English Learning Tips For Students
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Joan Pougiales, Ph.D.

Have you studied English grammar for years and years and still have trouble understanding it?

Well, you are not alone. Even people who moved to the United States when they were very young and grew up speaking English at school, still can't speak it grammatically. It has always surprised me that they can master some very complicated English grammar, but still make simple mistakes like forgetting the final "S" on verbs or plural nouns.

The reason that many people have trouble mastering final "S" is that they can't HEAR it and they can't SAY it, so they never really learn it. Thus, mastering final "S" is not just about grammar, it's also about listening and pronunciation.

The problem is that the final "S" in English is rather unusual. Many languages, especially Asian languages, never put a consonant (letters like S, T and N) at the end of their words. For example, for many students in my ESL classes, IT, IS, and IN all sound the same because the students cannot hear or pronounce the final consonant. IT, IS and IN all sound like "I." For example, "IT IS IN the kitchen," sounds like "I I I the kitchen."

English is full of words that end with consonants (letters like T, S and N). However, many other languages put consonants at the beginning of words or in the middle of words, but never at the end of words. So if you speak Vietnamese or Hmong or Chinese or Lao or Thai or many other similar languages, then you probably have trouble hearing and pronouncing the final "S" (or final "T" or final "N") in English because you cannot hear it or pronounce it. It is too different from your native language.

In order to master the final "S," begin by LISTENING and NOTICING the final "S" when you listen to English speakers talking, or you watch TV or movies, or you listen to the radio and music. Research has shown that people cannot learn things that they do not notice. However, if you can notice the final "S," you can learn the final "S."

Hearing the final "S" is essential to learning English well. When you can hear it, you might start to think that, when English speakers talk, they sound like hissing snakes - "SSSSSS." That's what some students have told me. When spoken English sounds like a hissing snake to you, you are starting to master the final "S."

Joan Pougiales, Ph.D. has taught English as a Second Language for over 30 years to college-bound students in the U.S., as well as to adult immigrants and refugees. Her web site is devoted to helping refugees and immigrants, beginning and intermediate students, to learn English and succeed in their new lives in the U.S. Visit her at http://www.growenglish.com

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