HALLOWEEN or ALL HALLOWS' EVE

Whether we like it or not, the Anglosaxon world has pervaded Spanish society and is here to stay. 

The term "Anglo-Saxon" can be used in a variety of contexts, often to identify the English-speaking world's distinctive language, culture, technology, wealth, markets, economy, and legal systems.

One of the many examples is the festivity of Halloween, which Spanish children are so eager to celebrate at school. My daughter starts to talk about it well before it's due and her main concern is what she will wear on that day. 


Halloween or All Hallows' Eve is celebrated on 31st October and is considered a pagan festivity by the Catholic world. Spain being a country of so much Catholic tradition began to frown upon this festivity as soon as it made its appearance in our society; something which children, so attracted to anything that means fun and festivity, don't give it much thought. Finding the right disguise so that they can impress their friends is what keeps them occupied the previous weeks. The phrase Trick or treat is constantly uttered on that day. We can now say that Halloween is here to stay and forms part of our festivity calendar. 


This festivity has its origins in the Celt world, a people whose culture spread across Europe more than 2000 years ago. The Celts celebrated the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the Celtic New Year on the night of October, 31st.  This time was considered to be a liminal zone in which both the living and the death could merge. To prevent the ghosts from invading the living world, they lit bonfires to drive away the evil spirits. The growing power of the Catholic Church eventually turned it into what we know here in Spain as All Saints' Date (Día de Todos los Santos) or Hallowmas. Hallow meaning holy and mas referring to mass. The night before was All Hallows' Eve whose phonetics turned into the well-known Halloween. The festivity was soon exported to the United States by the Irish immigrants driven away from their homeland during the Irish Potato Famine during the 1840s. Not only did they bring the holiday but the customs that went with it. One of the best-known artifacts is the jack-o'-lantern, a carved pumpkin which is lit inside. 

I encourage you to further your knowledge about this Halloween emblem on the highlighted wikipedia entry; tradition and folklore mix. 

Last but not least, here is a website full of links related to Halloween for all levels and tastes: http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/halloween.html

Some more music: THE BLOWER'S DAUGHTER by Damien Rice

Many students say that their best way to learn English is by listening to music. Actually, most teenagers show a real interest in English when they need to understand the lyrics of their favourite songs. When you have started studying English in your adulthood, it is a pleasure to be able to understand the lyrics of that song which you simply loved at the time because of its tune. What's more, you may have read the lyrics and felt disappointed as they are not so transcendental as the music conveyed. 

Anyway, thanks to YouTube and many passionate people who want to share their passion it is very likely that your favourite song has already been uploaded with subtitles. Yesterday I uploaded a song I had listened to many times but I hadn't seen the singer play it. I thought it would make a nice musical post as well as offer something else to my readers. It is true that you will have to accept my own tastes in music but since you're visiting my blog it is very likely -hopefully, at least!- that you like what I post about. 

The Blower's Daughter is a beautiful song and so is the film Closer, though I don't recall associating the song to the film, or viceversa, when I saw it at the cinema. Today I had the chance to listen to this song again and on came the YouTube version and the film. As you can see below, I have posted three versions of the song. The official trailer for the film (with both Spanish subtitles and the original version itself) and a third one with the lyrics. It seems Damien Rice, the songwriter, dedicated this song to his clarinet's teacher's daughter with whom he was smitten. Enchanting!

A BEAUTIFUL SONG: ONE by TINA DICKOW

WORDS EASILY CONSFUSED BY SPANISH-SPEAKING LEARNERS OF ENGLISH (1)

specially vs. especially

Yesterday evening when ending the last class, one of my students asked me if I could enlighten him about his confusion when having to use specially and especially. This type of questions are asked by students now and then and I thought I should start a thread of posts under the name Words easily confused by Spanish-speaking learners of English in the hope that I will help them eradicate some common mistakes. 

Well, it seems my first choice has proved to be rather awkward. After browsing different websites I have come to the conclusion that what I thought to be ¨an easy piece of cake¨, i.e. explaining the difference in a simple way, seems not to be that simple. May I risk to say that due to the fact that both words are spelt similarly, speakers of English tend even to confuse their usage so no wonder we, non-native speakers, should get more confused.

