Sounding Like a Native

Many of my advanced ESL students tell me that they would like to work on sounding more natural and would like to speak like a native-English speaker. If necessary, we work on pronunciation, intonation, and accent reduction (accent imitation?).

ESL speakers can move towards "sounding like a native" by working on the above three areas. Another way to help improve your students' speaking skills is through the use of idioms.

I think that one of the easiest ways for speakers of English as a second language to speak more like native-English speakers is to use contractions. "I've," "I'd," "you'd," "you're," "they're," "there's," "she's," etc. This just takes practice on the part of the student and reinforcement on the part of the tutor.

I've noticed that many ESL speakers will take apart contractions when reading aloud. For example, "There's a man on the corner" will be read as "There is a man on the corner." If this happens in class, the tutor can just point it out to the student. Usually, the student isn't even aware that he or she has taken the contraction apart.

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Accent Reduction for ESL Speakers

Who doesn’t have an accent? Do Americans have accents? What is an American accent? Who has an American accent? People from Minnesota? New York? Georgia? California? The San Fernando Valley?

Natives from each of these places have accents. Most Americans can generally discern where a speaker with one of these accents if from. We even make fun of some American accents. Being a California native, of course I think Californians don’t have accents at all!

Many ESL speakers try to reduce the accents they have from their first languages. In the field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) we use the term “accent reduction” frequently. Many of the students I’ve had have come to me to work on their accents.

What if ESL teachers were to take the approach of “accent imitation” rather than “accent reduction?” What if the focus was on teaching students how to imitate American accents, rather than trying to get rid of the ESL speaker’s accent? I wonder what the effects, if any, would be on the psyche of ESL learners. Would it help them to learn faster? I don’t know. Just wondering.

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Business Emails for ESL Students

Many of my ESL students live and work in the U.S. Their English skills are proficient, however, they want to specifically improve their business English skills. Among these skills is writing effective business emails. While their grammar and vocabulary may be alright, it’s the tone of the emails that most ESL speakers need to improve.

Finding the right tone is difficult even for native-English speakers. Most of us have learned that playful sarcasm does not come across well in a two-dimensional email. We’ve had to learn to deal with this form of communication to effectively communicate our ideas or to get what we want. For an ESL speaker, finding the right tone is even more difficult. The nuances of the language are difficult to discern.

The way that I help ESL speakers to write more effective emails is to review their emails in class with them. I explain the feeling that their emails convey and confirm whether this is what they intended. I also ask them what the relationship is with the person they are emailing. Sometimes, if their English is not very advanced, I may have to ask what the main point is that they are trying to communicate.

After discussing the meaning, feeling, relationship, etc., of the email, I then show alternative ways to write the email. We usually review a week’s worth of emails (usually about two pages) in one session. I recommend that the ESL student then make notes of phrases or expressions that we’ve used on their own, so that they may use them in future emails. In future classes, we again review the previous week’s emails to look for uses of what we’ve already studied and also to look for new challenges.

BTW Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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Teaching Adults ESL

One of the difficult things I find as an ESL tutor for adults is the limited amount of time that some adults have to devote to learning ESL. Some of my students are visiting the U.S. for the purpose of improving their English for their careers at home. These students are usually able to meet me two or three times per week. Many of my students live and work in the U.S. They have full-time jobs, families, and other responsibilities. For these latter ESL learners, meeting more than once a week is difficult.

In my advertisements for new ESL students, I usually write, “I strongly recommend that you commit to at least two lessons per week. I believe this is the minimum required for you to make notable progress in English.” If potential students cannot commit to at least two lessons per week, I stress at our first meeting together that their progress is highly dependant upon them working outside of our class to improve their English skills.

Some ESL learners still choose to meet with me only once a week. After working with some of these students for a couple of months, I often start to feel a bit unsatisfied (I don’t know it that’s the best adjective, it’s some uncomfortable feeling). I don’t see the student making enough progress. Sometimes I feel that I am taking their money without being able to deliver. Oh well. I deliver the lessons and it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to learn the language, if that is their desire.

