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POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING

ENGLISH

Prof. Dr. Durval A. Ramanholi [email protected]

POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING ENGLISH

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

The teaching speech (authoritarian) break into at least three laws of the speech: 1. The law of informativity: the listener must want to know the fact that you point; 2. The law of interest: one can not legitimately speak to others but what he is interested in; and 3. The law of usefulness: no one speaks just for talking, but because there is a utility to do so.


LANGUAGE AQUISITION

Children are not taught grammar when learning the mother tongue. They learn the language structures naturally experimenting the idiom day by day. So you shouldn’t hope to learn English in 2 or 3 years studying just 1 or 2 hours a week. By the way, hypothetically, with your mother tongue, you’re connected 24 hours a day.


The best strategy is learning naturally, following our instincts and interacting with our surroundings.

The human being keeps easily pieces of information when they are inserted in the referenced knowledge. The new data have to be linked to our way of thinking about the world and to our previous experience. To get time for that it is easy if it will be pleasing. Take this activity as something very nice to do, and that will bring you great benefits, personally and as a professional.


Choosing the texts is one of the most important step. We do better when we like what we’re doing. We learn the more recurrent words first, which we read previously in several contexts. And because of that they will appear more often in any text you work with.

Everything that we learn actively will be kept alive in our permanent memory along the years.


VOCABULARY BY NUMBERS

Cognate words figure out 20 to 25% of all the words coming up in a scientific text/paper.

The 250 more common words of the English language are equivalent to 60% of an entire text. If we know the meaning of those 250 words mentioned above plus the cognates we will be acquainted with around 80 to 85% of any scientific paper.


The State of the Art Tattoo Convention

TATTOO TIME by John Rigg


Tattoos are fashionable. Everybody seems to have one, including top stars like Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck and Eminem. Well, Derby may not be the most fashionable English city, but tattoo enthusiasts from around the world come each year for the State of the Art Tattoo Convention. This year it takes place at the Assembly Rooms on July 21st and 22nd. The world’s top tattoo artists come to take part in the convention’s prestigious competitions, while enthusiasts come to see – and display – spectacular examples of body art. There are three types of award: for small tattoos, which cover a shoulder or arm; large designs, which cover half the body; and, finally, “the body suit,” which covers the entire body.


ASK A STUPID QUESTION!

Spectators watch the tattoo artists at work. Their first question is always the same: does it hurt? Well, of course, it does! The least painful areas are the arms and shoulders, followed by the back; avoid joints such as knees and ankles, and just forget about your neck. Ouch! And remember: choose the design carefully, go to a registered tattooist, certainly not the cheapest on offer, and insist on new needles and new ink. Legally, you have to be over 18 years old in Britain.


Enigma’s body


SHOCKING

Why do people get tattoos? The answer varies: some people love the designs, some want to express their inner selves, while others want to shock. Local teenager Janine says: “My mother told me, ‘Proper young ladies do not get tattoos.’ So I went and got one immediately!” Finally, there are people like Enigma who make a living from displaying their tattoos as sideshow attractions. Enigma’s body (pictured top, left) is completely covered in a blue jigsaw design.


A Brief History of Tattoos

Tattoos first became fashionable in Britain at the end of the 18th century. The famous explorer, Captain Cook, returned from a voyage to the South Pacific with a heavily tattooed Polynesian chief named Omal, whom he presented to King George III. People were fascinated and tattoos became popular with the upper classes in this period. The word “tattoo” (derived from the Tahitian “tatu,” meaning “to mark something”) first appears in Captain Cook’s journals. Yet the art of tattooing dates back to Ancient Egypt (3000 BC), a thousand years later we find descriptions in Chinese literature of men completely covered in tattoos. In Europe the Romans used tattoos to mark criminals and slaves, while Britons, Danes and Saxons had tattoos of their family crests. In fact, tattoos were common in Europe until AD 787, when Pope Adrian I banned them.


