Job Discussion Forums

[themanymoonsofjupiter]

[Chris_Crossley]

[A man called Roger]

[Hansen]

Jupiter, One issue, which I didn't mention is the English level of the student. In my case, the point I made is near universally true. Few students speak English at a level which would justify emphasizing subtleties and nuances of oral English communication.

You may have been hired to teach the English language. I was not. I was hired to teach oral English. I focus on oral tasks, such as pronunciation of words, liaison, eliminating a final syllable when a consonant ends a word, and so forth. I consider it a big part of my job to merely provide a safe environment for students to "have a try" at English.

I usually explain "have a try" is not a common expression in America. "I'll try it" is the way we usually say it. Then I move on. It's not something high on my list of priorities. I might use it to illustrate liaison: Ha va try.

I wasn't trained as a linguist or grammarian. If you were and you are able to meet your obligations by working in China, good on you. From what I have seen, a speech pathologist would be more useful than a grammarian, when it comes to OE .

[Lobster]

The basic reason expressions like "have a try" are undesirable, particularly in written English, is because of the principle of brevity and economy of words. I usually tell my students that if there is a verb that does the same job as verb + noun, they should prefer the verb.

RED

[themanymoonsofjupiter]

[roadwalker]

I don't find "have a try" annoying at all. On the other hand, if you have a better expression to replace it, by all means, give it a go.

[norwalkesl]

[Santos L Halper]

I say this quite frequently, usually to mean the same thing as "have a go" or something similar. Also, I use it when tasting a new dish or some such. I don't know anything about the authenticity or the extent of this usage, but I will admit to being a goof ball so maybe it is not common.

[tommchone]

"Three hundred thousand dollars!" cried Mr, Bentley. "What government is going to offer such a prize as that for submarines, when they are getting almost as common as airships? We ought to have a try for that ourselves. What government is it?"

(From "Tom Swift And His Submarine Boat" by Victor Appleton;
Chapter 8 "Another Treasure Expedition")

[norwalkesl]

I have never heard it in my 50 years in the States.

[themanymoonsofjupiter]

Those Tom Swift books are old. It may have been used a lot more back in the day, i guess. nobody now would speak the way they did then. but i love the fact that Tom Swifties (apparently) came from those books. those are always groan-inducingly awful and i can't get enough of them.

i have heard--and used--"have a try" myself. "that game looks fun. can i have a try?" however, students tend to use it when they mean "do your best", which has a slightly different meaning.

[tommchone]

But it is still understood; that's the bottom line here. That's what I keep harping on to the students, the purpose is to MAKE YOURSELF UNDERSTOOD TO AN ENGLISH SPEAKER.

[norwalkesl]

[Chris_Crossley]

Unfortunately, misspellings are rapidly becoming (or should I say, "have already rapidly become"?) a common occurrence even in the UK with (to me) annoying, yet basic, misspellings of words such as "accommodation" with just one "m", as well as incorrect words denoting a lack of control of basic English grammar, such as "must of been" instead of "must have been".

Even news items on MSN (or its UK version at the very least!) contain such mistakes, which leads one to believe that either there is no editorial control at all or, even if there is editorial control, the people in charge must be just as (il-)literate as the journalists penning their news articles on their lap-tops - undoubtedly on a moving Tube train in London on very bumpy tracks at 60 m.p.h.!