Creativity in language learning and teaching

Abstract

Before I set out and look at some theories and practice for introducing creativity into the language classroom, let’s see why it is worth making all this effort.

• What is creativity?

• Why is creativity important?

• Am I ever creative?

• Are my students creative in my lessons?

There's a reason why teachers should use (more) creativity in their classes. Just close your eyes for a few seconds, bring your students nearer: what do you see? They have very different backgrounds, different learning styles, different learning experiences, different degrees of motivation, different language levels and different intelligences and cognitive styles. Unless we bring imaginative approaches to teaching we will have failed to reach out to the very diverse cognitive and emotional needs of our students.

Introduction

For the purpose of this paper, creative and critical language learners are defined in terms of the learners' cognitive abilities to carry out certain tasks effectively. The creative language learners should be able to combine responses or ideas in novel ways (Smith, Ward and Finke, 1995), and to use elaborate, intricate, and complex stimuli and thinking patterns (Feldman, 1997). A creative teacher knows how to get her students' attention, and also knows how to keep it. A creative teacher knows how to teach and test in ways that are meaningful to the students. A creative teacher will always find ways to make her lessons stick.

What is creativity?

Do you think you are creative? Do you think your students are creative? All of them? Some of them? Do you think you can call yourself lucky if you have one or two creative students in a lifetime? Do you think the younger the students are the more creative they are? Or do you think the opposite is true and that you learn to be creative over the years? How do you know that someone is creative? What do you actually do when you are thinking creatively?

Do you think your colleagues would answer these questions the same way as you do? In my experience, people hold very different views of creativity. Some think they aren’t creative at all and it is only the privileged and artistically talented, who can be considered creative. Others think that to cook a good dinner is already a clear sign of creativity.

In this  article, I do not aim to answer the questions above. What I aim to do is to look at three different theoretical descriptions of creative thinking and explore what language teachers may learn from them. I hope that after reading this article, you will be able to ask many more and much more challenging questions about creativity and its use in the classroom than I did in the first paragraph.

Why is creativity important?
Before we set out and look at some theories and practice for introducing creativity into the language classroom, let’s see why it is worth making all this effort. Why is creativity important in language classrooms?

• Language use is a creative act: we transform thoughts into language that can be heard or seen. We are capable of producing sentences and even long texts that we have never heard or seen before. By giving learners creative exercises, we get them to practise an important sub-skill of using a language: thinking creatively.

• Compensation strategies (methods used for making up for lack of language in a communicative situation e.g. miming, drawing, paraphrasing used for getting meaning across) use creative and often imaginative ways of expression. Our learners will need these until they master the language.

• In my experience, some people cannot learn at all if they are not allowed to be creative. They do not understand the point in doing a language activity for its own sake, for only practising the language without a real content, purpose, outcome or even a product.

• My experience also taught me that most people become more motivated, inspired or challenged if they can create something of value, if they feel that in some ways what they do and how they do it reflect who they are.

• Creativity improves self-esteem as learners can look at their own solutions to problems and their own products and see what they are able to achieve.

• Creative work in the language classroom can lead to genuine communication and co-operation. Learners use the language to do the creative task, so they use it as a tool, in its original function. This prepares learners for using the language instrumentally outside the classroom.

• Creative tasks enrich classroom work, and they make it more varied and more enjoyable by tapping into individual talents, ideas and thoughts - both the learners’ and the teacher’s.

• Creative thinking is an important skill in real life. It is part of our survival strategies and it is a force behind personal growth and the development of culture and society.

 Having read this list of why creativity is important in the classroom, you may have been wondering about either or both of these two questions:

• Am I ever creative?

• Do I ever get my students to do anything creative in my lessons?

 I’m almost a hundred per cent sure that the answer is ‘yes’ to both of these questions. Let me show you why.

Am I ever creative?
Have you ever found that you wanted to do something but you did not have the right tool / material to do it, and then you found some way of using another object / material and managed somehow? E.g. You opened a bottle or a tin without a bottle or tin opener or substituted an ingredient in a recipe with another ingredient. Have you every changed an activity in your course book or a resource book to match the needs of a particular group you teach? YES? There you go, you are creative!
Are my students creative in my lessons?
Do you ever get your students to speak about, write about, draw about or mime what they think? Do your students say things in the foreign language they never heard or read? Do you ever get them to think about rules, problems and how things and language work instead of just telling them? Do you sometimes give them tasks where there is no one possible answer and the answers will vary from one learner to another? YES? There you go, your students have opportunities to think creatively in your classes already!

There's more: teachers operate in a very unpredictable context, and lesson planning and expertise can only help navigate the uncertainties to some extent. In addition teachers need the willingness to improvise and create lesson plans on the spot that respond to students' needs as they arise.

Having said that, being creative in class is often easier said than done. There isn't an algorithm to make us creative, and what is certain is that creativity needs to be cajoled and nurtured. Probably the best way to invite creativity is to take stock and reflect for a minute on the obstacles and challenges we have to face.

First of all, it may be seen as hard for colleagues who teach to a test or work with an extremely regimented syllabus to do things differently. This is undeniably true most of the time, but experience tells me that this is often something some colleagues say to justify their unwillingness to change. There is also always a way to do things differently in class without upsetting the establishment.

By far the biggest hurdle is working in an environment that doesn't value creative methodology. My advice in this case is to start small, and be extremely patient. Keep telling yourself that all creative individuals have had to face hard challenges, and that sticking to one's gun is a true mark of creative people. Examples abound: Walt Disney, Charlie Parker and many others.

Fear of failure is another problem: what if my students won't like this exercise? This happens quite a lot. Being creative implies getting out of a comfortable cocoon; it's a little like how children learn to ride a bicycle. They'll fall off but they'll get there in the end. Just keep reminding yourself that there's no success like failure (Bob Dylan); fail and aim to fail better each time (Samuel Beckett).

Creativity in language learning and teaching by increasing student interaction

I have noticed in many of the classes I have taught that there can be a tendency for the learners to want to interact with me but less enthusiasm when it comes to interacting with each other. I should emphasize that this reticence only applies to interaction in English but it does seem to apply to groups of all nationalities, ages and levels.

• Why student to student interaction is desirable?

• Problems we face when trying to increase interaction

• How we can promote an increase in student interaction?

• Conclusion

Why student to student interaction is desirable?

• Participation

Most people agree that learning anything involves participation. You can't learn to play a musical instrument without actually picking up the instrument and similarly it is difficult to learn a language without engaging with that language. Given that language primarily exists to facilitate communication, interaction in that language must have an important role to play in developing a learner's ability in that language. In other words, teachers need to promote learner interaction in order to help the learners succeed.

• Maximising practice time

Learners need to practise as much as possible if they are to be successful. Interaction through

pair and group work  maximises the opportunities to practise as more learners speak for more of the time.

• Collaboration

Collaborative  learning, particularly through the use of collaborative tasks, has been shown to

foster language development since learners can see a reason to use language in order to interact.

• Socialisation

Related to the concept of collaboration is that of socialisation. Interaction does not only promote language development but it also fosters the development of social skills (e.g. politeness, respect for others) that people need to operate successfully in any culture.

