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TEFL Saint Johnstown Delaware

Check out Tesolcourse.com about TEFL Saint Johnstown Delaware and apply today to be certified to teach English abroad.

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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:

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chinese and english are two of the world's most widely used languages. The chinese language is not a uniform medium, Mandarin chinese is predominant but there are many other dialects. An estimated three hundred million chinese people are learning english for educational and economic advancement. english and chinese are two completely different language families and have many significant differences. This presents some serious challenges for chinese native speakers learning english. Cultural background. Before examining specific language difficulties, it is worth noting some behavioural traits and attitudes that are part of the inherent cultural framework. Modern chinese society is still heavily influenced by Confucianism. Confucianism is formed on hierarchical relationships that are based on an Eastern value system, not a Western individualistic model. Within this hierarchy, the Student will implicitly understand the relative roles of the teacher, his fellow students and himself. The teacher is at a higher level in the hierarchy, therefore he will be perceived as an authority figure and the students should be obedient and defer respectfully to the teacher. i.e give the teacher ‘face.' This dynamic will generally result in the following behaviour patterns: • The teacher is always right even when he is wrong. • Individual students do not wish to stand out from their peers to preserve ‘group harmony.' • The students are relatively passive. • The students don't show initiative. • Students are reluctant to express opinions, especially to an authority figure. The body language will also need some understanding by a foreign teacher to avoid misunderstandings: • chinese tend to smile when they face difficulty or feel embarrassment. • chinese tend to avoid direct eye-contact in face-to-face interaction out of respect. This should not be perceived by westerners as not paying attention or being disrespectful. Alphabet. Written chinese uses a logographic system instead of an alphabet. Words are not made up of letters as in alphabetic systems but are represented by symbols. A single symbol or character will represent an entire word. As a consequence chinese learners may have great difficulty reading english texts and spelling words correctly. Pronunciation. chinese is a tonal language. This means that it uses the pitch or tone to distinguish the meaning of the word. In english, changes in tone are used to emphasise or express emotion, not to give a different meaning to the word. chinese speakers do not use certain sounds that english speakers use, such as L and R. These sounds are unfamiliar and can easily be mispronounced. "Rice" becomes "lice" and "right" becomes "light.” Additionally, mistakes with distinct pronunciation of words like "sheep" and "ship", "fool" and "full" and “it” and “eat” are commonplace. A further common problem is pronunciation of the final consonant in many english words such as "hill.” Typically the final consonant sound is either dropped altogether creating "hee" or the final consonant sound gains an extra syllable and becomes "hill-er." Grammar. chinese does not contain any articles of speech (a, an, the). Consequently chinese speakers often find the usage of articles in english very confusing. Similarly, there is no precise equivalent of the possessive form of a noun. chinese does not use verb tenses or modal auxiliary verbs. Specific meaning is achieved by the order of the words used, a shared understanding of the context and use of adverbs such as today, yesterday, and tomorrow, to illustrate the timeframe. In english, much information is conveyed through verb tenses and modal auxiliary verbs contribute subtle connotation. It is therefore not surprising that chinese learners have trouble with the wide range of meanings of the english verb system. Vocabulary. In spoken chinese the three personal pronouns [he, she, and it] are pronounced exactly the same. This carries over when chinese students use english speech. The pronouns are frequently interchanged. It is very common to hear “he” used in connection with a female subject and “she” used in connection with a male subject. The english language has numerous phrasal verbs. These don't exist in chinese. chinese learners, therefore, may experience much difficulty learning which preposition to use with which verbs and how changing the preposition can subtlety change the meaning, e.g. "talking to" and "talking with.” The word “no” does not exist in chinese. Instead a selection of other less direct negations are used. Learning to use the direct form “no” can be very confusing. Understanding the language differences and the cultural context will make teaching chinese students much easier.


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