BBC英语｜How do you learn to speak a language?

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Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English– the show that brings you an interesting topic, authentic listening practice and vocabulary to help you improve your language skills. I’m Rob.

大家好，欢迎来到六分钟英语，节目将给你带来有趣的话题，地道的听力练习和词汇来帮助你提高语言技能。我是罗伯。

Watashi no namae wa Neil desu.And that means ’my name’s Neil’.

我的名字是尼尔。（日语）那是指我的名字是尼尔。

Ah, Neil, here’s a question for you.Can you speak any languages other than English of course? I think you can!

啊,尼尔，有一个问题要问你。你会说其它语言吗？当然除了英语。我想你会的！

Un poco de español. That means a little bit of Spanish. Some Japanese, which I tried at the beginning. And also a bit of Czech language - Dobrý den, jak se máš.

Un poco de español这句话是指一点儿西班牙语。还会一点我在开始时说的日语。还有一些捷克语——Dobrý den, jak se máš。

Very impressive. So what tips can you give for learning to speak another language?

印象深刻啊。所以对于学习另一种语言你有什么建议吗？

Well, practise, practise, practise.And don’t be afraid of making mistakes as I no doubt have.

好吧，练习，练习，再练习。而且不要怕出错，我对此深信不疑。

Of course. Well, my aim this year is to master the Spanish language. Master means to learn thoroughly.

当然。好吧，今年我的目标是掌握西班牙语。Master指的是完全学会。

Muy bien! Well, you’re not alone. A survey by the British Council found learning a language is a new year’s resolution for about one in five Britons in 2018. So learning Spanish is a good start, Rob.But do you know approximately how many languages there are in the world altogether? Are there…a) 70 b) 700 or c) 7,000 ?

很好！（西班牙语）你不是一个人。英国文化委员会的一项调查发现，大约有五分之一的英国人决心在2018年新的一年学会一种外语。所以学习西班牙语是一个好的开始，罗伯。但是你知道世界上总共大概有多少种语言吗？有a) 70种 b) 700种 还是 c) 7,000种？

Well, I know there are many, but surely not 7,000. So I’m going to say b) 700.But don’t expect me to learn all of them.

好吧，我知道有很多种语言，但绝对不是7000种。所以我选b)700种。但是不要指望我全都学。

I won’t, Rob. But I will give you the answer later. So, we all know learning another language is a good thing.It brings us many benefits.

我不会的，罗伯。但是稍后告诉你答案。所以，我们都知道学习另一种语言是一件好事。它给我们带来许多益处。

Yes, we can communicate with people from other countries.And when we’re travelling, we can understand what signs and notices say. So we don’t get lost.

是的，我们可以和来自其他国家的人交流。并且当出行时，我们可以理解路标和通知上的内容。所以我们不会迷路。

That’s right.But many scientists also believe that knowledge of another language can boost your brainpower. A study of monolingual and bilingual speakers suggests speaking two languages can help slow down the brain’s decline with age.

对的。但一些科学家同样相信另一种语言可以提高你的智力。一项对单语者和双语者的研究表明，说两种语言的人可以减缓大脑随年龄的衰退。

All good reasons. But Neil, learning another language is hard.It would take me years and years to become fluent in say Mandarin.By fluent, I mean speak very well, without difficulty.

都是很好的理由。但是尼尔，学另一种语言是很困难的。流利地说普通话需要花费我很多年的时间。流利，我指的是说得非常好，没有困难。

Well, this depends on your mother tongue. In general, the closer the second language is to the learner’s native tongue and culture in terms of vocabulary, sounds or sentence structure,the easier it will be to learn.

好吧，这取决于人们的母语。通常来说，第二外语与你的本土语和当地文化在词汇，发音或者句子结构上越接近，越容易学会。

But whatever the language, there is so much vocabulary to learn.You know, thousands and thousands of words.

但是无论是何种语言，都有如此多的词汇要学习。你知道的，成千上万的单词。

Maybe not, Rob. Professor Stuart Webb, a linguist from the University of Western Ontario, may be able to help you. He spoke to BBC Radio 4’s More or Less programme and explained that you don’t need to do that.

或许不是，罗伯。西安大略大学的语言学家斯图尔特•韦伯或许能帮到你。他做客BBC广播公司4频道的More or Less节目，并解释你不必学那么多单词。

For language learners in a foreign language setting, so for example if you were learning French in Britain or English in Japan,students may often really struggle to learn more than 2,000, 3,000 words after many years of study. So for example, there was study in Taiwan recently that showed that after nine years of study about half of the students had still failed to learn the most frequent 1,000 words. Now they knew lower frequency words.But they hadn’t mastered those most important words.

