We often hear people day “practice makes perfect”. In my opinion, this sentence is correct on one condition that the correct and effective methods are applied to practice. There are a variety of practicing methods aiming at different language points. Therefore, how to choose a proper method becomes one of the top concerns when practicing. In order to improve the language skill of those students who attend to volunteer programs in China, two effective methods will be explained in the following parts, namely, role playing and imitating expression.

The role playing is easy to process because teachers can just ask the students to play the roles in the dialogues and then perform on the platform. The dialogues should include some main language points will be learned in the lesson. Through the role playing, the students will be more familiar with the contents and then master the points. In addition, it has great help in activating the class atmosphere and presenting the context in the lesson, thus helping the students understand the contents more accurately.

Some Chinese teachers strongly demand the students to recite the texts because they believe reciting is an important approach of learning foreign languages, or even the most fundamental process. However, the students may think it is boring to just recite the texts simply. For the western students who attend to summer program in China do not like reciting the texts at all. In this case, teachers should take some strategies. To a certain degree, the method of role playing will promote the students to recite the texts unconsciously.

For the method of imitating expression, teachers should process certain activities related to the topic on the basis of learning the grammar points and vocabulary in the texts. For example, teachers can give a long passage contains many sentences with model complements and the students are supposed to imitate this passage and practice the expression ability. There are many practicing methods, some of which are mechanical while some are flexible. But both types are needed because the former one is the basis and then gradually transit it to the flexible exercises.

The so-called flexible practice is that combines the real context which is called the communicative exercise. The final purpose of grammar teaching is to put it into application. It would be teaching of failure if the students can only perform well in examination by remembering the grammar rules. The method of expressing after imitating is a good way to practice application ability.