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simon44
Joined: 15 Mar 2013
Posts: 118
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 Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
'Please Sir, why do we use "THE pen" there?'.
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As an EFL teacher with no M.Ed and no B.Ed etc etc, I have to ask if you are joking when you created this thread?
Surely you can correctly answer the student's question? |
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fluffytwo
Joined: 24 Sep 2016
Posts: 139
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| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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| simon44 wrote: |
| Quote: |
| 'Please Sir, why do we use "THE pen" there?' |
As an EFL teacher with no M.Ed and no B.Ed etc etc, I have to ask if you are joking when you created this thread?
Surely you can correctly answer the student's question? |
You can find pretty good answers (that are similar to how most teachers might explain this stuff) in e.g. the definitions in reliable references such as the OALD: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/the_1?q=the
Taking the more relevant phrasings (e.g. 'easily understood', 'obvious') from those OALD definitions and applying them to 'Where's the pen?' versus say 'Where's the remote control for the TV?', it should be pretty clear which nouns pose fewer problems and thus need zero Showdwinger panto forcing (i.e. socio-linguistic cheating) to make more or less immediate sense.
In all honesty though (and remaining polite), I find your tone rather 'weird' and confrontational, Simon. You seem very opposed to authentic language, and in fact have missed the entire point of the thread (which just to be clear is answering Oliver Twister's question by way of an example and reasoning that isn't dependent on confused and unnecessary pantomime (see previous paragraph)).
By the way, on the previous page I supplied an additional answer of sorts: I linked to a conversation I'd had with a female JTE (Japanese Teacher of English, though she was qualified to teach Japanese rather than English, don't ask!) who in class wanted to do a dialogue asking me to pick which (colour of) dress (rather than simply colour) I liked better for some reason (perhaps for her to wear to a party or whatever). Of course I was the bad guy and hopeless teacher there too for even suggesting that the dialogue follow any sort of sensible logic ('Hmm, I like the red [one [better]]') true to the language rather than having me obediently intone simply 'I like red' in response to 'Which dress do you like better?'.
TL:DR is, Avoid any methodology that has you saying things that simply do. not. (or would not) follow!
Last edited by fluffytwo on Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:26 pm; edited 6 times in total |
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schwa
Joined: 12 Oct 2003
Posts: 164
Location: yap
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| Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 7:52 am Post subject: |
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If this is a joke thread, it's mildly amusing.
If it's serious, it's hilarious. |
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fluffytwo
Joined: 24 Sep 2016
Posts: 139
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| Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:43 am Post subject: |
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| Hmm I dunno, there's definitely some questionable practice out there in ELT la-la land e.g. 'What colour is this pen?' 'It is a red pen' (rather than answering simply 'Er, red', not that either answer helps the question make much sense). But yeah, I guess it's best if we all try to ignore it, hope it simply goes away, and never, ever really discuss or try to improve on it for fear of boring or upsetting anyone. |
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