Tradução mental

(A RECEITA QUE NÃO DÁ CERTO)

Ricardo Schütz

Fonte: http://www.sk.com.br

O fenômeno popularmente conhecido como "tradução mental" é uma forma de interferência da língua materna na língua alvo. A tendência de apelar para traduções mentais é a atitude natural de toda a pessoa monolíngüe, ao se deparar com uma língua estrangeira. A persistência deste hábito entretanto é sintoma de que algo vai mal. Revela que o direcionamento, a estratégia de aprendizado está errada.

O monolíngüe é aquele cuja mente só funciona nas formas da língua materna. O aprendizado de uma língua estrangeira como inglês, por sua vez, consiste essencialmente na eliminação da interferência da língua materna - no nosso caso o português. Consiste na substituição das formas (pronúncia, vocabulário e estruturas) do português pelas formas (muito diferentes) do inglês. Se estivéssemos aprendendo espanhol ou italiano, poderíamos aproveitar muito da nossa habilidade lingüística num processo mais de transferência e adaptação do que substituição. Sendo entretanto inglês nosso objetivo, uma língua que apresenta um nível de contraste muito mais acentuado em relação ao português, seu aprendizado implica em reaprender a estruturar nosso pensamento, dessa vez nas formas do inglês. Seria como que, parcialmente, reaprender a pensar.

Portanto, no caso específico de brasileiros aprendendo inglês, o método da tradução prematura, assim como praticado no ensino médio, é contraproducente. O mesmo erro pode ser observado também em cursos de inglês que transferem a idéia da tradução para os exercícios orais dos estágios iniciais. Parece muito fácil, mas vicia e direciona para o lado errado. Ensinar a traduzir rapidamente poderia ser comparado ao ato de ensinar a andar de bicicleta em bicicleta de três rodas.

O depoimento de Marília Conte Daros, uma professora de inglês que iniciou seus estudos no Brasil, ilustra bem o problema:

In my case, I had a hard time becoming fluent in the second language because of the interference of two factors. The first factor was learning strategy, which was translating (L2 to L1 to L2 again) due the fact that my foreign language classes focused on The Grammar Translation approach. It was a slow strategy that caused me a lot of headaches and frustration. I spent a whole year translating while I was an exchange student. The second interference was low self-esteem, the belief of not being able to produce L2, due to the oppressed education I experienced in undergraduate school in Brazil. Professors believed that low grades reflect a hard school (meaning "good"), so nothing was good enough. Undergraduate students got to graduation scared to use the target language. (Disponível em: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~gurney/LangConn.htm).

Este depoimento revela claramente não só o erro a que nos referimos, como também a incapacidade do aprendiz em perceber o erro do caminho que lhe apontaram. Se uma pessoa inteligente como a Prof. Marília levou anos para perceber a ineficácia da metodologia que seguia, como é que nós, muitas vezes profissionais de outras áreas, vamos conseguir avaliar o método de ensino que nos promete milagres? Isto também demonstra a capciosidade do apelo comercial de cursos que oferecem uma "aula demonstrativa".

Em resumo, a habilidade de se falar uma língua fluentemente, já exige nosso cérebro ao limite. Não há cérebro humano que consiga processar duas línguas simultaneamente. (O caso de tradução simultânea não serve como exemplo porque quando tradutores-intérpretes atuam, eles não estão desempenhando criativamente.) Por isso é que o bom aprendizado de inglês, desde o primeiro dia de aula, não inclui a língua materna.

SEXTA

FLUÊNCIA: SÓ CONVERSANDO

Um dia de imersão também ajuda a destravar a língua ao bater papo

DENISE RIBEIRO
COLABORAÇÃO PARA A FOLHA

Arriscar umas palavrinhas no idioma consagrado como universal é fácil. Duro -mas desejável em qualquer currículo- é ter fluência em inglês.

Se a língua é um fenômeno oral, a proficiência só vem no ambiente de sua cultura, onde se convive com situações reais de comunicação. Essa é a tese de Ricardo Schütz, professor com mestrado em TESL (sigla para Ensinando Inglês como Segunda Língua).

Sem saber inglês até os 27 anos, tornou-se bilíngüe "sem estudo formal", com a assimilação natural, conceito da lingüística baseado no processo de aquisição do idioma materno por crianças. "Reaprende-se a estruturar o pensamento na forma da nova língua", diz.
Nas aulas, não basta dominar tempos verbais e construir frases gramaticalmente corretas. É preciso prestar muita atenção à pronúncia, especialmente ao começar a ler em inglês.

"Na falta de modelo apropriado para falar, assimila-se pronúncia baseada nas regras da língua-mãe. A maioria das escolas negligencia a formação da matriz fonológica do inglês, primeiro passo para fluência."

Seu projeto educacional on-line (www.sk.com.br), gratuito, tira dúvidas e tem professores voluntários de várias partes do mundo, fórum de debates e larga produção científica sobre assimilação natural.

