1. Learners should only read the blogs by native English speakers? Learners want to learn standard English (AmE or BrE). They read and learn, but, if what they read is full of grammar, spelling or expression mistakes, what's the point of reading such blogs? Maybe you don't care who the blogs are by. Maybe you just want to communicate, not only to learn English, then it's fine. Maybe you'd say blogs by native speakers contain a few such mistakes, too. What's your viewpoint?
2. Do native speakers really want to come here and leave some comments for the learners? Imagine, if your mother tongue is Spanish and you see so many learners want to learn Spanish here, do you really want to take the time and respond to any questions? In doing so, what's the benefit you'd get? So, what could be the motivation for a native speaker to come here often? No wonder, learners often value the blogs by native speakers most! What do you think?!
All the possible comments are welcome and would be highly appreciated!
Comments
Good to see your comment.
1. The 'chat room' is a good place for learners to practice English. Sure enough, you'll learn and improve there. But, keep in mind the English used in a chat room may not so standard or formal - mostly in a 'conversation style'.
2. It's true that usually there are more learners than native English speakers in such a chat room. But, I'd say most of the native English speakers are willing to teach if you ask them to.
Good luck!
2. Off course not so much native speakers are member in this club. I wish there is many come to become member. I think people they dont like to teach as you said. But it is ok, even though there is no native speaker. I learn from blogs for example grammar, listen conversation etc. until my next step it is fine with me. I liked it,
Do you think it's a good idea that writing dialogues could improve the speaking skills? Here, I'll try to add another dialogue.
W: How long have you been studing English?
M: About 10 years.
W: No wonder your English is so good.
M: English is the most widely used language in the world, isn't it?
W: Yes, and it's very useful. I really wanna learn it.
M: OK, we can learn it together. Help each other.
W: So let's try to write down some dialogues and see how well we can do it.
M: Good idea. Maybe we could write a dialogue between a man and a woman.
"W=woman M=man"
I hope learners here give it a shot. Try to write down your dialogue. You can imagine a scene - at an airport, library, classroom etc. You can do it!
Glad to know that you've decided to learn English. If you really want to learn English, we'll help you to improve! Keep trying. Good luck!
Second, to Jessie, you really come up with an interesting idea. So you just answered my original question: What could be the motivation for a native speaker to come here and help? I failed to think so before. Fun idea! But I have to say, the native speakers here, such as Josef, Tara, and Bill the English teacher, are all my good friends and they've done what they could to help learners to learn more. I appreciate what they've done for us.
And, you inspired me to wonder if we can write more in a dialogue style to help improve the speaking skills by writing. Things may seem like the follows:
L(learner): How could I improve my speaking skills?
T(teacher): I think you should speak it more, with your colleagues or friends.
L: What if they don't wanna practice it with me?
T: Then, you'd try other ways. There're plenty out there.
It may be a challenge for you to write this way. But I think it's fun. I'll try to do so in my future comments, and hope members here give it a try and see how good it helps improve our English.
When you study linguistics, you learn that there is no such a thing as the "correct" or "perfect" language. In fact, we learn that the language is always transforming and "borrowing" words and sounds from other languages and speakers. For example, in Miami, there are a lot of Latin People, and Americans have learned to pronounce some words (in English) as latins do, and they have included some words from Spanish in their every-day English vocabulary.
Actually, Language is an "agreement" and an organizer. I'll explain it. Language is an agreement because individuals of the same community understand each other thru words. Culturally, we assign an specific meanning for each word within every social group. There are words in the same language that mean different things depending on the context, group or geographical area; an example of this is how many dictionaries show the different meanning of each word in different countries. I know that there are words considered offensive in Ingland, but not in the USA, and the other way arround. The same happens in Spanish, and I'm sure that with other languages too.
When we are children we learn to talk as part of our need to communicate, but more important, because language makes us part of a society;and being part of a society is key for our survillance.
Through language we determine the existence(by naming the things) of all the elements in our world. Therefore, somehow, it organizes or shapes each existing thing.
Native Speakers of any language have been in this organizing process of the world(in English, Spanish or any language) since they were born, so it is natural on them... For us, learning a new language is re-organizing the world and learning a whole new culture.
Now, going to your last question...
I think we write in this blog because we belong to the same community(of learners and teachers), and we are getting to our own language agreements. In the same way, native speakers involve with our learning process since that enahnces their own learning processes, and it gives them an idea of how their language is understood, and how people understands the different English-spoken cultures.
It is also important to point out that majority of Native English Speakers in this site are English Teachers, so knowing the challenges and difficulties we go thru help them to teach. Besides that, I dare to say that these people are really open-minded and they want to learn again their own language from our point of view(in matters of culture and organization.)
It's really a little hard for most of us who aren't living in an English-speaking country to pratice(AmE)/practise(BrE) speaking daily. You can talk with your colleagues or friends who're eager to learn English too, read more 'dialogues' or 'movie scripts', listen to the radio or watch TV 'talk show' programmes, or talk to yourself, or just write down what you want to say. Hope you find a suitable way to practice.
Here comes a question: Could it be true that reading and writng more can help improve speaking or listening skills?
I'm not familiar with Phylology. I guess you've learned the 'Phylology English'. But I'm not so sure if you've got your 'specialty English'. If you attend an international conference on your specialty, you may need to write your article in English. My specilty English is English in medicine - I'm a doctor. Many people think the medicine English is hard to learn.
Sure, we could share any topic here in the blog. What we reall want to do is pratice our English, not just focus on the topic itself. We may differ in our opinions, but it doesn't matter - we just learn the English language in a fun way: commenting or responding in English. Eventually we improve. Here I'd leave a question for you and all the members here: Why we post blog or add comment to it? Do you find it's a good way to learn or teach English?
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