• Motivation

Motivation is a fundamental aspect of successful learning. Interaction gives learners the

opportunity to use language successfully and to measure their progress which in turn should lead to an increase in motivation.

Problems we face when trying to increase interaction

Interaction seems so desirable and sensible in theory but we all know that actually promoting and increasing it can be an uphill struggle. Let's consider some of the reasons for this.

• Student resistance

It is unfortunately true that some learners are not enthusiastic about pair and group work,

particularly in mono-lingual classes in which it is a little unnatural to communicate to someone who speaks your language in a language you are both less proficient in! I have taught many students who have told me that they don't like pair work because they might learn mistakes from

their partners. There is actually no evidence to support this worry but it is still common.

• Self-consciousness

I have met many learners who become very nervous and embarrassed when asked to speak

English. As a language learner myself, I sympathise.

• Large classes

While theoretically the more students there are in a class the more possibilities for interaction

there should be, this is not the case in practice. The more learners there are, the more difficult

developing interaction can be since there are more people to monitor and, therefore, more

chances of problems. In addition there is, of course, a greater likelihood of excessive noise which can mask bad behaviour and use of L1.

• Mixed abilities

Pairing and grouping students appropriately in classes that have a wide variety of levels (e.g.

secondary schools) is much more difficult than in small classes of a homogenous level.

• Lack of motivation

If learners have no need to interact or don't want to, they probably won't.

 

 

• Insufficient language

Perhaps the most common reason for interaction in English breaking down, or indeed not starting in the first place, is that the students don't have the language they need to interact and, therefore,complete the task successfully.

How we can promote an increase in student interaction

This section will suggest some solutions to the problems outlined above.

• Teaching process language

This is similar to classroom language but refers to the language that students need to interact.

Examples could include: "What do you have for number 2?", "Do you want to start?", and

"Sorry, can you say that again, please?". I introduce and/or revise before starting tasks and leave them on the board so the learners can refer to them while speaking. My learners copy them into the vocabulary record books too, of course.

 

• Pre-teaching task language

I try to analyse tasks before using them in order to predict what language is critical to task

achievement. If I think some of this language may be unfamiliar I pre-teach it before the students do the task. If there is too much language for pre-teaching, I find a more suitable task.

• Providing support

As well as providing language for tasks, where appropriate I try to provide ideas too. These can be brainstormed  before the task and put on the board so that the learners have plenty of things to talk about.

 

• Giving preparation time

I have often found that interaction breaks down because the learners haven't had time to think about what they want to say and how to say it. I plan to give some thinking time before starting a task during which the students can ask me or each other for support.

 

• Providing a supportive atmosphere

I try to raise confidence by giving lots of praise and giving feedback on task achievement as well as language use. When monitoring I try to do so as unobtrusively as possible so the students don't feel that I'm necessarily listening to them personally. On the other hand in feedback I try to make it clear to the class that I have been listening to them and through feedback show them that there is a point to interaction and thereby overcome student resistance.

 

• Varying the interaction and repeating tasks

When teaching large classes I plan to move students around so that they are not always talking to the same partner. A good way to do this I have found is by asking the learners to perform the same task a number of times but each time with a different partner. As well as providing variety of interaction, this approach also maximises practice of the language being worked on.

• Having different levels of task

With mixed ability classes I prepare an easy, medium, and difficult version of the same task so students of different levels can interact together at a level appropriate to the language level. For example, after some listening practice students with different tasks can tell each other what they have found out.

 

• Providing a reason to interact

I use tasks that actively provide the learners with a reason to speak and listen. Information gap activities are a good example of these (and these can be used repetitively if designed carefully)and students generally enjoy doing them. Using project work is another good example of a motivating and collaborative approach that promotes both realistic language use and interaction.

 

Conclusion

Interaction helps learners develop language learning and social skills and so maximising

interaction in the classroom is an important part of the teacher's role. Interaction will not

necessarily happen spontaneously, however, and in my view it has to be considered before

teaching. The approaches suggested above all have this in common - they require forethought and are, therefore, a part of the lesson planning process.

If you wish to be more aware of how creativity works in general and in your classroom so that you can make more informed decisions about using it and how to use it in your classes.

One last word of advice: don't try to do too much too soon. If it is true that students appreciated surprises, it is also true that they don't like to be shocked. So, if you've always used a coursebook, for example, continue to do so, but try to come up with your own ideas to personalise it, see how the students react and think about how to do things better next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Translation of Proper Names

Abstract

The present article deals with the translation of proper names in non-fiction texts. Starting with the delimitation of the category of proper names on a linguistic basis, it examines the various strategies of translating proper names. The effect of the communicative situation is an important factor in the choice of the appropriate translation strategy. Situational features of interest here include the purpose of the translation, the expected audience, the mutual distance of the source and target cultures, as well as the closeness or lack of it of the languages involved. After a formal categorization of name types on syntactic grounds, names are differentiated on the basis of their respective referents and the associated translation strategies are discussed.

     Introduction

One of the problems any translator has to face, in all texts, independently of the theme or subject he/she be working on is the translation of proper names. When we mention this grammatical category, right away we think of anthroponomy (names of persons) and toponyms (names of places), although they are only a part of the whole problem. It is necessary, then, to show which are all the elements within that grammatical category and define the object of study of this paper.

The Dictionary of Spanish Use by M. Moliner says:

[Proper name is] the one applied to a certain thing to distinguish it from the rest of the same species. They are always written in capital letters. Truly, proper names are all the expressions which are denominations and particular titles of things, but they are only called proper names when they are formed by only one or several words that do not form a complete sentence.

A basic tenet in translation theory taught to first-year students is that what are translated are texts, not words. In the following, a more apt designation for translation of proper names would be handling of proper names in translated texts. In deference to traditional usage, however, the term 'translation' was retained in the title. More exactly, the present article deals with proper names in non-fiction texts. Basically, nouns are classified as common or proper. Common nouns refer to a class of entities (e.g. squirrel), while proper nouns have a unique referent (John, London).

     Definition and Classification of Proper Names

Every proper name, such as those below, will be written with capital letters:

a) Names of persons, animals or singularized things. Examples: Peter, Albert, Plato.

b) Geographical names: America, Spain.

When the article officially forms part of the proper name, both words will start with capital letter: El Salvador, The Hague. The name that accompanies proper names of place when they are part of the toponym: Mexico City; Sierra Nevada.

c) Last names: Smith, Brown.

d) Constellation, star or planet names strictly considered as such.

e) Zodiac sign names: Aries, Taurus, Libra.

f) Cardinal point names, when we refer explicitly to them.

g) Civil or religious feast names.

h) Divinities’ names.

i) Sacred books.

j) Commercial brands.

Trying to offer a closer approach to the concept of proper name, we present the considerations of an English speaking author, who establishes the following classification criteria:

ORTHOGRAPHIC:

- Proper names are capitalized.

MORPHOSYNTACTIC:

- Proper names have no plural forms.

- Proper names are used without articles.

- Proper names do not accept restrictive modifiers.

REFERENTIAL:

- Proper names refer to single unique individuals.

SEMANTIC:

- Proper names do not impute any qualities to the objects designated and are therefore meaningless.

- Proper names have a distinctive form of definition that includes a citation of their expression.