The best explanation I've found is provided by the BBC Learning English website and it's the one I've chosen as a hyper-link to the sub-heading specially vs. especially

When looking up both words in Wordreference the translation given in Spanish is rather similar: especialmente, particularmente for especially and especialmente, expresamente for specially. One of the examples given by the Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (OUP) is actually the same in both: Why did you choose that one especially? Why did you choose that one specially? 

So my advice is that you use specially when you mean expresamente o en particular:

These shoes are specially designed for toddlers. 

Estos zapatos están expresamente diseñados para bebés que empiezan a caminar.

We use especially when we mean sobre todo, excepcionalmente:

The dinner that evening was especially planned for the occasion.  

La cena esa noche fue excepcionalmente planeada para la ocasión.

English plus also provides an easy explanation for this pair:

http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000287.htm

Going analogical now I will write down the definitions given by the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English of the adjectives

especial (adj) particular; exceptional: a question of especial importance; for our especial benefit. in especial, above all. especially (adv) to an exceptional degree; in particular: She likes the country, especially in spring.

special (adj) of a particular or certain sort; not common, usual or general; of or for a certain person, thing or purpose: He did it for her as a special favour. What are your special interests? Newspapers send special correspondents to places where important events take place. On holidays the railways put on special trains. Specially (adv) particulary: I came here specially (on purpose) to see you.

IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING AND WRITING SKILLS: LISTEN & WRITE

LISTEN & WRITE - DICTATION

Listen&write is a great website to practise both your listening and writing skills. What's more: it's free of charge!!! 

You have a wide choice of levels so I'm sure you will find a suitable one to start with and from there start building up your confidence in understanding English. The fact that you can see the spoken words in written form will certainly help you consolidate their spelling via an old technique as it is dictation. 

There are three modes you can choose from:

1. Full Mode: you need to type in the full word itself and if you spell it correctly it is shown on the screen directly.
2. Quick Mode: only by typing in the first letter you get the full word on the screen.
3. Blank Mode: the text is shown with blank spaces, you need to type in the correct word in the blank.

If you find the listening too difficult I suggest you should use the Blank Mode. You will be able to read the text and work out those missing words in the gap. Then, once you've done this, you can select the Full Mode and give it another try. I find the Quick Mode a bit confusing as it's far too quick! You type in the first letter and it immediately gets it shown on the screen but because you are so engrossed in understanding the next word or words you hardly have time to set in what's being done.



Anyway, you're free to find your own mood! Just give it a try & have fun with English! :O)

PHONETICS HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION

English and Spanish are two very different languages and we -Spanish speakers-  instantly perceive that when beginning to learn our first English words; for instance, personal pronouns I, you, he, she, etc., which differ so much in form from yo, tú, él, ella, etc. Together with this realization comes the attempt to pronounce such words and the verb forms am, is, are and feel at ease with ourselves when we hear the outcome. To spice up the task, we are told that both pronoun and verb form are usually contracted in daily speech, so as well as trying to produce the correct sound we feel visually alienated by an apostrophe, which many times teachers fail to explain why it is there.

English pronunciation is not easy for a Spanish-speaker, certainly not, and the older we are the harder it becomes. Our speech organs have been trained to produce certain sounds (those featured in Spanish) so the production of new sounds is many times a matter of our natural ability to make new sounds. This is the first hurdle a Spanish-speaking learner of English must overcome and it can become an ordeal if we, teachers, treat all our adult students as standard students who will make it as soon as our instructions are set in; see my previous post When English becomes an ordeal. I would also like to direct you to a very encouraging post by Scott Thornbury, B is for a Bad language learner, in which he shuns those that mock other people's attempts to speak a second language even if they sound ¨funny¨ to the ¨experts¨. 

