How to fix broken English?

[SpiceMan]

My Thai girlfriend has a good English vocabulary but her grammar is appalling. She always omits the word "am" i.e. "I going shopping later". She has extreme difficulty with the verb "to be" and usually omits that from the sentence. She also doesn't use plurals correctly and doesn't even try.

 

In the time we have known each other, her English skills improved dramatically at first but recently she has made no more progress. Sometimes it seems her English is worse now than it was four years ago. She now works in an environment where she only speaks Thai. She never had any English lessons and is entirely self taught from books she bought. She likes to read but doesn't have much spare time now. We plan for her to come to the UK later this year where she will work and have to deal with customers on the phone. I fear they will hang up on her if she doesn't speak clearly.

 

I think what I am looking for is a quick way to fix her broken grammar. Any suggestions?

 

 

[Flashermac]

Teach her some songs in English that use proper grammar? (If you can find any ...)

 

 

[SpiceMan]

Wow, will this really work?

[cardinalblue]

School, school and more school...

 

CB

[Pescator]

My Thai girlfriend has a good English vocabulary but her grammar is appalling. She always omits the word "am" i.e. "I going shopping later". She has extreme difficulty with the verb "to be" and usually omits that from the sentence. She also doesn't use plurals correctly and doesn't even try.

 

Well, it is a typical for thais learning english as they don`t use either in thai language.

I suspect she doesn`t use the auxilary very "to be" as well.

 

I suggest you write down some examples of the correct use and go through it with her.

She can keep the written sentences as reference.

We all have different approach for learning new stuff, but the written examples and supplementary explainations from me did it for my missus.

 

 

 

 

[WorldFun]

as 'snake head' said some clear intensive teaching from you may help, but as you & many others already tried & then given up the best real chance for her to improve is when she's brought into a native english environ 24/7/365 like the UK - I know it did wonders for myself, but more on the speaking/accent wise as we tend to learn & use grammar well in school

 

good luck!

[Pom Michael]

Wow, sounds like me with my Thai language ability exactly. I hit a plateau it seems and nothing I do improves my speaking ability it seems.

[Guest]

What you describe is indeed a difficult situation. Her grammatical errors are what we in the language teaching biz call "fossilized," and as you can guess from the term that means they are very difficult to correct...I hate to say "impossible" but...

 

Also, realize that even in educated Thais who acquire a fairly high level of English pronunciation, vocabulary, etc., that grammatical problems such as omitting the verb "to be" and plural markers are still a rampant problem. It's like acquiring proper use of final expressive particles like"lery" (เลย) in Thai or proper use of "kaw" ( à¸Â็) for farang speakers of Thai: for many of us who have acquired a high vocabulary, decent pronunciation and tones, those advanced grammatical features remain a stumbling block.

 

Definitely being plopped down in an all-English speaking environment would help...and in the end, that may be the only way.

 

One thing you can do is make sure that when YOU speak to her, speak 100% grammatically correct English. I hear lots of farangs mimic the Thais' bad grammar when talking to them, no doubt thinking that the Thais won't be able to understand them any other way...when in reality, when you repeat their bad grammar back to them, you're simply reinforcing the notion that they're already speaking correctly.

 

In fact, that's another facet of the problem: if she speaks incorrectly with you and you still understand her (which I'm sure you do at least 90% of the time), well, from her point of view (consciously or unconsciously) there is no reason, and hence no motivation, to change the way she speaks, since you can already understand her...and in the universe of human communication, that's what counts.

 

I understand you wanting her to polish her grammar but I just want you to realize the incredible hurdles you're up against...it's been my experience that motivation on the part of the learner is about a 70-80% predictor of success in improving in a language. If the learner sees no pressing reason to improve, they're not going to.

[SpiceMan]

Thank you all for your help. My girlfriend downloads songs and looks up the lyrics on the web. But when she sings them back to me she omits words like she does when speaking.

 

Ratchada, I really appreciate your detailed and insightful reply. I have always tried to use correct English when I speak to my girlfriend although in the early days I had to use a limited subset of my vocabulary. We have had video chat for several hours everyday for years and now I don't have to restrict my vocabulary much. If I need to use a new word, I explain it to her. I understand more than 99% of what she says but then I am used to dealing with Thai people. I think the 99% figure would drop if she were talking to people who have never been to Thailand before. I am pleased to know that being plopped down in an all-English speaking environment would help. I think the fact that her career success in the UK will depend on her making progress with English will be a tremendous motivation.

 

 

[chelseafan]

I agree with World Fun. She will pick up English in a environment where she HAS to speak to get by. My friend has been living in the UK for years and understands most of the grammar of the English langugage. Bear in mind that although English is easy to learn, its very hard to master what with all its nuances...PH = F, C/K etc.