English Lessons with Fiona

Business English is not about big words. It's about small phrases said with confidence. 💼 Save this post to come back to later and try upgrading your business communication skills today.

There is a quiet assumption in the English learning and speaking world. The assumption is that native English speakers make the best ESL teachers. I want to challenge that assumption. And I say this as a native speaker. Hardly anyone says it aloud, but working in the ESL space, I can see that there is a bias against non-native speakers, and we all should know this is unfair. Why? Just because English is your first language doesn’t mean that you necessarily are well-equipped to teach it.

Many native English speakers aren’t consciously aware of what grammar patterns they are using and why. A native speaker of any language has learned gradually, from infancy, what to say, how to say it and in what contexts. They have not needed to analyse what they are actually doing when they speak. This doesn’t necessarily translate to being able to put themselves in the shoes of someone learning the language for the first time as an adult. Most native English speakers have a limited need to make the effort to learn a second language. They are privileged to have English as their mother tongue and so don’t need to learn a second or third one, and when they are exposed to a second language, it is often in a school setting where they are forced to study and might be taught poorly. They might think, "Why do I need to bother learning this language, when most people I deal with will be able to speak English anyway?" On the other hand, being in the position of a language learner means a teacher has a source of empathy that should naturally inform their teaching style and techniques.

Also. There isn’t one correct way to speak English. There isn’t one "best" accent to aspire to. You don’t need to be ashamed of your non-native accent, whether it be Italian, Hungarian, Russian, Indian or Chinese. As I mentioned in a previous post, all accents are valid and tell a unique story about you. Another thing to be aware of: most people will also not be able to speak with a native English accent if they are not a native speaker. Does this mean you cannot improve your pronunciation? Not at all. You can always learn to understand and speak in a way that is more effective for you. Maybe you are rolling your R's in English in a way that is unsustainable and makes the language feel tiring to speak. Maybe you are placing the stress on the wrong syllable in some words, and it sounds a bit jarring. Guess what? These can be changed. Speaking is not a mysterious, magical process that just comes out of nowhere. It is a complex process that involves many intricate combinations of muscular movements, and vocal and breath techniques, all of which can be broken down, examined and trained. Listening and speaking are skills that can be built, with time, effort and effective systems. You CAN find your own, unique voice in English, and it is just as valid as anyone else's, no matter where you are from, and no matter what stage you are at now.
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https://nessabell.com/english-is-for-everyone-who-speaks-it-not-just-native-speakers/

Maybe you already know that you should use the gerund or "ing" form of a verb directly after a preposition (words like in, on, from). But how good are you at matching the right prepositions with particular gerunds? Try this quick quiz and let me know how you do in the comments. 💛

Learners often say that listening is the most challenging of all the skills in English. Many factors can make listening comprehension difficult, including the speaker's speed, the listener’s limited vocabulary, and an inability to distinguish individual sounds and words that blend together. Understanding how the sounds of English are used will help you understand what you are hearing.

In the 1920s, the BBC adopted RP as its standard for clarity in broadcasting, further cementing RP as an accent that people up and down Britain understood and recognised for its perceived “properness”. But in reality, when you go into the world and speak English with other human beings, you will find that most speakers of English are, in fact, non-native speakers, and RP speakers are an increasingly small population.

Read more: nessabell.com