Still not sure...

[Anonymous]

Hi again,

Thanks for your help with me question (subject "Questions on English.") I'm still not sure about the first part of the questions. Please see below.

a) Imagine that you are teaching a multilingual group of 12 adult learners at beginner level. What problems might your students have in understanding these sentences?

(I can see clearly what problems 2nd language learners might have pronouncing the words, but I'm not sure why they would have trouble understanding them!?) Do you have any ideas??

Q. "I've got a headache."
Q. "I've got a sore throat."
Q. "I've got a cough."

Thank you!!!
Annie

 

[Susie Smith]

Hi again,

Thanks for your help with me question (subject "Questions on English.") I'm still not sure about the first part of the questions. Please see below.

a) Imagine that you are teaching a multilingual group of 12 adult learners at beginner level. What problems might your students have in understanding these sentences?

(I can see clearly what problems 2nd language learners might have pronouncing the words, but I'm not sure why they would have trouble understanding them!?) Do you have any ideas??

Q. "I've got a headache."
Q. "I've got a sore throat."
Q. "I've got a cough."

Thank you!!!
Annie

I'll try to help you, Annie. The question is: What problems they might have..... (which indicates a possibility, not a certainty). Students always relate English to their own languages. So, if the sentence structure or way of saying something is very different, they will always question it. Your question is about a multilingual group, which means that there can be many different kinds of doubts. To fully understand the problems a student has learning another language, it's necessary to know how his or her own language works. It must be much more difficult to teach people from different language backgrounds in the same class. I've never had this experience, but I can tell you how my students react to this lesson. They always think it's very funny, in both senses of the word, when I show them that "have got" and "have" mean the same thing. Even when the students understand "I've got", they have trouble understanding why we say, "a headache", but not "an armache". (It's a good idea to teach "body parts" before "health problems".) I hope I have helped you a little.