Language Learner

                        Eclectic approach to teaching language The eclectic approach is the label given to a teacher's use of techniques and activities from a range of language teaching approaches and methodologies. The teacher decides what methodology or approach to use depending on the aims of the lesson and the learners in the group. Eclectic approach for teaching foreign language is commendable when circumstances do not allow for the adoption of a single method. Learners of foreign languages nowadays are prepared to invest less time than before in learning a foreign language. However, they expect to become sufficiently competent in that language in order to be able to perform well under particular circumstances. It is neither a teaching tool for the teacher nor a learning method for the learners. It is a whole way of doing things such as listening coordinated speaking with subsidiary elements like pronunciation and form...

Grammatical categories of English: Number:   In English, only singular and plural are indicated. In count nouns, -s is used to mark the plural.  The plural is also marked in demonstratives (this vs. these, that vs. those). first and third person pronouns (I vs. we, he/she/it vs. them), first and third person possessive determiners (my vs. our, his/hers vs. their), and first and third person reflexive pronouns (myself vs. ourselves, himself/herself/itself vs. themselves).  Some pronouns and adjectives mark the singular (every, each, someone, anybody, a/an), while others mark the plural (all, many, few, most, several).  Third person forms of the verb in present tense also mark singularity by use of -s, and the forms of be mark number as well.  Gender:   English expresses natural gender but not grammatical gender.  That is, nouns have a gender based on biological sex, and are not assigned a separate grammatical gender as in Spanish or German. ...

Differences: In first language acquisition, the basis for learning is universal grammar alone.  In second language acquisition, knowledge of the first language also serves as a basis for learning the second language.  There may be both positive and negative transfer between languages in second language learning. In first language acquisition, children spend several years listening to language, babbling, and using telegraphic speech before they can form sentences.  In second language acquisition in older learners, learning is more rapid and people are able to form sentences within a shorter period of time.  In formal second language learning in older learners, learners are able to use more metacognitive processes in their learning.  They can consciously analyze and manipulate grammatical structures, and they can explicitly describe how language works.  This can speed the learning process. In second language learning ...

Similarities: In both first and second language acquisition, universal grammar may influence learning.  In second language learning, universal grammar may influence learning either independently or through the first language. In both first and second language acquisition, there are predictable stages, and particular structures are acquired in a set order.  Individuals may move more slowly or quickly through these stages, but they cannot skip ahead. In both first and second language acquisition, making errors is a part of learning.  Learners need to make and test hypotheses about language to build an internal representation of the language.  In the initial stages of learning, learners may use chunks of language without breaking them down or processing them as independent units.  In later stages, they may make new errors as they begin to process the parts of each chunk according to the rules of their language system.  For example, a ...

Snake A snake came to my water-trough On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there. In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree I came down the steps with my pitcher And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me. He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough And rested his throat upon the stone bottom, i o And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness, He sipped with his straight mouth, Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, Silently. Someone was before me at my water-trough, And I, like a second comer, waiting. He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do, And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment, And stooped and drank a little more, Being earth-brown, earth-golden from th...

Refugee Mother And Child - Poem by Chinua Achebe No Madonna and Child could touch that picture of a mother's tenderness for a son she soon would have to forget. The air was heavy with odours of diarrhoea of unwashed children with washed-out ribs and dried-up bottoms struggling in laboured steps behind blown empty bellies. Most Source: http://cdn3.independent.ie/migration_catalog/Non- Staff/article25055826.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/Famine< br>Source: mothers there had long ceased to care but not this one; she held a ghost smile between her teeth and in her eyes the ghost of a mother's pride as she combed the rust-coloured hair left on his skull and then - singing in her eyes - began carefully to part it… In another life this would have been a little daily act of no consequence before his breakfast and school; now she did it like putting flowers on a tiny grave. 

Mending Wall BY  ROBERT FROST Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-do...

Below are some of  the most common English mistakes made by ESL students , in speech and in writing. Go through the examples and make sure you understand the corrections. Then try the grammar test at the end to check your progress. Wrong I have visited Niagara Falls last weekend. Right I visited Niagara Falls last weekend. Wrong The woman which works here is from Japan. Right The woman who works here is from Japan. Wrong She’s married with a dentist. Right She’s married to a dentist. Wrong She was boring in the class. Right She was bored in the class. Wrong I must to call him immediately. Right I must call him immediately. Wrong Every students like the teacher. Right Every student likes the teacher. Wrong Although it was raining, but we had the picnic. Right Although it was raining, we had the picnic. Wrong I enjoyed from the movie. Right I enjoyed the movie. Wrong I look forward to meet you. Right I look forward to meeting you. W...