Let the world spice up your life.

Cafetalk Tutor's Column

Tutor David 's Column

Why rules in English language learning do not work

Oct 7, 2019

Having taught for many years now, I have noticed how many students like to learn using language rules, as this is the way that foreign languages are taught in their countries.

Whilst these rules 'can' be beneficial, and certainly have their place in learning, it is ESSENTIAL if you want to ever master the English language to understand that these so called 'rules' are very often broken. In my view this makes them not actually 'rules' at all!

Taking the Japanese language for example - the sounds in Japanese are fixed. These do not change. They are rules. So when foreigners learn the Japanese sounds, they can read words in hirigana and know exactly how to pronounce them.

This is 100% not the case with English, and students who rely on rules will be hindered in their learning journey if they try to use them.

Take the following words :

'Threw' and 'through'

These are both pronounced exactly the same, yet their meanings are totally different.
I am guessing you are with me so far?!

But if we look at 'through' in a bit more detail. The 'OUGH' at the end makes an 'OO' sound.
If we were to take this as a rule, the following word 'Trough' would be pronounced the same as 'True'. But it is actually pronounced like 'troff' - with the OUGH making the same sound as the OFF in the word 'TOFF'.

Lets look at some other examples in spelling :

A common rule that we were all taught in England in the 80's in school was :

'I before E except after C'

This is a very useful way to remeber how to spell certain words for sure.

'Achieve', 'believe' and 'piece' are great examples of how this rule works.

The 'after C' part means that this rule does not apply if the I and the E are featured in a word after the letter C.

Examples :

'Ceiling', 'perceive' and 'deceit' are examples which fit this rule.

Wow! This rule is so useful and so easy to remember. It even rhymes!!!! :-)

But no.....there are exceptions to this 'rule' and they come up quite often in fact!!!!

Examples :

'Foreign', 'height' and 'weight' are examples which prove that this rule is......not really a rule!!!

Another example of a common rule that is taught in schools is as follows :

'You must remove the 'e' before a vowel's initial suffix'

Examples :

Blue - bluish 
Arrange - arranging

But once again, this rule is incorrect quite often!

Examples -

Singe - singeing
Dye - dyeing 

And so on......

So what I am trying to illustrate here is not to be confined by rules. 
They DO certainly have a purpose, and I am not trying to say that they don't.
But I personally do not teach with rules for the very reasons mentioned above. If you live by rules, you will be constantly constrained by them - both in language learning and in life.

For the record - there are HUNDREDS more examples of where language rules do not work in English. I simply picked the ones that would be easiest to explain, and quickest to type, as I am very busy today!

Have a lovely day everyone, and remember - you do not have to live your life by rules. Rules keep our minds closed to alternatives, and by sticking to them so wholeheartedly, we do not know of all the wonderful things we are missing out on.

Good day.

David 

This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

Got a question? Click to Chat