Imersão
Quem precisa de um pronto-socorro em fluência pode recorrer aos cursos de imersão em vários formatos -desde final de semana até conversação por telefone.

A Folha foi conferir a aula da Berlitz, dona da marca "imersão total". Das 9h às 18h, cinco professores se revezaram propondo diálogos e situações ligados a temas de interesse.
Não se permite falar português. Até na hora do almoço um professor acompanha o aluno para incentivá-lo a destravar a língua. Funciona. Apesar da exaustão, no meio da tarde, dá para pensar em inglês e defender pontos de vista em conversas informais.

Mesmo afinada com a gramática, a farmacêutica Vanessa Lunardelli, 30, conta que sente receio ao falar inglês. E precisa usá-lo em seu trabalho na AI-3 Latin America, multinacional norte-americana: contata hospitais e clínicas e os treinamentos para médicos são em inglês.

A empresa tem convênio com a Alumni para oferecer cursos. "Sinto melhora no uso de estruturas verbais complexas. Para escrever dá tempo de pensar; para falar, não", diz.

A idade e o Aprendizado das línguas

Escrito por Ricardo Schütz


Já na Babilônia e no antigo Egito o homem procurava entender a complexidade de suas habilidades cognitivas, e especialmente a capacidade de assimilar e usar línguas.

Hoje, o que se aceita de forma geral, com base no que as ciências da neurolingüística, da psicologia e da lingüística oferecem, é uma série de hipóteses que procuram explicar esta habilidade exclusiva do ser humano. Essas hipóteses são resultado de estudos científicos que ajudam a explicar, não só o desempenho cognitivo do ser humano, mas também as diferenças entre crianças e adultos.

A IDADE CRÍTICA

Parece não haver dúvida de que existe uma idade crítica, a partir da qual o aprendizado começa a ficar mais difícil e o teto começa a baixar. Este período parece situar-se entre os 12 e os 14 anos, podendo entretanto variar muito conforme a pessoa e, principalmente, conforme as características do ambiente lingüístico em que o aprendizado ocorre. As limitações que começam a se manifestar a partir da puberdade são fundamentalmente de pronúncia, como mostra o gráfico ao lado.

O estudo dos diferentes fatores que afetam o desenvolvimento cognitivo do ser humano pode ajudar a explicar o fenômeno da idade crítica. Os principais fatores são:

fatores biológicos
fatores cognitivos
fatores de ordem afetiva
o ambiente e o input lingüístico

FATORES BIOLÓGICOS

Os órgãos diretamente envolvidos na habilidade lingüística do ser humano são o cérebro, o aparelho auditivo e o aparelho articulatório (cordas vocais, cavidades bucal e nasal, língua, lábios, dentes). Destes, sem dúvida, o cérebro é o mais importante.

A hipótese da lateralização do cérebro - Pesquisas no campo da neurologia demonstram que os dois hemisférios cerebrais desempenham diferentes funções. O lado esquerdo é o lado lógico, analítico; enquanto que o direito é o lado criativo, artístico, sensível à música, responsável pelas emoções e especializado em percepção e construção de modelos e estruturas de conhecimento. O hemisfério direito seria, por assim dizer, a porta de entrada das experiências e a área de processamento dessas experiências para transformá-las em conhecimento.
Sabe-se também que a lateralização do cérebro ocorre a partir da puberdade. Ou seja, no cérebro de uma criança os dois hemisférios estão mais interligados do que no cérebro de um adulto, correspondendo esta interligação ao período de aprendizado máximo. A assimilação da língua ocorreria via hemisfério direito para ser sedimentada no hemisfério esquerdo como habilidade permanente. Portanto, o desempenho superior das crianças estaria relacionado à maior interação entre os dois hemisférios cerebrais.

Acuidade auditiva - É sabido que crianças e adolescentes possuem uma acuidade auditiva superior. Fato curioso e ilustrativo disto, é a recente controvérsia na Inglaterra a respeito de um dispositivo, lançado no mercado em 2006, que emite um son desagradável aos ouvidos, som este que só crianças e jovens de até 25 anos conseguem ouvir. O aparelho tem sido usado para evitar aglomeração de jovens frente a lojas, escolas, etc. Notícia recentemente publicada em um site de notícias diz:
Ultrasonic anti-teen device - Feb 12, 2008
The creators of a pioneering device that uses high-frequency sound to stop teenagers congregating outside shops, schools and railway stations reacted angrily today to news that the government-appointed Children's Commissioner wants to see it banned.
The £500 Mosquito device has been installed at some 3,500 locations across the country since it first went on sale in January 2006. It emits an irritating, high-pitched sound that can only be heard by children and young people up into their early twenties, forcing them to move on.
(Their sound causes discomfort to young ears - but their frequency is above the normal hearing range of people over 25.)
But Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner for England appointed to represent the views of the country’s 11 million children, has set up a campaign – called Buzz Off – that is calling for the Mosquito to be banned on grounds that it infringes the rights of young people.