ESL Survival Expressions

A few days ago, I wrote some survival questions for beginning ESL students. I’ve also found that due to cultural differences, it’s a good idea to teach ESL speakers a few expressions. Here are a few things I think speakers of other languages should learn right away when they start studying English in the U.S.

1. “Bless You”

This should be said whenever someone sneezes. It doesn’t matter if you know the person sneezing or not. For example, you are sitting on the bus and a stranger next to you sneezes, you should say, “bless you.” Incidentally, this courtesy (and cultural norm) doesn’t just apply to ESL speakers. Everyone should say this when another person nearby sneezes. Of course, there is that awkward situation that we all have when someone sneezes three, four, five, etc. times. That's something even native-English speakers have trouble with. When someone says “bless you,” the appropriate response is “thank you.”

2. “Thank you”

Culturally, American native-English speakers probably say “thank you” more than any other people on the planet. I’ve been told by some ESL students that we seem disingenuous with all the “thank yous” we say. We can’t help it! For the vast majority of us, we really do mean it! We’ve been brought up to say thank you for everything. And if we don’t say thank you, we seem rude. If another person doesn’t say “thank you” to us, then we tend to feel the other person is rude. “Thank you” can probably never be said too much by ESL speakers if they want to fit in culturally.

3. “Excuse me”

This is an expression that Americans use for all sorts of things. For example, we can say “excuse me” when we accidentally bump into someone on the bus or if we want to get someone’s attention. We can also say “sorry” when we bump into someone.

4. “Sorry” or “I’m sorry”

Not only is “I’m sorry” a very useful expression for ESL speakers to learn, it would also be more helpful if more Americans used this more often.

Please write to me if you think there are other essential survival expressions for beginning ESL students to know.

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Some Phrasal Verbs on Yahoo! Answers

I'm often searching Yahoo! Answers for questions people ask about learning ESL or other English grammar questions. One of my answers was recently chosen as Best Answer by the asker of the following question about phrasal verbs:

"Which is correct English and why? : Turn up the volume or Turn the volume up? Turn off the water or turn the water off. Turn up the volume or Turn the volume up. Turn off the water faucet or Turn the water faucet off. Which of these is correct and why?"

Here was my answer to this English question:

"They are all correct. You are using what are called "phrasal verbs." A phrasal verb is when you have a regular verb (like "turn") and combine it with a preposition (like, "off"). The phrasal verbs you have used are called "separable." That means you can separate the main verb from the preposition. So you can put the subject (like, "the water faucet") in between the two words making up the phrasal verb.

Some phrasal verbs are "inseparable." For example, "to count on someone" means to "to rely on someone." You cannot separate "count" and "on" in this case."

Phrasal verbs are particularly difficult for people learning English as a Second Language, and for native English speakers, as well. I'll write more about phrasal verbs in the future.

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Sample Job Interview Questions

Many of my ESL students live and work in the U.S. (as opposed to those who are here in the U.S. specifically to study English). I give a lot of instruction on writing resumes, cover letters and preparing for job interviews. Below is a common list of job interview questions that we practice during our ESL tutoring lessons.

For more information, see Job Interview Skills for ESL Speakers.

Sample Job Interview Questions

1. Tell me about yourself?

2. What accomplishment are you particularly proud of?

3. Why did you leave your last position? Why do you want to leave your current position?

4. What did you enjoy most about your last/current job?

5. What was/is the most difficult part of your last/current job?

6. Where do you see yourself in five years?

7. Do you plan to pursue a graduate education?

8. Tell me about a time when you had to make a critical decision in your supervisor's absence. How did you handle it?

9. What are your strongest skills?

10. What are your weakest skills?

11. Tell me about the last time you had a short deadline and how you handled it.
12. When did you handle conflict with your boss, colleagues, or subordinates? Tell me about it.

13. What strengths do you bring to this job that other candidates might not?

14. What are your long- and short-term career goals?

15. Do you have any questions?

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