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arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

from Soapdodgers incorrect english site

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/page/2/

worth a laugh or two

fluffyhamster · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject:

Craw, I'm British (from London) - I'm not defending 'gonna' (the end of the SJ 'goin' to' - 'gonna' continuum) out of some misplaced sense of pride in "American" English...and I too have to wonder how you('d) actually pronounce 'going to' (Like Glenski ('GoING tooo')? Or more 'gun ta'? (That's how I remember Aberdonians speakin'!)).

(Stephen,) I must admit that I don't recall British TEFL sources recommending 'gonna' as an alternative spelling, but I rather suspect that students will still readily relate both spelling- and pronunciation-wise to the 'gonna's they'll encounter outside the classroom (but obviously I would not recommend that students use such spellings in formal written contexts e.g. exams, business correspondence).

craw · Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Scotland

Ariadne · Joined: 16 Jul 2004 Posts: 960

It might be an idea for some of the posters to double check the definitions of affect and effect.

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fluffyhamster · Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:40 pm Post subject:

Maybe we could also think of how we('d) write 'wannabe' (spotted that whilst browsing through Crystal's Encyclopedia of the English Language).

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

fluffyhamster · Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:20 pm Post subject:

I was thinking of the noun (note that there is no space between 'wanna' and 'be'), even if it is apparently derived from '(a?) want to be':

johnnyappleseed · Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject:

I let them know about these informal ways of saying things, though I discourage its use. It doesn't make sense to me to keep students in the dark about how informal English is spoken. Here I'm talking about things like "going to"=gonna. I do tell them(though it's not strictly true) that it's only heard and never ever written.

By the way, I don't think that "gonna" is a strictly North American pronunciation, I've heard a lot of British people use it and it's also featured on a lot of listenings.

I suppose if I was teaching to a test like the teacher in China above, I probably wouldn't teach something like that. You have to know your specific students needs, of course.

A lot of my students do think about going to the UK for a few years to make a bit of extra money, and in fact many have. Most of them are probably going to be working menial jobs there and are not going to come across "the cream of the crop" of native speakers. I believe that in at least letting them have some ideas of the vast breadth and varieties of English pronunciation they will better be able to psychologically prepare and then understand common speech when they go. A lot of my students also do do business with both UK and US business, often by phone and they primarily want the tools to communicate with these native speakers. Not teaching common pronunciations because my culture deems it "wrong" or 'uneducated' does them no service. That said, I do have limits on this and I usually discourage it's use, particularly among lower-level students: they sound funny trying to, usually. Also, I do teach it only as a footnote to the formal presentation of the grammar and only to classes who I think are strong enough that it won't confuse 'em.

Also there are occasionally questions about informal words in L1 for which I can think of a number of slang expressions in English, but no real formal equivelent. Then I tell them the slang word, but let them know that it is slang.

Ultimately it depends on what your students need.