Overview: Module 1 Why would you want to learn about some specific characteristics of the

As an English as a Foreign Language Teacher, you, and only you, are in English language? Well, we imagine it’s quite helpful and interesting but
charge of what goes on in the classroom. The success of a lesson and what there are other reasons.
has been learnt is pretty much up to you.  You may be sitting in the staffroom one day when, say, a native-Chinese
teacher colleague asks you this: What is special about the English
You are responsible for many things such as setting up the classroom, setting language?  How will you feel if you cannot answer this?
up tasks, giving instructions, correcting students, and to a certain extent, the Your colleagues-to-be in many countries will view you as an expert and will
group dynamics of a class.  believe you know everything about the English language. Again, this
question may come up in an advanced class.
In a nutshell your primary role is to “create the conditions in which learning This has happened to us and it could easily happen to you. So, absorb this
can take place” (Scrivener 2009).     and it will serve two purposes: it will provide help and interest for you, and
                                                                                                                 it will get you out of a tricky situation.
If you have ever learnt a language in a traditional classroom setting, you will But there is also another critical reason. You need to be fully aware that there
understand how difficult it can be. If you haven’t learnt another language, it will be key differences in language structures, grammar, vocabulary usage
might be a good idea to start!  etc. in the native/first language of the learners you will be teaching,
compared to your native English language.
This will provide you with the ability to view the learning experience from a You’ll have grasped the importance of this already if you have studied a
student’s perspective. You’ll realise how challenging it can be.   foreign language at school or university, or if you are a seasoned traveller
who likes to pick up a bit of the native language of the country you are
You might be worried about making a mistake in class; you may not visiting.
understand what the teacher wants you to do. You might not understand
what has been written on the board or how to pronounce words put in front Specific Characteristics
of you.  Here are some specific characteristics of the English Language:
Fairly easy to learn
An otherwise confident person, in this setting may feel incredibly shy and English is one of the simplest and easiest natural languages in the world.
self conscious and the whole experience could, perhaps be rather stressful.  Of course, the concept of easiness is relative, and it depends on which
language a learner knows already. However, the concept of simple is
A number of authors have discussed such stresses in the classroom or undeniable. English is a fairly easy language to learn, understand and speak
“affective filters” (Krashen 1985) and their detrimental effect on the learning when compared to very complex languages such as Arabic, Cantonese,
process and, in our case, language acquisition.  Mandarin, Korean and Japanese.
Latin alphabet
You progress through the course by taking the test at the end of each The English language uses the Latin alphabet, the most universal, simple and
module.  These tests are not there to try to catch you out.  On the contrary, it short alphabet (only the Greek alphabet is shorter and simpler). In addition,
has been proven that assessment aids learning so we will only ask you in English, the Latin alphabet presents its most clean form as a true alphabet
questions that are based on key information given in the modules. with only 26 basic letters.
Its simple inflection
Unit 1: The TEFL World Inflection is the name for the extra letter or letters added to nouns, verbs
In this Unit, we will explore two very important elements. Knowledge and and adjectives in their different grammatical forms, e.g. cat, cats; eat, eats; big,
understanding of these elements will serve you well on your TEFL journey. bigger.
The first of these elements relates to some specific characteristics of the English is considered a weakly inflected language when compared to, say,
English language. French or Russian. Its nouns have only traces of inflection (plurals, the
pronouns), and its regular verbs have only four forms, e.g. look, looks, looked,
looking.
1. Some Specific Characteristics of the English Language
Even for irregular verbs, there is almost no variation in person (except the Many languages do not have a continuous tense form, so English learners
3rd person singular in the present tense, e.g. I eat, you eat, she eats). The may make mistakes such as: I had a bath when the phone rang; instead of I was
English language can indicate the relationship of words in a sentence with having a bath when the phone rang.
only the minimum of change in their structure. There are other languages Articles (a, an, the)
which do this but this is a strong characteristic of English. The article system is another feature of English grammar that causes some
Its receptiveness students enormous difficulties; particularly, of course, those whose native
A major characteristic of English language is its receptiveness to accepting language does not use articles.
and adopting words from other languages. Here are a few examples from Phrasal verbs
Spanish: A phrasal verb is an idiomatic phrase consisting of a verb and another
alligator from el lagarto meaning the lizard element, typically either an adverb, as in break down, or a preposition, for
barbecue from the Chibcha word barbacoa, meaning a wooden framework for example see to, or a combination of both, such as look down on.
sleeping on, or for storing meat or fish to be dried These phrasal verbs are a VERY significant feature of the English language
cargo from the verb cargar, meaning to load and can cause severe difficulties for learners. Sentences such as I put it down
This is regarded as an extraordinary feature of the language. It has accepted to the weather, or I made it up with my sister, are usually gobbledegook to
and adopted words from Asian, European, African, Indian, Japanese, beginner non-native speakers.
Chinese and other languages. And English has kept an open-door policy of Unfortunately for the English language learner, phrasal verbs are extremely
accepting words from classical languages like Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. common in colloquial English language.
