Is Teaching English Grammar Daedal?

A few ESL /EFL( English as s Second / Foreign Language) teachers/instructors in a few societies are still utilizing the customary system for teaching English grammar in a inutile way in regards to modern ESL/EFL teaching methodologies.  The teachers/instructors are not just expected to write the rules on the board and  involve the learners in drills . This is ineffective for any learners looking forward to learning new grammatical rules. Learners must know how to function these rules in quotidian life. otherwise, they will not be able to osmose them effortlessly. Therefore, what is the most ideal fashion to make learners osmose grammatical rules?

Here are some suggested fashions:

1- Perusal

Instructors/teachers  might start their grammar classes by providing their learners with a text including the new grammatical rule that will be talked about in their classes. Instructors/teachers can utilize a text from the coursebooks or a text from books .

Afterwards, instructors/teachers will ask their classes after being grouped to present their observations about the grammar of the text. They discuss all the observations with all the groups. Then, instructors/teachers explain the new rule to their classes. At this juncture, those learners will find the new grammatical rule smoothly simple.

2- Administering Lacunas

Instructors/teachers will ask the learners to conceal the text. Then they distribute this text as an exercise where all the sentences with the  particles with new grammatical rule are replaced with blank spaces, so that the learner endeavor to fill them out.

Instructors/ teachers may give the learners direct rills on the new rule before handling this activity.In fact, that will depend on the academic levels of the learners. So this option is decided by instructors/ teachers who are running the class.

3-Praxes

A this point, instructors/teachers will test if the learners have already osmosed the new rule.

Hence, they will ask the learners to put this rule into practice via asking the class groups to make up conversations or dialogues within a few minutes before  initiating  the grammar activities in the coursebook.

The Most Common Grammatical Problems that Learners Stagger With

Before demonstrating the problems, instructors/ teachers have to know how to get a fix on these problems:

Being Self-Corrective

Some instructors/teachers in some cultures are keen on correcting every single mistake for their learners. This is an outmoded orientation, as instructors/teachers should accord the learners  opportunities to self-correct their own mistakes. Learners should always attempt to correct their mistakes by themselves, then consul their instructors/teachers to verify how far they can correct the mistakes.

Instructors/teachers might face lazy learners disregarding handling class activities or shy learners having lack of self-confidence. Out of these attitudes, instructors/teachers have to react actively towards their learners. As for lazy learners, instructors/teachers could react toward them by assigning strict grading system for their in compliance to doing the activity. On the other hand,  instructors / teachers can encourage shy learners to contact the active classmates with the purpose of having an academic assistance. Team work among classmates can create phenomenal results.

Why do We Have To Protect the Environment?

This video was made by me in the framework of a campaign to protect our planet from the environmental pollution, and for those who randomly pollute it.

To Who May I Complain?

Before the day break, I decided to talk a walk by Life River sanctioning for a relaxation shelter. When it spotted me in depressive mood, it started amicably sympathizing with me, as if it wanted to alleviate my pain. It urged me to grab some of its water and clean my face and head with it. I found myself unconsciously doing so. Then it continued asking me about my preoccupations. It provided me with the feeling that all my concerns are related to stinging conscience. So it explained to me that washing my face and head is not enough to identify the nature of my suffering. It asked me to dip my whole body to uncloak all the hidden masks inside me.

At this very particular moment, I felt that Life River is the resort that I was seeking. Hastily, I sterilized my body with its water. After diving for a few minutes under the water, I popped my head out of the water to view another world in front of me. Now the sun has started to send its rays to the Earth that it had dazzled my eyes. Insanely, I was searching for my glasses, so that I can view everything clearly. Liver River claimed that my glasses will not help me see better. If I keep my eyes without for just a few moments. My eye-sight will naturally get rectified. I got surprised when I heard this opinion, but at the same time, I did not object to it. I lied on the grass while directing my eyes to the sun. In fact, I felt that I see novel things for the first time of my life. The greenness of trees and plants penetrated the soul of my bleeding inner self. The greenness was clotting the blood in my veins. In a few seconds, my heart began to relieve when it was inhaling the air granted by the River’s aroma. The air was fidgeting with my black hair to dye it with a different color to eventually grant me irresistible soothing. The River offered me some sips of its water, but this time for quenching my thirst that could not have been treated for many years. The taste of the water has a taste that I could not have identify for five minutes. The water has a taste that was more delicious than honey in the mouth of a diabetic yearning for sugar. Life River plucked an apple, and asked me not to eat unless hunger creeps to my stomach.

The refreshing environment enticed my flesh, that it had granted me chill and caused unprecedented gooseflesh. My vital gourmet incited to take a small bite of it. With a reprimanding look from the Life River’s eyes to encounter my guilty eyes, my blood got frozen as if I had committed unforgivable sin.

