Big Box Mart

The above is an excellent example of a story that is a great combination of irony humour to the tune of a Good 'Ole Nursery Rhyme. The Learning opportunities provided by the "Big Box Mart"for ESL students, are vast.
http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/big_box_mart

Speed up!!!!

In our last post we talked about the tendency some ESL students have of trying to "speed read", to sound more "English." Well the opposite is also true, of course. There are those who consider pronunciation the most important factor in sounding "Native". In these cases, speed is sacrificed for emphasis. Syllables become over-stressed and words become staccato.
Students need to learn how to feel the language, as well as, dissect it. It is this qualitative component that is lacking in many schools.
How do you teach rhythm you ask? After all, language is not a dance, right?

Send us your comments...

Slow down!!!!

Last weeks blog asked the question: "why aren't some pronunciation problems being dealt with more effectively?". The answer lies, in part, to the misconception that talking fast -what I like to refer to as 'speed talking'- is talking well. Speed talking is a coping mechanism that tries to 'trick' the listener into believing that the speed talker is actually saying something intelligible when in fact, it may be pure nonsense.
Recently, a sad example of this phenomenon has been making the rounds over the Internet. I am referring to the now infamous: "Anderson's first English Interview."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG55Ze_Dj20&feature=related


In theory, if you say a word or make a sound fast enough, it may actually appear to imitate another sound or word 'good enough'. So, if you're taught from early on that the "r" and "h" sounds are 'close enough', when uttered quickly, than a fossilized error can develop, unnecessarily. In practice, these errors are very difficult to correct especially when the Non-Native English Speaker believes that the difference is unimportant (after all that's what they've been taught!). So, my next question is: 'why not stop this practice'?
The answer may lie in the simple fact that, in general, students do not have enough access to certified English Language instructors and therefore are often 'taught' English by un/under-qualified teachers, despite there being thousands of great teachers in many Non-English speaking countries all over the world already.
In the case of Brazil with its immense size and large population, an adequate supply of teaching professionals is often lacking, especially outside the large urban centres like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Homework: In what ways can Anderson improve his English? What does he say well?
Next Blog: Describing "things and stuff"

Similar Sounding Words

Having been in beautiful Brazil for a few weeks now, I have had the luxury of listening to many Brazilians speaking English. I have been busy noting down some very interesting similar sounding word cognates that are quite common to many Portuguese speakers. Most of these mistakes are due to pronunciation differences that exist with some of the same letters of the alphabet, in each respective language. One of the least known of these situations, to Native English speakers, is the`roll´ of "R" in Brazilian Portuguese.
In Brazil the "R" acts as an "H" when it is at the beginning of a word or when it is doubled.
So a word like: Arrive.....becomes ahive......or worse a hive.
Repeat becomes.....he peat (his name is Pete?),
React....He act...
You get the idea.

It is virtually endless, the number of words that can be incorrectly said and interpreted because of this and other pronunciation differences between Brazilian Portuguese and English.
Why are these issues not dealt with more effectively? That will be the subject of the next blog.

Homework: Send us a video clip in which today´s subject matter is highlighted
Next Blog: Slow down!!!!

Brands

If a Portuguese speaker asks you where the "Hoddy Hockey" is what would you say? What if they told you that your "Hay Ba's" looked good. Maybe some "Hevlo" to make your lips brighter. No clue of what I'm talking about? Well, let's just say that Brand names are just like people's - their pronunciation depends on where your from. So just because a Brand is English or French don't expect people to pronounce them as a Native English Speaker would. For some reason this simple point is often overlooked and a world of confusion may ensue.
Homework: Part #1: What three brands are mentioned in the Article?
Part #2: Can you name three other Brands that are often mispronounced?
Next: Similar sounding words,

Autocide part 2

As we mentioned in the last post there is an inherent danger in 'inventing new words', based on our own politics or bias. Nevertheless, I will go against my own advice and suggest a new word to describe a daily violence that happens everywhere, everyday. The violence I'm referring to is the daily massacre that happens on the streets, where automobiles kill over a million people annually: pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other drivers - not to mention the uncounted number of animals that become "Road Kill". Currently, drivers who are involved in such incidents are deemed to be innocent if there is no clear evidence of culpability and so we say they were in accidents. Those that are guilty of causing 'an accident' can be charged with various driver related crimes such as: reckless driving, driving under the influence (DUI), street racing, and vehicular manslaughter to mention a few. So what term do we use for a criminal act committed while driving a vehicle that caused death, but doesn't easily fit into one of these specific categories? For example, what criminal charge should a driver that sees a pedestrian crossing an intersection but refuses to slow down (expecting the pedestrian to get out of the way) be given, if he/she ends up mowing them down?
Is that reckless driving?, vehicular manslaughter? It seems that these terms fail to capture the true devastation that was known to be possible but ignored by the driver. Maybe we need a new word to describe such a crime. Autocide.

Autocide part 1

A few years ago the Bush Administration decided to invent a new word `homicide bomber´, to replace suicide bomber. This attempt to create a new word that more accurately reflects the act itself, they said, was necessary in order for the general populous to truly comprehend that particular heinous act of terrorism. As far as I know, this practice has officially ceased (i.e., the communiques released by the government no longer use their own constructed term, homicide bomber). But whether the Bush writers continue using this term or not is rather pointless anyways because the fact of the matter is that it never caught on. No one I know ever used it, and few media outlets ever really tried to use it. The reason why I believe it never caught on is simple, the term homicide bomber is purely politically motivated (right-wing) and thus was unable to supplant the existing term suicide bomber, which was created out of the need to describe a new act during World War II, in American editorials. Suicide Bombing(ers) had been accepted by all political stripes to describe particular acts of violence until 2002, in the wake of the 911 attacks.