Meanwhile in the US students are using a new ring tone to receive messages in class — and many teachers can't even hear the ring.
Some students are downloading a ring tone off the Internet that is too high-pitched to be heard by most adults. With it, high schoolers can receive text message alerts on their cell phones without the teacher knowing.
As people age, many develop what's known as aging ear — a loss of the ability to hear higher-frequency sounds.

Além da capacidade auditiva superior, uma provável maior flexibilidade muscular do aparelho articulatório também ajudaria a explicar o fenômeno da marcante superioridade infantil no processo de assimilação de línguas.

FATORES COGNITIVOS

Formação da matriz fonológica - O adulto monolíngüe, por já possuir uma matriz fonológica sedimentada, se caracteriza por uma sensibilidade auditiva amortecida, treinada a perceber e produzir apenas os fonemas do sistema de sua língua materna. A criança, por sua vez, ainda no início de seu desenvolvimento cognitivo, com filtros menos desenvolvidos e hábitos menos enraizados, mantém a habilidade de expandir sua matriz fonológica, podendo adquirir um sistema enriquecido por fonemas de línguas estrangeiras com as quais vier a ter contato.

Assimilação natural x extudo formal - Uma diferença importante entre crianças e adultos quanto à suas habilidades cognitivas, é que o adulto já passou por grande parte de seu desenvolvimento cognitivo. Com um caminho maior já percorrido e uma bagagem maior acumulada, o adulto tem a capacidade de lidar com conceitos abstratos e hipotéticos, enquanto que a cognição das crianças, ainda em fase de construção, depende fundamentalmente de experiências concretas, de percepção direta. Isto explica a capacidade superior dos adultos de compreender a estrutura gramatical da língua estrangeira e de compará-la à de sua língua materna. Explica também a tolerância superior dos adultos quando submetidos a situações artificiais com o propósito de exercitarem línguas estrangeiras, bem como a tendência de buscar simples transferências no plano de vocabulário, com ajuda de dicionários.

Stephen Krashen, em sua hipótese learning/acquisition, estabelece uma distinção clara entre learning (estudo formal - receber e acumular informações e transformá-las em conhecimento por meio de esforço intelectual e de capacidade de raciocínio lógico) e acquisition (desenvolver habilidades funcionais através de assimilação natural, intuitiva, inconsciente, nas situações reais e concretas de ambientes de interação humana) e sustenta a predominância de acquisition sobre learning no desenvolvimento de proficiência em línguas.

Krashen defende a importância maior de acquisition sobre learning referindo-se a adolescentes e adultos. Considerando que acquisition está mais intimamente ligado aos processos cognitivos do ser humano na infância, é lógico e evidente deduzirmos que acquisition é ainda mais preponderante no caso do aprendizado de crianças.

Portanto, se proficiência lingüística pouco depende de conhecimento armazenado, mas sim de habilidade assimilada na prática, construída através de experiências concretas, fica com mais clareza explicada a superioridade das crianças no aprendizado de línguas.

A HIPÓTESE DA HARPAZ

A hipótese de Harpaz é a mais esclarecedora. A aquisição da fala e a descoberta do mundo são processos paralelos para a criança. A interação lingüística da qual a criança participa proporciona a maioria dos dados nesse processo de desenvolvimento cognitivo. Como conseqüência, as estruturas neurais no cérebro que correspondem aos conceitos que vão sendo aprendidos acabam naturalmente e intimamente associadas às estruturas neurais que correspondem às formas da língua.

Quando um adulto aprende uma língua estrangeira, seus conceitos (já formados) já possuem estruturas neurais fixas associadas às formas da língua materna. As estruturas neurais correspondentes às novas formas da língua estrangeira não possuem relação com as estruturas dos conceitos já formados, sendo esta uma associação mais difícil de ser estabelecida. É por isto que, no aprendizado de adultos, as dificuldades causadas pela interferência da língua materna são maiores.

A respeito do aprendizado de línguas na infância e da interferência da língua materna, Harpaz diz:

Humans are born with an ability to comprehend and generate all kinds of phonemes, but during childhood (starting from birth, and maybe before) this ability is shaped by experience such that only the phonemes of the native language are easily comprehended and generated. In adults, these abilities are much less plastic, so adult learners of a new language find it specially difficult to comprehend and generate the phonemes of the new language that are not used in their native language.

At the time of learning to speak, the child learns to understand the world, and linguistic interaction forms most of the data in this learning. As a result, the learned neural structures that correspond to concepts tend to be associated with the neural structures that correspond to the words (by Hebbian mechanisms).

When an older person learns a language, the concepts already have neural structures, which are quite fixed. The neural structures corresponding to the words in the new language, which are determined by the perceptual input, have no relations to the former structures, and hence the association is relatively difficult to learn.

