Search results for 'tag:Pronunciation tag:Grammar' matching tags 'Pronunciation' and 'Grammar'

One to one lesson ideas

Emmeladelyn — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:59:15 GMT

Hi everyone.
I'm looking for inspiration here.
I have a one to one student who basically only wants to do conversation (and isn't at all interested in written exercises, pronunciation or other classic exercises.) This wouldn't be much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that I have the impression that they don't want to talk about themself or disclose their opinions to any great extent, and they seem to find imaginary situations difficult/ridiculous. Can you see my difficulty?

I tend to work on vocab and to prepare as many questions and debates on a subject as possible, and to fit in grammar work through imaginary situations and role plays (although this sometimes yields nothing at all) and I do a lot of reading and listening work on texts that will challenge the student somewhat. I'm running a little dry on ideas and wondered if anyone had some useful suggestions.

thanks in advance.

English Teacher Online

Edison1610 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:11:19 GMT

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/siu82english/

This is a blog of an English Teacher who read the law in the university. He pointed out a lot of English pronunciation and grammar problems through his blog.

Re: Which language is most difficult language for people to learn?

A Cornish Pasty — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:34:29 GMT

Cool Breeze

"Zowel de grammatica als de uitspraak van de woorden is totaal anders dan Engels."
I think it means: Both the grammar and the pronunciation of words are completely different from English. I may be wrong, but if I'm right it is possible to understand some Dutch without studying it. The writer of the sentence is of course wrong; there are many similarities between English and Dutch.

Yes that's right!

Mandarin and Cantonese are vastly different from English but so far I have found them quite easy as well. I guess it depends on how many languages you have learnt, as each new language gets easier and easier.

My first foreign language was French which took ages. I picked up the same level of Dutch in less than half the time, and now I've moved on to Mandarin and Cantonese I think my brain is so used to absorbing new ways of constructing sentences and expressing ideas that it is willing to just accept and learn the new languages a lot easier than if they were the first foreign languages I was learning.

Cool Breeze
I'll translate the sentence into Finnish for anyone who wants to look for similarities between Finnish and Dutch or English:
"SekÃ¤ kielioppi ettÃ¤ sanojen Ã¤Ã¤ntÃ¤minen ovat tÃ¤ysin erilaiset kuin englannissa."
CB

All I get from that is kieli = language and englannissa = english I have looked into Finnish a bit but quickly got discouraged after finding out about all the cases!

Re: Which language is most difficult language for people to learn?

Cool Breeze — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:39:03 GMT

A Cornish Pasty
Strangely enough, I have found learning Dutch to be quite easy.

Nothing strange about it, CP! Dutch and English are very closely related. Dutch would be more difficult for people from, say, the Far East. I have never studied Dutch. This sentence is from the post to which you replied:

"Zowel de grammatica als de uitspraak van de woorden is totaal anders dan Engels."

I think it means: Both the grammar and the pronunciation of words are completely different from English. I may be wrong, but if I'm right it is possible to understand some Dutch without studying it. The writer of the sentence is of course wrong; there are many similarities between English and Dutch. I'll translate the sentence into Finnish for anyone who wants to look for similarities between Finnish and Dutch or English:

"SekÃ¤ kielioppi ettÃ¤ sanojen Ã¤Ã¤ntÃ¤minen ovat tÃ¤ysin erilaiset kuin englannissa."

Looking for some tips and/or curriculum suggestions

mikesusangray — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:50:11 GMT

Hi all!

I've been giving English conversation lessons to a theology professor for about a year now. He's getting on in the years - a couple years from retirement - and his primary goal has been just to get his spoken English going a little stronger. His mother tongue is French but he's been teaching at a German language university for many years.

I'd like to add some more specific inputs to our lessons but I can't seem to find the right material. His passive skills are excellent - he reads widely and with perfect comprehension in his field - and he can communicate quite understandably. He is a linguistics specialist and can grasp any concept about the language immediately. I brought along Cambridge Advanced Grammar in Use and he could plow through a chapter in five minutes with perfect conceptual comprehension.

However, he also continues to make very simple errors - for example, he has trouble choosing between present simple and continuous or often uses the present tense for past events. Sentence order tends to get wander hither and yon while definite and indefinite articles come and go with the tide. (Prepositions are a problem too, but I won't beat him to hard there - prepositions are difficult in any new language.) In many cases his mistakes are typical of French or German speech patterns.

One other limitation is that he enjoys the weekly lessons (a good hour), but doesn't have much time to study in between.

