By Andrew Carter

When you sit down and think about it, or even stand around and think about it (!), English words have seeped into the vocabulary of millions of people, thanks, in the main part, to the genius of marketing gurus over the past century. Not just English words, though – there’s a whole swathe of brand names that are truly international, aren’t there?

Product names – for example Coca Cola, Sony and Nokia; Car brands – Toyota, Nissan, Renault, Mercedes; Place names – London, Paris, New York; and how about Sushi, Hamburger, Karate, Brad Pitt, Titanic, Soccer, Microsoft and Marlboro? When faced with students in their early hours and days of an English As A Second Language course, using these words is a great confidence booster. They help get brains in gear – the cranial juices flowing!

Ask the class, or better still, SHOW the class a series of pictures of things which are internationally known – encourage them to speak out the names and words they see. The very best thing, with beginners is if the teacher says very little – merely encouraging words out by gesture and expression – then the students are searching for the words themselves (and they KNOW these) and getting quick results. When the words come – write them on the board.

Then the critical part – speak them out. The students are now hearing the words spoken in English. They are hearing English sounds for familiar words. They will see and hear mouth and lip shapes and sounds that may not be familiar to them, but which are wrapped around familiar words. They’ll have a go, and you’ll be setting foundations for the new English words they will learn in the coming weeks, using materials that they already have in their armoury!

It’s a really encouraging strategy for the teacher to employ. Whenever the student hears or comes across a word as the course progresses that he regards as ‘international’, get him to point the fact out. Then marvel at how many of the words we use every day really do span continents and cultures!

About the author

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website.