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Problems for learners of english in ColombiaIn this research article I will attempt to summarise the main problems encountered by learners of english in Colombia. I will supplement this analysis with outside resources, where possible. The article with be structured as follows; a brief introduction to Colombia and influence of english, the main problems with this and finally I will briefly review some suggested solutions. In the past month Colombia has regularly been featured in the UK and international press, due to its partial emergence from a 40 year civil war. Although there are still significant problems, the economy is growing at 4% annually and is classified as a CIVET nation (part of the group of nations behind the BRIC economies, the largest economies outside of the traditional G7). Recently Colombia overtook Venezuela to become South America?s third largest economy. Against this backdrop many international companies choose to locate their Latin American headquarters within Colombia, specifically Bogota. In my teaching schedule I teach many international companies. The main problems I find with these learners are always with phrasal verbs and pronunciation of the past tense. In spanish the phonetic sounds with the 3 main types of sounds in the past tense such as the unvoiced ch, sh and th in looked, asked, helped, pushed, dressed and moredo not exist. Likewise the d sound at the end of sobbed, believed and filled plus more, and finally the ed in verbs like needed and waited with the extra syllable. Because of this unless the students are very talented with accents they always have problems. I regularly have to correct the students and I have found worksheets that I use and always drill when I need to. With regard to phrasal verbs it is my understanding from my knowledge of spanish that there are very few that actually exist in spanish. Hence it is a new concept to many of the students, instead of having a phrasal verb in spanish they simply have a verb that does the complete job e.g. get dressed vestirse, take off my clothes / get undressed is disvertirse. Along with this the sheer quantity and varying meanings of phrasal verbs together with the contradictions against normal usage of the words separately causes problems. I have found the best way to deal with phrasal verbs with my students is to treat them like new vocabulary. The last and more profound problem is related to the divide in incomes within Colombia and the cost of TOEFL tests ($160 - $250 http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about/). Due to accelerating globalisation, the fact that the world?s best universities are found in the UK and America (http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings) and finally order to get a good job in Colombia you need english. Because of this many students without sufficient funds are being left behind. I teach voluntarily in a school for impoverished children, and despite many having high intelligence levels, having taught themselves english to a high standard they cannot afford the english exams to formal accredit their english for entrance to various courses. This is one of the main problems with learning english in Colombia; affording the exams in place as part of the learning process. This means english becoming a global language acts as a barrier to many Colombians. It is to the point, that regardless of the subject, every student needs to pay for the english exam. This is in my opinion is terrible, we in the UK could be missing some hugely talented students. Therefore in my opinion, the cost of english tests is something that needs to change. Teaching english has become a ruthless international business, and it is leading to a divide as capable students are excluded from entering universities and therefore businesses in their home countries. In my opinion the focus on the next few years should be to try and reduce the cost of the entrance exams. Open up the developing world to these exams can only be a good thing; it will lead to lots of positive effects as we find capable students and improve science, education and cultural understanding.
