Advanced TEFL Program

Peculiarities of the English Language More than 375 million people speak English as their first language and this probably makes it the third largest language in the world. If we then add the number of non-native speakers, English makes it up to second, if not even first place on the list of the world?s most commonly spoken languages. The estimated number of second language speakers varies between around 500 million to over a billion, depending on how the mastery is measured. Nonetheless, it makes it a language with great influence on a global level. Music, films and literature, such as books, newspapers and magazines written in English are easily accessible in many countries around the planet, and for instance in Science, it?s the most commonly used language even among non-native speakers. So what is it then that makes it so difficult for non-native speakers to master this widely spread language? It is true that English has many variations spoken around the world, as well as multiple accents and dialects, but so do many other languages. Latin, French, Greek, etc., have over the years influenced the English language, but also this is nothing unusual. The English vocabulary is undoubtedly vast, but you can easily get by without knowing it all. The grammatical structure is fairly straightforward and lacks complexity, and even the sound and pronunciation of spoken English is not much harder to learn than sounds in many other languages used around the world. As most other languages, also English has its peculiarities, and they play a big part in this matter. Spellings in English are highly irregular and this is one of the reasons why it?s so challenging for non-native speakers to fully master it, but it?s far from the only one. How is it that the words how and cow, are pronounced different from row and bow? It certainly doesn?t take a genius to see that they are spelled with the same ?ow. For words with a common pronunciation there can be two different spellings, e.g. cell and sell. And how are you supposed to know that believe is spelled with i-e and receive is spelled with e-i, when the sound of the two combinations is the same? Let us look at the sound of (o-u-g-h). It doesn?t look too complicated at a first glance, but how do we justify to a non-native speaker that it can be pronounced in a number of different ways? How are you to know how to pronounce rough, though, cough, plough, thought or through? Another inconsistency that can make you stumble is when the same word is being pronounced differently, depending on the situation. ?Let me present the present plan.? ?We had to subject the subject to some tests.? ?How do you polish the Polish wooden table?? Where is the logic behind a fat chance and a slim chance being the same, when a wise guy and a wise man are opposites? And if a vegetarian eats vegetables then dare we ask ourselves what a humanitarian eats? Describing words like car park and microwave oven make perfect sense but what about pineapple or eggplant? Does it really make sense to fill in a form by filling it out, and for an alarm to go off by going on? Talking about contradictions, quicksand swallows its victims slowly rather than quickly and why is it that we call the obviously square fighting arena a boxing ring? If singers sing and runners run, then why don?t grocers groce? And why do we say that a fighter fought and a teacher taught when a preacher didn?t praught? The English language can certainly be compared to a minefield if you refer to logic but at the same time, isn?t this what makes it so interesting and full of life? It might be a disadvantage to learn English as a second language and not as mother tongue, but equipped with patience and curiosity to explore, learn and cover this vast ground, at least one thing is certain; you can, and will have plenty of fun along the way.