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

Re: Alternately vs. Alternatively

Cool Breeze — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:13:40 GMT

Mr Wordy
Different people have different opinions on this, so you pays your money and you takes your choice I guess. Here are a few (randomly Googled) definitions that agree with my position:

Yes, of course. I wasn't even saying you were wrong. I just found a definition in a dictionary that is fairly descriptive in its views and consequently it records actual usage, unlike prescriptive usage experts. Personally, I have no strong opinions either way. The fact remains, though, that 'alternate' is very often used to mean 'alternative'.

My liberal and descriptive attitude towards grammar and usage may have something to do with my studying the history of the English language. The only unchanging thing about it has been change. The grammar has changed, the vocabulary has changed, the pronunciation has changed and the meanings of words have changed - and will keep changing. Nice derives from Latin nescius, which means 'ignorant' but very few people object to its modern meanings even though every one of them was grossly incorrect when first used. Once a word has been used incorrectly for long enough by enough people, it becomes standard English.

People usually have nothing against changes that have happened before they were born but many object vehemently to changes that are taking place in their lifetime. That is human nature. It happens in all languages. It is a common belief that changes that are happening right now somehow seem to be spoiling the language.

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

Kooyeen — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:03:07 GMT

Just some quick comments:

1) It is obvious you can't tell which language is the most difficult to learn, because it's a subjective thing. "Difficult" means you are not able to do it well, but someone else might have no problems. Playing the guitar might be difficult for those who never learned how to use one, but it's pretty easy and enjoyable for many others. So I think I wouldn't have problems with Spanish grammar, since I'm Italian, but I doubt I would find Chinese ideograms quite easy.

2) Every language has some aspects you would find difficult, and others you would not find so difficult after all. All this is still very subjective. Some aspects you might want to consider are grammar, pronunciation, writing, speech registers, cultural aspects, regional aspects, etc.

3) The more a language it taught, the simpler it is to find what you need (more material = a better perspective and understanding). So English and Spanish, no matter how difficult and who finds them difficult, have a huge advantage: they are taught a lot. On the net you'll find an avalanche of websites to learn them, for free. Lots of teachers, lots of courses, lots of material. But now try to learn Finnish for example... how many forums to learn Finnish for free from volunteers are there online? As many as those for ESL? Hmm, no way. So less material --> higher probability of confusion and slower improvement.

4) What do you mean by learning a language? Learning the basic words? The basic grammar? Advanced vocabulary? Good style too? Perfect pronunciation? Learning about the major dialects too? And about the cultural aspects?
So the point is, at what level are you going to use a language you are learning? Maybe it's simple to learn how to say the most basic things ("hello, how are you?") in every language, but how about talking about eye surgery like a professor would? Attending a history lecture and understanding basically everything? You need "mastery" for that, and it's probably extremely hard to achieve for every language, no matter how subjective the difficulty might be.

Just my thoughts

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

Mister Micawber — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:22:11 GMT

.
Oh, I can always find something else (but I may have messed up your formatted columns):

Lesson Plan

Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb ( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? No, she didn't. )

Assumed knowledge: Past Simple (regular / irregular verbs, negative form)

Anticipated problems:

Students may use a past form of the main verb to make the question instead of using the base form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.(This is not true for the verb 'be' and sometimes the verb 'have'.)
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having students unscramble sentences

can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past, using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences. Four pictures of people doing things.

