Friday 10 February 2012

fresh from the printer

Fresh from the printer come these sentences concocted by a student of mine:
  • "Two major theories are at present."
  • "Firstly, physical factors, meaning manner and place of articulation, hinder speakers from fluent entrance in a language, since articulation of sound varies among languages".
  • "Especially in school environments, it is easy to find out about students of mother tongue English because the rest of class usually has a strong German accent."
Aaargh!
    The sentences have been excerpted from a student paper on foreign accents. These gems were ground by a 10th (repeat: tenth) semester student who wants to become an EFL teacher. Should he be unleashed upon pupils? Not by me - no, definitely not!
    credit: teamcallo

    6 comments:

    1. Replies
      1. Thanks for your empathising aaaargh! :-)

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    2. 10th semester? Does that mean repeated years or the final semester of a five year course?

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      Replies
      1. It means 10 semesters of wasted resources!

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    3. But does that mean the student kept having to repeat years? Do German students get to keep failing and repeating forever?

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      Replies
      1. Paul, this is a topic too complicated to explain here. But basically - yes, (s)he can keep studying as long as (s)he is willing and able to pay the tuition fees. This has been changed in the meantime, but that particular student belongs to the old strand of studies. If he fails a seminar in one semester, he simply enrols in another one in a future semester ...

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