In learning a new language, the learner is not only required to perform new sequences of mental and motoric operations, but is also required not to perform the old ones. The old sequences are very thoroughly learned through practice, so it is very difficult to avoid performing them. Thus older second language learners find it very difficult not to slip back into their old language, both in terms of motoric actions (pronunciation) and mental actions (syntax structures, phrases etc.). For a young child, this is much less of a problem, because his/her language performance is much less practiced.

(Harpaz, Yehouda. http://human-brain.org/myths.html. Online. Dec 1, 2007)

FATORES AFETIVOS E PSICOLÓGICOS

A hipótese conhecida como affective filter, também de Stephen Krashen, explica que fatores de ordem psicológico-afetiva podem causar um impacto direto na capacidade de aprendizado, tais como:

desmotivação: é a ausência de motivo espontâneo, causada por programas não autenticados pela presença da cultura estrangeira e que não representam desafio. Também freqüentemente causada pela frustração de não se ter alcançado proficiência através do estudo formal ou pelo insucesso em sistemas de avaliação (exames, notas, etc.). Experiências anteriores de resultados negativos, podem desencorajar o aluno de uma nova tentativa. Aquele que não se identifica com a cultura estrangeira, - ou que às vezes até a despreza, - normalmente por falta de informação a respeito da mesma, estará desmotivado para aprender sua língua. Já a criança, por natureza tem um alto grau de curiosidade pelo desconhecido e forte sintonia com tudo no ambiente que a rodeia.

perfeccionismo: tendência a preocupar-se excessivamente com a forma, e idéia radicalizada do conceito de certo e errado em se tratando de línguas. A pessoa prefere não correr o risco de cometer deslizes.

falta de autoconfiança: talvez causada por traumas durante a educação recebida em casa ou na escola, e pela radicalização do conceito de certo e errado em se tratando de línguas. A pessoa que tem uma boa imagem de si próprio e autoconfiança, é por natureza mais experimentador e descobridor.

dependência da eloqüência: A precisão e elegância no falar é uma conquista alcançada ao longo da vida, fruto de uma carreira acadêmica. Essa habilidade com nossa língua materna representa segurança e poder, dos quais é difícil abrir mão. Isso torna a tarefa de começar de novo na língua estrangeira, do quase nada, de forma rudimentar, como se pouco inteligente fôssemos, extremamente frustrante.

autoconsciência: consciência da própria imagem; capacidade de imaginar o que os outros podem pensar e preocupar-se com isso.

ansiedade: causada pela expectativa excessiva de obtenção de resultados.

provincianismo: atitude de se fechar naquilo com que se identifica, seu jeito de ser e de falar; de se sentir inseguro fora deles - problema freqüentemente observado em adolescentes.

Ora, todos esses bloqueios são resultado da vida pregressa do indivíduo, podendo ocorrer portanto unicamente em adolescentes e principalmente adultos. Fica, pois, novamente evidenciado que as crianças, ainda livres de tais bloqueios, devem ter uma capacidade de assimilação superior à dos adultos.

O AMBIENTE E O INPUT LINGÜÍSTICO

Krashen, em sua comprehensible input hypothesis, sustenta que assimilação de línguas ocorre em situações reais, quando a pessoa está exposta a uma linguagem que esteja um pouco acima (não muito acima) de sua capacidade de entendimento. Ora, é natural que quando adultos se dirigem à crianças, usam um linguajar próprio, modificado tanto no plano estrutural como no vocabulário, para se aproximar ao nível de compreensão da criança. Já nos ambientes em que adultos vivem, eles não recebem o mesmo tipo de tratamento. Uma vez que são adultos, seu universo de pensamento e linguagem é mais amplo; ou seja, o caminho já desbravado é maior e a linguagem, por eles almejada e a eles dirigida, tende a ser mais complexa e os conceitos mais abstratos, facilmente se situando além de seu nível de entendimento.

Desta forma, podemos concluir que os ambientes de convívio das crianças são, por natureza, mais propícios ao aprendizado de línguas do que os ambientes dos adultos.

CONCLUSÕES:

Linguagem é um elemento de relacionamento humano e todos desenvolvem proficiência em línguas estrangeiras mais através de acquisition (desenvolvimento de habilidades através de assimilação natural, intuitiva, inconsciente, em ambientes de interação humana) do que de learning (estudo formal - memorizar informações e transformá-las em conhecimento através de esforço intelectual), especialmente crianças. Portanto, línguas não podem ser ensinadas, mas serão aprendidas se houver o ambiente apropriado.

Crianças assimilam línguas com mais facilidade, porém têm grande resistência ao aprendizado formal, artificial e dirigido. As crianças, mais do que os adultos, precisam e se beneficiam de contato humano para desenvolver suas habilidades lingüísticas. Entretanto, se perceberem que a pessoa que deles se aproxima fala a língua materna, dificilmente se submeterão à difícil e frustrante artificialidade de usar outro meio de comunicação. Elas só procuram assimilar e fazer uso da língua estrangeira em situações de autêntica necessidade, desenvolvendo sua habilidade e construindo seu próprio aprendizado a partir de situações reais de interação em ambiente da língua e da cultura estrangeira. Portanto, a autenticidade do ambiente, principalmente na pessoa do facilitador, é mais importante do que o caráter das atividades (lúdicas ou não), e ambos são mais importantes do que qualquer planificação didática predeterminada.

