are several English usages that every learner of English should know, but which many, or even most, Chinese learns do now know, because these are not to be understood by means of mere logic and are not to be found in ordinary grammars.The double negative is one of them.11.About the Study of Grammar

The object of this article, however, is to advise you not to devote much time to the study of grammar.You study English in order to be able to make practical use of it.This object is not to be attained by mere study of grammar.I don’t even think I should now be able to write such simple English as that of this book if I had read nothing but grammars.Grammar tells you some general rules, some exceptions to rules, and perhaps some idioms.But the correct use of English is not a mere matter of such.English is not to be learnt from grammar but only from careful reading.Many Chinese students write sentences that might be justified by one grammatical rule or another but are certainly wrong.Grammar may help you to use English, but only to a certain extent.Do not look on the study of grammar as all or nearly all that you have to do in order to master English.Careful reading and constant practice are far more important.12.Knowing Just Enough Grammar to Go Wrong Students’ narrowly grammatical conscience, however, often causes them to change idiomatic English into unidiomatic English.There are several forms of expression that are purely idiomatic and do not admit of grammatical analysis.In your reading, reader, take care to note down those idiomatic constructions that you do not find grammatical enough.Commit them to memory and try to use them in your writing.You must not think, however, that idiom and grammar are always incompatible.What is idiomatic is far more often grammatical than ungrammatical.I mean simply that not every idiomatic construction is grammatically explainable, nor is every strictly grammatical construction idiomatic.13.The Language Is the Main Thing Of course, it is all right to read and enjoy and remember a story, and d so long as one wants to know the story only, one needs not bother about the language.But the case is quite different with a learner of English, I mean a student of English as distinguished from a student of stories or what is called the general reader.Whatever a learner of English reads, he should, in my opinion, regard the language as the main thing.In this way, he does learn some English though what he reads may happen to be otherwise uninteresting or uninstructive.It may safely be said that this is a far better way of learning English composition than to read and consider the so-called principles of the subject.Incidentally, I would advise teachers of English to question their pupils on points of diction and construction as well as facts and thoughts.14.Logic and Usage There are a number of other illogicalities in English that are quite idiomatic.As I have said, logic has time on its side.But how many years the English language will take to become a perfectly logical speech!

15.Something Unnatural Chinese learners of English often misunderstand or fail to understand a group of simple words put together in a simple way.My advice is to stop to think again when you find something unnatural in an expression.That something is perhaps not in the expression itself but in your interpretation of it

16.A Good Knowledge of Bad English Perhaps you think that bad English is not worth learning, and that the English of the average Chinese learner of the language is bad enough without his ever making any effort to learn to be bad.Bad English means bad grammar, bad spelling, bad usage, and bad pronunciation.All these things form an interesting and useful study.Without a good knowledge of these one will miss much in modern literature and will fail to understand any uneducated Englishman or American one has occasion to have anything to do with.17.Reading Dictionaries I am sure that reading dictionaries is, after all, not so foolish as you might think.I used many years ago to read through many articles on common words in the Concise Oxford Dictionary.Ifound that very helpful in the mastery of common words and phrases.Such common words and phrases can be very easily picked up by English-speaking boys and girls.But they are not likely to be acquired by Chinese students without any special effort in this respect.The reading of articles on common words in dictionaries is no doubt a great aid.18.Make your own Dictionary The chief reason is that being a conscientious learner of EnglishI am always careful to avoid slipshod or perfunctory work.I hope that the delay in publication will be compensated for by the richer and better contents of the book.I think that every learner could make his own dictionary of usage.He could keep a notebook in which to record, in alphabetical order, such points of usage as he might find of particular interest to him.Such a book would serve him as a constant companion to composition, though many things in it might seem quite dull or useless to others.I think that every learner could make his dictionary of usage as large as the sum total of the books he reads.I mean that he might make a usage index, so to speak, to those books.For a particular point he would have to record only the book, the page, and the line concerned.I wish I could find time to do this.And I believe that I could thus lay the foundation of a live and original dictionary---quite different from those based on nothing but one or more dictionaries.19.Make Another Dictionary of Your Own

