Learning a foreign language: five most common mistakes

Learning a new foreign language is never easy – but it's a lot harder if you fall into these five common traps, says Anne Merritt.

Characterising language

• Linguists vary in their definitions of language. However, all agree that language is a system of vocal signs with an internal structure and used for the purposes of human communication. Language usually has a secondary function of carrying a social message.

• The relationship between signs and what is symbolised is arbitrary but fixed by social convention. The system is stimulus-free and non-random. It shows a duality of structure in having building blocks (phonemes) and units consisting of these (words). A small number of building blocks permits a large number of meaningful units.

• Languages vary greatly in their form and this has led some linguists to imagine that one’s native language determines the way one thinks. This extreme opinion is rejected nowadays......


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The Funniest English Idioms

a worm’s eye view
Many have heard the expression a bird’s eye view, but have you ever heard of a worm’s eye view? If you have a worm’s eye view of something, you only understand or know a little bit about it - and, unfortunately, it is usually the worst or least important part!
Example: What does Peter Perfect know about prepositions? He only has a worm’s eye view of English grammar!

a party pooper
A party pooper is someone who (always) ruins the fun.
Example: Frieda said that she can’t come to our ❛80’s Rock Star❜ party. She has to stay home and wash her hair - what a party pooper!

everyone and his brother
The English expression everyone and his brother refers to a very large number of people.
Example: Everyone and his brother was at the stamp collectors’ convention last weekend. I had never seen so many people in my life!

The world is your oyster.
If the world is your oyster, you have the ability to do anything you want or set you mind to do.
Example: The young people of today have so many advantages. The world is their oyster.

The worm has turned.
Here is another ❛worm❜ idiom. The English idiom the worm has turned is used to say that someone who was always weak and did what he was told has now become strong and confident.
Example: It looks like Rinaldo isn’t listening to you anymore. The worm has turned.

to have ants in your pants
If you have ants in your pants, you are not able to sit still because you are excited or worried about something.
Example: The kids found it difficult to sit still and listen to their teacher reading ❛The Stinky Cheese Man: And Other Fairly Stupid Tales❜ again. They had ants in their pants.

to knock your socks off
When someone or something knocks your socks off, he, she or it amazes or impresses you.
Example: Abrar’s version of the Canadian national anthem really knocked our socks off!

top banana
Similar to head honcho, big cheese or big enchilada, the term top banana refers to the leader of a group or organization.
Example: Our principal, Mr. Ted Tutor, is the top banana at our school.

How to Teach English Idioms and Their Meaning

Should we or shouldn’t we teach English idioms to ESL students? Although it is uncommon for ESL students to use them comfortably and effectively, if we choose to not teach them idioms, they’ll be missing an important cultural element of the language they strive to speak fluently. However, it stands to reason that idioms should be taught to upper-intermediate or advanced students, individuals who are ready to take their English fluency to the next level.....

A New Outlook to L2 Learner''s Writing Errors

Related to writing a sentence accepted by L2 standards, this study reveals that there are three distinctive areas responsible for the transfer of L1 elements for the Iranian students. Awareness of these three areas on behalf of the learner is responsible for conscious learning of that language. These three areas are the areas that ignorance of which paves the ground for the L1 elements to penetrate L2 performance and students'''' conscious language processing will control their overall use of language (Dullay and others, 1982:110-111).

نحوهء یادگیری زبان مادری و زبان دوم

آموختن یک زبان به معنی جمع‌آوری مجموعه‌ای از اطلاعات مربوط به سیستم زبانی و یا قوانین ساختاری مشخصی‌ است که در پی یک فعالیت آگاهانه و یا یک تجربه صورت‌ می‌گیرد.به‌طور قطع،زبان را نمی‌توان با حفظ کردن تمامی‌ جملاتی که استفاده می‌شود و یا در آینده مورد استفاده قرار خواهد گرفت،آموخت.بلکه زبان‌آموز باید نظام زبانی و کاربرد صحیح آن را بیآموزد.شناخت قواعد یک زبان نیز ضرورتا باعث ایجاد توانایی در به کارگیری اطلاعات‌ نمی‌شود.در واقع،حفظ کردن،به معنی هیچ چیز یاد نگرفتن‌ است و این حفظیات فقط در شرایط از قبل پیش‌بینی شده قابل‌ استفاده است.(هالته-1993)......

 زبان دوم دختر تام کروز چه خواهد بود؟+عکس

سوری کروز ممکن است تنها شش سال داشته باشد ولی از همین حالا در حال فراگیری زبان دوم است.

دختر کوچک تام کروز و کتی هولمز در مدرسه اونیوز در منهتان که شهریه آن سالانه 39،750 دلار است زبان ماندارین چینی می آموزد.

ظاهرا والدین مشهورش ، وی را در کلاس های زبان چینی ثبت نام کرده اند.

طبق گفته یک منبع، این مدرسه با اعتبار، همچنین در نظر دارد فضاهایی را به این منظور در چندین شهر چین از جمله پکن ، شانگهای و هونگ کنگ برقرار کند.

کتی هولمز و سوری بعد از طلاق به خانه جدیدی در منهتان نقل مکان کرده اند و سوری از اوایل این ماه به این مدرسه جدید می رود.

در عین حال گفته می شود تام کروز به طور مرتب از لندن با سوری که اکنون با مادرش در نیویورک زندگی می کند در تماس است.

In debate style and body language, Romney trumps Obama

Republican Mitt Romney came across as aggressive and polished, while Democrat Barack Obama appeared laid back and unassertive in a presidential debate on Wednesday that showcased their differences in style as much as substance............

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Descending the cafeteria stairs at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), Ildiko Voller-Szenci greeted a classmate from Germany. A few steps later, she hailed a friend from Ecuador. Then she encountered one of the School’s executive education groups, composed of students from the far corners of the world. A sprinkling of languages peppered the hallway conversations.

“The languages spoken here and the connections that they represent to the world are just amazing,” said Voller-Szenci, who is Hungarian but also speaks English, French, and Russian.

Which comes first, language or thought?

Researcher Elizabeth Spelke finds that babies think first

Professor of Psychology Elizabeth Spelke did experiments showing that, contrary to what many scholars believed, children learn to think independently about objects before they learn language.

“Infants are born with a language-independent system for thinking about objects,” says Elizabeth Spelke, a professor of psychology at Harvard. “These concepts give meaning to the words they learn later.” Because languages differ in how they approach objects, many scientists suspected that children must learn the relevant concepts as they learn their language. That’s wrong, Spelke insists. Spelke and Susan Hespos, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., did some clever experiments to show that the idea of tight/loose fitting comes before the words that are used/not used to describe it. When babies see something new, they will look at it until they get bored. Hespos and Spelke used this well-known fact to show different groups of 5-month-olds a series of cylinders being placed in and on tight- or loose-fitting containers. The babies watched until they were bored and quit looking. After that happened, the researchers showed them other objects that fit tightly or loosely together. The change got and held their attention for a while, contrary to American college students who failed to notice it. This showed that babies raised in English-speaking communities were sensitive to separate categories of meaning used by Korean, but not by English, adult speakers. By the time the children grow up, their sensitivity to this distinction is lost.