O ritmo de assimilação das crianças é mais rápido e, o teto, mais alto.

Existe uma idade crítica (12 a 14 anos), a partir da qual o ser humano gradativamente perde a capacidade de assimilar línguas ao nível de língua materna. Essa perda é mais perceptível na pronúncia. Até os 12 ou 14 anos de idade, a criança que tiver contato suficiente com o idioma, o assimilará de forma tão completa quanto a língua materna.

No nosso caso (brasileiros que vivem no Brasil), onde ambientes autênticos de língua e cultura estrangeira são raros, decisões a respeito do aprendizado de inglês de crianças devem ser baseadas menos na idade e mais na oportunidade. De nada adiantará colocar a criança cedo em contato com uma língua estrangeira se o modelo oferecido for caracterizado por desvios e ausência de valores culturais – é melhor esperar por uma oportunidade melhor.

É grande a responsabilidade ao se colocar crianças, que ainda não atingiram a idade crítica, em clubes, cursinhos ou escolinhas que oferecem inglês. Se os instrutores tiverem uma proficiência limitada, com sotaque e outros desvios que normalmente caracterizam aquele que não é nativo, todos os desvios serão transferidos à criança, podendo causar danos irreversíveis a seu potencial de assimilação. Seria como colocar a gema bruta nas mãos de um lapidador aprendiz.

Atividades que expõem a criança prematuramente ao sistema ortográfico do inglês, o qual se caracteriza por extrema irregularidade e acentuado contraste em relação ao português, são prejudiciais. Veja Correlação Ortografia x Pronúncia.

Uma vez que o momento ideal de se alcançar proficiência em línguas estrangeiras é a idade escolar e, sendo bilingüismo uma qualificação básica do indivíduo na sociedade moderna, compete às escolas de ensino fundamental e médio proporcionar ambientes autênticos de language acquisition.

É grande a responsabilidade do poder público em abrir urgentemente as fronteiras culturais, facilitando a vinda de falantes nativos de línguas estrangeiras através de um enquadramento legal específico e burocracia simplificada, bem como incentivando a criação de organizações voltadas a intercâmbio lingüístico e cultural e promovendo a isenção fiscal das mesmas.

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BIBLIOGRAFIA

Bialystok, Ellen. "Effects of Bilingualism and Biliteracy on Children's Emerging Concepts of Print". Developmental Psychology, Vol. 33, No. 3.
Brown, H. Douglas. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Prentice Hall Regents, 1994.
Clampitt, Sharon. Age and the Acquisition Process. Inter American University of Puerto Rico.
Fromkin, Victoria and Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1974.
Harpaz, Yehouda. "Myths and misconceptions in Cognitive Science". Human Cognition in the Human Brain. . Online. Nov 1, 2003.
Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall International, 1987.
Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Prentice-Hall International, 1988.

Fonte: Schütz, Ricardo. "A Idade e o Aprendizado de Línguas." English Made in Brazil . Online. 24 de fevereiro de 2008. 

Job Interview

Explaining Strengths and Weaknesses in an Interview

Nobody is perfect!!
You must remember that nobody is perfect and that this possible employer knows that.

A really great way of telling someone about a flaw is to always add a suggestion of improving that flaw. For example you could say, " I'm always told that I am a bit too slow... but that's only because I want to do the best job I can. I guess you could say I'm a bit anal when it comes to perfection." An employer can only look at that as being a great characteristic, and in no way a negative quality to possess.

Talking about your strengths is a tricky one; you do not want to come across as egotistical. From my interviewee, an excellent answer I like to get is this: " I am very headstrong. I really like to be challenged in my job, and I just want to learn as much as I can in my position. At the end of the day I need to be able to look back on my day and feel good about the job that I've done. I guess you could call it sense of self worth. That's why I always put my all into everything I do."

Here is more input and examples people have given for strengths:

•Your strengths should already be noted in your resume and cover letter. Go over them (i.e., the strengths) again with the interviewer.

•One of my biggest strengths is my communication skills. I work very well with all kinds of people, and understand that everyone has different perspectives about projects and work tasks -- so when I work with others I realize that everyone comes to the table with different priorities and objectives. I keep this in mind when I communicate tasks that need to be accomplished with positive reinforcement and awareness of what others are working on.

•A positive attitude will not differentiate you from the crowd. A good attitude is expected of every employee. Also you should back up what you say with an example. For example, don't just say you have good customer service skills prove it by also telling them how you won a comapny award or received positive customer comment letters for your good service.

•My strength is my flexibility to handle change. As customer service manager at my last job, I was able to turn around a negative working environment and develop a very supportive team.

•Hard worker.

•Punctual.