Grammatically, proper nouns behave very much in the same way in the sentence as common nouns. There are, however, well-known co-occurrence restrictions that distinguish them from common nouns. The most important among them are:

1.         Proper nouns (PN) do not accept demonstrative pronouns as determiners. One would not normally say this John just bought a car. However, supposing there are several Johns out of whom you wish to single out a particular one, you are already using John as a common noun meaning 'any person called John.'

2.         PNs do not accept restrictive adjectives or restrictive relative clauses. In the sentence the Old Shakespeare felt the closeness of his death one is implicitly comparing one of several manifestations in time of the person called Shakespeare with the rest, therefore, one is using the word as a common noun in the grammatical sense

3.         Opposition between definite and indefinite is neutralized in PNs (a given PN either invariably takes zero article as in John, London, or invariably takes the definite article as in the Strand, the Haymarket, the Queen Elizabeth). A seeming counterexample such as that is not the John I was talking about is an instance of John being used as a common noun as seen above. In other words, a noun's status as either common or proper is ultimately determined by situational factors. If in a given speech situation, there is a possibility of what looks like a proper noun having multiple referents (this John, two Johns) we have to do with a common noun homonymous with a proper noun.

All of the above features derive directly from the fact that PNs refer to unique referents. In Randolph was a true Churchill the surname is being used in the sense 'a member of the Churchill family', that is, as a common noun. Whether a given noun is common or proper is not always easy to decide. There are borderline cases that could be classified either way. Also, a given noun may change category depending on how it is used. For instance, a common noun referring to a given landscape feature may turn into a proper noun with a unique referent.

Personal proper names used metaphorically may turn into common names: He thinks he is a Napoleon. On the other hand, surnames such as Smith, Fletcher and Seppä 'smith' have their origin in the trade of the first bearer or rather that of the father of the first bearer.

 Causes of the confusion

The great confusion comes from (1) the transliteration of all proper names from the English spelling and English pronunciation, (2) the variation in the spoken sound of the TL characters used in the translated names, (3) the great number of homonyms in TL, and (4) the mixed use of the old and new translated names.

   Dealing with proper names in translation

Authors such as Newmark (1986) have established different classifications of translation strategies in general terms, applicable, therefore, to the category of “proper names”. We will present here Theo Hermans’classification (1988) since it is “probably the one that fits best the actual tendencies on translation studies since it intends to establish all the real possibilities.”

Theoretically speaking there appears to be at least four ways of transferring proper names from one language into another. They can be copied, i.e. reproduced in the target text exactly as they were in the source text. They can be transcribed, i.e. Transliterated or adapted on the level of spelling, phonology, etc. A formally unrelated name can be substituted in the TT for any given name in the ST and insofar as a proper name in the ST is enmeshed in the lexicon of that language and acquires ‘meaning’, it can be translated. Combinations of these four modes of transfer are possible, as a proper name may, for example, be copied or transcribed and in addition translated in a (translator’s) footnote. From the theoretical point of view, moreover, several other alternatives should be mentioned, two of which are perhaps more common than one might think: non-translation, i.e. the deletion of a source text proper name in the TT, and the replacement of a proper noun by a common noun (usually denoting a structurally functional attribute of the character in question). Other theoretical possibilities, like the insertion of the proper name in the TT where there is none in the ST, or the replacement of a ST common noun by a proper noun in the TT, may be regarded as less common, except perhaps in certain genres and contexts.

Hermans talks about four basic strategies to use in the translation of proper names, all of which can be combined to produce new methods of transfer, considering as strategies the possibility of omitting the proper name in the translated text or incorporating it when there is none in the original text. It is, from our point of view, a classification that, despite being concise, includes all the possible options the translator may have.

     Proper names to follow the pronunciation of their owners

It is unquestionably true that all the proper names should be transliterated from the correct pronunciation of their owners. E.g. The French names should be transliterated directly from the correct French pronunciation. The Chinese translations of “England, France, Germany, Italy, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome” are correct ones according to this rule.

   To adopt the established popular translated names

Some places have ancient and modern translated names. Many proper names have been well translated, but there are also some persons and places mistransliterated. E.g.Oxford,Cambridge,Bethune.

    The translation of technical terms and other common nouns

Nothing gives the translator more trouble and more perplexity than the translation of technical terms of social, natural and military sciences. Technical terms, especially those of natural sciences, were generally introduced to us first through transliteration and later, some have been substituted by their semantic translations such as telephone, penicillin, bourgeois, etc. Others which can hardly be translated semantically in a few Chinese characters retain their transliterations. They are: Soviet, radar, engine, etc.

Most of the technical terms, especially those of military and social sciences, are translated semantically, such as jet plane, submarine, machine gun, guided missiles. For those nouns which denote things of foreign origin, there are five distinct ways of translation.

  ?Should proper names be translated or not

One of the questions which usually arise in relation to proper names in any language is if these should be translated or not. As a translation teacher we also have to face this question asked quite frequently by the students who usually prefer a general answer that allows them to solve a problem present in every text they have to translate, whatever the topic or the subject. Unfortunately, such an answer does not exist since the macro and microstructures of each text will require different decision making. As a matter of fact, the same text, just intended for a different audience, may require the translation of proper names in one case and the conservation of them in another. For Franco Aixelá “asking oneself ‘if proper names should be translated or not’ is a case of unproductive speculations, since we have the possibility to study how and why they are translated, as in fact they are” (2000: 222-3). These assertions are based on an exhaustive analysis of more than 10 000 proper names from English texts translated into Spanish (including Children’s literature) during the last 75 years of the 20th century. Therefore, if a first conclusion can be inferred, that is that proper names are translated.

 Types of Proper Names

1. Names of persons      2. Names of places      3. Names of organizations      4. Names of works

 Place names:

Names of countries and regions

Names of countries seldom pose a problem to the translator. There are lists of the official names of countries in English that should be consulted. In a few cases, variation does occur depending on the degree of formality involved. The official name that would be de rigueur in a diplomatic note or the text of an international treaty would be stilted in personal correspondence. For a translator from or into Finnish, Närhi 1994a gives the official names of countries in Finnish, Swedish, English, German, Russian and French.

  Settlement names

Names of towns, municipalities and villages are examples of settlement names. There is no problem with names of relatively unimportant settlements that are carried over unchanged in translation. The town of Rauma does not change its name, nor does London, Ontario. With smaller places, however, a gloss is often in place to give the reader an indication of the type of place concerned: Kuusamo might become 'the North-East Finnish town of Kuusamo' etc.

At the other end of the scale, larger cities often have conventional names used in foreign languages. København becomes, Kopenhagen,   کپنهامetc. Depending on the language. On occasion, the conventional name changes almost beyond recognition, when for instance København becomes کپنهام in Persian. A special problem is constituted by names of towns in bilingual countries like Finland and India.

  Names of buildings and streets and subdivisions of towns

As for names of buildings and man-made structures in the form of EPNs, the general rule applies according to which the descriptor part is translated.It is obvious that street names are handled differently depending on the communicative context in which they are mentioned. To take a trivial example, when writing to the country where the street is situated it is not only courtesy but plain common sense not to tamper with the address in any way. On the other hand, when giving the street address of the birthplace of a celebrity in a translated biography, there is no need to stick to the number + street order of the original English.

