The purpose of the lesson: Listening for the gist
Size of the class: 40 students
Age: 11-12 years old
Level: Elementary
Listening for the gist | ESL/EFL Lesson Plan
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Linking in English language
I have mentioned in another article about the mechanical speech machine that produces words as separated units. Listening to such speech, produced by a machine like that, will definitely seem strange even for a learner of English. In real speech, English language speech by native speakers of English, the words are linked together resulting in a natural speech impossible to be realized by any machine and difficult to be reproduced by learners of English.
Levels of stress in words
Usually, learners of English study at school two-level analysis of stress which means there is a simple distinction between syllables. Syllables are classified as stressed and unstressed with no intermediate level. However, we usually have to recognize at least one more intermediate level of stress.
Learning English vocabulary tips
Learning vocabulary is the first step in learning a foreign language and it is (or it should be) a process that takes place daily and most of the time not at school but at home. Here are my seven tips that will help you be more effective when learning vocabulary. All of the tips are based on my own experience as a learner of English.
Learning English difficulties of Vietnamese learners
Probably, more than any other nation, Vietnamese learners have a very difficult time studying English. Here I will point Vietnamese pronunciation because this is the biggest issue. Vietnamese learners have particular difficulties with some or all of the following sounds: /f/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʧ/, /ʤ/, /p/, /b/, /l/.
Learning English difficulties for Vietnamese | Word order
Word order is of a great importance in Vietnamese language. It is a non-inflecting language and it relies on word order and function words to signal function meaning. The verb “to be” is hardly ever used because Vietnamese adjectives contain their own verbs.
Learning English difficulties for Vietnamese | The passive voice
The passive voice is rarely used in Vietnamese language. As I know, the passive voice in Vietnamese is rarer than in most European languages. Use of passive voice in Vietnamese is rare not because Vietnamese speakers avoid the use of passive form nor because teachers teach them that it is not desirable but it seems to be a natural characteristic of Vietnamese expression.
Learning English difficulties for Vietnamese | Tense, time, aspect
Verb tenses used in English language are extremely difficult to be comprehended by Vietnamese learners. That is because Vietnamese language employs aspect rather than tense. It is possible to express time very precisely in Vietnamese (when that is necessary), although the language doesn’t use complex structure of tenses like other languages (such as English or many other western tongues).
Learning English difficulties for Vietnamese | Stress and tone
The biggest difficulty of Vietnamese learners of English in learning English is expressing stress by tone. In Vietnamese, each syllable is pronounced with its characteristic tonal pattern. Without its tone, the syllable is not recognizable.
Learning English difficulties for Vietnamese | Questions and negatives
Comparing English with Vietnamese, Vietnamese is much simpler than English when it comes to questions. Most of the questions in Vietnamese expect a yes/no answer.
Example:
(lit. Person – this – have – old – or – not)
Is this person old?