English lessons

Question

Which of the following words would you not teach beginners and why?

orange

chum

student

welder

omelette

black

chauffeur

hungry

telephone

car

angry

Answer 1

Hi Maria,

You've got a good list of English vocabulary words here.

I would recommend removing the following terms from your list when teaching English to beginners, for reasons noted below in parentheses:

chauffeur (In addition to being a longer word, it can be tricky to pronounce for somebody who does not know the alternate 'ch' sound [pronounced like 'sh' in this case], and/or is unfamiliar with words like this one that have roots in other languages [French in this case].)

omelette (Before teaching this word, focus on other shorter-length English vocabulary words with the silent letter 'e' at the end and the short 'e' sounds in the middle. Also note the fact that, like 'chauffeur', this word is rooted in another language in terms of its spelling and pronunciation.)

welder (Although relatively easy to pronounce, this word combines the letter 'e' with the letter 'r' at the end, and may therefore confuse students who have not yet seen that letter combination before in English vocabulary terms.)

chum (Although definitely easy to pronounce, since this word is somewhat slang, it would be better to teach the word 'friend' first and then teach this synonym for 'friend' later on in your English language lessons.)

I hope this helps!