So, a plea on behalf of the bad language learner: never, never, never mock a second language speaker – even if it’s someone (like George Bush or José María  Aznar) whose politics you disagree with. It’s a cheap shot. And, if you are a language teacher, it ill becomes you.  It’s your job to encourage second language use, however non-target-like. What’s more, ridicule is counterproductive.  There is nothing more de-motivating than being laughed at. (Scott Thornbury's blog)

Both Indo-european languages belong to different families: English is a Germanic language whereas Spanish is a Latin language. The intonation is certainly different, Spanish is a syllabic language, so each syllable has roughly the same duration regardless of the stress. English, on the contrary, uses word stress and the duration of syllables is not the same. Many times I've heard students ¨complain¨ that English speakers don't seem to make an effort to understand them. They illustrate their statement by saying that they produce a grammatically correct question and, yet, they still get either a puzzled look or a ¨I'm sorry but I don't understand.¨ There's a simple answer to this: they're using the wrong stresses, so their utterance sounds flat and meaningless for the English speaker.

That's why I believe phonetics is such a useful tool for Spanish-speakers learning English. It provides them with a visual image of the sounds so that they feel they are getting there. I know many teachers find phonetics cumbersome and they try to keep their students away from it as much as they keep their own selves. I disagree. Teachers should use phonetics in their teaching in a light key so that their students can use images as a good way to improve sounds. The same way as deaf people can be taught to speak, we must facilitate our learners of English a way to improve their speaking skills. The goal is not for our students to memorize the phonetic alphabet, we would simply add up more learning and frustration in that sense. We should encourage them to see English phonetics as a tool to help them ¨visualize¨ the pronunciation of an English word, or a phrase. The aim is to get familiarized with the symbols so that they can identify the sound. Besides, all dictionaries provide the phonetic transcription of that new word we have just looked up. Knowing the symbols will help us tackle its pronunciation even if we haven't heard this new word before. 

When starting to teach new groups (as it was last week) I find teaching phonetics a good way to introduce them into English. A good reason is that it's very likely that they haven't been ¨exposed¨ to phonetics before. It also allows me to ¨expose¨ them to my teaching. I try to be very careful when doing so as I do understand new symbols may simply put them off. I try to make English sounds visual to them and I use Spanish sounds as a model to check on either similarities or differences. A speaker of a second language tends to assimilate those new sounds that are similar to their own language by producing them in the same way as their native language, and this is where we should make them notice those slight differences that, otherwise, will be dragged along their learning. New sounds, on the contrary, are most likely to be imitated as they should be pronounced.

I also teach my students something basic as the physiological mechanics of speech production. We actually produce sounds by voicing the air we expel from our lungs. This air that goes through the windpipe or traquea, encounters a first feature which amplifies the number of sounds we can produce:  the vocal cords found in the larynx or vocal tract. They vibrate or not depending on the sound we produce. Thus, we make voiced or unvoiced sounds. All vowel sounds and dipthongs are voiced; consonant sounds can be voiced or unvoiced. You will be able to check both voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds by clicking on consonants and more consonants. 

The speech organs consist of lips, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum (soft palate), uvula, glottis and nasal cavity, and they all play a role either actively or passively to articulate different sounds. This is a diagram of the different parts:

(Courtesy of http://rajashaukat.blogspot.com/2011/05/diagram-of-speech-organs.html )

Links to practise English sounds and get familiarize with phonetics:

1. New English File Pronunciation by Oxford University Press
2. Pronunciation Tips from bbclearningenglish.com
3. Word stress in English by EnglishClub.com
4. English vs. Spanish pronunciation: some tips
5. The phonetic chart
6. Teaching English - Phonemic Chart

WHEN LEARNING ENGLISH BECOMES AN ORDEAL

If I had been given a dime every time a fellow countryman/woman said to me ¨I'm hopeless at English¨, or any other similar phrase, I'm sure I would have a plump piggybank by now. I'm not saying I'd be rich, let's face it, but I would certainly have enough money to enjoy something extraordinary I'd fancy.

I have been an English teacher for adults for a long time and, one of the remarks that boosts my pride as a teacher is when they say that they enjoy learning English with me, that they don't feel stupid when having to articulate an English phrase in front of me. On the contrary, it is disheartening to hear: ¨I can't, Begoña; I will never be able to learn English¨, and they mean it. 

