literacy narrative

Yu Qiao

English 116

July 13 , 2009

Literacy Narrative

In China , most people do not speak the English language . They use the official language , which is Chinese . While I was growing up , I envied those who could speak the English language . Although I learned the English alphabet in high school , I still could not properly communicate with people in English . I had been studying the English language for six months when I graduated from high school and I was fortunate to have the opportunity to study abroad . As an Asian

living in a country that does not speak the English language , learning was really difficult . There are numerous reasons for this difficulty and the number one would be the big cultural gap between China and the United States . Furthermore , the grammar , the shape of fonts , and the rules are completely different . To prepare , I studied the International English Language Testing System (IELTS ) in my home country . This is similar to the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) but , personally , the effect was not the same . I then arrived in the United States where I felt that knowledge of the English language was important for learning and communicating

I studied reading , writing , speaking and listening in the English language in my home country . I thought that this was enough . However when I came to the United States , I found that my English was far from enough to communicate with people in an effective manner . This was evident when I...