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scattergories (*spelling? I don't know this word) with pre-chosen* themes (food, things you do on the weekend, etc) Review homework from last class	TS ST	5 mins
2	Introduction : Have two students stand up for a moment to set the scene; elicit their names. Then they can sit down. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS SS	1 min
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer gist questions about it to check their understanding.	S ST	3 min
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST	1 min
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the main verb in questions, but always the base (or dictionary) form	TS	5 min
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST	2 min
7	Elicit: Draw students' attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + subject + did -- Yes, I did. No + subject + didn't -- No, I didn't.	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action on the board : - go to the restaurant / movies / market / bank / etc.) Â» Sandrine: Â« Did you go to the restaurant? Â« Didier: Â« Yes, I did. Â» etc.	ST SS	2 min 5 min
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure, so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW	5 min
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example, show a picture of two friends having a conversation; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? -- Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS	1 min 2 min
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS	1 min
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they themselves did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW	5 min
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. For example, use questions and answers in which the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back into the correct order.	S	5 min
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

mzl14000 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:57:02 GMT

Hello again,
Here is a cleaned-up version of my lesson plan. I'm an insecure wreck, therefore I dare ask for another look at my work...
Thanks again for the earlier help.
MZL

Lesson Plan
Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb

( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? )

Assumed Knowledge: Past Simple ( regular / irregular verbs ,negative form )

Anticipated Problems:

Students may use a past form of the verb to make the question instead

of using the Simple form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having them put scrambled sentences

in order can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences. Four pictures of people doing things.

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST	5 mins
2	Introduction : Have two students stand up for a moment to set the scene; elicit their names. Then they can sit down. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS SS	1 min
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer gist questions on it to check their understanding.	S ST	3 min
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST	1 min
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the base ( or dictionary ) form	TS	5 min
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST	2 min
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes, I did. No + Subject + didn't No, I didn't.	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action on the board : - go to the restaurant - go to the movies ) Â» - go to the market - go to the bank Sandrine: Â« Did you go to the restaurant? Â« Didier: Â« Yes, I did. Â» etc.	ST SS	2 min 5 min
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW	5 min
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example show a picture of two friends having a conversation ; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS	1 min 2 min
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS	1 min
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW	5 min
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S	5 min
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)	S	2 min

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

Mister Micawber — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:18:55 GMT

.
Overall, it should work fine, MZL. A few corrections and fewer comments:

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base (or 'dictionary') form of verb ( Did your mother call you? ) -- It is best to save the term 'infinitive' for that function.

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb ( What did you do last night? )

Anticipated Problems: Students may use statements without using the auxiliary verb.

E.g. You went out yesterday? -- This is a common question form in current English. It cannot be considered incorrect.

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warm up : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST
2	Introduction : Using a picture of two young women, elicit from students their names. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with) -- *This picture is a useless prop. Visual prompts, if used, should be rich in potential material.* *Have 2 students stand up for a moment to set the scene; then they can sit down.*	TS ST
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer specific gist questions on it to check their understanding.-- *There is no such thing as a 'specific gist' question. The two terms are antonymic. Questions are either for gist (a general impression) or for specific response.*	S ST
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the base (or dictionary) form.	TS
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes I did No + Subject + didn't No I didn't	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action the board : - go to the restaurant - go to the movies ) Â»	ST SS
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure, so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example, show a picture of two friends having a conversation; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS SS
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)	S

Simple Past Lesson Plan

mzl14000 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:40:33 GMT

Would anybody be kind enough to tell me what they think of this lesson plan I've made for my TEFL module ? Any suggestions ??
Thanks so much .

MZL

Lesson Plan
Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past simple question forms and shot answers.

Target Language: did + subject + infinitive form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + subect + did + subject + infinitive form of verb

( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? )

Assumed Knowledge: Past simple ( regular / irregular verbs ,negative form )

Anticipated Problems: Students may use statements without using the auxiliary verb.