•Determined.

•Able to prioritize.

•Believe in myself; self-confidence.

•I have the ability to cope with failures and try to learn from my mistakes.

•I like to work in team and have been an active participant and organizer at several places.

•One of my greatest strengths I've acquired during my education is good analytical and planning skills. This has always benefited me to set goals and try to achieve them. But at the same time, I'm driven by the thoughts of success.

•Full commitment to my work.

•Highly energetic.

•Love to learn new things.

•Having good interpersonal skills.

•Well organized and like to be neat with all of my work.

•A good helper towards those who need it.

•I am a team player and work well with others.

•I have great communication skills

•I am a quick learner. I have great problem-solving skills and am willing to learn new things to get the job done.
Here are notes and examples of weaknesses:

•You should answer with things you "are improving upon". Example: I believe I should always be improving upon myself, good or bad. You are answering the dreaded question without looking like an egotistical maniac, and showing the interviewer that you see yourself as a work in progress, trying to better all of your qualities.

For your weakness, just pick one that is not going to disqualify you from the job, and then follow up with -- this what really matters -- the examples of what you are doing (or have done) to fix your weakness. The most important point here is to show that you learn from your mistakes and your weakness, and you are taking the corrective action to fix the situation -- and stress that! For example, if the job does not require public speaking, you can say that your weakness is you are afraid of speaking in front of the public. Then tell the interviewers that you have joined a Toastmaster club or public speech course to overcome the problem. Remind them that when you identify a problem, you actively take actions to correct it, and that is how you do things.

•Don't try to use a cliche or try to present a strength as a weakness by saying your weakness is that you are a workaholic. No one will believe that answer. Being too emotional will make the recruiter wonder if your interpersonal skills are lacking. Give a true weakness but one of modest size. Shows that you have taken steps to correct the weakness. For example you want to improve your MS Excel skills so you are taking a course on that now.

•I used to have trouble with procrastinating, now I have learned to write down a list of things that I need to do, and keep a calender to keep track of deadlines, I have found that this not only helps me to finish things on time, but it has also helped me to be more organized.

•A weakness of mine would be the fact that I get nervous when speaking in front of groups. I haven't had a lot of experience with this over the past several years. Although I did join Toastmasters International to help overcome this anxiety -- and feel much more confident today when I need to speak in front of groups and give presentations.

•For my weakness, I always say that some people say I'm over-friendly. You can't go wrong with that one. Usually, the person interviewing is like " oh, that's not a bad thing at all". BUahahhahahhah ( evil laugh).

•I'm little egoistic when it comes to winning things and get a little ruthless too.

•Lose patience sometimes when I am not in a position to complete the assigned job in time.

•I have to work on having more patience and giving myself a break because I always want everything done at once.

•Tend to go to any limits while helping my friends.

•I am too focused on my work and I need to find more time to relax.

•I'm too focused on work and need to develop some after hours hobbies.
And examples of combination strength-weakness answers:


•I'm a workaholic person and love to dedicate myself to the work I'm doing. But at the same time I forget to keep a balance between other things which I'm trying to improve on.

•Take whatever is your best quality and also describe it as your worst. It often is, as we are all made up like two sides of a coin. Try it out with different qualities and accomplishments and see how it works. For example ... The best thing about me is that I am able to see the big picture in a situation. The worst thing about me is that I can see the big picture in a situation. This is the best thing because I can remove myself from the emotion of a decision that needs to be made and act accordingly. It is a bad thing because I often can see the conclusion quicker than the other participants in a project and that can cause frustration sometimes amongst them.

•My strength is my flexibility to handle change. As Software developer at my last job, I was able to turn around a negative working environment and develop a very supportive team. Always turn weakness into a positive. If you lack experience or skills for example state this but also state that you are willing to learn, or that it is an area which you would like to improve on.

Example:
"I do not have much experience with customer service, but I would like to gain experience in this area. I get along well with people, I am able to listen and am a good communicator so I feel that I would get on well in a customer based environment."

Example:
"I am not too experienced with computers, but I am always willing to learn new skills. I have used computers a little in the past and this is one area which I would like to improve on. I am usually very quick at picking up new skills especially when it is something that I need to learn"Notes on interviewing

•This question unfortunately has become a staple in the interview process and is an easy way out for an interviewer who can't think of any other questions. The reason this is a bad question is simply this: If someone has a weakness that could jeopardize his chance of getting the job, he will never reveal it. So the only answers that this question receives are false answers intended to placate the interviewer. A good interviewer won't ask this question. I'm always tempted to answer this way: "Mr. Interviewer, I always have a hard time with that question. What would your answer be to the question?"

•A good interviewer wouldn't dream of asking someone this question. As the interviewer, you will not get truthful answers from the weakness part of the question, and as the interviewee, you can end up coming across as egotistical and boastful when answering about your stengths. A good interviewer shouldn't want to make you uncomfortable.

