Job Discussion Forums

superfly snuka · Joined: 18 Jul 2010 Posts: 20

For all of you who think you are wiser because you have such a "clear" understanding of all the English grammar rules and are resentful of those of us who don't think the "rules" are useful or even necessary to teach ESL, find yourself a real life. Grammar has so many exceptions, and context is usually the determiner regarding whether or not grammar is "correct". take conditionals for instance; how many of the 4 categories of conditionals have exceptions? i read a book that said this: "many languages use a future tense in the condition clause to refer to a future condition, which is quite logical. however, english does not." The example they use is "if it will rain, I'll stay home" . Well excuse me to say but this is hogwash. context, emphasis and intonation are big part of determining usage.We could say "if it rains" or we can say "if it will rain" John says: It will rain tomorrow so just stay home. mary says: Well(i don't think it will necessarily rain)but to acknowledge his adamance 'If it will rain, then I will stay home.otherwise, I will go out. intonation and emphasis can't be ignored.

All you english majors need to get over the fact that Teaching ESL does not require a textbook understanding of grammar. If you analyze the grammar you will see that context seems to be excluded from the rules.
the rules are good to cover the Majority of utterances but they are not exhaustive.

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:20 pm Post subject:

Yer my hero! Rolling Eyes

NCTBA

Cleopatra · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 7:34 pm Post subject:

bje · Joined: 19 Jun 2005 Posts: 527

lazycomputerkids · Joined: 22 Sep 2009 Posts: 360 Location: Tabuk

threading issues, superfly has them

citing practice, superfly has it

learning, superfly has not

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 8:31 pm Post subject:

For once...

...

...

Laughing

NCTBA

lazycomputerkids · Joined: 22 Sep 2009 Posts: 360 Location: Tabuk

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 8:39 pm Post subject:

O.K., yer bad!

NCTBA

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 10:00 pm Post subject:

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 11:00 pm Post subject:

Ya know...the tirade that started this whole thread illuminates something else I think that the OP doesn't yet get...

There was mention of four jobs in 18 months...

One thing that I learned early on in the k.o.p was that Gulf Arabs {well, really...all orientals...hence the term "inscrutable") have something of a sixth sense of B.S. I noticed this after it was pointed out to me by my students on how those from different sides of "the pond" deal with collective nouns. In their minds...one of us wuz a liar...when neither of us were.

Once they get a whiff of it and you CAN'T explain the differences in varieties...yer worthless to 'em...

Jes' a theory, but after a little reflection on what brought all of this on...

NCTBA

Kornan DeKobb · Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 242

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 6:34 am Post subject:

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

It occurred to us the other day that we needed to catch up on the grammar advice we owe posters loitering outside sentences if we bought a better typewriter, so over lunch break we directed our feet to the sunny side of the street to discover not a stationary, but a stationery, shop to find just what was needed: a portable flat black Remington complete with two chrome-ringed shift keys, one for each pinky, and in the carriage a sheet of paper on which somebody had typed "fakjshjhsjkdqwertyuiopkjkfsdcatdogcatdogcatdogcatdogcamelthethethethethethe the birds the cats the dates the flowers the birds ssng alll the mrning long wee played inn hte field nad had fun in the sun with our friends and relatives. PPL WE WENT tot he park and played ball and wunt swiming. IWe eat hotdoggs & harambargurs altjksfjsdhwewewewewe ququququququ mamamamamama 12312312312333444signout."

The line about fun in the sun with our friends and relatives struck us as exactly the kind of activity we had missed out on so far this summer. We have not gone to the park to play ball and swim. We have not eaten hotdogs or harambargurs, either. The beaches are closed because of e.coli. Mostly we've been sitting here in the fakjshsjkd and going ququ. We don't eat harambargurs over in Saudi Arabia because we are proud to be like travellers, not tourists, who eat as the natives do--eel or brains, lamb's eyeballs braised in camel butter, whatever's on the menu--and smile and say thank you.

Some of us are good expatriates, just as our mamamamamama taught us to be. We speak softly and know how to apologize and express gratitude in more than one language. We walk politely from site to site, dressed in muted colours, carrying no camera, wearing no baseball cap, admiring mosques and palaces, public gardens, ordinary city streets, buses, billboards, other expatriates astride scooters--everything foreign--and when genuine local people, not PPL, walk up to us and say, "altjksfjsdhwewewewewe," we answer (in their language), "I am sorry. I am a foreigner. I do not understand you."

Sashadroogie · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 9:15 am Post subject:

Insubordination · Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 394 Location: Sydney

The OP should post his/her students' essays and let the grammarians do the job - everyone's happy.