Dec 4, 2009

Use TV as an English learning tool

Early English learning through TV entertainment can also help ease the worsening social gap stemming from English competence.

A 13-year-old Korean girl recently made news for getting a perfect score on the Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language. Reports headlined the fact that Kim Hyun-soo, a seventh grader at Daewon International Middle School, studied English at home and has never been to English-teaching institutes. Her case is mystifying to other students who spend long hours in English institutes almost daily, wrangling with what often seems to be an inaccessible language. Sure, she probably has a natural talent for languages. But that alone cannot explain her mastery of English. She says she had easy access to English for years. She read English books and watched Disney movies. She had been fortunate to converse with her mother in English at home. Such a casual accessibility to English augmented her natural gift. Linguists agree language is best learned at an early age


http://joongangdail y.joins.com/ article/view. asp?aid=2913104