READING STRATEGIES 1. Scanning: fast and narrow reading of a text in order to

placing specific information, setting the others apart. 2. Previewing and predicting: What can you preview and

predict by exploring the pictures and the titles only? 3. Skimming: fast and narrow reading of a text in order to

placing the main idea, and the more important ones. What’s the text about?

4. Finding the main idea and supporting details (capital, italics and bolds).


READING STRATEGIES

5. Identifying facts and opinions: fact is something already known; opinion is just an idea that both the author and the reader may have about the subject or somebody. 6. Finding the tone: find out the voice the author used to express his opinions and feelings about the theme. 7. Finding the purposes: why the author wrote certain text (to inform, to entertain, to persuade…)


READING STRATEGIES

8. Focusing on vocabulary in context (making inferences, recurrent words).

9. Focusing on word building (prefixes and suffixes).

10. Numbers, anthroponyms, and toponyms.


TEXTUAL LINGUISTICS Recurrent Words

Semantic Field / Associative Working with texts (real communication, contextualized), the most recurrent words will be first learned.

LEXIS Cognates

Words from Latin root. The real cognates constitute an absolute majority. It is worth believing in the (possible) meaning of the word.


THE MORE COMMON WORDS IN ENGLISH 1. THE 11. WITH 21. THEY 31. HIM 41. ME

2. OF 12. AS 22. FROM 32. AN 42. IF

3. AND 13.BY 23. WERE 33. SO 43. TO SAY

4. TO 14. FOR 24. THERE 34. ONE 44. THERE

5. IN 15. TO HAVE 25. THIS 35. SHE 45. WHEN

6. TO BE 16. BUT 26. OR 36. MY 46. WOULD

7. THAT 17. WHICH 27. YOU 37. THEM 47. MORE

8. HIS 18. ON 28. HER 38. WE 48. WILL

9. HE 19. AT 29. WHO 39.BEEN 49. SOME

10. IT 20. NOT 30. ALL 40. NO 50. WHAT


BUILDING UP WORDS

Productivity: Suffixes and Prefixes


HOW TO MULTIPLY YOUR VOCABULARY RAPIDILY

About he Cardinal Points

From the FOUR original ones: North, South, East and West => if you add –ERN you got another FOUR:

Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western From the FOUR original ones: North, South, East and West => if you combine them together you’ll get another FOUR, again:

Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest


HOW TO MULTIPLY YOUR VOCABULARY RAPIDILY From the FOUR previous ones: Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest => if you add –ERN again, you’ll get another FOUR: Northeastern, Southeastern, Northwestern, Southwestern. Conclusion: suffixes are very productive – from the FOUR original words we made SIXTEEN in less than a minute. They are useful for reading and writing too.


1. For all the words in Portuguese ended in -DADE (as the word CI-DADE) remove -DADE and put in its place -TY and thus it has become CITY.

2. For all the words in Portuguese that end in “-ÇÃO" (such as word “NA-ÇÃO”) draw out “-ÇÃO" and put in its place “-TION" and thus the word “NAÇÃO” is now NATION

3. For adverbs ending in “-MENTE" (as the word “NATURAL-MENTE”), remove “-MENTE" and put in its place “-LY"


4. For words ending with “-ÊNCIA" (as in the

case of “ESSÊNCIA”), remove “-ÊNCIA" and put in its place “-ENCE.“

5. For words ending with "AL" (as in word “GENERAL”) don’t change anything, write exactly as it is in Portuguese and it will be the same in English.