Answer Sample
"My strengths are my ability to be flexible; I've seen companies go through changes in structure and management philosophy. I've had to adjust my style to the new environment several times. My weakness is my tendency to over-work so I pace myself now."

The key is to turn the weakness -- a negative character trait -- into something positive.


No trick: Honesty is the best policy
Whatever you do, tell the truth. While there are certainly answers that interviewers prefer to hear, it has to match reality. Why? First, it's generally not good to get hired for a job that you're not matched well for. If you like new, exciting, dynamic situations but you're looking for a job on an assembly line, you're not going to be happy; saying that you like repetitive work doesn't make sense. Second, any good interviewer will check your references. If your answers don't match what they hear, you're almost certain to lose the chance for job.

Don't ever list as a weakness the following: "I take on too many things and work to hard, and just don't know where to stop." It's a cliche, completely transparent, and I can tell you that it rarely makes the desired impression.

Another opinion
This question is usually asked by prospective employers from candidates applying to them for employment. To answer this question the following procedure should be helpful:

1) Find out what nature of work "the team" in question does.

2) Assuming you are interested in that type of work, list what formal training courses you have taken and qualifications acquired in that field or a related field. Next, mention whatever practical experience you in the field. List any relevant worthwhile achievements you have made. Such specifics will carry lot of weight.

3) As a general plus point, say that you are a team worker and get on well with others, if you feel this is true.


An interviewer's perspective
I ask this question and whenever I get an answer like "I work too hard" I know I'm dealing with somebody that I can't really trust, and that I'm going to have a hard time developing an open and honest working relationship with. And I know that I still don't know the person's other weaknesses.

At least with me, an interviewee has a much better chance if I think he or she is honestly telling me about a weakness. And then I can decide whether or not I can work around that weakness. One person told me that he needs fixed deadlines because otherwise he keeps finding additional things to add and it's hard for him to finish the project. I decided this was something I could live with and I hired him. We all have weaknesses. And if you think you're going to outsmart me with bs or evasion, you're hurting your chances with me.

Pidgin and Creole and the English Language

pidgin

Definition:

A simplified form of speech formed out of one or more existinglanguages and used by people who have no other language in common.

 

By Richard Nordquist,

Etymology:

From Pidgin English, perhaps from a Chinese pronunciation of English business

Examples and Observations:

·         "At first a pidgin language has no native speakers, and is used just for doing business with others with whom one shares the pidgin language and no other. In time, most pidgin languages disappear, as the pidgin-speaking community develops, and one of its established languages becomes widely known and takes over the role of the pidgin as the lingua franca, or language of choice of those who do not share a native language."(Grover Hudson, Essential Introductory Linguistics. Blackwell, 2000)

·         "Many . . . pidgin languages survive today in territories which formerly belonged to the European colonial nations, and act as lingua francas; for example, West African Pidgin English is used extensively between several ethnic groups along the West African coast."
(David Crystal, English As a Global Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003)

·         "A creole comes into being when children are born into a pidgin-speaking environment and acquire the pidgin as a first language. What we know about the history and origins of existing creoles suggests that this may happen at any stage in the development of a pidgin."(Mark Sebba, Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Palgrave Macmillan, 1997)

·         An example of early Hawai'i Pidgin English (HPE) spoken in Honolulu in the late 19th century:

What for Miss Willis laugh all time? Before Fraulein cry all time.
"Why does Miss Willis often laugh? Fraulein used to always cry."

(cited by Jeff Siegel in The Emergence of Pidgin and Creole. Oxford University Press, 2008)

·         "Againye tried to be a good nurse, attentive but not cloying, fetching me a stool to use while I bathed from a bucket and petting my head as I napped, saying, 'Pain you well well' in soothing pidgin."
(Mary Helen Specht, "How Could I Embrace a Village?" The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2010)

Pronunciation: PIDG-in

Definition:

creole

By Richard Nordquist,

A language that developed historically from a pidgin and came into existence at a fairly precise point in time.

Decreolization is the process through which a creole language gradually becomes more like the standard language of a region.

 

Examples and Observatyions:

·         "A pidgin is the combination of two or more languages which sometimes occurs in trade contact, multi-ethnic or refugee situations, where participants need a functioning common language. . . . Sometimes the pidgin becomes stable and established and comes to be spoken as amother-tongue by children: the language has then become a creole, which quickly develops in complexity and is used in all functional settings. The process of turning a pidgin into a creole is called creolization."
(Robert Lawrence Trask and Peter Stockwell, Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts.Routledge, 2007)

·         "A creole has a jargon or a pidgin in its ancestry; it is spoken natively by an entire speech community, often one whose ancestors were displaced geographically so that their ties with their original language and sociocultural identity were partly broken. Such social conditions were often the result of slavery."
(John A. Holm, An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge University Press, 2000)

