Teach English in BAlitai Zhen - Tianjin

Problems for Learners in ItalyWhile scholastic literature on the specific linguistic challenges for Italians learning english does not appear to be readily available, there are key issues which emerge for those with experience teaching english in italy, particularly when italian is also known. John Peter Sloan is an Englishman who has been living in italy and teaching english for many years. His recently published book, ?Instant english,? has become an instant bestseller in Italy. One of the more appealing and perhaps instructional aspects of his book is his ability to point out the specific pitfalls for Italians learning english. These include the following topics. Speaking and Listening Almost immediately, Sloan introduces the english letter ?h.? Sloan asks, ?How do you know if you have pronounced the 'h' sound properly? You know when your glasses are dirty and you breathe on the lenses to then clean them? That's the english 'h'!? He does well to introduce this concept early; ?No phoneme [h] exists in italian. In nativised foreign words, the ?h? is silent. For example, hotel and hovercraft are pronounced /o?t?l/ and /??verkraft/ respectively.? However, there is a larger issue regarding pronunciation that is more important: relationship between the spoken language and the written language. ?In general, [in italian] there is a clear one-to-one correspondence between letters or digraphs and phonemes, As in spanish; in standard varieties of italian, there is little allophonic variation.? Because each letter in an italian word is pronounced, when an italian faces english, the entire concept of how one relates to written words must be reconsidered. Words like ?bought,? ?thorough,? and even ?walk? and ?said,? are deeply foreign. Similarly, the non-emphasis of so many syllables in english sentences as well as the significant variation in word stress (italian words usually stress the penultimate syllable, as in spanish) makes comprehension of spoken english very difficult for italian students. Grammar There are two key areas within the grammar of verbs which cause consistent problems for Italians. First, is the simple past tense. As John Peter Sloan points out, ?Even more than in other cases, when you create the past simple tense, you should not translate from italian!? He goes on to explain that while the past simple in italian is formed with an auxiliary, past simple in english is not. My own teaching experience supports the fact that Italians often reach for an auxiliary when attempting to use a verb that is not present tense. The second is the fact that in italian, as in other Romance languages, there is a verb tense for everything, and generally, the use of these tenses is specific without excessive overlap. The present tense is used more frequently in italian and the progressive tenses in a way that is consistently progressive, and not, for example, an expression of the future (as in going to). Because the tense of an italian verb is precise, it also tells you who is speaking, and so the personal pronoun is often omitted and never capitalized, as in the english ?I.? Reading and Comprehension Finally, there is a kind of mismatch of structure vs. context in english vs. italian. In italian, a question is often structured exactly the same way as a statement. It is distinguished from a statement by a question mark in written language and intonation in spoken language or a question tag at the end of the phrase, as in ?You're coming with me, right?? So to determine whether something is a question, tonal context is crucial. In english, however, context often determines the very meaning of a verb. John Peter Sloan highlights ?The Anglosaxon family: to get, to set, to let, to keep.? He notes, ?[...If you look up 'get' in a dictionary] you find 27 pages of examples.? While students of english around the world surely struggle with modals and phrasal verbs, they are perhaps particularly taxing to speakers of Romance languages who are accustomed to verbs that have one meaning and conjugate to give all important information.