| English
as a Foreign Language |
kingary.net "matching tracksuits and everything" |
| A
Look at ESL Materials, Methods, and Difficulties
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|  Ever
wonder what an EFL (English as a Foreign Language)
textbook looks like? I certainly did as I was
preparing to come to Poland for the first time
back in 1996. After all, how often do you get
to see a textbook teaching something you already
know fluently?
Naturally, after four and a half years' experience,
I've seen and used more textbooks than I care
to remember. I thought I'd share a little about
the books I've been using. |

Most units tend to be thematic. For example, for
practicing modal verbs such as "should," "must,"
and "have to" (among others), this particular book
(and many others) use the idea of advice and "Doing
the right thing." |

There are certain groups of easily-confused words,
and some activities are aimed at improving students'
ability to choose the correct word from a similar
pair. This particular book is written specifically
for Polish students, and so that influenced the
word choice (in other words, they might not seem
like similar words in English, but they are in Polish
translation, so . . .). |

There are three tenses in Polish; there
are twelve in English. When to use which tense
can be somewhat confusing for students. Even remembering
how to make them all can be difficult, so sometimes
we have "easy" lessons that just make students think
about how to make the tenses. (This particular exercise
uses Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner," a rather popular
song in Poland, making this one of the most popular
lessons I've ever taught.) |

Obviously, the most basic element needed to be able
to use a foreign language is an adequate vocabulary.
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Teaching English in Poland presented some special challenges.
For instance, articles: when to use "a," when to
use "an," and when to use "the." Polish
doesn't have articles, so the sentence "Idê do sklepu"
could be translated "I'm going to a shop" or "I'm
going to the shop." Teaching students when to use which
was initially very difficult.
The most difficult part, though, would be orthography: getting
kids to remember that the dark part of a 24-hour period is
"night" and a medieval soldier is a "knight"
and they're both pronounced the same.
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