@toggleswitch
"ENGLISH IS NOT A PHONETIC LANGUAGE"
That's the very first thing I've heard in ESL class when I was a child.
And nowadays, i use to say it to all of my ESL students (I'm a part-time intro level ESL teacher, just in case you don't know)
Thanks to Mr. Jack C. Richards - writer of Cambridge's Interchange Third Edition - Teaching ESL is thousands of times easier nowadays.
Luckily, for people who have Portuguese as first language things are much easier because of the similar vocal tensions, for example statement "Mary has a little lamb" "Mary has" is pronounced louder than the end of the sentence because it's a statement and in a question "Does Mary has a lamb?" "a lamb" will be louder.
For a Chinese or a Turkish or a Japanese, things are much worse. They have to relearn absolutelly everything, including these statement/question intonation.
Other lovely things in English are the rules x exceptions. Believe it or not, English can be considered a "simple" language. It's simple because it doesn't have too many exceptions for the rules and there are also lots of "free" optionals.
The tenses are simple. There are only three basic tenses: Simple past, present and future. Plus the secondary tenses (Present continuous, present perfect continuous, past participle, etc) Knowing at least those three basic tenses (even with some mistakes) a speaker can make himself/herself understandable.
If I say "I didn't went home last night" the statement is obviously wrong, but everybody can understand the speaker tried to say "I didn't go home last night." It's wonderful for foreigners and for tourists. They can feel safer and more comfortable.
Portuguese has more than 19 main tenses, plus more than 50 secondary tenses and a tiny mistake changes completelly the meaning of the sentence. Without knowing very well those exactly 19 different tenses, you simply can't communicate in Portuguese.
Also, the first verb every ESL student learns in English is the verb "be". It's amazing how a verb can be so flexible and versatile. for those who speak english as first language no difference can be noticed, but for ESL speaker, the verb "be" has more than 6 completelly different meanings. Coincidently, those are the most used verbs..... 6 times less verbs to learn.
Pronounciation and accent: as all linguists say, correcting someone's accent or pronounciation should be considered as a crime. a language is formed by culture and regionalisms and the language changes with time. Something that is "wrong"today, may not be wrong in 100 years. ESL teachers can correct big pronunciation mistakes, but NEVER variants, accent or minor mistakes. The accent shouldn't be trained, it simply comes naturally. Some student's will have a british accent, others will have a pure american accent, others will mix them.
Teachers should also respect the physical limitations. mouth, tongue and vocal cords have been trained to speak one language since we were babies. some muscles are stronger than others and some muscles are so unnecessary to speak one language thatthey simply don't work anymore. This can be easily noticed in spanish speakers speaking "this" or "that".They speak "ziz" and "zat", because the tongue has no strenght or accuracy to hit the upper teeth to make the "TH" sound. After lots of practice, of course the muscles may (or may not) be stronger and make that simple arch.
International English: There's nothing worse than learning only american english and travel to england or learn british english and travel to The U.S. both languages are similar, but there are also some huge differences, specially the grammar. The same happens with portugues (Brazil and Portugal) or spanish (spain, argentina, Mexico, Paraguay). At least here in Brazil most of the ESL schools teach the international english. (one size almost fits all)
I speak portuguese as my first language, but when I went to Portugal it was so difficult to understand the portuguese that sometimes I had use english. (Luckily the difference isn't that big between the U.K. and the U.S.).
Something funny that I couldn't understand yet. I still don't know where is my accent from. When I was a kid I learned american english, then I went to college in England, I had to relearn. My accent changed a little bit, I got some of the british accent (strongly noticed when I say "Hoover" or "proper" because I say "hoovah" and "propah") Even my teachers in Oxford or my Frigidaire colleagues in Augusta or friends all around the U.S. can't explain exactly my accent. Even worse, sometimes I say some words with one accent, sometimes using other, randomly. (ok, that's a negative point in some situations.
Worlds like "World" or "whirlpool" are the worst for me (and 99% of the ESL speakers). sometimes i think my tongue is going to be tied as a bow tie. More than 40 years speaking english and I still can't say "rl" words.
All this conversation reminds me I have something to answer to a student. as soon as she finishes her course, she wants to spend vacations in the U.S. to practice her english in real life situations. Where should i tell her to go? Please don't say Miami because there is horrible for a brazilian trying to learn english. She'd find brazilians everywhere and speak portuguese. What is the best accent region in the U.S.? Guys, pelase help!
And before I forget, happy thanksgiving to all!