A further complication is street names used in contexts that do not allow the reader to infer that a given name is a street name. Supposing a Finnish text says that at such and such a time, a certain person lived Katinkujalla 'in Katinkuja'. A non-Finnish reader with no previous knowledge of the geography of the region would wonder how accurate the description is. Is the writer giving the name of a house, street or even a whole village? By tagging on a descriptor such as 'Lane' the translator will give the readers of the translation the necessary background information that will help them to form an appropriate picture of the world of the text.

Names of well-known buildings and other man-made structures usually have conventional names in foreign languages. By way of example, la Tour Eiffel becomes the Eiffel Tower in English. The name of the Statue of Liberty, constituting a descriptive title as a whole, is translated as a whole.

    Personal names:

The basic rule concerning personal names is that they are left untranslated. In some cases, transliteration or transcription may be needed depending on the language. There are however, exceptions to this basic rule. A trivial one is that in certain languages (Chinese and Japanese, for instance) the order of a person's first and last name is the opposite to the most common Western order of first name + last name. In Europe, Hungarian last names come before first names.

Like names of countries and large cities, well-known historic figures have conventional names used abroad: William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, James II. With improving communications and increasing knowledge of foreign languages, this practice may be becoming outdated.Similarly, the present king of Spain is called Juan Carlos II. However, popes still have their names modified according to the language: the current (2003) Pope Giovanni Paolo II becomes Jean Paul II, John Paul II, or, more officially, Ioannes Paulus II, depending on the context.

There are also changing fashions in selecting this or that name form for a well-known historical figure. Knowledge or lack of knowledge of the foreign language obviously plays a role here. The French Louis XIV and his namesakes with other ordinals are known in Finland under their Swedish name Ludvig, while they keep their French names in Britain. For more examples on translation of names of historical figures, cf. Albin (2003).

In actual fact, the concept 'official name' is meaningful only in the context of modern name laws. One can sum up the situation by saying that the same person could be variously addressed by different names by various agents, whether census officers, the law courts, or his family and neighbors.

   Other names:

 Names of works of art including book titles:

The first pragmatic consideration is finding whether or not the book has been translated into the TT language. If so, use the title of the translation. For major European languages, Room (1986) can be consulted for translated names of works of art, both literary and non-literary. Retaining the name of the original shows that no translation exists.

Names of musicals, operas and ballets are sometimes retained in translation. My Fair Lady, West Side Story and Così fan tutte are known all over the world by the original names, a notable exception being Russia, where only translated name are used. Similarly, titles of Russian operas (The Swan Lake) etc.are normally translated, with the not surprising exception of names consisting of a personal name only (Boris Godunov, Yevgeni Onegin).

 Names of organizations and institutions:

Names of international organizations normally have translation equivalents in the member countries: the International Red Cross "صلیب سرخ جهانی". In major languages, the acronym of an international organization is formed from the national name of the organization (e.g. French OTAN for English NATO). In languages of limited distribution like Finnish, only the most important organizations have acronyms based on the national-language name of the entity (YK 'UN', PN for Nordic Council etc.)

As regards the names of Finnish institutions in other languages, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office published two glossaries,(Glossary of Goverment in English) and(Glossary of Government in German)with the stated aim of harmonizing the English and German job titles and names of the various organs of central government in Finland.

       Some special problems:

. Extended proper names in translation:

A problem point in the translation of EPNs is whether or not to translate the appellative part. Should it be left in the SL form with a second descriptor added in the TL: 'the River Kemijoki' or should the original descriptor be stripped: the river Kemi? Usage varies here from one translator to the next. The choice is partially dictated by how likely the TL reader is to understand the SL descriptor in the TL equivalent. The less well-known the SL is in the target culture, the more likely it is for a SL descriptor (not recognized as such) to be retained in translation in addition to the TL translation of the same:'River Oulujoki' (BrE)/'Oulu River' (AmE).

. 'Second-hand' names:

The term 'second-hand' name is used here to refer to source-text names from outside the source-text culture. An example would be a Russian name in an English-language text. Foreign names, that is, names foreign to the source text culture in the ST should always be tracked to the original language and translated directly from that. Failure to do so can be construed as ignorance at best and as a political statement at worst.

      Adding a clarification:

Like cultural allusions unlikely to be comprehended by the TL audience, names that may be well-known in the SL culture, often need to be provided with an explanatory comment. Sotkamon Jymy (a well known sports team) or Per Brahe (17th century governor general of Finland) probably mean nothing to most foreigners. Similarly, small natural features need a descriptor as opposed internationally known places like the Amazon, the Atlantic, or Antarctica. Even with smaller features, after a descriptor has been used once, it is often more natural to leave it out in the continuation.

       Transliteration of names:

Looking at the number of translation errors actually occurring in texts, a more frequent problem is that of the translator not paying attention to transliteration rules. This is more likely to happen if the source text using the Roman alphabet mentions place names from countries using a non-Roman script (say, Russian or Japanese). Since the rules of transliteration vary from one language to the next, retaining the English transliteration form of a Russian name in a TL text may result in an altogether unrecognizable name. The same is true of Ukrainian names in a Russian text.

      Translating proper names in children literature

A fairy tale, a science-fiction novel, an adventure novel, a play, etc. are some of the genres and subgenres to be translated for children. All of them are full of proper names, although obviously they are not going to be treated in the same way, even if all of them are Children’s Literature. We are going to approach the fairy tale and the fiction subgenres as the ones in which proper names are usually most frequently translated. The fairy tale, due to the kind of addressee it is written for, has traditionally translated its personal names.

Some of the most popular fairy tales around the world contain personal names within the title. Of the examples we are going to present, some were written by the brothers Grimm, some are traditional tales recounted by Perrault and later by the brothers Grimm, one belongs to Lewis Carrol and one to an unknown author.

In the case of names containing a meaning, this has been transferred:

Ø   Cendrillon  

    Cinderella

سیندرلا -  

Ø   Alice ou pays des merveilles

                 Alice in Wonderland

آلیس در سرزمین عجایب    

Ø   Blanche-Neige et les sept nains

 -                              Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

سفید برفی و هفت کوتوله  -     

A whole range of names that, without ever being explicitly commented upon, indicate the main characteristics of their bearers all these names underline but do not create the impression the reader gets from the text about the heroes. If he does not notice the connection he does not miss very much, except the feeling of being an insider. Translators, not surprisingly, do not try to translate the revealing names and keep the original forms in their translations.

