华尔街中级英语Lesson 54（在线收听）

-Let’s talk about English as a language. Is it very difficult to learn?

7. –I think it is perhaps, to master, I think it’s one of the most difficult of the European languages.  It’s only when you start to teach it, you realize just how much there is to learn for the students, and how it differs from other European languages. The complicated tense systems, the continuous tenses, the almost infinite variety of preposition a adverbial particle combinations.  It defeats students.
-So how would you tackle, for example, teaching tenses?

8. –Teaching tenses.  Well, the basic rule really is presentation, practice, and then, production. You usually introduce the tense in a situation, in a dialogue, on a video, and let the students see it.  And then they practice it, pair work between them, and then you will ask them questions to elicit this particular tense. I usually consolidate that then with a reference to a grammar book, and I may well set homework also based on exercises to consolidate.
- So have we come a long way since the days of just listening and repeating?
-Yes, I think we have. I think the empathsis right from the beginning is that the students learn rules, but the ultimate aim is for them to create and produce their own unique language so that the idea of just repetitive drill is passe.

9. –What about pronunciation? Can that cause a problem?
-I think pronunciation is perhaps the one problem which is the most difficult to solve bearing in mind the time that people have.  One, you know, one teaches syntax and lexis and pronunciation is neglected, because it’s so time consuming.  In order for a student to have an acceptable intonation and acceptable stress patterns, one has to spend so much time on it. The next time someone puts it down as an option. This is something that I always feel is unsatisfactory.