montgomail

If he was unprepared, I'm not surprised he hated it. Yes I was referring to FE in the UK.

Talking of prepositions: I had an ESOL student who when I asked how she had arrived at college, said: "by leg."

lynnxa

thing is - he was officially 'qualified'

by leg

missbad

Is it a real question or am i being completely thick

lynnxa

it's a real question that I have been asked more than once while teaching English to foreigners

& there is a real answer - more than one actually, but they come down to the same thing!

I bet any spaniard who has studied English could answer it though - they do like to have grammar explained to them!

me me

PLEASE MISS.......

I know the answer, anything that has a defined route as in train, bus, coach, ship etc the work used is ON

if there is not route, as in small fishing boat, private plane etc. the word is IN

I am right arent I?

cONGRATULATIONS, not a lot of English people know why.

I

missbad

Did you find the answer on google i did try lol xx

lynnxa

as in ON public transport but not private transport

I knew you'd know

you might have let a few more 'fluent' brits try first though

he knows because he studied english as a foreign language


am I right JLFS?

montgomail

Thing is, we don't actually need to know and it's the sort of thing you get taught as a young child and forget about. It's only foreign languages that we tend to over analyse.

me me

YES, that is how I know, I had home tuition when I was about 8
and because I enjoyed the class and it was not a chore, I still remember, but I forgot the boring classes with boring teachers.


JLFS

montgomail

Says it all, about how we learn.

Even the most mundane stuff can be retained if the teaching is good - I still recall the teacher telling us about double negatives.

Lorna at Vicenza

Loads of double negatives in Italian. Is Spanish the same?

Italians find it very hard to grasp the present perfect.

I'm very careful about pronouncing conditionals properly when I teach. I don't want students asking me what "wunt - shunt and c..." mean.

I once gave some high school students a general knowledge quiz. One question in the 'science and nature' section was:

What is the hardest rock?

A lovely girl replied "heavy metal"

Veleta

I was speaking with someone last week who told me that a hell of a lot of the teachers in the primary/secondary schools here in Spain are not actually qualified teachers. They are "licenciados" or "diplomados", but not necessarily in the subject that they teach, and usually haven't studied to be a teacher (not sure what the PGCE equivalent is in Spain).

Not sure how true this is, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Veleta

Hey Lynnxa, you could turn this into a bit of a quiz thread and have a bit of fun. Pose a few basic grammar Qs to the "natives" and see what they know about their own language?

missbad

Well i cant play then

lynnxa

you're right, of course

& tbh when I'm teaching spanish I try not to get too caught up in grammar simply because most of my (adult) students just about know a noun from a verb - that's nothing against them - more on the way we were taught in the UK (or not!), and the fact that if tehey were ever taught it they have now forgotten it, because they don't need to know it!

the kids in spain learn their own language with a huge emphasis on grammar - and expect to learn a foreign language the same way