      Conclusion

To sum up, PNs can be treated in a number of ways in translation:

1.         They can be imported unchanged from the SL text;

2.         They can be modified to fit the phonological/graphological system of the TL. This, of course, is something that has or has not been done for the translator by his/her speech community in the case of conventional place names like Prague, the Hague, Rome etc.;

3.         They can be expanded with a gloss to make up for the TL reader's lack of world knowledge in the target culture;

4.         On occasion, they might be omitted altogether (perhaps replaced with a paraphrase) if considered peripheral in terms of the central message of the text or if retaining them would be more likely to cause the reader to pause in puzzlement. True, this would be more likely to happen in interpretation, but could not be ruled out altogether in translation, either;

5.         In rare cases, they might even be introduced in the TL text where, instead of a proper name, the SL text contains a cultural allusion unlikely to be understood by the TL reader. The choice between the various alternatives will be determined by pragmatic factors, paramount among which are the overarching purpose of the text and the translator's assessment of his/her intended audience

The best way to learn English

Although most people can realize the importance of English in modern life. Mastering English is quite difficult for them, Why? Because they don't find out a suitable way to learn. I state you about the way to learn English I think it is the best. It is combination of two factors: learning inside the class and learning outside the class.
Learning inside the class is very necessary for learners for experience, a good environment for practicing and motivation of studying. Firstly, you should take part fully in class to get knowledge from teachers who can share their valuable experiences for studying English with us, and they also give comment or feed back about your mistakes if you have , they can explain about what you don't understand the English lessons. Second, class is good environment for studying, is where we can communicate with your friends in English and check your knowledge level, beside when you learn inside the class, you have competition with others, which make you have more motivation for studying but joining in class every day isn't still enough time for your practice to become a good learner. You should spend more time on practicing yourself at home.
Learning English outside is also important. You can study English online at home with threes reasons: not spend much fees, have suitable lesson for each person and have more interesting for lessons. First learning English online at home, which decrease fees for us and don't much time for moving, second there are many kinds of lesson which are suitable with each learner's level, there are courses for beginners, both adults and children, as well as more advanced courses for those who work their way up through the lessons. The advanced lessons are also suitable for those who do have the basics of the English language and want to increase their skills in reading, speaking, listening and writing. Thirdly, having many funny activities from English online course. It makes learners more interesting for studying. For example, play funny games such as play cards, puzzle, crossword, or hangman. Moreover, you can watch English film, listen to English news, read English newspaper or chat with native speakers.
Many people have the idea that learning English is a difficult process. In fact, the opposite is true and the language is really easy to learn if you spend time on practicing it everyday with above method. You will become a good learner English.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Love
Her love is like
an island in life's ocean,
vast and wide
A peaceful, quiet shelter
From the wind, the rain, the tide.
'Tis bound on the north by Hope,
By Patience on the West,
By tender Counsel on the South
And on the East by Rest.
Above it like a beacon light
Shine Faith, and Truth, and Prayer;
And thro' the changing scenes of life
I find a haven there.

Teacher's Day

I Want To Be Like You Thank you, teacher,
for being my life's role model.
When I consider all you've taught me
and reflect on the kind of person you are,
I want to be like you—
smart, interesting and engaging,
positive, confident, yet unpretentious.
I want to be like you—
well-informed and easy to understand,
thinking with your heart as well as your head,
gently nudging us to do our best,
with sensitivity and insight.
I want to be like you—
giving your time, energy and talent
to ensure the brightest possible future
for each of us.
Thank you, teacher
For giving me a goal to shoot for:
I want to be like you! By Joanna Fuchs

A Teacher for All Seasons A teacher is like Spring,
Who nurtures new green sprouts,
Encourages and leads them,
Whenever they have doubts. A teacher is like Summer,
Whose sunny temperament
Makes studying a pleasure,
Preventing discontent. A teacher is like Fall,
With methods crisp and clear,
Lessons of bright colors
And a happy atmosphere. A teacher is like Winter,
While it's snowing hard outside,
Keeping students comfortable,
As a warm and helpful guide. Teacher, you do all these things,
With a pleasant attitude;
You're a teacher for all seasons,
And you have my gratitude! By Joanna Fuchs

How To Teach Formal And Informal Language

Although getting formality really right is a sign of a truly advanced learner (and is also the last thing native speaker teenagers pick up), even beginners can gain from being told the formality differences between “Can you…?”/“Could you…?”, “Good morning”/“Hello”/“Hi”, etc – and even more so nowadays when students with limited English often already have to use it in their work and travels. Even though people speaking to them will probably understand that it is a lack of knowledge that is making them say “Please give me a coffee” to the secretary, that is unlikely to completely take away the offence. There is also the less commonly considered danger of sounding unfriendly by being too formal, e.g. continuing to address people “Dear Mr Smith” long after the replies from overseas have switched to “Dear Yuji”.

Patterns in formal and informal language

As well as teaching formality differences as you go along, e.g. with each functional language/everyday-English point (greetings, meeting people, offers, etc) that you cover, there are also useful generalisations you can make or ask students to spot. Formal language tends to include longer, Latinate words, often with prefixes and suffixes, e.g. “cooperation” rather than “help” and “inconvenience” rather than “bother”. These words tend to be in longer sentences too, and making a functional phrase such as a request longer (e.g. adding “possibly” to “Could I…?”) almost always makes it more polite. Formal writing also tends to follow the more prescriptive grammar and punctuation rules that native speaker kids are taught at school, e.g. not starting sentences with “and” and “but”. In emailing, there are also plenty of archaic forms that don’t make sense in modern grammar or speech, e.g. “I look forward to…” and “Yours faithfully”.

Informal language tends to have shorter words and sentences. The shorter words are often put together into phrasal verbs and other idiomatic phrases like “hold on”, “let me know” and “give me a ring”. One reason the sentences are shorter is that they often lose particular grammatical words, e.g. subjects and auxiliary verbs as in “Looking forward to seeing you soon”. All these things are also true of informal writing, and in general informal writing is similar to speech. Other features of informal writing include abbreviations (including textspeak ones like “CU” and “gr8”), and strong language and punctuation (“fabulous”, “no way”, exclamation marks, multiple punctuation, etc). With emails there can perhaps be said to be two kinds of informal ones, the business-like ones that have no greetings and just names as salutations (if that), and ones that have lots of friendly language like “Pass my love onto…” and “Write soon”.

Classroom activities for formal and informal language

The first thing students need to be able to do is to identify the two kinds of language. One nice game for this is giving each student one card with “Formal” on it and another with “Informal” on it. They listen to phrases the teacher reads out like “Wassup?” and “I hope this email finds you well” and hold up the cards to indicate what they think about the formality they hear. They can then label the same phrases on a worksheet and try to draw up rules for formal and informal language from those examples.

You can also introduce common mistakes when doing this point, this time giving them cards that say “Informal” and “Wrong” to hold up when they hear “Looking forward to hearing from you” and “I look forward to hear from you”.

There are several other ways of taking this kind of TTT (Test Teach Test) approach. One is to give them mixed up formal and informal conversations or emails to sort out. This can be a formal exchange and an informal one to divide from each other and then put into order, or an email exchange (that gets more and more informal as it goes on) that you ask them to put into chronological order. The worksheets should be designed so that the students can use meaning and context clues to help them even if they are unsure about the differences in formality. They can then work together to identify the points that make the differences in formality obvious.

A simpler version of the activity above is to just give them phrases or emails and their responses (e.g. “Hiya. How’s it going?” “Great. You?”) that they should match up from formality and meaning clues.

If there are certain formal and/or informal phrases that students are likely to need often, there is also a memory game called Grammar Reversi that they can play. Make a set of about fifteen to twenty cards that have a formal sentence on one side and an informal version of the same thing on the other (e.g. “Dear Mr Smith” and “Hi John”). Students lay them in vertical line on the table in front of them, representing the ladder that they must climb. It doesn’t matter which side is showing. They climb the ladder by guessing/remembering the exact wording of the other side of every card, moving all the way from the bottom to the top. Any mistakes mean play passes to the next person, and all players must start at the very bottom each and every time. Cards remain turned over if they guess correctly, meaning the next person must change the formality the other way round.

