ESL Conversation Groups

Last summer I was facilitating ESL conversation groups at Centennial College. It was a lot of fun.
I met students who were almost finished their education and were getting nervous about having to find jobs. They were confident in their knowledge of their fields but nervous about having to interview in English so we spent time on vocabulary needed to describe accomplishments and skills. Stay tuned and I will provide some helpful links and a practice that I recommend for preparing for interviews.

Michael Ignatieff on Gregg and Company

Last night our national Liberal party leader was talking mostly about a book he has written about the history of his family in Canada but he also said that to go forward from this current financial crisis, we must talk about Education, Education, Education and Language, Language, Language. We must give opportunities for newcomers to learn one of the two official languages.
You can see the podcast at http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?video?AG_Int_20090424_907850_MIgnatieff

What is Business English?

When I tell people that I teach Business English, they say “Margaret, what is Business English? Is it different from regular English?" Well, Yes and No
It is, of course, just English but it is English for a purpose.

It is the language you use to achieve a successful outcome to a business transaction.
Business English is the language you speak to get what you want or to persuade others to your point of view.

It is the language we use in business meetings
It is the language we use on the phone at work
It is the language we use in business reports
It should incorporate good manners.
It includes phrases that we use in order to get along with people such as “I know you’re very busy and I hate to interrupt you but…”
or “Did you have a chance to get to that project we were talking about…”

One of the most important transactions that Business English supports is the one where you try to sell yourself to a potential employer or customer. It is the language you use to describe your accomplishments.

Many people don’t know how to describe their accomplishments. In fact, you’d be surprised how many people don’t think they have any.
Stay tuned for some suggestions on how to describe your accomplishments

Personal Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

In my role as a teacher of ESL, Business English, Career Enhancement, and Public Speaking , I feel that I have a great responsibility. This is because I am a participant in the development and personal growth of the learners.

A few years ago, working as an accountant, I sat near a woman who was a recent immigrant to Canada. She was very shy and never spoke unless spoken to. We started taking lunchtime strolls together. She told me “Margaret, in my country, I was a very outgoing and friendly person but since I came to Canada, I am afraid to speak in case I get my English wrong”

It was an eye-opener for me to realize that the perception of being unable to communicate could change a person’s personality and view of “self in the world”.

Another lesson comes from my Aunt, who is deaf. I have seen her only a few times in my adulthood but I am able to understand what she is saying because of her incredible skill at making herself understood without the use of audible words. She uses a combination of mouthed words and body language. She guides the watcher to her meaning by picking out the essential elements in the story (the actor, the action, time and place, relevant emotions). She checks for comprehension and builds on each understood element.

I believe that people can make themselves understood, even if they use a language with little precision, if they are confident and enjoying themselves.

As a teacher of language, I always keep in mind that the best way to learn a language is by practicing. Learners will only practice if they feel confident, comfortable, and unafraid of being criticized for getting their English wrong. It is far better to get it “wrong” than to not speak at all.

It is this Humanist view of the learning process that leads me to incorporate some of the practices of the Toastmasters organization into my language teaching. This organization is known worldwide for its ability to make confident speakers out of formerly shy people.

In this role then, I see it as my responsibility:

· to be a lifelong learner myself, believing in the importance of lifelong learning for
emotional health
· to communicate love of learning and of language to my students
· to protect and promote the self-confidence of my students
· to learn as much as possible about their lives and needs before I develop
course content
· to provide my students not only with information about the use of
English during our time together but also to provide suggestions and
tools for their continuing development

Travelling Abroad

I recently went to Costa Rica where people speak Spanish. I studied Spanish on my own for a couple of months before I went but I was quite nervous about going alone to a country where the language was one that I had barely scratched the surface of. Each day before I set off on my various activities, I looked up the language I would need for those activities. It was very challenging and frustrating. Now I know exactly what my students are saying: No amount of "book learning" can really prepare you for functioning in another language. you have to get out and speak and listen.
Watch this space for some tips on how to speed up your attainment of fluency in a second language.

Extra Fillings

Certain words or phrases are known as "fillers". Examples are '"you know" and "like". Popular among young people are intensifiers such as "totally" and "literally" .The frequency of use of these words means that they are beginning to function like "uhm" and "er"
In Toastmasters, we discourage the use of fillers on the grounds that they add no value to the speech and indicate hesitation. Some psycholinguists claim however, that they can play an important role in helping the listener to process what they are hearing.

Neologisms

English is changing constantly. It is this mutability that makes it so interesting and challenging. It gains thousands of words each year. Not all of the new words stick of course. New words are called Neologisms. Whether or not a word has officially become part of the language seems to depend upon whether or not the Oxford English Dictionary has picked it up. They have a world wide monitoring program that tracks words and phrases for signs of endurance.

There are also changes to sentence structure. One change that I have noticed is the increasing use of a double “is” as in “The thing about it is is that….” Or “The reason is is that….” I have even heard this on CBC radio!

Here is a relatively new word:
Peaknik n.
A person who believes that the world's oil reserves will soon peak and that subsequent oil shortages will devastate civilization:

“Paul the Tree comes by to give us a talk on how to make biodiesel. He takes waste vegetable oil from local chip shops and mixes it with oil. He is a peaknik — someone concerned about peak oil and its consequences. Like Agric, he believes we are at peak oil already.”—Dylan Evans, "Are visitors welcome or is this Noah's ark?," The Times (London), May 25, 2007

The most useful new words or phrases are the ones that describe something that used to require a whole sentence. “bad hair day” for instance has become useful .
A similar phrase I just saw for the first time today is “bad tongue day” for a day in which a person frequently mispronounces words and stumbles over sentences. I get those when I am tired.