Life River questioned me about comprehending the instructions about eating the apple. I assured to it that the instructions were crystal clear, and justified my action, but unacceptably, Life River desired to impose a punishment against this barbaric action. It demonstrated that it is the nature of the human beings, and that I must yield to the punishment. Otherwise, I will be deprived of the granted don that it had gifted for me. I begged it to forgive me, and not to deprive me of this don. It insisted on compelling me to execute the punishment. It hankered me to go back to my womb. I showed it my explicit surprise for what had been said, but I did not have any options. I gripped some of its water and mixed it with sand, so the ground had become muddy. I buried my body in it,and I spend the rest of the day sipping drops of its water. When the sun set, it asked me to uncover the mus from my body. The sunset planted in my mind fear. That fear, I believed, was related to the moment of perishment.

Life River: Human beings are always scared of this very moment. The unknown scares the human beings, but it does not startle me or any of my friends in the eco-system, because we master this moment. How do feel after the mudding experience?

Me: I feel that I don’t need to wear my glasses again despite wearing them after the apple incident.

Life River: After the effect of the mudding vanishes, you will definitely need to re-wear your glasses. Your view will never be the same, as your body will get contaminated with harmful bacteria that will ruin all the cells that have been created by the mudding.

Me (Perplexingly): I can keep myself away from any pollutants that could affect the health of my body.

Life River: Tempting pollutants in human life is able to unconsciously crawl all over your body.

Me: My body is not a consumed material. My will is a firewall against any virus attacking its systems.

Life River: It’s nice to dream, but don’t make your dreams master you. That’s the human haughtiness that can be easily controlled.

Me: Life implanted a brain that discriminate between the harmful and useful materials that affects our bodies.

Life River: Oh! ‘Our bodies’! So are human bodies divorced from our eco-system body ?

Me: No! Of course, not! I meant that human bodies’s equipped with natural brains that know how to system the eco-system bodies.

Life River: So why does the eco-system suffer from highly percentage of destructive pollution?

Me: Maybe ---Ambition to make progress in scientific advancement and technological mutations.

Life River: You’re seeking glory on the account of keeping our body healthy. Anyways, the night’s fallen, and I’m waiting for the silver rays of the moon to vitalize the brightness of my horizon. It’s time for farewell, my dear. Please leave me in peace.

Tips for French- English Translators (Beginner Level)

1) Translation of verbs avoir and être in English.

In French, Quel âge as-tu? 

The transliteration of the French verb avoir in English is verb to have. But the exact translation in English is,How old are you?  So, in English, verb to be is used while in French verb to have is employed.

2) Translation of verb avoir into verb to be in English.

J’ai tort.	I am mistaken.
Jacques a raison.	Jacques is right.
Céline a soif.	Céline is thirsty
Pierre a faim.	Pierre is hungry.
Il a peur.	He is scared.
Jean a froid.	Jean is cold.

3) The usage of definite and indefinite articles is different in English and French.

a) In English, articles are not to be used before abstract nouns while in French they are used.

- La patience est demandée dans les situations difficiles.

- Patience is required in difficult situations.

b) In some cases in English, possessive pronouns are used where articles are used in French.

- Il me regarde dans les yeux.

- He looks at me in my eyes.

c) In some cases in French, articles are used before the names of countries while in English, they are not to be mentioned.

- La France est un pays européen.

- France is a European country.

d) The days of week and the months of the year in French are proceeded by articles, but in English,they are not employed under any syntactic form.

- Le lundi est le premier jour de la semaine.

- Monday is the first day of the week.

- Le décembre est le dernier mois de l’année.

- December is the last month of the year.

e) In French, articles are omitted before the profession names while in English, they are added.

- Manon est professeur.

- Manon is a teacher.

f) Nouns have no articles when they are used with en in French meanwhile they may or may not be employed in English.

- Les flacons de neige tombent en hiver.

- Snowflakes fall in the winter OR  in winter.

4) Capitalization of words is a problem for some translators, since the rules differ in both languages.

a) The days of the weeks and the months of the year are not capitalized while they are to be so in English.

- Chaque mercredi, je joue au football.

- Every Wednesday, I play soccer.

- Nous mettons des vêtements lourds en janvier.

- We wear heavy clothes in January.

b) The two parts of a compound name in English has to be capitalized. On the other hand,in French, the second part is only capitalized.

- Il a pris son diplôme à l’université Sorbonne.

- He got his diploma from Sorbonne University.

c) All the words of the title in English texts have to capitalized except for prepositions , linkers, and articles.If the title starts with an article, it is to be capitalized.  In contrast, in French, The first letter of the first word of the title is only capitalized.

- Une étude comparative entre les stylistiques française et anglaise

- A Comparative Study between French and English Stylistics

d) Job tiles are capitalized in English whereas they are not capitalized in French.

- Trump, le président des États-Unies, est en voyage.

- Trump, the President of the United States, is on a trip.