I mean a dictionary in which a certain number of topics are arranged in alphabetical order and useful phrases and sentences about each topic are grouped together.This can be done by reading and making notes.It is not necessary to copy the phrases and sentences.It is enough to jot down the page number and line number, and give one or two words as a hint.In this way, any book may be turned into a topic dictionary by merely providing it with a topic index.And several such dictionaries may be turned into a fairly complete topic dictionary.20.More about What to Read Since it is with a view to learning composition that you read, and since it is in present-day English prose that you ought to learn to express yourself, what you read must be present-day English prose.Expressions in common use a hundred years ago may not be so at the present day.Likewise, expressions in common use in verse may not be so in prose.Since it is in StandardEnglish that you ought to learn to express yourself, what you read must not contain too much slang, whatever significance one may attach to the word.Since it is things in everyday life that you ought to learn to write about, what you read must not be of a technical character.What you read must be fairly easy for you;too much time and energy spent in reading between the lines and finding out all kinds of references and allusions would very likely distract your mind from your purpose, which is to learn English composition.21.Reading to Learn the Art of Expression As you are a learner of English, I think you should often read to learn the art of expression.And for this purpose you may read either a short story or a biographical sketch, either an essay or a news item, indeed, anything that is written in good current English.Even from a short paragraph you may learn several forms of expression if you are observant enough.In this way you will learn the art of expression very quickly;perhaps one or two paragraphs a day will teach you hundreds of forms of expression in a month, and these forms of expression will greatly improve your writing.If you can---I believe you can---commit to memory one or two paragraphs a day that you have already read in this way, the results will be still greater.22.Learning English Conversation by Imitation The other day I met a Chinese woman who spoke perfect English.She speaks it in the way she does, not because she thinks it is the right way but because she knows no other.She is free from, and probably ignorant of, the thousand and one mistakes peculiar to Chinese students of English.This woman learnt to speak English by imitating unconsciously.It is no doubt the best way.But not all Chinese learners have the change of learning in this way.Well, there is the second best way;I mean learning by imitatingconsciously.If there are people who spent years in England or America but who do not speak English correctly, it is because they did not do much conscious imitating when abroad.They have carried their mistakes over and then carried them back, though they ought to have left them there.I simply mean that by careful imitation one can very well learnt it---and that not only in countries where English is the mother language but also in some places in China.It needs to be generally realized among Chinese learners of English that good speaking leads to good writing and that language is essentially something spoken.23.Imitation, Good and Bad Too often a learner of English who has read one or two classics tries to imitate their style.The fact, however, is that style cannot be imitated.Different authors have different styles.They do not endeavor to write the way they write.So the imitation of any style often results in affectation.The result will be still worse if the style imitated is that of a work written a hundred years ago or more.We are of the eighties of the twentieth century, and we should not write the English of the eighties of the nineteenth century.I would advise you not to aim at a special style.Take care to write correct, simple, idiomatic, and clear English, that’s all.But imitation is not always bad.Very often it is important to imitate something.Where personal style is out of place, imitation is the only means by which correctness may be secured.24.Tongue and Pen In fact, language is essentially a spoken thing.To study Englishwithout trying to speak it is not advisable.And it is absurd to read a conversation book in just the same manner as to read a grammar.As ordinary written English is not quite different from ordinary spoken English, to learn to speak is a very good way to learn to write.One who speaks good English writes good English too.The pen cannot go wrong where the tongue goes right.Many everyday phrases and everyday constructions come natural to one who uses them in speaking.I think it would be very doo method of learning writing as well as learning speaking for a pupil to talk to his teacher in English about whatever subject the former is interested in and to have himself corrected whenever he makes a mistake.25.Simply Didn’t Know People don’t write well though having a good knowledge of grammar.One of your troubles, I think, is that you often cannot express what you want to say.You cannot, but when you have seen you meaning expressed by someone who can express it, you will most probably say to yourself “That seems easy enough.I simply didn’t know.”

