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| Foreign words and phrases are useful only to English majors |
| I agree |
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10% |
[ 1 ] |
| I agree, but would add adult students to that |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| I think it also would be useful for more able Oral English students |
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40% |
[ 4 ] |
| I think all English language students would profit from it |
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30% |
[ 3 ] |
| I think that other than majors, other students wouldn't benefit |
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20% |
[ 2 ] |
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| Total Votes : 10 |
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muffintop
Joined: 07 Jan 2013
Posts: 803
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 Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 4:26 am Post subject: |
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| Bud Powell wrote: |
Consider habeas corpus (literally, "give us the body"). It's a part of our legal system and it is Latin in origin. Should this be taught as a loan phrase/loan word?
These are tricky calls for the teacher; to whom he teaches the concept of loan words is tricky. My experience in teaching college and university English majors is that they eat this sort of thing up. It leads to all sorts of discoveries. |
I have to question the usefulness of teaching phrases such as habeas corpus to students in China. Unless they are studying law I can't see a use for this at all. Sure, there may be an interesting story if you give them the Latin meaning and show how it's used today but....will this help anyone communicate in an effective manner or aid in future language acquisition? I guess a student could pat themselves on the back for knowing what habeas corpus means when they watch reruns of Law and Order....that's something.
Prefixes, suffixes, and roots I think are far more useful to the overwhelming majority of learners. They can help them understand words they have never encountered before. |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Javelin of Radiance
Joined: 01 Jul 2009
Posts: 1187
Location: The West
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| Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 5:31 am Post subject: |
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Outside of the ones listed under the "common" heading, very few of those words would even be recognized by an English speaker let alone be used by an English speaker.
| muffintop wrote: |
| Prefixes, suffixes, and roots I think are far more useful to the overwhelming majority of learners. They can help them understand words they have never encountered before. |
I agree. While I find loan words interesting, teaching 100 of them means students only learn 100 words. Learning 100 prefixes, suffixes and roots will help students learn and understand hundreds and possibly thousands of words in the English language. Many prefixes, suffixes and roots in English words are of Latin and Greek origin, which would be a good place to start.
| muffintop wrote: |
| Bud Powell wrote: |
Consider habeas corpus (literally, "give us the body"). It's a part of our legal system and it is Latin in origin. Should this be taught as a loan phrase/loan word?
These are tricky calls for the teacher; to whom he teaches the concept of loan words is tricky. My experience in teaching college and university English majors is that they eat this sort of thing up. It leads to all sorts of discoveries. |
I have to question the usefulness of teaching phrases such as habeas corpus to students in China. Unless they are studying law I can't see a use for this at all. Sure, there may be an interesting story if you give them the Latin meaning and show how it's used today but....will this help anyone communicate in an effective manner or aid in future language acquisition? |
What are you gonna say if you're out and about and you happen to bump into a bishop or better yet, a cardinal?
A. Salve! Quid agis?
B. Valeo! Et tu?
A. Habeus Corpus!
B. Hasta la vista to you too dude! |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:04 am Post subject: |
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'With this in mind, should one bother to point out the numerous French loan words? They are a part of our language,..'
This is key: 'point out' to whom?
They clearly look different to our Chinese students from their normal English vocab. This leads us to: 'Why are they different?'
'Deja vu' with its proper accents is clearly different as is 'cul-de-sac'.
My point is 'Are in depth analyses of borrowed words or phrases of interest to other than English majors?'
What I'm picking up is that English majors and English Club (not Corner) students are the proper target. Our normal Oral English students probably have more pressing classroom needs. |
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choudoufu
Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 3325
Location: Mao-berry, PRC
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| Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:04 am Post subject: |
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i think someone way up the thread asked "what be the purpose
of teaching foreign words/phrases" since to the chinese, they
are ALL foreign words.
[except for: tofu, kung fu, chow mein, dim sum, low mein.]
i don't really see a need for a special class on foreign words introduced
into english (ok, maybe for a reeeeeaaaalllly high-level advanced
class with the ability and interest) for most chinese students.
i can see this turning into just another lecture by the foreign teacher
showing off his linguistic skills with a fancy PPT while the boring
students snore in the background.
if the words don't come up in general conversation, why bring them up
at all? and when they do appear, what's the point of teaching the
foreign origin, unless you need to explain why they don't follow general
pronunciation rules.
*this week, we have the word "concierge" in hotel english and tourism
english classes. get to use both ipa spellings, british and 'merkan
pronunciations....after i learned how to say this word i've never had
occasion to use. that one year of high school french (got a D) sure
came in handy.
oh well, perhaps this conversation has finally reached a cul-de-sac. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:11 am Post subject: |
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If you look even further back you will see how it (the resource) will be used.
Certainly not a lecture - TTT and all that. |
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