The English language

[PeteC]

I've just finished listening to BBC Radio, "The North" and the ongoing BBC Scotland "Outdoors" series. A few hours into those and your ear becomes well tuned, or both shows are using announcers and guests who are having mercy on the listening public. Pete

[STEVE G]

I've just finished listening to BBC Radio, "The North" and the ongoing BBC Scotland "Outdoors" series. A few hours into those and your ear becomes well tuned, or both shows are using announcers and guests who are having mercy on the listening public. Pete

I used to think the same thing until I went to Stonehaven, ( People from Aberdeen don't understand them and is less than 20 miles away! )

[HHTel]

What I've been wondering for eons: Where did the "I was sat" come from?

Back to spoken English against written English. "I was sat' is incorrect - "I was sitting" is the correct term.

The Americans and their movies are to blame for a lot of the use of incorrect grammar. Only the Americans would have a verb "to have gotten"!!

[crazy88]

Sunday arvo. Forgot the quote!

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

Ain't that a bit racialist?

Crazy 88

[Bristolian]

^^ sorry but racialist is not allowed. It's both a noun and adjective depending on how you use it
It's much better to stick with racist which is only a noun and much easier to handle

[hhinner]

^^ Except it's not only a noun.

[oakdale160]

There is one noun that has beome a verb in todays modern British English and which jars on me is--- rubbish.

[handdrummer]

if you get over "rubbish" you might try hack.

[HHTel]

A 'must watch' video:



Not sure how to imbed. Maybe someone can help.

[Vital Spark]

Love it, HHTel. I'm always looking for new ways to keep my first year students awake. Grammar can be so effing boring for them. I can cover the entire year's 'word form' part with this delightful short video.

VS

[nellyp]

what.jpg (27.58 KiB) Viewed 6581 times

More inane rubbish about the foibles of the English language. English is way too fluid to be genaralised. and that is why it is a languge that can be used everywhere. It may be difficult to understand and master, but once it has been, it is descriptive as no other. If you want a language that follows phonetic rules, speak German. If you want a language that never changes over time, try latin. if you want to speak the language that is understood by the planet and is able to be utilized by the most people, learn to speak English.

When I was studying the language,m my tutor always emphasised intelligability, and this is what I wouold focus on. Does the persopn you speak to know what you are talking about? If they do then why worry? lolok at this link to understand what I am talking about.

[Bamboo Grove]

I was having a few beers with some friends on Friday evening and a question was brought up. Now that the UK has opted to leave EU, will the English language be as important in the future as it is now or will it fade away in the future and some other language become more important? We had some interesting opinions on that one.

[Nereus]

Are any of the English teachers on here familiar with the following?
.........................................................................................
New test for English teachers, students

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... s-students

Ministry looking to weed out backpackers

The Education Ministry will use a new one-standard-for-all method to assess the English-language proficiency of students as well as foreign teachers in a bid to raise the quality of English-language teaching and learning, and weed out unqualified foreign teachers.

Deputy Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin said the new guideline, called CEFR-T, will be adapted from the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR).

It is used to assess the language ability of the test-takers with six different levels of performance ranging from A1 for beginners to C2 for those who have mastered the language.

However, CEFR-T will be divided into 10 levels ranging from 1 for beginners to 10 for those who are language experts as it is an adaptation of the original CEFR for English-language teaching specifically in the context of Thailand.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.. long interesting article>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
...........................................................................................
Not my area of expertise really, but why do they have to change the system, just because it is Thailand?

I also cannot understand why the system uses an arse about grading method where "A" is the lowest level(to be replaced in Thailand with "1" as the lowest level). The most common grading system in a multitude of English speaking endeavors, not just education, has "A" as the highest level of grading. It is no wonder that non-native English speakers have so much trouble trying to learn English, when stupid illogical methods such as this are employed.

[Big Boy]

Although well intended, it could backfire on them. How does the saying go? If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

If schools could afford proper English teachers, they would not have to rely on backpackers

The policy is obviously intended to improve the quality of English education, but this could force many of the existing educators out, leaving a country wide shortage of teachers. At least the backpacking element are better than nothing (or are they?). It's a catch 22 situation, but whatever happens, they probably need to throw money at the problem as well as tests.

[PeteC]

I hope the test isn't essay or oral, they'll have problems finding someone to evaluate/administer it properly if it is. Pete