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thelmadatter
Joined: 31 Mar 2003
Posts: 1212
Location: in el Distrito Federal x fin!
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 Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject: w vs g |
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ah... never ran into that problem... maybe because I have only taught advanced learners?
w... put tongue position of g, round lips and do a kissing motion when expelling air.
the fact that the tongue goes into the g position explains why words like guero and guey go to a w sound when they are "softened" and generally happens before a "u" as "u" required rounded lips and the tongue in the back... it is a form of assimilation. |
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El Gallo
Joined: 05 Feb 2007
Posts: 318
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:59 am Post subject: |
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My intro students can't write questions for answers, especially in present continuous.
The book exercise or test says write questions for the answers.
For example:
1. A. ______________________________?
B. We are eating dinner.
(What are you doing?)
2. A. ______________________________?
B. No, I'm not wearing slacks.
(Are you wearing slacks?)
They seem to have an impossible time with this - any ideas? |
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TheLongWayHome
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 1016
Location: San Luis Piojosi
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:26 pm Post subject: |
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| El Gallo wrote: |
My intro students can't write questions for answers, especially in present continuous.
The book exercise or test says write questions for the answers.
For example:
1. A. ______________________________?
B. We are eating dinner.
(What are you doing?)
2. A. ______________________________?
B. No, I'm not wearing slacks.
(Are you wearing slacks?)
They seem to have an impossible time with this - any ideas? |
I have this problem too. I think it's more the fault of the book, an ironic lack of communication. Students try to be creative with these types of exercise when they need to think like a robot.
I recently prepared a student to take her FCE and found the key to her actually doing successful sentence transformations was to stop her being creative! As soon as she began to analyse, she could do it. Unfortunately, it seems a little counter-productive to students actually being able to speak English but they'll be able to tackle an exam. |
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TheLongWayHome
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 1016
Location: San Luis Piojosi
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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| On the subject of sounds I find the word 'theme' is good for getting a th sound as the long e makes them open their mouths a little more. |
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Phil_K
Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 2041
Location: A World of my Own
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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Seriously, am I the only one who finds the original question odd or thinks that a business letter is certainly not comparable to teaching when and how to properly use the passive voice or the present perfect tense?
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Yes and No! 
I think it is strange teaching something which they should have already learnt elsewhere, but ...
It is a question of style, and for example, you may write what you think is a perfect letter in Spanish - right tone, perfect grammar, spelling etc, only for someone to tell you, "We don't do it like that". Spanish letters are much more flowery than English ones! |
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dixie
Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 644
Location: D.F
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Phil_K wrote: |
| Quote: |
Seriously, am I the only one who finds the original question odd or thinks that a business letter is certainly not comparable to teaching when and how to properly use the passive voice or the present perfect tense?
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Yes and No!
I think it is strange teaching something which they should have already learnt elsewhere, but ...
It is a question of style, and for example, you may write what you think is a perfect letter in Spanish - right tone, perfect grammar, spelling etc, only for someone to tell you, "We don't do it like that". Spanish letters are much more flowery than English ones! |
As are student essays. The way a student would write an essay in Spanish, is quite different from the way one is expected to write in English.
In Spanish it is more flowery, wordy, and off-topic (to an English individual anyways) as much, or more as it is on-topic.
To help the kids out we give them a simple visual: a straight lined arrow for how we write in English (make your point - stick to it - conclude), and an arrow that does several circles (make your point - dance around - return to your point - dance a little more - conclude).
While these kids know how to write an essay in Spanish (well . . . usually  ) they still need to be taught how to do it in English, as the style is not the same. And for some of the tests they do, or for the finals that IB kids do, they need to be able to write properly, otherwise their grades/success suffers. |
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