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Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > Language teaching and syntax
Language teaching and syntax
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libertybelle
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Language teaching and syntax
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Dear Colleagues!
Did you ever stop to think how different our methods of teaching have to be?
Many of our problems come from the differences from the mother language to English, and they�re probably different from language to language!
In Danish this difference is syntax.
Syntax is:
the term used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language.
Now some languages may have the words in a sentence in the same order as in English, but in some Nordic languages, especially Danish, The verb comes BEFORE the noun.
For example - If you say:
Yesterday, I went to the store....
in Danish - they would say-
Yesterday, went I to the store.
Danish also has the article THE at the end of the word and it has gender too.
I know that Spanish has gender too, such as La, Lo and el - but luckily they come
at before the noun.
So The Stool would be Stolen (en being the article)
These are some of the problems I have to contend with.
What about you?
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27 Nov 2008
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Vickiii
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Spanish and English have some truly false friends: I am learning Spanish so I can at least empathise with my students...
I was so Embarrased one day!
Then I found out that Embarazada in Spanish = pregnant! Quite different to embarrased! who would have thought!
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27 Nov 2008
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libertybelle
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Yeah, Vickiii - you can really end up saying some funny things!
Rov in Danish means to steal - but r�v - means Ass!
They are sooooooooooooooo close - at least for a foreigner like me!
and Ladybird
gift also means poison in Danish and we have so many False friend words!
But, the two languages are very close in many ways!
Thanks for your input!
L
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27 Nov 2008
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Damielle
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Certainly you are right that there are several false friends in English and Spanish. but there are much more "true friends" to call them in certain way. These words are called "transparent words" and are very much used when teaching ESP.
By the way, Is anybody interested in worksheets for ESP English-Spanish? I can prepare them to be uploaded but I haven�t because, from the very begining, I knew that wss should be written only in English. |
27 Nov 2008
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Zora
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Ahh... false friends... the bane of most students existance! lol
When I first started learning Spanish, I blurted out once on an especially hot day - "Estoy caliente" not "Tengo calor" ... which both basically mean I am hot ... but the first one is in the sexual way and not the way I meant! Verry embarrassing... lol
Also, there are words that I am afraid that I�ll mix up in class so I use another word, or pretend that I have forgotten that word - on purpose of course - because it�s sooo close to another word that is err... not that nice...
Example - peine (comb) - is very similar to pene (penis) ... and you can guess, I really start miming what the word is here!!... // cajones (drawers) is similar to cojones (balls... the male part of the body and not the toy)...
But it�s all fun!
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27 Nov 2008
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Damielle
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In Argentina "estoy caliente" means both "I�m eager to have sex" and "I�m very angry, let�s say, I�m furious" . When you talk about the weather condition and it�s influence on you, you say "me hace calor". Students associate "I�m hot" with the first pair and with the second meaning they laugh a lot . They tend to say "It makes me hot" which is absolutely wrong and feel embarassed to say "I�m hot" |
27 Nov 2008
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marzenka
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In Poland, beginners often have got problems and they say: I have 10 (as we say in Polish) instead of: I am 10...
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27 Nov 2008
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Zora
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That�s funny, Damielle... we speak the same language but not... In Spain, it�s "Tengo calor.. " or "Qu� calor hace" but not "Me hace calor..." - strange how from one country to the next, things can be so different.
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27 Nov 2008
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Pietro
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In Russian the word order doesn�t make much difference. But there are dozens constructions which can be hardly translated into English when you try to translate word after word, as there is a great number of sentences without the subject or predicate. And Russian students always ommit �to be� in the Present Simple, as we don�t usually use it in the Present tense. Moreover, it would sound rather silly if you translate it. Though it�s impossible to neglect it when using the Past or the Future in Russian. And the construction �have/have got� also gives a lot of trouble sometimes, when you try to translate it into Russian. |
2 Dec 2008
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