A more well-known activity is to get students correcting formality mistakes. I find this works best if the formality problems are mixed up with spelling mistakes, paragraphing problems, etc. You can give them a conversation or email exchange with a mix of such problems to sort out, or give them a succession of tasks that just have a single kind of problem that they should identify and then correct. For example, the first email and response you give them has 15 spelling mistakes; then once they have found and corrected all of them you give a similar worksheet with 15 formality problems on it.

Perhaps my favourite activity for presenting or practising formality is to give students very informal sentences that they should compete to make more and more formal, e.g. going from “Pass me the salt, will you?” to “Could you possibly pass me the salt for just a moment or two, if it’s not too much trouble?” and beyond. When they give up or the last sentence was actually less formal than the previous one, the last person gets a point and they do the same thing with a different sentence.

راههاي ساده براي تناسب اندام

  اگر مي‌خواهيد براي زيبايي يا حفظ سلامتي، تناسب اندام خود را حفظ كنيد بد نيست به نكات زير توجه كنيد:
دوري كردن از هيدرات كربن‌ها و مصرف فيبر زياد كه به جلوگيري از افزايش وزن بويژه در خانم‌ها كمك شاياني مي‌كند.از آنجا كه رژيم حاوي از فيبر زياد و هيدرات كربن كم از تجمع چربي بويژه در ناحيه شكم و كمر جلوگيري مي‌كند براي تناسب اندام بخصوص در خانم‌ها مناسب است.
محققان در بررسي‌ها به اين نتيجه رسيدند كه خانم‌هايي كه در سنين ميانسالي بيشتر از ميوه‌ها و سبزيجات شامل فيبر و كمتر از هيدرات كربن‌هاي ساده استفاده مي‌كنند لاغرتر از افرادي هستند كه هيدرات كربن و چربي زياد مصرف مي‌كنند.
به‌طور كلي مصرف غذاهايي مانند نان سفيد، قند و نشاسته بيشتر از نان‌هاي سبوس‌دار و جو و غلات كامل موجب اضافه وزن مي‌شوند زيرا فيبر كمتري دارند.پس حتي در مصرف نان و نشاسته نيز چنانچه انتخاب‌هاي صحيحي داشته باشيم مي‌توانيم از اضافه وزن و چاقي جلوگيري نماييم.

درمان هورموني و كاهش وزن

در بسياري از زنان يائسه درمان هورموني طبق تجويز پزشك آغاز مي‌شود و همواره اين پرسش مطرح است كه آيا اين درمان طي دوران يائسگي به كنترل وزن هم كمك مي‌كند؟ تحقيقات نشان داده است درمان هورموني روي وزن زنان طي دوران يائسگي تاثيري نمي‌گذارد. اگر هدف شما پيشگيري از افزايش وزن است، بهترين روش، مصرف غذاهاي مناسب و ورزش كافي است. بهتر است راههاي ديگر را امتحان نكنيد.

حبوبات را بيشتر از قبل مصرف كنيد

حبوبات فوايد تغذيه‌اي بيشماري دارند و براي حفظ سلامت بدن ضروري هستند. حبوبات باعث كندي جذب گلوكز در جريان خون مي‌شوند و اشتهاي شما را كنترل مي‌كنند.
حبوبات سرشار از فيبر هستند و فيتواستروژن هم دارند. ضمنا منبع خوبي از ويتامين‌ها و املاحي مثل كلسيم، اسيدفوليك و ويتامين B6 هستند. يادتان باشد حبوبات منبع خوبي از پروتئين هستند.
مي‌توانيد از حبوبات در سالاد و انواع ماكاروني، سوپ و خورش استفاده كنيد.
تعداد وعده‌هاي غذايي را زياد كنيد و صبحانه را فراموش نكنيدبسياري از خانم‌ها بزرگ‌ترين وعده غذايي خود را در انتهاي روز يعني شام مصرف مي‌كنند و بسياري از زنان در طول روز كه بدن به سوخت بيشتري احتياج دارد، كمتر غذا مي‌خورند، يعني صبحانه و ناهار آنها مختصر است.
اگر شام مفصل باشد بدن تمام كالري به دست آمده را ذخيره مي‌كند، زيرا طي خواب، نياز به كالري بسيار كم است. ضمنا افزايش تعداد وعده‌هاي غذايي و كاهش حجم آنها در هر وعده بسيار مفيد است، زيرا افرادي كه اين رويه را دارند در انتهاي روز كالري و چربي كمتري مصرف مي‌كنند.
تحقيقات نشان داده است با افزايش تعداد وعده‌هاي غذايي و كاهش حجم آنها در هر وعده، كالري بيشتري سوزانده مي‌شود و وزن بدن كنترل مي‌شود. در چنين رويه‌اي، كاهش گلوكز خون اتفاق نمي‌افتد و كار معده نيز راحت‌تر مي‌شود.

Teaching Large Classes

Most teachers agree that teaching a small group of students is easier, more enjoyable, and less time consuming than teaching a large group. Unfortunately, due to budgets, space, or lack of teachers, many ESL schools only offer large classes. In some schools, large classes may consist of up to 50 or more students. While your class may look more like a University lecture hall, your job is not to lecture. Just like teaching a small class, you must come up with engaging activities that keep all of your students interested and participating with the goal of improving their communication skills. While there are numerous challenges when it comes to teaching large classes, there are many coping skills and activities that you can use to make your job easier.

Advantages of Teaching Large Classes

• High Energy: Classes with many students may be noisy, but they are also fun and exciting.
• Timing: Classes go by quickly in a large class, and you will rarely catch yourself looking at the clock. You will regularly find yourself with extra activities that you did not complete that you can save and use in your next class.
• Participation: There is always someone who is willing to answer questions even if they are just guessing. Make sure to take answers from a variety of students.
• Fillers: Teachers have less need for fillers since core activities and lessons take longer to complete.

Challenges of Teaching Large Classes

• Intimacy: Remembering student's names can take a while. Teachers may feel that they do not get to know their students as well as they would like to.
• Anxiety: Some teachers feel anxious being so outnumbered by the students. In addition, some students are afraid to ask questions or participate in a large class.
• Student needs: Meeting individual needs can be difficult or impossible when class size is very large.
• Marking: Grading assignments and tests can be very time consuming, and your pay will generally be the same for a smaller class.
• Distractions: There are more distractions for teachers in large classes, such as latecomers and people chatting while you are teaching.
• Preparation: Making photocopies for a large class can be very time consuming. Other teachers may be bothered by how much time you spend using the photocopier.
• Noise level: Large classes can become out of hand when students are working in pairs or groups. At times you may feel more like a disciplinarian than a teacher.
• Monitoring students: Teachers may find it difficult to keep students on task as they monitor pair and group work.
• Space: There is limited space in a classroom for energetic activities such as role-playing.
• Textbooks and resources: There may not be enough textbooks or computers available for all students.

