Celta: Assigment 2
1. Background and education framework
For this assignment I interviewed XXX, a 26 year old refugee from Eritrea. The political situation in his country is grave. It is a single-party presidential republic, where any kind of outspoken criticism is punished without trial. Back home the government recruited him to be a soldier and as he would not comply, he had to run. He fled to Slovenia with his wife, leaving three children in Eritrea to live with their grandparents until he and his wife find a way to bring them to Slovenia. They have lived in Slovenia for a year and a half.
XXX’s first language is Tigre, however he is also proficient in Arabic, Tigrinya, Bilen and Amara. Tigre is a south Semitic language spoken by about 800.000 people in Eritrea. Muslim Tigre is written in the Arabic script, whereas Christian Tigre is written in roman script. XXX is a Muslim Tigre speaker and a lot of characteristics of the language are very similar to Arabic. The differences between Arabic and English language vary from the range of sounds used to the emphasis placed on the vowels and consonants. While English has 22 vowels and diphthongs to 24 consonants, Arabic only has eight vowels and diphthongs to 32 consonants. Arabic speakers tend to confuse English short vowel sounds and emphasise consonants since in Arabic the consonants, long vowels and diphthongs are those which give meaning to a word. They also tend to avoid elisions and short forms. The articulation of Arabic speakers is very energetic. They usually stress syllables and do not articulate vowels clearly, which gives their pronunciation a dull “jabber” effect. (1,3)
Going to school in Eritrea and completing secondary school, he learnt English for five years. He described the classes as very crowded and his teachers strict and “not nice”. At present, XXX is highly motivated to learn English which is why, apart from attending this course, he also has individual lessons three times a week. His wish is to improve his
For this assignment I interviewed XXX, a 26 year old refugee from Eritrea. The political situation in his country is grave. It is a single-party presidential republic, where any kind of outspoken criticism is punished without trial. Back home the government recruited him to be a soldier and as he would not comply, he had to run. He fled to Slovenia with his wife, leaving three children in Eritrea to live with their grandparents until he and his wife find a way to bring them to Slovenia. They have lived in Slovenia for a year and a half.
XXX’s first language is Tigre, however he is also proficient in Arabic, Tigrinya, Bilen and Amara. Tigre is a south Semitic language spoken by about 800.000 people in Eritrea. Muslim Tigre is written in the Arabic script, whereas Christian Tigre is written in roman script. XXX is a Muslim Tigre speaker and a lot of characteristics of the language are very similar to Arabic. The differences between Arabic and English language vary from the range of sounds used to the emphasis placed on the vowels and consonants. While English has 22 vowels and diphthongs to 24 consonants, Arabic only has eight vowels and diphthongs to 32 consonants. Arabic speakers tend to confuse English short vowel sounds and emphasise consonants since in Arabic the consonants, long vowels and diphthongs are those which give meaning to a word. They also tend to avoid elisions and short forms. The articulation of Arabic speakers is very energetic. They usually stress syllables and do not articulate vowels clearly, which gives their pronunciation a dull “jabber” effect. (1,3)
Going to school in Eritrea and completing secondary school, he learnt English for five years. He described the classes as very crowded and his teachers strict and “not nice”. At present, XXX is highly motivated to learn English which is why, apart from attending this course, he also has individual lessons three times a week. His wish is to improve his
References: (1) Swan, M. And Smith B.(2001) Learner english Cambridge University Press (2) AbiSamra N