Job Discussion Forums

[slada]

Hi,

I am involved in teaching ESL in a large company and I have come across a variety of bad habits that my students have picked up over a considerable period of time. I'm looking for ways to correct problems in pronunciation and grammar amongst older professionals who are somewhat resistant to this process. I have to break some of these habits before I can really get them to progress in their use of English. If anyone has any suggestions, comments or has faced similar circumstances, I would really appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks

[Girl Scout]

A few more specifics on your problems might be helpful, but I do have one idea.

I put a divider between my students and told them to pretend they were on the telephone. Every mistake was a way to introduce the idea of mis-communication. For example, I would have them spell their name and company. Here in Taiwan people say 'l o' for "l" and 'H che' for "h". When I would spell it back to them I would have to most off-the-wall spellings. The students got the idea that the way they were saying their letters was wrong. It was easier to correct after that. If the students have to face how their mistakes can lead to gross mis-interpetation in a real life situation they may be more willing to make an effort to change.

Good luck.

[scot47]

"Fossilised errors" in linguisitics-speak are almost impossible to eradicate

Communicartion is still possible even when learners make errors.

[shmooj]

[Deconstructor]

I mostly agree with everyone on this thread. When it comes to pronunciation, there is very little both the teacher and the student can do. Some of them actually need speech therapy for stroke victims to be understood. The student must become aware of his/her mispronunciations, but this must be approached very delicately so that the student is not discouraged from speaking.

Among Koreans, one of the biggest problems is the confusion between F and P, L and R. I was once watching a hockey game with a Korean student of mine. He complained about this game because it was difficult to see the puck, so he consistently asked, �Where is the puck?� and �I can�t see the puck�. It was hilarious because we were all friends, but, needless to say, it could�ve been extremely embarrassing among a formal company. Becoming aware of the problem didn�t solve it, but at least he learned to avoid certain words.

Since the bottom line is comprehensibility, there are actually some techniques that may compensate for mispronunciation such as improving intonation (some students are flatliners: they say everything without any variation in intonation. They sound like a robot). Voice volume: some students speak so softly that you need to get uncomfortably close to them to hear.

[Moore]

Note-taking is really effective for this (then again I specialize in business English, so this is with adults: I don�t think you mentioned the age group you�re teaching) I get them to write their mistakes down, which is easier said than done to develop as a habit in the students, but do-able, and all I need to do after a short while is a vague pointing-towards-their-notebook gesture to get them to do it. It�s important to get them to write what they wrote then put a line through it and then the correct version next to it. The point is to make them do it EVERY time they make the mistake, that way they see which ones they are repeating. At the end of the class have a glance at their books, or get them to do so and ask them what they need to concentrate on. An easier version is for you to jot down mistakes and if they repeat then then underline it however many times they do, then at the end go over it, this way the flow is interupted less, but I do prefer them to do the note-taking: it ends up being very unobtrusive and really gives a good picture of what they have covered and what they need to target.
I�m sure some would disagree with this method: it�s very old-school and dull sounding, but it definitely works.

[hesterprynne]

Try time bomb. You have a circle of students and the first one can say one or two or three numbers. I have each student clap to show that he is finished with his turn.
It could go like this:
Student 1- one, two
student 2- three, four, five
student 3- six
student 4- seven, eight, nine
student 5- ten, eleven, twelve
There is no 13 in this game, so the next student would now be out of the game. You must have a quick and clear way to indicate which students are no longer in the game. As more students become eliminated, it becomes a mental game. But the point at first is pronunciation. I have found this extremely helpful in correcting fossilized errors. In Guangdong Province in China, I know the errors in advance and can demonstrate them. If any error in pronunciation occurs, I immediately and good-naturedly mimic the error and say "OUT!" After a while, the students begin to catch the errors of the other students and to declare "OUT!"
Errors here are usually: Sree for three- I hold my hand like a tongue and the other hand like a closing mouth to show them how to make the th sound. I also stick my tongue out and wave in around in an exaggerated (sp?) way. NEXT ERROR: Fi for five- I point to my teeth as they touch my lips and say 'v-v-v-v-v-v!' NEXT ERROR: sis or sex for six- I write 'ks' on the board and say that this is what 'x' really is. NEXT ERROR: sewen- same action as five. NEXT ERROR: Ni for nine- I show them where their tongue should be for the final 'n'. NEXT ERROR: Elewen- same as seven.
NEXT ERROR- Telve for twelve- I put my finger two inches in front of my lips and make a big show of trying to kiss it! You can also use this for ordinal numbers, which is helpful in China because dates here are not changed into ordinals, and students need help to remember and pronounce ordinals. Ordinals in Chinese are constucted of a prefix and a suffix attached to the number.

[Roger]

Poor pronunciation and poor grammar, you say?
How about tape-recording each and everyone of your students saying a couple of tricky sentences, then contrast their enunciations with a native speaker's production?

I believe Chinese students internalise their mistakeds not just through emulation of a Chinese teacher but because they never learn to identify correct usages and wrong usages. One of their worst habits is - to IGNORE OTHERS ORAL PRODUCTIONS>
Thus, I teach them to first listen; those who don't listen get shamed into repeating what they don't know - others have to tell them until they get it. If they fail to repeat what someone else has said I make them stand up until they can reproduce it and point out what's correct or wrong.
I find that with Chinese you must sometimes be a disciplinarian. After all, they come straight out of their bootcamps called "school".