Teach English in Daihai Zhen - Wulanchabu Shi — Ulanqab

Problems for English learners in Russia People in Russia are known to commonly learn English in schools and universities; however, English is rarely spoken outside of the classroom. Although many Russians have been learning English for years, most cannot speak it properly. This is because most of the learning time is spent learning the theoretical aspect of English, whereas the practice time is almost non-existent. The person spends time learning grammar rules, doing his homework, reading books, etc. but doesn't invest time in practicing what he had learned. this poses the problem of not being able to express one’s thoughts in speech when confronted with a foreigner. Another common problem Russian ESL learners face is their omission of articles when reading an English text or article. For example ‘I ate apple’ instead of: ‘I ate an apple’ or ‘I love moon’ instead of: ‘I love the moon.’ this is because the Russian language doesn’t come with the indefinite and definite articles ‘a/an’ and ‘the.’ Another factor that causes problems for Russian ESL learners is how they word out the demonstratives this, that, there, and those, including the definite article ‘the’ into a ‘z’ sound. Also, many Russians do not pronounce the s in many of the English plural words and trill their tongue against their upper palate when pronouncing the ‘r’ sounds. Moreover, the plosive consonants /p,t,k/ in English are normally made with a burst of air, which doesn’t occur in Russian, this may lead to the sounds sounding more like /b,d,g/ to English native speakers. Furthermore, the majority of Russian ESL learners mix up the words ‘say’ and ‘tell’ with one another. Russians ESL learners also tend to use ‘on’ with words like ‘theater’ or ‘tree.’ for example ‘I am on the theater’ instead of: ‘I am at the theater’ or ‘the dove is on the tree’ instead of; ‘the dove is in the tree.’ English has 2 verb tenses that use auxiliary plus the main verb to express more intricate details of time and frame of mind in a sentence; we refer to them as the perfect tense and the progressive tense. The perfect and progressive tenses present a challenge for Russian ESL students. The English present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses are about completed actions and are always accompanied with have/has + the verb’s past participle. Russian ESL students will erroneously use the past simple tense instead of the present perfect. For example: ‘I been to USA’ corrected: ‘I have been to USA.’ Russian ESL students will again mistakenly use the present simple tense when they should use the future perfect. For example: ‘I cross 10 towns by end next month correct form: ‘I will have crossed 10 towns by the end of next month.’ finally, a rudimentary challenge that every Russian ESL student faces is his tendency to always ‘think in Russian’ then translate his thoughts in English. English is entirely different than Russian and one should respect and properly follow English rules such as linking ideas using conjunctions and using prepositions correctly. One should also put what he has learned into practice as soon as he leaves the classroom to embed the information into his or her brain. References: Столбовская, И. (2019, April 17). TYPICAL MISTAKES OF RUSSIAN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://www.study.ru/article/grammar/typical-mistakes-of-russian-learners-of-english/ Hudson, J. (2017, January 31). Russian Speakers' English Pronunciation Errors. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://pronunciationstudio.com/russian-speakers-english-pronunciation-errors/ Mike, G. (2019, November 10). 10 Pronunciation Mistakes Russian Speakers Make. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://theaccentsway.com/russian-speakers-mistakes/