Plain English in the EFL classroom

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 5:24 am

As many of you may know, I work in Poland. Now that Poland has joined the EU, the influence of the EU has made demand for documents to be written in plain English quite high.

I'm teaching a group of architects right now who want to work in Britain or Ireland. When they get there, they will have to understand local building regulations.

I am also occasionally called upon to proof-read European documents, or to interpret them when I am teaching a class that is funded by the European social fund.

The need for plain English has never been higher.

coffeedecafe · Post by **coffeedecafe** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 6:42 am

woodcutter wrote:If the "plain English campaign" take power, some residents of Michigan will be summarily executed.

does that mean that my simple words have been so convincing that a counter revolution would wish to remove my influence?
i do not think my words have that power....oh well...
"I regret that I have only one life to give for my" verbiage.

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:03 pm

Not sure whether to put this here or in the interesting websites thread but I found this site:
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/index.htm

Thing is, I kind of think of Shakespeare on two levels:

On the first level, it doesn't really matter if you don't get the meaning, the language is like music.

The second level is understanding what it means, this site may help here but it is utterly prosaic and you loose (perhaps "kill" or even "masacare" is a better word) the "soul" of his language.

You only get some free stuff, the rest is pay only.

Still worth a look at the free stuff, though. Don't think it's worth paying for the rest.

cftranslate · Post by **cftranslate** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 7:02 am

Following lolwhites comments on metalanguage, I have many times wondered at how many teachers don't seem to be aware of changes in methodology that took place many decades ago or even seem to be unable to become aware of common sense practices in the FL classroom.

I am talking about those who spend a great part of their (and their students') precious time explaning the language as opposed to talking in the FL.

Does any of you, particularly those with a long experience, think of grammar terminology and explanations as being of any use to students? Is there anything good about explaning, say, the Preset Perfect to students instead of simply (and exclusively) discussing what they 'have' or 'haven't' done yet?

I am in favor of avoiding grammmar exercises and explanations altogether because the interfere rather than help the learning process. I think that when a student in the FL classroom says 'I don't get it' that's the worst possible news but not because she or he doesn't get it but because there's nothing to get.

cftranslate · Post by **cftranslate** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 7:13 am

Yes, I agree that 'pomposity' should be avoided but we should not go to the other extreme. I once attended a workshop essentially dealing with this ussue and the suggested alternatives to 'pompous' words and expression would result, if used all of them, in a dull, sometimes, childish language.

It also depends on your audience and their expectations. Yes, in the FL classroom there's not much room for 'commence'.