Some produtive suffixes in English: -less = hopeless, fatherless, childless, homeless -ness = happiness, kindness, illness, carefulness -ful = beautiful, helpful, wonderful, successful, awful -er = player, singer, teacher, worker, Maker, user -ing = following, according to, amazing, charming -ment = development, goverment, intertainment -ous = ambitious, famous, numerous, enormous -ist = tourist, psychologist, scientist, pianist -dom = kingdom, freedom, wisdom,


Some produtive suffixes in English:

-ble = responsible, suitable, probable, portable -ic = fantastic, fanatic, allergic, energetic -en = to fasten, to shorten, to deepen, to harden -ish = childish, greenish, oldish, yellowish -y = healthy, smoky, rocky, muddy, heavy, asleepy -hood = neighborhood, childhood, brotherhood -ee = refugee, employee, -ism = communism, criticism, heroism, socialism -ship = friendship, ownership, headship


HERE COME THE PREFIXES

dis- = disappear, disagree, dissatisfaction mis- = misunderstanding, mispronunciation, misplace un- = unclear, unfortunately, unhappy, unreal, in-/ i- = independent, illegal, impossible, illiterate over- = overweight, overdo, overcome out- = outlook, outnumber, outlaw, outdoor under- = underground, underwear, underline,

underdeveloped


SOME INTERETING WORDS TO ANALYSE THEIR FORMATION PROCESS

TEENAGER = teen+age+er HOPELESSLY = hope+less+ly

UNFORTUNATELY = un+fortune+(a)te+ly MISUNDERSTANDING = mis+under+stand+ing

UNCONSCIUOSNESS = un+conscience+ous+ness BUSYNESSMAN = busy+ness+man DISAGREEMENT = dis+agree+ment


SYNTAX Basic Structural Rules

√ Word Order √ Genitive case √ Questions and negatives √ Plural forms

The text points out which rules treat. What is important is that the rules in use are contextualized and applicant.


GENERAL

Tips •  You have to believe in what you teach, otherwise you won’t

convince. •  When reading (and also listening to) in a foreign language ignore all

unknown words and focus on the known ones. The fluency is more important than the structure.

•  Only use dictionary if the same unknown word occur three or more times.

•  Practice your English from texts, things and subjects you have pleasure with. You have to enjoy what you do.

•  Nobody learns from theory, you have to practice a lot. As we said, “No pain, no gain.” Communication first; later grammar.


HEAVEN AND HELL (Joke)

An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter checks his dossier and says: "Ah, you're an engineer; you're in the wrong place. So the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon the engineer becomes dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After a while they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy.


One day God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer: “So how's it going down there in hell?” Satan replies: “Hey, things are going great! We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next.” God replies: “What?! You've got an engineer? That's a mistake. He should never have gotten down there: send him up here!”

Satan says: “No way! I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him.” God says: “Send him back up here, or I'll sue you!" Satan laughs out loud and answers: “Yeah, right! And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"


EL CONDOR PASA (Song by Paul Simon)

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail.

Yes I would. If I could,

I surely would. I'd rather be a hammer than a nail.

Yes I would. If I only could, I surely would.


CHORUS

Away, I'd rather sail away Like a swan that's here and gone A man gets tied up to the ground

He gives the world Its saddest sound, Its saddest sound.


I'd rather be a forest than a street. Yes I would. If I could,

I surely would.

I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet, Yes I would.

If I only could, I surely would.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

•  ALLEN, W. S. Living Structure for schools. 7th ed. London - GB: Longman, 1990 •  CARDOSO, S. H. B. Discurso e Ensino. 2ª. Ed. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica/FALE-

UFMG, 2005. •  DIXON, R. J. Graded Exercises in English - a new revised edition, Rio de Janeiro:

Ao Livro Ténico AS, 1989 •  GREENALL, S.; SWAN, M. Effective Reading: reading skills for advanced

students.Cambridge: University Press, 1986. •  KOCH, I. V. A inter-ação pela linguagem. 10ª Ed. São Paulo: Contexto, 2006. •  MURPHY, R. Essential Grammar in Use. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1994 (tenth printing 1997). •  ORNBY, A. S. at al The Advanced Learner's dictionary of current English. Lodon:

Oxford University Press •  THOMPSON, A. J. & MARTINET, A. V. A Practical English Grammar. 4th ed. London

GB: Oxford University Press. 1990 (eighth impression)