英语学习者的七个坏习惯 - 之三

竹声

  g. Z  J; p+ q2 T" O7 Habits – 3 Speaking Incomplete Sentences

3 |' Y( _+ l$ N& H+ ^8 }A while ago, I met a graduate student at the University of Alberta. She's been overseas for a couple years, but is still struggling with this language. She has tried several different techniques, such as speaking louder, raising her tone, or saying words really slowly, but none of these seems to help very much.  At the beginning, she was eager to take initiative to converse with her classmates; however, they often looked confused and didn't seem to know what she meant. Feeling extremely frustrated, she kept very quiet and only studied hard to pass the courses.
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One time, she had to talk with her instructor, but he couldn't understand what she was saying. The instructor was quite frank and said, "Jane, you need to speak complete sentences." Indeed, that was a very useful piece of advice for Jane, and also for many Chinese folks.

Although in conversation, we use less formal words and grammar, we still need to have complete sentence structures most of the time; that is, a sentence usually has a subject, a verb and an object (not always). It's okay to use fragments in speech occasionally, but the majority of our sentences should still be complete.

雲吞

That is so true! 很多时候，英语学习者发现本地人有的时候会在口语中省略一些成分，就盲目模仿，结果搞错了还不知道，达到了一种类似东施效颦的效果。

贝壳

试过几次把连接词简化或非强调词语轻音去说,但根本达不到本地人的效果,所以我想还是把一个句子说完整了好,虽然听起来有时候别扭,但至少能让人听懂.

竹声

说好完整的句子是让人听懂的第一步，至于，如何将句子说的更好听，则是下一步的问题。

suvescape

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8 J9 i5 |6 w2 o" ~- h3 _& J我觉得这个问题的表象是如那个instructor 说的“Jane, you need to speak complete sentences”；但是实质问题应该不是这个。

任何一个成年人，在传递信息的时候，大脑里头自我感觉表达的东西结束了，就自然的停止表达。如果觉得表达的东西没有结束，自然就继续表达。这个本质的问题是，在传递信息的时候，尤其在精神放松的时候，大脑想的还是汉语，自己都忘却了英语说道哪里了。大脑接受了汉语思考完毕的信息，口中的英文翻译也停止来了。

% l! r+ n  R/ a. K, d+ a这个时候，说者的大脑已经结束思考的过程，等待对方反馈；而自己却不知道嘴巴里头的英文还有一些词语没有说出来。说者自己都没有意识到一些词语没有说出来，他怎么克服这个问题？

9 F* A  C$ ~! ~6 W5 d& b8 n) O如何避免？其实就是一个熟练的过程。语言又不是解数学题目，说话熟练，减少思考时间，或象说母语一样，感受不到大脑思考的动作，就可以避免这个问题。
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/ @3 @6 B+ R2 Y( V1 `  L另：建议LZ应该举出实例。没有实例，很难让群众提高认识。

竹声

谢谢Suvescape 的评论。你对英语学习者存在的问题的理解很有深度！
应该举例，这一点我同意。最好，我得花点时间，去听听些对话，做些记录。

竹声

! j8 O8 [1 D: c& e9 l, c1 d4 qAs a follow-up of the previous discussions, the following is an illustration of how incomplete or broken sentences occur in some daily conversations.

Instructor: How're you Jane?
Jane: Good.
Instructor: Did you have any difficulties in completing your project?
) g3 M" I/ w' _- P, xJane: Could not find enough sources for the project.
: i  {2 `: ], O$ T6 S* p5 H5 jInstructor:  Did you seek help from a librarian?
' n$ H" K2 y2 l2 F9 u6 f7 ?8 zJane: I went to, and, first wanted to research on myself. But, haven't talked to yet.
3 B" _- \$ t) U! g3 C* I, wInstructor: Actually, they are a lot of different resources you can refer to, such as journals, books, and moreover, electronic database.
Jane: Should do next time.  Will go and find out.

雲吞

这个Jane的英语挺搞笑的，但起码还不至于引起歧义。还有更搞的，比如这个：
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我们team lead写email问另一个team的某中国人，有没有通知我修改设计的事情。结果该中国人给我们team lead写邮件说：“Have a meeting with 雲吞.  Have informed him."
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8 R) y4 v, a9 b8 A9 b9 ^1 p4 m6 T我们team lead晕了，见到我的时候，问我，“为什么弗兰克要求我跟你开个会呢？弗兰克也告诉你需要和我开个会？” 我一头雾水，直到team lead给我看了弗兰克的email，我才搞清楚。

我就不往下解释了，如果哪位没明白，竹老师负责解释。

suvescape

我看了上述竹老师和云吞的例子，我觉得这不是一句话没有说完的问题，而是该人没有造句能力的问题。该人可能只有一些组词能力，还无法行成句子。
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" I: r$ }- \7 b就像小孩子讲话，小孩子2－3岁的时候，往往是一两个词语出来，但是无法完整的说一个完整的句子。

这可以通过继续语言学习解决么。

竹声

我想，句子不完整的问题是可以通过训练解决的。在练习或平时讲话的时候，我们应注意句子成分，也就是除了特殊句型比如祈使句外，句子应该有主谓语，有时还有宾语。在说话时一旦发现缺少了这些必要成分，就要引起注意了。

雪上枫吹

linazhang

是不是将正确的和错误的对照，这样我们英语不好的才更能明白呀。

kitty2010

linazhang 发表于 2014-6-21 11:45
是不是将正确的和错误的对照，这样我们英语不好的才更能明白呀。

zzn0101469

雲吞 发表于 2014-6-13 13:27
9 d; G. _1 u2 e- J2 o这个Jane的英语挺搞笑的，但起码还不至于引起歧义。还有更搞的，比如这个：

我们team lead写email问另一 ...

我觉得这个地方引起歧义的主要是时态用得不对，如果原句换成 “Had a meeting with 云吞. have informed him”意思就清晰了