Right now we spend about 15 minutes reading a chapter from Advanced Grammar in Use and about 45 minutes talking about just about anything under the sun, while I take notes and show him problems under the categories Pronunciation/Articles & Prespositions/Word Order/Other Grammar/Vocabulary/Idioms. However, I don't think the work book is a good choice - particularly since he doesn't do the homework - and it seems like he isn't making very good progress with his typical problem patterns - though he greets them like old friends when I point them out.

Any tips here?

Re: How can I pass TOEFL test???

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:22:28 GMT

The TOEFL has four sections: reading, speaking, listening, writing.

The best advice: study grammar! It's true that there is no grammar section, but the TOEFL tests your grammar in other ways. For example, if you don't understand the grammar in the listening or reading, you won't be able to answer the questions correctly. This really is a tricky test!

For the speaking, I recommend focusing on pronunciation, intonation, rhythm, and stress. The key is how well you are understood, not necessarily how well you speak.

For the writing, focus on essay structure and find a native speaker to correct your essays. Also, time yourself when you write an essay Here's a good website for practicing: http://www.cz-training.com/toefl/practice.html

For reading, don't just read a lot of books and newspapers in English. Always have a dictionary by your side so you can look up every word you don't completely understand. Take notes, and pay attention to the grammar. Just sitting and reading the newspaper for fun is next to useless.

For listening, find a transcript for a TV show you like. (You can get some here: http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/) Then watch the TV show with the transcript. Make notes and pay attention to how words are linked together in English. Again, if you sit down, turn off you brain, and watch TV or listen to the radio, it's almost useless.

Hope this helps!

Looking for profession English teacher to teach me via Skype

ernest1a — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:50:33 GMT

I am looking for English teacher who would teach me English via Skype tool. I need to improve my pronunciation, also we would check sometimes my business e-mails if they are wrote OK and to learn from my own mistakes, depend of my weak points we would also learn some extra grammar. For more details including payment we can discuss via PM.

Please send me a private message.

Thanks
Ernest

Looking for english teacher - teaching by Skype

ernest1a — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:47:07 GMT

I am not sure if I am posting that in right section and if I am allowed. If not delete that post please.

Anyway I am looking for English teacher who would teach me English via Skype tool. I need to improve my pronunciation, also we would check sometimes my business e-mails if they are wrote OK and to learn from my own mistakes, depend of my weak points we would also learn some extra grammar. For more details including payment we can discuss via PM.

Please send me a private message.

Thanks
Ernest

Re: HELP WITH PROPER GRAMMER PLEASE.

Yoong Liat — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:54:45 GMT

A lot of posters spell 'grammar' as 'grammer. I think the reason is 'mer' sounds correct, whereas 'mar' is closer in pronunciation to the 'ma; in 'grandma'.

Re: Some grammar questions

dionusos — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:14:37 GMT

CalifJim
dionusos

Would you say "the party would" or "the law would incriminate people who blah blah blah"

instead of "the party will" or "the law will"?

You can use either one. If it is enacted, the law will ... vs. If it were enacted, the law would ... The first shows more certainty that the law might
really be enacted.

That's what I suspected.

dionusos
I notice "which is" is occasionally omitted in writing.
It's called Whiz-Deletion. It's the deletion of a relative pronoun like which or who followed by a form of the verb to be, for example is. If you take the wh of which and the pronunciation of is (iz) you get "whiz". Whiz-Deletion is optional.

The person who is sitting in the corner is Dan. = The person sitting in the corner is Dan.

Is this also a matter of choice?

dionusos

When do you say "said that" or merely "said" when using attribution at the beginning of a sentence?

that is optional. Say it or don't say it. It's your choice.

I remember someone snapped at me online a while back about failing to use 'that' or using it incorrectly after the 'said' part. The person sounded rather rude, so I didn't bother asking her to elaborate on why it's apt or inapt to use it. Are you sure it's optional?

dionusos
Federal authorities said Tuesday that they "had" cracked ...
This is reporting the actual words they said: "We have cracked ...". In reporting "have" + past participle, use "had" + past participle.

"I have seen that movie three times."

I said that I had seen that movie three times.

CJ

Outside of paraphrasing a quote, would it be correct to simply rewrite those two lines: "I saw that movie three times" and "I said that I saw that movie three times"? It seems that using "have" or "had" with the past participle would only be preferred if it were used in a sentence describing action that had occurred regularly and was completed (had) or is still ongoing "have."