E.g. You went out yesterday? Instead of, ( Did you go out yesterday? )

Students may use a past form of the verb to make the question instead

of using the Simple form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past simple.
Point out the verb tense in the quuestion form. Did + subject + infinitive of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having them put scrambled sentences

in order can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preperation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST
2	Introduction : Using a picture of two young women, elicit from students their names. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS ST
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer specific gist questions on it to check their understanding.	S ST
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + Infinitive Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the infinitive.	TS
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes I did No + Subject + didn't No I didn't	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question and answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action the board : - go to the resaurant - go to the movies ) Â»	ST SS
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure so it is important to correct any errors by refering to the structures on the board.	PW
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example show a picture of two friends having a conversation ; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture expamples as prompts.	TS SS TS
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS SS
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions ans give short answers.	PW
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affermative statements into questions and short answers)	S

Re: Teaching a 5 year old?

shine_core — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:43:31 GMT

Teaching a 5 year old kid English language has a positive and negative results. Positive because they can be easily corrected once they have an error in English pronunciation or understanding vocabulary, unlike adults who are stubborn in some ways. Negative too because once you as a parent or teacher who have no idea what startegy to use to teach, your in big trouble.

So...I suggest that you use colorful images, one with cartoons on it showing an action then explain it in English. Then use music and sing along with it together with an action, this could develop their listening ability too.Lastly try ESL for kids site http://www.mingoville.com this one is free I spent an hour exploring and indeed I think this might help worried parents and teachers.

Re: How to pronounce often?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:46:01 GMT

Dear Howard Leigh Ph.D., If we are going to get into silly mudslinging battles over the word "often" and claiming illigitimacy of posts due to lack of name, qualifications, and misspellings then I suggest that you start with the very word misspelling which contains two of the letter "s". That is, of course, unless you intended to say that the previous poster pelled something incorrectly, but unfortunately I am not the beholder of a Ph.D. and therefore pell as a verb is not in my vocabulary, nor is it in my trusty old Webster's. Again if we follow your rules that misspellings invalidate a post let us return again to your second sentence where you used the contraction for "You are" when I believe you meant to use the posessive form "your", unless you intended to write "yore" and refer to some other ancient post that you believe to be unreliable. Also I should further point out to you that when you spelled "hat" at the beginning of your last paragraph, your word choice does probably contain a "w" at the beginning to make the word "what." But alas, you have a Ph.D. (in some field that you did not mention - grounds for an unreliable post perhaps?) so you were surely aware of these slight misspellings before criticizing those of others. As for me, I happen to pronounce "often" without the "t" because that is how I learned it, but also to keep with pronunciation schemes words like soft - soften, haste - hasten, chaste - chasten, and also hustle, bustle etc. It does make me cringe a little inside when I hear "often" pronounced with the "t," but if, as several have suggested, this pronunciation has resurged as a result of better and broader education and literacy throughout the world, then I believe that coping with the occasional pronunciation with a "t" is something I dearsay I would be happy to accept as a consequence. I apologize for the somewhat pomptuous (yes, with a silent t - props to that comment by the way) nature of this post, but we all should know that advice we receive from the internet on forum websites should be taken with a grain of salt and misspellings and typos are a reality of the high speed electronic age. Cheers, Peter Broch (sans Ph.D.)

Re: The new EF is not as good as it was before, I feel

Pter — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:50:31 GMT

Yes, this also happens to me. I have been receiving notifications from Vocabulary and Idioms, Speech and Pronunciation, but never from General English Grammar.

Re: MM's 10-letter word

Mister Micawber — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:34:26 GMT

.
pejoration -- No. What happened to pluperfect?
Is it ... an adjective? a noun? a verb? -- A noun

Would you say it's related to ... grammar? vocabulary? pronunciation?-- Pronunciation.

I'm not going to be very coy with this one, because I don't think it's in anyone's active vocabulary. I just happened to think of it because it's related to Spoonerisms... and I had to look it up to check the spelling. It is a phenomenon which produced this mouldy old joke:

A Latino named Jose went to America to see the Yankees vs. the Red Socks. When he got his ticket, it was in the nosebleed section. He did not care what section he was in. Anyway, it was game day. Everyone stood for the National Anthem. When Jose got home, he said, "Mama, they made a song in America just for me." -- "How does it go, hijo?" -- "It goes, 'Jose, can you see?'