English is Tough Stuff

This is a poem that one comes accross on the internet. They say that if you can pronounce it all correctly, you speak English better than 90% of English speakers. It is fun but can be intimidating for beginner to intermediate ESL speakers

English is Tough Stuff
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation
I will teach you in my verse sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye your dress will tear.So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word, sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you with such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; cloven, oven, how and low, script, receipt, show, poem and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery, daughter, laughter, and terpsichore,
typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, exiles, similes, and reviles; scholar, vicar, and cigar,solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral, kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind, scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet, bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food, nor is mould like should or would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad, toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK when you correctly say croquet,rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour and enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does.
Now first say finger,and then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem very little,we say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late.Scenic,
Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.Mark the differences, moreover,Between mover, cover, clover;Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor.Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas.Sea, idea, Korea, area,Psalm, Maria, but malaria.Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Face, but preface, not efface.Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.Large, but target, gin, give, verging,Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.Ear, but earn and wear and tearDoes not rhyme with here but ere.Seven is right, but so is even,Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation — think of Psyche!Is a paling stout and spikey?Won't it make you loose your wits,Writing groats and saying grits?It's a dark abyss or tunnel:Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,Islington and Isle of Wright,Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough —Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?Hiccough has the sound of cup.My advice is to give up!!

Better Business English: A Proposal

This isn't mine. I found it online a few years ago. It was written by Kenneth Beare and is on his website: ESL.About.com . He makes a very good point.

"In my years of teaching Business English courses I am time and again surprised by one fact: Multinationals invest a surprising amount to teach basic English skills to a wide variety of employees. These learners vary in level from beginner to advanced. They are working in entry-level to management positions. They all strive to improve their command of English, and are usually successful in their efforts. Unfortunately, after attaining a certain degree of fluency they invariably run into the same problem: Communicating with a native speaker! WHAT! What good is all this teaching if they have problems communicating with the people whose language they are supposedly learning?!
There are two interesting points to this observation:
Students often don't have problems communicating with other non-native speakers.
This is often the case, as other non-native speakers tend to not use idiomatic language and use a limited range of vocabulary. Their grammatical use is often more "bookish". Students who study English as a second or foreign language tend to communicate their ideas with few cultural references. You certainly wouldn't expect German and Japanese businessmen to use sporting idioms from US culture to communicate their ideas about a sales campaign. Another important point is that non-native speakers of are usually more patient with each other when it comes to variations in pronunciation. All of these factors work together to help non-native speakers have a relatively easy time when communicating with amongst themselves.
Native speakers seem to speak English differently.
Native speakers' use of the language often reflects their own cultural bias. They bring standard idioms into play that, in their own environment, seem perfectly natural. They often prefer a highly idiomatic use of the language. Phrasal verbs and slang creep into their expressions. Take for example the issue of connected speech: "I've got to go to the bank" easily becomes "I gotta go to the bank.". These minor issues quickly become overwhelming to non-native speakers who are used to standard forms. This, of course, does not mean that native speakers use English incorrectly and speak in dialects. It does however mean that native speakers tend to economize and use English which, especially in today's hyper-speed world, is constantly evolving in terms of vocabulary, collocation and idiomatic usage.
Better Business English: A Proposal (continued)
This all seems rather obvious
Yes, I agree that these points are rather obvious. However, I am surprised at how little these two rather simplistic points are taken into consideration when it comes to communications in a multi-national business environment. Students who may have just struggled for a year to get a basic grasp of the language are often put into situations where they are expected to understand a native speaker's presentation. In such a situation, native speakers come away feeling frustrated at the lack of understanding on the part of the non-native speaker and non-native speakers often become convinced of their own lack of ability. What has happened? Clearly, the non-native speaker expects "standard" English usage and the native speaker expects someone who understands "English". And the two pass like ships in the night… I would like to suggest that management consider investing in both sides of the equation. Instead of investing a large amount of money (and years of study time) in English lessons for non-native employees only, I think that native speakers should also become sensitized to this issue. Developing workshops for management and staff who work with non-native speakers could easily be done working with ESL teachers sensitive to the matter. Companies could invest in 2 years of study for non-native speakers and a few hours working with native speakers to develop presentation skills in "standard", non-idiomatic English. Compare this to 4 years of study to bring a class of 5 students up to an "advanced" level. You can see that this approach could save quite a bit on the "bottom-line".
Staff and management need to be made aware of the fact that asking, "How can we get around that sand-trap?" may confuse non-native speakers. A non-native speaker however, would probably be quite capable of understanding, "How can we avoid that problem?" This training could be made extremely specific by working on individual presentations and the content included in these presentations. Another suggestion would be to tape conversations and have the native speaker listen to him/herself to become aware of just how much idiomatic language he/she is using.
By combining both English training and non-native English speaker sensitizing for management and staff, the international business community could save themselves quite a few headaches and improve overall communication between various locations. The investment required by native speakers (i.e. management and staff) would be quite minimal and would certainly lessen the considerable investment required for non-native English speakers."