Teach English in Sihora - TEFL Courses

As it is my intention to find a job teaching english in shanghai, I thought that it would be helpful to look into a few of the problems commonly experienced by chinese students who are studying english as a second language. Through my research I have found that the problems of the chinese student can be broken into three rough categories: pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. The chinese student attempting to master the pronunciation of english words faces many challenges. There are substantial differences between the basic structures of english and the dominant language in china, Mandarin. For starters, “Mandarin is not composed of an alphabet as english is, but a system referred to as logographic, or picture words (Difficulties Faced by chinese efl Students).” The chinese are used to working with a system where a single picture corresponds to every word, as opposed to a phonetic alphabet where words are composites of many individual letters. These differences might lead to trouble with reading and spelling for the student in addition to pronunciation. There is also the problem of the interference of chinese to english. According to Fachun Zhang, “interference from the first language is likely to cause errors in aspiration, stress and intonation in the target language.” There are many sounds in Mandarin that are similar to sounds found in english, but there are just as many that have no direct parallel. Students encountering unfamiliar sounds often attempt to find the nearest equivalent in their native language, which can lead to mispronunciation and trouble communicating. Grammar is another common area of difficulty for chinese esl students. Once again, the differences between english and Mandarin are to blame. For example, Mandarin does not contain any articles of speech similar to the english a, an, the. Mandarin also lacks an equivalent for possessive nouns, and “typically, even chinese who are quite fluent in english will write: In front of the garage of the house (Difficulties Faced by chinese efl Students). chinese learners of english also experience trouble when attempting to learn the english passive. The passive is far more commonly used in english than in Mandarin. Also, according to Mandred Wu Man-Fat in “Problems Faced by chinese esl Learners in the Acquisition of english Passive and Recommendations for Teaching,” in Mandarin the passive voice often carries a negative connotation; this conflicts with the use of the passive in english as a way to express objectivity and formality. Mandred Wu Man-Fat stresses that “there is a need for english teachers to ensure learners have a thorough knowledge of the passive. A recommendation highly related to english tense and aspect is that teachers have to point out to learners the differences in the concepts of time in english and chinese.” The final area for difficulty for chinese students is vocabulary and word usage. In addition to the predictable problems of learning new words, there are also the peculiarities of Mandarin to take into account. For example, all of the personal pronouns in Mandarin are homophones. Students frequently interchange he and she when speaking, and “if you find yourself teaching english as a foreign language in china, you will be correcting your students on their use of personal pronouns virtually every day” (Difficulties Faced by chinese efl Students). Broadly speaking, the problems of chinese students may be divided into pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. All of these problems, however, are at least partially tied to the substantial differences between the Mandarin and english. Realizing and addressing these differences will be key in successfully teaching chinese students of english. Works Cited "Difficulties Faced by chinese efl Students." Foreign teachers guide to Living and Working in china. Web. . Manfred Wu Man-Fat, "Problems Faced by chinese esl Learners in the Acquisition of english Passive and Recommendations for Teaching." TELUS Internet Services - Member Services. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. . Zhang, Fachun. "A Study of Pronunciation Problems of english Learners in china." Asian Social Science 5.6 (2009). Web. .