Strategies for Coping with Large Classes

• Use a teacher's notebook: Attach a small notebook and pen to your belt loop. Take notes while you are monitoring pair or group learning. Review common errors as a whole group after an activity is complete.
• Spread out: Find another space that your class can use for energetic whole group activities. Find a lobby or spare classroom in the building that your students can spread out into when they are preparing a project or performance. Take students outside if there is no indoor space available.
• Create a participation grade: Make homework and attendance count by doing regular checks and making it part of their final grade. Giving a daily exam tip also encourages attendance.
• Encourage competition: Establish a fun and competitive atmosphere within the class, by dividing the class into teams. You may change the teams once in a while or leave them the same throughout a semester. Teams can win points for certain accomplishments (If noise and behaviour is a problem, students can lose points too.).
• Relax: Find ways to relax before class so that you don't feel anxious. Never attempt to prepare a lesson in the morning, right before class. Always have a water bottle handy. Always have an extra activity on hand in case something doesn't go as you expect it to.
• Establish trust: Learn unique ways to remember names and do your best to get to know something about each of your students. Create a seating chart on the first day and ask students to stick with it for a while. Tell your students at least one or two things about yourself beyond your role of teaching.
• Manage the noise: Establish a signal that you want your class to stop what they are doing and listen. This should be done from the first day, so that students become accustomed to it right away. Be careful not to use gestures or sounds that would offend anyone.
• Reduce marking and preparation time: Design quizzes and tests in a way so that you can reduce the amount of marking. Use peer evaluations when possible. If students submit journals, just read them and leave a short comment and/or suggestion, rather than fixing every grammar mistake. Designate a specific time when the teacher's room is slow to do most of your photocopying for the week. This will save you from feeling guilty for taking up the photocopier for a long time when another teacher only has a few copies to make.
• Enforce a late policy: Notify students of your late policy on the first day and stick to it. For example, don't let students enter your classroom after a warm-up has ended. If students miss class, make it their responsibility to catch up, not yours.
• Share your e-mail address: In a large class, you will find yourself feeling drained before and after class if you let students come early or stay late to ask questions every day. This alone can make you hate your job, especially if you are not paid for hours when you are not teaching. Encourage students to e-mail you with questions, and answer them on your own time. If you don't like the e-mail suggestion, try finishing your class ten minutes early once in a while and allow your students free conversation time. Take questions on a first come basis during this time.

Activities to use in Large Classes

• Small group discussions: Use topics related to a theme, or ask students to submit topic suggestions.
• Who Am I?: Tape the name of a famous person to the back of each student. Students go around the room asking questions and trying to identify themselves. Once they guess who they are they can place their nametag on the front and continue helping other students identify themselves.
• Team spelling contests: Each student who gets the spelling correct gets a point for their team.
• Balderdash: Large class can be split into teams. Teacher calls out a word and students have to write down the part of speech and definition. Each student to get both correct gets a point for her team.
• Write the question: Large class can be split into teams. The teacher calls out an answer and the students have to write the question. (ex. "Lynn") Each student to write the correct question gets a point. (ex. answer: What's your middle name?")
• Questionnaires: Students circulate around the room asking each other questions. Students can create their own questions on a given topic or theme, or you can provide the questionnaire handout. Follow up by asking each student to report the most interesting answer they received.
• Categories: The teacher calls out a category, such as fruit, and each student has to name a fruit when it is his turn. If a student hesitates for more than five seconds, he or she has to choose a new category and sit out the rest of the game. The last person to get out wins.

انگيزه براي فراگيري زبان انگليسي

افزايش انگيزه براي آموختن زبان

در اينجا تكنيك‌هايي جهت افزايش انگيزه‌ي شما براي فراگيري يک زبان ديگر (در اينجا انگليسي) ارائه مي‌شود:

 

خودتان را در آينده مجسم کنيد

تصور کنيد که مثل زبان مادريتان مي‌توانيد با انگليسي‌زبان‌ها هم صحبت کنيد. تصور کنيد که همه مي‌خواهند مثل شما انگليسي صحبت کنند. فکر کنيد که ديگر مي‌توانيد به راحتي با افرادي از سرتاسر دنيا مکاتبه کنيد. تصور کنيد که وقتي آشنايان شما با مشکلي در زمينه‌ي زبان مواجه مي‌شوند، به شما مراجعه مي‌کنند. اين تصورات کمک مي‌کنند تا انگيزه‌ي لازم براي فراگيري زبان در شما شکل بگيرد. بايد بدانيد که شما مي‌توانيد به خوبي زبان انگليسي را بياموزيد و به آن مسلط شويد.

 

زبان شما هم‌اکنون خوب است ولي...

شما احتمالاً تا حدي به زبان انگليسي مسلط هستيد و اين خود يک موفقيت بزرگ است! حالا بايد به موفقيت‌هاي بزرگتري فکر کنيد. وقت آن رسيده است که از روش‌هاي مؤثر و کارآمد براي رسيدن به سطح قابل قبولي از دانش انگليسي استفاده کنيد.

درست است که انگليسي شما خوب است، ولي احتمالاً کامل نيست. شما احتمالاً هنوز نمي‌توانيدفيلم‌هاي زبان اصلي را متوجه شويد، کتاب‌هايي به انگليسي‌ بخوانيد، با انگليسي‌زبانها به راحتي صحبت کنيد و يا بدون اشتباه نامه بنويسيد.

شما هرگز نبايد تصور کنيد که انگليسي شما کامل شده است. حتي اگر بهترين دانش‌آموز کلاستان هستيد، هميشه بايد به دنبال يافتن نقاط ضعف خود باشيد و روي آنها کار کنيد. مثلاً در حال حاضر ممکن است در اين زمينه‌ها مشکل داشته باشيد: عدم تلفظ صحيح بعضي از کلمات، دايره‌ي لغت محدود، مشکلات گرامري با مثلاً زمان حال کامل و جملات شرطي و....

 

هر کجا که مي‌توانيد از انگليسي‌تان استفاده کنيد

اين يک نکته بسيار مهم است، هر چقدر بيشتر از انگليسي‌تان استفاده کنيد، بيشتر مي‌خواهيد که آن را ياد بگيريد.

زبان انگليسي آنقدر متداول است که شما مي‌توانيد همه جا از آن استفاده کنيد. مثلاً مي‌توانيد از موتور جستجوي گوگل براي يافتن اطلاعات مورد علاقه‌تان در سايتهاي انگليسي‌زبان بهره بگيريد، کارتون‌هاي زبان اصلي را تماشا کنيد، از بازيهاي ماجرايي در کامپيوترتان استفاده کنيد، کتابهايي به زبان انگليسي بخوانيد و....

با انجام اين کارها شما نه تنها آموزش و تفريح را با هم ادغام کرده‌ايد، بلکه وقتي مي‌بينيد که فراگيري يک يا چند کلمه به شما اين امکان را مي‌دهد که برنامه زبان اصلي مورد علاقه‌تان را متوجه شويد (يا بتوانيد با ديگران مکاتبه کنيد)، قطعاً خواستار فراگيري لغات بيشتري خواهيد شد.

