Northern England dialect??

English grammar and usage issues

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Dani
Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 28 Sep 2007, 15:35

Northern England dialect??

Unread post by Dani »

Hi there,

I was wondering if there are any other teachers out there from northern England? (or anywhere else that has this problem)I don't use the past participle when I speak. I only found out when I done my CELTA course that this is (technically) wrong! Apparantly a lot of people from northern England do the same. I slipped up the other day with an upper int student who asked me what the past participle of 'lie' is - and I didn't know off the top of my head as I've never used it! Does anyone else have this or a similar problem?

Thanks,

Dani.
Alex Case
Top Contributor
Posts: 539
Joined: 17 Aug 2007, 01:53
Status: Teacher

Unread post by Alex Case »

As an educated English speaker, if you just think that students mainly want to speak the kind of English you would write in a job application letter rather than the English you speak, that is probably a good rule of thumb. They may want to understand more informal and regional varieties of English, but will just make themselves less understandable to most people they speak to if they learn to speak that way, especially if they mainly use English to communicate with other non-native speakers.

Even some native speakers struggle writing formal English. I'd say the secret is being widely read and more formal study such as doing an MA.
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