对于在外语环境下的语言学习者来说，举例说就是你在英国学习法语或者日本学习英语，学习多年，人们学会的单词真的很难超过两三千。例如，台湾最近的一项研究表明，学习了九年之后，大约一半的学生仍很难记住使用频率最高的1000个单词。现在他们知道使用频率较低的单词。但他们却没有掌握那些最重要的单词。

So Rob, don’t waste your time trying to learn every single word. Professor Webb spoke there about research that showed students knew lower frequency words but weren’t learning enough high frequency words.

所以罗伯，不要浪费时间学每个单词。韦伯教授在节目提到的研究显示，学生知道使用频率较低的单词，却没有学会足够多的高频词汇。

Right, and frequency here means the number of times something happens.So the important words to learn are the high frequency ones.And how many are there exactly?

对的，在这里频率指的是某事出现的次数。所以需要学习的重要单词是那些高频词汇。实际上有多少高频词汇呢？

Here’s Professor Stuart Webb again.

这就是斯图尔特•韦伯教授接下来要说的。

For example, with English, I would suggest if you learn the 800 most frequent lemmas, which is a word and its inflections, that will account for about 75 percent of all of the English language. So that learning those 800 words first will provide the foundation for which you may be able to learn the lower frequency words.

以英语为例，我会建议如果你学习使用最频繁的800个词目，那指的是一个词及其词形变化，那你将会掌握英语中大约75%的单词。所以说先学习那800个使用频率最高的单词，那将为你学习使用频率较低的词汇打下基础。

Fascinating stuff. And good to know I just need to learn about 800 words or what he calls lemmas.

有意思。很高兴知道我只需要学会800个词，或者是他称作词目的东西。

Yes, a lemma is the simplest form or base form of a word. And the inflection here refers to how the base word is changed according to its use in a sentence. Knowing these things give you a foundation. That’s the basics from which you language learning will develop. Simple.

是的，词目是一个词的最简形式或者原形。词形变化在这里是指根据原词在句子里的作用所发生的变化。知道这些你就有了基础，有了这些基础，你的语言学习将会更上一层楼。真简单。

Thank, goodness.I am learning just one new language!

感谢，真不错。我要去学习一种新的语言了。

But how many languages could you potentially be learning Rob? Earlier I asked you, approximately how many languages there are in the world altogether? Are there…a) 70 b) 700 or c) 7,000 ?

但是你可以学习的语言有多少呢？早些时候我问你，世界上总共大概有多少种语言？有a) 70种 b) 700种 还是 c) 7,000种？

And I said 700. Was I right?

我说是700种。我答对了吗？

No, Rob, you were wrong. There are around 7,000 recognised languages in the world But UNESCO has identified 2,500 languages, which it claims are at risk of extinction.

不，罗伯，你错了。世界上大约有7000种认可的语言。联合国教科文组织表明其中有2500种有消失的危险。

A sobering thought Neil. Now shall we remind ourselves of some of the English vocabulary we’ve heard today. Starting with master.

引人深思，尼尔。现在让我们提醒自己今天所听到的一些英语词汇。从master开始。

To master a new skill, in this context, means to learn thoroughly or learn well."Rob hopes to master Spanish before he starts a new job in Madrid."

在这个语境下，掌握一门技能指的是完全学会或者学好。罗伯希望自己在开始马德里的新工作之前可以掌握西班牙语。

Really? That’s news to me, Neil! But it would be good to be fluent in Spanish or any language or to speak it fluently.That’s speaking it well and without difficulty.

真的吗？那对我来说是大消息了，尼尔！但是西班牙语或其它语言流利，或是流利地说西班牙或其它语言，都挺不错。那是指说得很好，没有任何困难。

Now our next word was frequency. Here we are referring to high and low frequency words.So it means how often they occur. Examples of a high frequency word are ’it’, ’the’ and ’and’.

下一个单词是frequency。在这里我们提及的是高频词汇和低频词汇。那是指它们出现的频率。高频词汇的例子有“它”，定冠词"the"，还有“和”。

And our next word is inflections. These are the changes to the basic form of words according to their function in a sentence. Such as adding an ’s’ to the end of a word to make it plural.

下一个单词是inflections。那是单词原形指根据单词在句子中的作用所发生的词形变化。例如在词的末尾加"s"变复数。

And don’t forget lemma, which is the simplest form or base form of a word before an inflection is added.

不要忘记lemma这个词，那是单词没有发生词形变化前的最简形式或原形。

And finally foundation, which means the basics your learning grows from.

最后是foundation，指的是你学识增长的基础。

That just leaves me to remind you that you can learn English with us at bbclearningenglish.com. That’s it for today’s 6 Minute English. We hope you enjoyed it. Bye for now. Na shledanou. Hasta luego. Ja-ne.

我还要提醒你，你可以和我们一起在bbclearningenglish.com网站学习英语。以上就是今天的六分钟英语。希望你学得愉快。现在再见。再见。（捷克语）再见。（西班牙语)再见。（日语）

And in English, goodbye.

用英语说，就是goodbye。

Goodbye.

再见。

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