Chapter 22: Distinguishing Monolingual and Multi-lingual Classes 331
Problems for Japanese students
The Japanese students pronounce every syllable with equal length and
stress, so they can sound a little like robots. Monitor and drill intonation and
get students to mark the stress on all the vocabulary listed in the course
book. They can also underline key words in their notes so they give them
more emphasis when speaking.Read /lid/ is a key word in this lesson but these students have difficulty with
the letter ‘r’, so show and exaggerate the mouth position for this word.Being overly polite is a hindrance for some of the students. Encourage them
to be bold and not to apologise too frequently. Explain that formal and
traditional gestures like bowing and receiving things with both hands are
unnecessary but not objectionable.When they’re unsure, some of the Japanese students say ‘Huh!’ in what looks
like a startled manner from an English speaking perspective. This response
needs to be softened. Memorising some of the expressions from this lesson
will give the students something to say in response to any question.Problems for Colombian students
My Colombian students are all university undergraduates from the same
college. They stick together a lot and break into Spanish whenever they can
get away with it.Students put an initial /e/ before words which begin with ‘s’, such as sports /
espɔrt/ and science /esaiens/. Apart from the initial vowel, I predict that
students will pronounce science in a Spanish way because of the Latin
connection /ʃiens/.Problems for Brazilian students
Collectively the Brazilians are the most outgoing and vocal. They sometimes
intimidate the other groups, especially the Asian students, simply because
they speak up more readily. If others wait for a convenient moment to speak
they find it difficult to get a word in sometimes. This manner brings a lively
atmosphere to the classroom though.They have some ingrained bad habits that will lose them marks such as:✓ Omitting the auxiliary verb: What you think? instead of What do you
think?
✓ Making adjectives plural to match nouns: bigs books instead of big books