Its (generally) fixed word order Non-tonal
Another strong characteristic of English language is its (generally) fixed English is a non-tonal language.
word order. Most English sentences (clauses) conform to the SVO word In tone languages, e.g. Chinese and Vietnamese, pitch (the degree of
order. This means that the Subject comes before the Verb, which comes highness or lowness of a tone) is used to distinguish word meaning. So, a
before the Object. Examples: word said with high pitch may have a different meaning from the same word
I (S) bought (V) a new computer (O). said with a low pitch.
She (S) doesn't like (V) dogs (O). In English, changes in pitch are used to emphasise or express emotion, not to
Why did you (S) do (V) that (O)? give a different word meaning to the sound. It is not surprising that native
There are other word orders in English but this is by far the most used, speakers of tone languages often have strong accents when speaking English.
making it easy for learners to grasp. Sound and spelling
A final feature of English that is enormously problematic for non-native
No markings on letters learners and some native-speakers is the unpredictable correspondence
There are no diacritics (a mark that is placed over, under, or through a letter between word sound and word spelling.
in some languages to show that the letter should be pronounced in a It is often impossible for learners of English to predict the spelling of an
particular way) such as happens, for example, in Spanish: English word they first encounter in speech, or the pronunciation of an
exámenes English word they first encounter in writing.
muñón In fact, the majority of English words do conform to spelling patterns. The
muñones difficulty for the learner, however, is that the words which don't conform are
canción  some of the most common words in the language, and thus the ones that
learners encounter first. For example:
The exception is words imported from other languages, e.g. rôle Words containing ough:  thought, although, rough,
and naïve from French. Words which have the same sound but different spellings: ate, eight; hear,
Pronunciation here; their, there
The pronunciation of English words such as this, thin, clothes, thirteenth, Words with silent letters, not pronounced: know, could, hour
months inevitably causes problems for learners who do not need to use the Words that look exactly the same but must be pronounced
tip of the tongue to produce words in their own language. differently: read  (present tense), read  (past tense); present (a gift), present (to
Continuous tense give to); close (near); close (to shut)
Let’s explore the second element which covers how important it is for you to sounds. In English, however, there are many more vowel sounds and the
recognise some key differences in some languages compared to English. length of the vowel sound is very important.
2. Examples of key differences in some languages compared to English Thus, Spanish learners have a lot of difficulty in first distinguishing
differences in vowel sounds and then producing them. This results in
It’s important to be aware that there will be key differences in language confusion when hearing and pronouncing many groups of words, for
structures, grammar, vocabulary etc. in the native/first language of the example:
learners you will be teaching. ship/sheep
Never assume that your students’ native language will be structured or fool/full
pronounced in the same way as English. If you do, this may lead to cat/cut
confusion in your classroom. beat/bit
Note that this is simply an awareness session, to emphasise this point. So, 4. Consonant sounds:  Spanish-native speakers frequently confuse the
you don’t need to ‘learn’ the materials in this section if you aren’t teaching consonants v and b in English, and the first sounds in words beginning
either Spanish or Chinese students. with y as in yacht and j as in jeep with ch as in cheap. Some speakers also have
The key learning point is that all languages are different and it’s wise to learn difficulty with sounds at the end of words such as thing/think.
a bit about your students’ native language to ensure you choose the right 5. The s sound: Spanish words do not start with an s sound. As a result, they
strategy when teaching them specific elements of the English language. often add an e sound to English words beginning with the s sound, resulting
You don’t need to be able to speak or write your students’ native in utterances such as I come from Espainand I went to eschool  in Barcelona.
language; it’s just so helpful when you know some of the key differences 6. Consonant clusters: These are groups of consonants which have no
between their native language and the English language. intervening vowel, e.g. split. These are much more common in English
Let’s have a quick look at this in practice. Imagine you are teaching a group than in Spanish. Sometimes they may add in a vowel sound or an extra
of either Spanish or Chinese students. What are some of the key differences syllable when tackling these, e.g. ad-vance-ed. In addition, sometimes they
you need to keep in mind from day 1? ‘swallow’ sounds when faced with a cluster, e.g. next  becomes nes.
Remember! Note that the points below are generalisations based on our Remember: A syllable is a part of a word that is pronounced with one
TEFL experiences; individual students may differ. uninterrupted sound.
Here are some general observations: 7. Syllable-timed and stress-timed languages: Spanish is a syllable-timed
Spanish EFL Students language, where an equal amount of time is given for each syllable when
1. Gender and articles: In Spanish, all nouns have gender, whereas we just syllables are expressed. On the other hand, English is a stress-timed language
use a, an, and the no matter the gender: where stresses tend to occur at regular intervals and unstressed syllables are
a boy: un niño; a girl: una niña squashed in between the stresses to maintain the regular beat of the stress.
the boy: el niño; the girl: la niña So, what does this mean? It means that many Spanish learners have difficulty
Also, there is no equivalent in Spanish for it that we use for inanimate in mirroring the combination of stress, pitch and rhythm required to project
objects. the exact meaning of their utterance in English. That is, their flattened,
Note that there are situations where we do not insert articles but these will slightly robotic-like and evened-out syllable-timed speech in English makes
usually be inserted in Spanish. Their article for the is underlined in these it difficult for native English speakers/listeners to grasp the important words
examples: in the sentence.
