梅仁毅教授：英语阅读方法谈4

2. two types of reading

Now, that is the importance of reading. Then we are coming to the two types of reading: intensive reading and extensive reading.

2.1 intensive reading

Intensive reading, now, here you have an outline on this. It is typically Chinese, useful. Now what does that mean? It means that if you look up the word “intensive reading”, you won’t find it in any western university, they don’t have this course. They will have fresh man English, they will have intermediate English, or advanced English, but they don’t have intensive reading. They don’t have intensive reading. So that’s why I say, it’s typically Chinese, with Chinese characteristic. 有中国特色，right? Now, the thing is, it is useful. I can tell one thing that I met, a very responsible member in Japan, who is in charge of English teaching. They have a national association. I think he is the vice president of the association. He came to attend some of the classes at this university in English. And then he was very much impressed by the students’ English. And finally he came out with one remark. He said, in Japan, for a fourth year university student in English, in classroom, English is taught in Japanese, so their students could not open their mouths, could not talk in English, because everything is taught in Japanese. And, in a jokingly way, he said, maybe we would like to invite some of the Chinese teachers to go to teach in Japan to show how you can teach English in English. Now, that is one thing. So our way of teaching, in a sense, is effective. When.. when I went to the United States, at Yale University in 1983, well, everyone asked me, where did you learn your English, in the United States or in England? Well, my pronunciation, because of my professors, had a big influence of English English, English pronunciation. So they said, maybe you studied at Oxford or Cambridge? No. I said, I was China-produced. That was more or less the first time I went to the United States or went to any of the English-speaking countries. So it showed in one way, that China’s teaching of English, in a sense, is effective. And one of the things I feel, is intensive reading. Intensive reading. You conc…The teacher conc.. and the students concentrate on a short piece, in order to learn the basic skills of the language. Now the piece is used as an example to show you what are the things that you should pay attention to and you should study. I don’t mean to say that this intensive piece would be enough for the language material for you, I said earlier, that you need a lot of exposure. Now this little piece is not enough for exposure. The purpose is to tell you what are the things that you should pay attention to. It is a tool, once you have the tool, when you do other readings, you can use this tool to analyze other things. If, you ask me, you say, I memorized every piece in intensive reading, can I learn the language well? I would say, that would not be enough. It will be a good beginning, but it won’t be enough because, too limited exposure. Too limited exposure. You need to read more. Now, for example, any pattern, if you haven’t come across it, say, three to four times, you won’t be able to use it. You can’t say that “I come across it once and I will be able to use it.” That’s why for a time, some people ask me, “Could I just memorize the dictionary? Because once they read a piece about田中，田中首相，the Japanese Prime Minister, when he was in prison, he tried to memorize the dictionary, so when he could recite the words on one page, he tore it off, and then he memorized the second. So they want to follow that. Well, I said that that’s because he couldn’t get any other thing to read.