You simply didn’t know.Just a few common words arranged in a simple grammatical order by someone who is at home in English.That expresses your meaning, and yet you simply didn’t know which common words to choose and how to arrange them.This is very common trouble with Chinese learners of English.It is due to the fact that they do not read widely enough, not carefully enough.There are thousands of useful expressions that are not generally considered idioms.They are so easy to understand that they are apt to be neglected.But those who neglect them will forget them, and fail to use them when they need them.You cannot learn to write with much freedom of expression till you have laid in a stock of useful phrases and sentences, and you cannot do it without reading widely and carefully.26.So Many Points Lapses in idiom always betray one’s unfamiliarity with correct English.It follows that the seemingly trifling points of usage are well worthy of the attention of all who wish to write English correctly.What I call points of usage, however, are not so formidable an enemy as they may seem to you.Close attention to them helps to conquer them.What English-speaking persons get from speaking you may get from reading aloud, which will help you in the same way as speaking would, though perhaps less quickly.There is an advantage in reading aloud over speaking in the fact that in reading good written English, you are not in danger of getting those common solecisms, barbarisms, and improprieties in the speech of persons of limited culture.27.How to Say it You did have something to say, but you did not know how to say it, hence the importance of studying composition.As matter of fact, many of the ideas and thoughts you often have occasion to express have already been expressed by others before you.Read any page in any book carefully, and you will perhaps find some expressions that will help you to say things.Many such expressions may seem to you to be too simple to deserve much attention, but the fact is that you cannot invent them, nor can you use them unless you noted them.The trouble with those people who, with a good knowledge of grammar, cannot even write tolerable English is that they may either not have read widely enough or not have read carefully enough or not have committed to memorize enough words, phrases and sentences that they may have found too easy to understand to be worth remembering.28.A “Foolish” Principle of Composition I discovered the principle myself, and I acted up to it as soon as I discovered it many years ago.I have found it so helpful that I believe you will do well to adopt it.The principle is that you should use no construction, no form of expression, and no combination of words that you have not seen in your reading.It seems to me that the average Chinese learner of English has a fair knowledge of grammar and a fairly large vocabulary and that when he writes English, he makes sentences according to his knowledge of grammar and his understanding of the meaning of words.The result is that his English often seems to be correct enough but is not really correct.For correct English is a matter of usage, not merely a matter of grammar and vocabulary.In composition correction I have often been asked why I had changed a certain word or construction to another.Well, I cannot always say why.I have substituted that word or construction simply because that is the word or construction that an Englishman would have used them.I regard the principle very helpful, and I hope that you will try to put it into practice.Shall I not find it practically impossible to write anything because I do not always remember whether I have ever seen a certain construction or form of expression or combination of words? Well, you should remember.You should read carefully.You should learn the art of expression from your reading.29.An Aid to Composition If you come across things that cannot simply be translated into readable Han, I would advise you not to try to translate them.Just commit them to memory.They will often come in useful when you write.They will help you to write more idiomatic English.Sometimes, Chinese learners tend to neglect some idiomatic usage of certain words because they do not usually use an English word in a sense that cannot be easily translated into Han such as “society” used in the sentence “The old man enjoys the society of young people”, meaning companionship.30.Some Mistakes to Consider I find that there are some mistakes in the use of many other common English words.I am of opinion that discussion of such mistakes ought to form a large part of every composition book specially intended for Chineselearners, and it is a matter of regret that many, many Chinese learners are studying rules and principles of grammar and rhetoric without caring a bit about such mistakes.31.Some More Mistakes to Consider Grammars mention the double object and give examples of it, but they do not tell you that only a few verbs can take the double object, nor do they mention any verbs with which this construction is impossible.To tell the truth, grammar does not help you much in writing.It tells you what is right, but it does not tell you much about what is wrong.When you have seen a certain construction in your grammar, you try to make use of it in your own writing.Possibly you have made no mistake, but it is also possible that you have made a mistake.32.Better Short than Long I full agree with the view that a sentence is not good or bad merely because it is long or short.Length is a false test of a sentence.It is wrong to think that a series of long sentences is a proof of one’s good command of English.It is equally wrong to think that simple and clear English requires every sentence to contain a certain number of words at most.While I would warn all learners of English composition against two mistakes, I think the mistake of writing long sentences is the commoner one.And learners ought to take more care to avoid it, not merely because in the hands of those who have not had much practice in the use of words and phrases and idiomatic constructions, long sentences are much harder to manage than short ones.It must not for a moment be supposed that an error in grammar or idiom embedded in a long sentence can easily escape detection.33.Something More Important than Enlarging One’s Vocabulary By knowing a word I mean knowing its true sense or senses instead of merely knowing one or more of what we call its Han equivalents.We are apt to neglect common words.Apart from the possibility of misuse and misunderstanding we are apt to neglect their various senses, or rather idiomatic uses.34.Make the Word Your Own A word is not your own until you can use it correctly.You may know one or more Han equivalents for a word and yet you may not be able to use it correctly.I am afraid that of all the English words that the average Chinese learner can translate into Han, less than half may really called his own.Remember that not every word that you think you understand well is really your own.35.A Warning Regarding the Use of Words When in writing, it can be commonly found that people would use destruct instead of destroy, and destroyal instead of destruction.I do not think that the users of these non-existing words did not know the correct words.They were careless enough, though.They just seize upon a combination of letters that looked like the word they wanted.It is true that these non-existing words may be understood by all who see them.But, of course, they cannot therefore justify themselves.I would therefore advise you to use no word that you are not sure you have seen used by standard authors, and to consult your dictionary in case of doubt.One word more of warning.It is possible that you sometimes use a word that is recorded in your dictionary, but which is not in common use, and which you use not because you are sure of its existence but simply because you think it is the word you want.For instance, because you know the noun “aggression” and the adjective “aggressive”, you may use the verb “aggress”---which, however, is a very uncommon word.36.The Word Sometimes I fail to get the exact word in spite of much thinking and weighing.In such cases I have to content myself with using the word that I regard as being nearest to the meaning I want to express.This is a common experience with writers of English, and is one they ought to feel sorry for.The study of synonyms is no doubt very helpful in the careful choice of words, which is essential to precision, one of the qualities of good writing.But there are two mistakes against which I think learners ought to be warned.One is that of trusting to the so-called Han equivalents as given in English-Han dictionaries.The other is that of studying the explanations in articles on synonyms but neglecting the illustrative examples.Correct English, however, is largely a matter of the use of common words, the correct use of which depends on not so much upon their “meanings” as upon what is known as usage.For native English writers, they use the word as a matter of habit rather than as a result of the careful choice of words.The study of synonyms is of no help in this matter.One can improve only by the careful reading of idiomatic English---which no amount of word study can supplant.37.What is “Literary English” Means? Literary English, if you please, does not mean English confined in its use to literature.It is not a distinctly elegant sort of English.It is just the ordinary English that well-educated Englishmen or Americans use in writing---not necessarily for literary purposes, but often for practical purpose.It does not follow that English used in conversation is necessarily too colloquial to be used in writing.The majority of the words and idioms used by well-educated English and American people in conversation are certainly literary English.