Cars are a hassle:  Los coches son una molestia. A popular example used to demonstrate this difference in TEFL classes is:
Mr. Smith is here:  El Sr. Smith está aquí. The Beatles were bigger than Elvis:  English, stress –timed, stress bolded
2. Relationship between sound and spelling:In Spanish, words are spelled The / Beat / les / were / big / ger / than / El / vis:  Spanish, syllable-timed, each
as they sound and vice versa. In English, there is little correlation between syllable in each slash pronounced in an equal timing
sound and spelling. Overcoming this flat-sounding intonation is very important, particularly in
3. Vowel sounds: Spanish has fewer vowel sounds than English. The length formal and important situations in English, where clarity and stressing a
of the vowel sound in Spanish is not so important when distinguishing point are paramount.
between words; there is little distinction between short and long vowel 8. Pronouns often omitted: When speaking Spanish, native speakers of
Spanish will often drop the pronoun subject unless they're stressing it to
avoid ambiguity, because whom they're referring to, e.g. you/they/he is writing Mandarin Chinese which uses the Latin alphabet. However, pinyin is
normally clear from the Spanish verb conjugation. a phonetic system and so the sound to letter correspondence differs in
So, this can transfer across to English. You may find Spanish speakers various areas.
making expressions such as: 2. Lack of cognates: Lack of cognates is a second major difference. Cognates
Came with me to the train station,  when they mean  He/She came with me to the are words which share an historical origin, which makes the learning of some
train station. words in a new language easier to grasp.
Is Carlos here? Yes. Is here. Although we majored above on the differences for a Spanish native learning
9. Word order:  In English, the word order in everyday statements is English, one of the great advantages is that there are many cognates Spanish
generally: subject, verb, object. In Spanish, though, more variations are natives can lean on to help them guess the meaning of English words. But
allowed: Chinese learners do not have this advantage.
Here are three variations of the same meaning: Carlos wrote the letter. In addition, there are very few borrowed words from English in the Chinese
Carlos escribió la carta. (subject, verb, object; very common in Spanish and the lexicon (vocabulary).
same order as in English) 3. Syllable-timed and stress-timed languages:  The third major difference is
Escribió Carlos la carta. (verb, subject, object; very common in Spanish that, similar to Spanish, Mandarin is a syllable-timed language whereas
but not used in everyday English) English is a stress-timed language. Thus, Chinese learners also have
La carta la escribió Carlos  (object, object pronoun, verb, subject; not as difficulty in mirroring the combination of stress, pitch and rhythm required
common as the two above but it is used.) to project the exact meaning of their utterance in English.
The opportunities for making errors in the word order of everyday 4. Uninflected language: Although we have said earlier that English is,
statements in English, due to the influence of their native language, are self- generally, a weakly inflected language compared to some other languages, it
evident. does convey much meaning by using auxiliary words (often called ‘helping
10. Prepositions: English has many prepositions, much more than many verbs’) and verb inflections (changes to the verb structure): is/are/were,
other languages. Most English prepositions have multiple meanings. In eat/eats/ate/eaten, etc.
addition, many are monosyllabic and are thus difficult to pick up in rapid In contrast to this, Chinese is an uninflected language which conveys
speech. meaning via its word order, context and adverbials.
Also, non-native speakers cannot depend on prepositional knowledge from 5. Consonant sounds: In Mandarin, there are only three consonant sounds
their first language. For example, the Spanish por could be expressed in which can be used at the end of a syllable. Chinese speakers thus have great
English by the prepositions by, for, during and through. You can see the difficulty with the pronunciation of any English words that end with any
potential for error when they are attempting to use English prepositions. sound outside of the three they are familiar with and, as a result, the final
11. Adjectives: In English, an adjective generally comes before a noun but in consonant is often omitted.
Spanish it generally comes after the noun. But there are Spanish adjectives 6. Some other common difficulties:
which come before the noun. And note that Spanish adjectives have gender Distinguishing the difference between l and r, and so they may
and also have plural forms with plural nouns. mispronounce rake and rice  as lake  and lice.
12. Possessive apostrophe: In English, we express possession in one of two Getting to grips with unfamiliar sounds, e.g. v, so that very  may
ways. We use the possessive apostrophe:  the boy’s book, or become wery
the of  construction: The wellbeing of the refugees is paramount. Spanish uses Pronouncing each syllable in an English word too clearly (because Chinese is
only the of construction. a monosyllabic language where each character has only one syllable)
The possessive apostrophe is probably the greatest challenge for all native- Placing adverbial phrases of time and place at the end of a sentence as these
English writers, so you can imagine how difficult this will be for Spanish are never placed at the end of a sentence in Chinese
learners. Confusing personal pronouns, e.g. he and she, because these words have the
Chinese EFL Students same pronunciation in Chinese
1. Different writing systems: A major difference is that the Chinese Omitting the verb to be  before an adjective, e.g. He sad,  and omitting articles
languages use a logographic system, whereas English uses an alphabetic as these don’t exist in Chinese
system. Some Chinese learners may be fully au fait with pinyin, a system of