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grahamb
Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:19 pm Post subject: Summer camps in Spain |
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The ones I worked in were run by Berlitz on behalf of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, but that was more than ten years ago and I don't know if they're still running. Try asking around the language schools when you arrive. |
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teachertomthailand
Joined: 31 Aug 2015 Posts: 31 Location: Eugene, OR, United States
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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Do students in Spain generally know the phonemic alphabet? What are Spanish language learners generally the weakest in? I have heard that they are not that confident in their language skills, is this true? |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:04 am Post subject: |
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Pronunciation. Fix them, please:-)
And if you can do something about that annoying uuuuu sound that punctuates their speech in any language, everyone else will be eternally grateful to you! |
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grahamb
Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 6:06 pm Post subject: Spanish students learning English |
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As Spiral78 says, Spanish students tend to struggle with English pronunciation. Manuel from Fawlty Towers is not untypical of Spanish speakers!
In the past, trainee English teachers in Spain weren't obliged to spend time in English-speaking countries, and consequently had little or no fluency in English. Students were taught to translate literally, which caused no end of problems. English language TV programmes and films are still dubbed in Spanish, thus denying learners exposure to English (Hearing the same actors' voices nearly drove me insane when I lived in Spain).
I found using some phonemic symbols effective, as Spanish is a largely phonetic language.
In the realm of grammar, Spanish students invariably use the present perfect instead of the past simple, an instance of L1 interference.
Swan and Smith's Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and Other Problems contains a lot of useful information about the difficulties faced by English language learners around the world. |
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Nicky_McG
Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 190
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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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How can we forget the throaty pronunciation of 'h' like it's the 'ch' in loch! I second the present perfect problems (French speakers also have this problem) |
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