To the freshmen, Mid-Autumn Day is the first festival they have after leaving their home and entering Zhejiang University. On this special day, SIS gave the students an entirely new present�a lecture on “Strengthen Basic Skills and Broaden the Range of Knowledge” given by Prof. He LianZhen, Vice Dean of SIS.
Before the lecture started, Room 201 of Eastern Building 5 had been packed to capacity with students eager for knowledge. After a brief self-introduction, Prof. He began the lecture with a vivid metaphor of “a carp jumping over the Dragon Gate” once made by Mr. Ji XianLin, so as to show that learning foreign language calls for perseverance, persistence and punctilious efforts. Then , she expounded the only way to learn language foreign well�master basic skills�in four aspects: the development of language (knowledge�skill�ability), the skill of language (receptive skill and productive skill), the knowledge of language (pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary), and social competence. She emphasized pronunciation in particular, because it’s the first barrier for language learners. She said that only if one established a firm basis of pronunciation could he construct a high building of language learning.
After that, Prof. He put forward another way to learning foreign language well�broaden the range of knowledge. She deemed that the sentence “a jack of all trades and caster of none” shows essential qualities of a language learner, that means a wide range of knowledge on language, literature, culture, geography and so on, for erudition can benefit us from mastering the foreign language through comprehensive study and gaining advantages from both sides while using it. By sharing with the students her personal experience, Prof. He reminded them that they should not be a stiff, but must improve their flexibility to rise to the occasion. At last, she further pointed out that students must properly handle several relations in foreign language learning, such as relation between knowledge and skill, and that between accuracy and fluency. Besides, she also meticulously answered the question asked by a minority language major on how to balance English learning and minority language learning.
The two-hour lecture seemed so short to the audience. Students all said that Prof. He had given them an impressive lecture to clarify the importance of foreign language learning, and introduce some advanced ways of foreign language learning. In a word,this lecture was very helpful to the freshmen, and it even pointed the direction for their future study.
