Good afternoon. Before I begin, I have some questions: how did our parents teach us to express "Mom" or "Dad"? Did they teach us to say it first or to write it first? As babies, how did we learn our native language?

     From my questions, I bet you've got some idea about my speech. Yes, it's language learning! I'd like you to imagine a baby, now. How does this baby learn his/her native language? Have you ever seen a parent teaching their baby how to read and write first? The answer is no. When we were babies, our parents talked to us first, in this way, signals were sent to our brains to tell us which referred to which, then we could imitate them. Remember the first time we called "Mommy" or "Daddy", after taught us how to say it many times? How surprised they were! But do you know there's something else more surprising, for children to learn a language, they always use a right method by obeying the rules of nature, they always learn language in reasonable ways.

    Buow, please think of us. Do we learn our second language in this way? No, we don't. Most of us learn it totally in up-side-down way. When we learn it we always learn reading and writing before we can actually listen and speak, that's ridiculous. You know, the purpose of creating language is to communicate. The easiest way to communicate is to listen and speak. If we can't do that, then what's the use of reading and writing. It never works well when we are talking with a foreigner. That's what we call a "mute language".

    According to scientific research about language learning, listening before speaking, reading, and writing is a logical way to learn. That's why my English is so excellent, especially my spoken English, because I spent much time on listening and speaking. I used a "childish way" to learn English and now I am still using it to learn a third language.

    If we had started to learn our second language in an effective way, I dare say that we can speak more fluently now. We use our feet to walk; we can never be up-side-down and use our heads to walk, because it is against our nature. It is the same with language learning. Nature tells us that we learn language by listening first and then by speaking, reading and writing. I'd like to persuade you that language learning should never be "up-side-down". It should obey nature. Always. Thank you!

作者：云大附中高二(2)班 马漫修