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Blog Thread 4; Live Free or Blog Hard - 'cos we all like blogging
Barmymoo:
I can't take a lot of credit, he's a bright person and his English improved very fast because he lived in England for two years, but when he went back to South Korea his teachers were impressed at his grasp of grammar (apparently a lot of children who live abroad and learn English from native-speaking children come back with dreadful grammar, because English schools don't teach it and they just pick up local dialects) which is down to me as we focused a lot of grammar. Now we're learning alongside each other, I rarely know much about the lesson's topic before I start preparing it!
Loki:
It is an open secret at my university that tutoring jobs are not only for providing knowledge to lower courses, but also to deepen a tutor's understanding on the topic, particularly if they want to specify in that field (eg write their thesis).
Akima:
--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 14 Sep 2014, 08:27 ---apparently a lot of children who live abroad and learn English from native-speaking children come back with dreadful grammar, because English schools don't teach it and they just pick up local dialects
--- End quote ---
Very much so. Total immersion is great, but it will not in itself deliver mastery of a language. You have to work on grammar, syntax, and yes, pronunciation too, if you aspire to be an educated user of a language. There is a general problem in Australian schools with regard to children from non-English-speaking backgrounds in this regard. The basic approach is that we will just "pick up" English. We do, but what kind of English? Fortunately, my parents did not let me get away with that...
Of course this actually applies to children of native-language backgrounds too. The fact that schools no longer make much effort to teach grammar etc. is one of many ways in which they reinforce social stratification, in a manner that is hostile to social equality (while often pretending to promote it).
Carl-E:
My younger daughter, as soon as she started speaking, started correcting her older sister's grammar.
At the ages of 18 months and 5, respectively.
Of course, her first words were a complete sentence, and she never crawled, either - just pulled herself up one day and started running.
She still doesn't like to do something until she can do it right...
ankhtahr:
Funny. That's exactly what my mother told me about myself. I skipped crawling and babbling.
There are these regular checkups for children here, where they check how well the child is developing. My mother was a little bit scared before the one where they also test if one is able to speak (three-word sentences). I didn't really speak before that. But during the test I even used articles, which baffled her and the doctor.
I'm still a perfectionist. It can be a bit annoying.
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