 

با ديگران راجع به زبان انگليسي صحبت کنيد

اين يک روش ساده و در عين حال بسيار کارآمد است. شما معمولاً درباره‌ي چيزهايي صحبت مي‌کنيد که برايتان جالب باشد. اما برعکس آن هم درست است: اگر شما درباره‌ي يک موضوع خسته کننده صحبت کنيد، کم‌کم به آن علاقمند خواهيد شد.

تصور کنيد که چيزي را مطالعه مي‌کنيد که از آن نفرت داريد. مثلاً فرض کنيد با اينکه خسته و کسل هستيد، مجبوريد براي امتحان روز بعد خودتان را آماده کنيد. شما دو گزينه پيش رو داريد: يا مي‌توانيد به ديگران بگوييد که چقدر عذاب مي‌کشيد و يا مي‌توانيد با آنها درباره‌ي چيزهايي که ياد گرفته‌ايد صحبت کنيد. اگر گزينه‌ي اول را انتخاب کنيد تنها اوضاع خودتان را بدتر مي‌کنيد.

اما اگر گزينه‌ي دوم را انتخاب کنيد و درباره‌ي آن موضوع خسته کننده صحبت کنيد، کم‌کم نظر شما درباره‌ي آن عوض مي‌شود و به موضوعي تبديل خواهد شد که ارزش حرف زدن درباره‌ي آن را داشته باشد – يعني يک موضوع جالب.

و اما در مورد زبان انگليسي: شما مي‌توانيد دوستانتان را با گفتن چند جمله‌ي انگليسي غافلگير کنيد! يا مثلاً مي‌توانيد به آنها بگوييد که امروز 20 لغت جديد ياد گرفته‌ايد. هميشه از پيشرفتهايتان با آنها صحبت کنيد. از آنها بپرسيد آيا معني فلان کلمه را به انگليسي مي‌دانند؟ اگر کسي در نزديکي شما نيست، مي‌توانيد به دوستانتان تلفن کنيد و يا ايميل بزنيد.

احتمالا اين چيزها براي دوستان شما هيچ اهميتي ندارد، تنها چيزي که مهم است اين است که وقتي شما درباره‌ي «انگليسي» صحبت مي‌کنيد، علاقه و اشتياق شما نسبت به فراگيري آن بيشتر و بيشتر مي‌شود.

 

دوستي پيدا کنيد که به فراگيري انگليسي مشغول باشد

اگر بتوانيد دوستي پيدا کنيد که مانند خود شما در حال فراگيري زبان انگليسي و سطح معلوماتش نيز در حد شما باشد، در شرايطي بسيار ايده‌آل قرار خواهيد گرفت، زيرا:

• کسي را خواهيد داشت که بتوانيد درباره‌ي «انگليسي» با او صحبت کنيد. همانطور که در بالا گفتيم، اين گفتگوها علاقه‌ي شما به فراگيري زبان را افزايش خواهد داد.

• فراگيري زبان براي شما آسان‌تر خواهد شد، زيرا در اين صورت مي‌توانيد اشکال‌هايتان را با دوستتان در ميان بگذاريد.

• بيشتر به مطالعه‌ي انگليسي خواهيد پرداخت، چونکه مي‌خواهيد از دوستتان بهتر باشيد (رقابت). (-:

 

شما بايد به طور منظم با دوستتان در تماس باشيد. او بايد در نزديکي شما زندگي کند و يا به همان مدرسه، دانشگاه، يا محل کار شما بيايد. اگر نمي‌توانيد چنين دوستي پيدا کنيد، مي‌توانيد کسي را از طريق ايميل پيدا کنيد (Pen-pal). البته يک دوست ايميلي هرگز نمي‌تواند جاي يک دوست واقعي را براي شما پر کند، زيرا رقابت با کسي که او را بخوبي نمي‌شناسيد دشوار است و اين نوع گفتگوها اغلب دوامي ندارند.

 

کمي پول خرج کنيد!

اگر پولتان را صرف خريد چيزي بکنيد، از آن استفاده خواهيد کرد. به عنوان مثال اگر شما يک راکت گرانقيمت خريداري کنيد، احتمالاً هر روز بيرون مي‌رويد و بدمينتون بازي مي‌کنيد.

اين قاعده براي فراگيري زبان نيز صادق است. اگر مي‌خواهيد اشتياقتان را براي فراگيري زبان بالا ببريد، مي‌توانيد (به عنوان مثال) يك ديكشنري نو، يک کتاب مصور به زبان انگليسي و يا يک سي‌دي مولتي مدياي آموزشي خريداري کنيد. اين يک اصل ساده است: وقتي براي چيزي پول خرج مي‌کنيد، از آن استفاده خواهيد کرد و بدين ترتيب سطح انگليسي شما ارتقاء پيدا مي‌کند. توصيه‌ي ما اين است که دور و بر خودتان را با انواع کتاب، سي‌دي، نوار و ديگر امکانات سمعي و بصري پر کنيد. بدين ترتيب هميشه از انگيزه‌ي لازم براي فراگيري زبان برخوردار خواهيد بود

English Speaking

Speaking is the 2nd of the four language skills, which are:
 Listening- Speaking - Reading -Writing
The Importance of Speaking Practice
Speaking to yourself can be "dangerous" because men in white coats may come and take you away!! That is why you should make every effort possible to find somebody to speak with.

Greetings
How to say hello in English. On these pages you can listen to and practise greeting people in a variety of situations - from the classroom to business.

"What should I call you?"
How to Address People in English
What name or title can we use when speaking to friends, colleagues, acquaintances, teachers, doctors etc?

Telephone English
In this lesson we look at some of the words and expressions that we use for telephoning. There are also some practice sessions and a quiz for you to check your understanding.

Presentations & Public Speaking
Learn how to give a presentation or speak in public in English. This tutorial guides you step by step through the process of making a presentation, from preparation to conclusion and questions.
"Well Done!!!! All the basics, in an easy to use, easy to follow format! Finally, my students have some high quality, free material to use!"
John Herzig, Teacher, USA

Speaking about the Weather
Even strangers discuss the weather. Learn the proper vocabulary and expressions, and you'll find it easy to start a conversation anytime, anywhere--with anyone you meet!

Small Talk
What can we say in casual conversations with strangers or colleagues we meet in the lift? Small talk is a casual form of conversation that "breaks the ice" or fills an awkward silence between people.

Agreeing and Disagreeing
Sooner or later you will get the urge to agree or disagree with something that is being said in English. Offering an opinion can be difficult when it is not in your first language...

Speaking vs Writing (article)

Negotiating

Meetings

Job Interviews - match the question to the answer

TOEFL Speaking Section (with audio examples)

Start your own English Club

Superstar Talks about learning to speak Thai

Informal Contractions (gonna, wanna)

Talking Point Discussions

Speak, Sing and Play with your Baby in English

Cash Transactions (dialogues)

Customer Service (dialogues)

Taking Reservations (dialogues)

Checking out of a Hotel (dialogues)

Checking in for a flight (dialogues)

Ordering cocktails (dialogue)

Booking an appointment (dialogue)

Doctor's Diagnosis (dialogue)

Visiting Hours (dialogue)

Working in a restaurant (dialogue)

Taking a tour (dialogue)

Talking to a Police Officer

Describing a Crime

Practise Speaking with Word Up

Practise Reciting Poetry