These days I'm teaching a friend English and the task is becoming Mt Everest climb somehow for him. I am using resources that go beyond the usual methods and approaches, since I understand that his impotence to break through is fully related to having no confidence at all in a likely success. 

Of course, one's ability to learn another language counts dearly in the progress being made but the total lack of confidence simply weakens the chances from scratch. I never found myself in such an extreme situation, and I'm racking my brains on how to instill some confidence so that he doesn't quit. Mind you! I'm talking about someone who is a pro in his work; a very intelligent person whose experience and knowledge is so valuable in his profession. This is my second (I should say our second) attempt to tackle the task. I've driven myself away from any textbook or the standard steps usually followed when teaching beginners; no way to use total immersion in English (that was my first attempt and it ¨scared him to death¨); no way to say ¨you must study by yourself¨, a key factor in the learning process, because he hardly has time off as his profession takes up most of it. 

How to proceed then?

Well, I've decided to be the one riding the bike for the time being while I'm having him sitting behind. I hope that by doing this he will stop thinking that he will fall off the bike. I'm using both English and Spanish, introducing questions (and encouraging answers) which are related to our surroundings, and explaining grammar-bits depending on the needs for those questions/answers. Regarding the emotional factor, I'm constantly appeasing him, persuading him that we can get there, -yes, we can-, not letting him build up in his mind the disheartening ¨I will never make it; I will never be able to learn English.¨ I'm not even using the verb speak here for I think he has convinced himself over the years that he's hopeless at learning English, and will never be able to speak it. His convinction is right now a solid wall against which he is constantly bumping himself. Therefore, I think it's better to focus on the learning process itself, not the goal.

Furthermore, this hopelessness has resulted in his belief that something must be wrong with him.

And we are simply talking about learning English!

Many Spaniards who were taught French at school in the 70s and 80s find themselves cheated somehow nowadays. The world revolves around the English language and they feel excluded. To make matters worse, English is being used as a key factor to shortlist candidates for a job, disregarding the real need of the language for that specific post, which increases their despair due to the scarcity of work and the fierce competition. Parents are set into repairing this error in their children's education by sending them to bilingual schools, by having them introduced into the English language at the earliest age, in the belief that their kids' inability to speak English will never mar their future. They hope to prevent their children from feeling dismal as my friend is feeling now. Unfortunately, when it comes to repairing their own incompetence a great number feel that the last English train departed a long time ago.  

I disagree. 

What's my point in sharing this present teaching experience with my readers, be it teachers or learners?

To the teachers I would point out that we cannot standardize our students with reference to their learning process. In essence, we, as teachers, have our own method or approach to teaching and we try to create a rapport with them in the hope that progress will be quicker rather than slower. We tend to think that if a student doesn't succeed the blame falls mainly on ourselves; however, I see the binomy teaching-learning as a give&take game we play with our students and there should be an agreement regarding the rules between both parties so that goals are reached. The ongoing trust between teacher-student must be a fact. There can be as many different approaches as students and we need to reassess our own in the teaching process. It is true that teaching one-to-one lets you adapt yourself to your student's pace more easily than teaching a group, but the group cannot be treated as a block, as one single mind. There are different styles of learning and we must find a balance in the classroom so that we can prevent dropouts or disappointments. We need to make each student feel that we are teaching one-to-one within the group. 

To the adult learner I would say that a language can be learnt at any age by anybody. What's needed is to be realistic when setting our goals. We need our own needs' analysis and visualize both time and space. Our time of dedication to the task and our own space (our background and surroundings) and depending on these two variables we should adapt our goals and proceed with our learning. We need the teacher to help us find the right track if we feel we can't see it ourselves, after all the teacher is the expert. We need constant encouragement; learning a language is not like learning how to cook a recipe or how to use some new software for our computer. Once we start learning a language we make this task a life companion, somehow. Thus, we need to reset goals now and then so as to avoid frustration. Realistic goals will make us see that we have achieved something, that we are riding the bike ourselves, even if we still need some guidance, or some support so as not to fall off.