·         "The English variety spoken by descendants of Africans on the coast of South Carolina is known as Gullah and has been identified as a creole. Of all the vernaculars associated with African Americans, it is the one that diverges the most from (White) middle-class varieties in North America."
(S.S. Mufwene, "North American Varieties of English as Byproducts of Population Contacts," in The Workings of Language, ed. by R. S. Wheeler. Greenwood, 1999)

·         Disagreements Over the Creole Roots of Black English in the U.S.
"[A]s for various arguments that Black Englishdisplays African or creole roots because of the role that aspect plays in its grammar (e.g., DeBose and Faraclas 1993), the issue is in fact not yet sufficiently examined to stand as an accepted fact. For one,tense plays a much more central role in Black English grammar than in Creoles or the West African languages of the 'Upper Guinea' region, underlyingly marking the past and future as obligatorily as any Indo-European grammar (cf. also Winford 1998: 116). Second, typical of Creolist Hypothesis advocates' generally insufficient attention to English dialects, the aspect arguments do not address the role that aspect in nonstandard British dialects may have played. This gap in argumentation alone renders the linkage of Black English aspect to Africa and creoles seriously incomplete, which is all the more significant given that there is indeed evidence that nonstandard British dialects are more aspect-focused thanstandard English (Trugdill and Chambers 1991)."(John H. McWhorter, Defining Creoles. Oxford Univ. Press, 2005)

Pronunciation: KREE-ol

 Parte inferior do formulário

Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/creole.htm

Pidgins and Creoles

A pidgin is a restricted language which arises for the purposes of communication between two social groups of which one is in a more dominant position than the other. The less dominant group is the one which develops the pidgin. Historically, pidgins arose in colonial situations where the representatives of the particular colonial power, officials, tradesmen, sailors, etc., came in contact with natives. The latter developed a jargon when communicating with the former. This resulted in a language on the basis of the colonial language in question and the language or languages of the natives. Such a language was restricted in its range as it served a definite purpose, namely basic communication with the colonists. In the course of several generations such a reduced form of language can become more complex, especially if it develops into the mother tongue of a group of speakers. This latter stage is that of creolisation. Creoles are much expanded versions of pidgins and have arisen in situations in which there was a break in the natural linguistic continuity of a community, for instance on slave planatations in their early years.

The interest of linguists in these languages has increased greatly in the last few decades. The main reason for this is that pidgins and creoles are young languages. In retracing their development it may be possible to see how new languages can arise. Furthermore, the large number of shared features among widely dispersed pidgins and creoles leads to the conclusion that creoles at least show characteristics which are typical of language in the most general sense, the features of older languages, such as complex morphology or intricate phonology, arising due to the action of various forces over a long period of time after the birth of these languages. In type, creoles are all analytic and generally lack complexity in their sound systems.

The terms ‘pidgin’ and ‘creole’

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There are a number of views on the origin of the term pidgin, none of which has gained sole acceptance by the academic community.

1) Chinese corruption of the word business. As the word is used for any action or occupation (cf. joss-pidgin ‘religion’ and chow-chow-pidgin ‘cooking') it should not be surprising that it be used for a language variety which arose for trading purposes.

2) Portuguese ocupaçao meaning ‘trade, job, occupation’. This suggestion is interesting as the Portuguese were among the first traders to travel to the third world and influence natives with their language. Phonetically the shift from the original word to a form /pidgin/ is difficult to explain.

3) A form from the South American language Yayo ‘-pidian’ meaning ‘people’ (claim put forward by Kleinecke, 1959). This form occurs in tribal names like ‘Mapidian’, ‘Tarapidian’, etc. This claim rests on a single occurrence of the word ‘Pidians’ in a text from 1606. But as several authors have pointed out this might be a spelling error for ‘Indians’ seeing as how the author has other misspellings in the text in question.

4) Hancock (1972) suggested that the term is derived from ‘pequeno portugues’ which is used in Angola for the broken Portuguese spoken by the illiterate. This view is semantically justified seeing that the word ‘pequeno’ is often used to mean ‘offspring’, in this case a language derived from another. Phonetically, the shift to /pidgin/ is not difficult to account for: /peke:no/ > /pege:n/ > /pigin/ > /pidgin/ (stages not attested, however).

5) Hebrew word ‘pidjom’ meaning ‘barter’. This suggestion is phonetically and semantically plausible, hinges however on the distribution of a Jewish word outside of Europe and its acceptance as a general term for a trade language.

The term ‘creole’ There is less controversy on this issue than on the previous one. The term would seem to derive from French ‘creole’, it in its turn coming from Portuguese ‘crioulo’ (rather than from Spanish ‘criollo') which goes back to an Iberian stem meaning ‘to nurse, breed, bring up’. The present meaning is ‘native to a locality or country’. Originally it was used (17th century) to refer to those from European countries born in the colonies. The term then underwent a semantic shift to refer to customs and language of those in the colonies and later to any language derived from a pidgin based on a European language, typically English, French, Portuguese, Spanish or Dutch. Now the term refers to any language of this type, irrespective of what the input language has been.

Theories of origin

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There are various theories about the origin of pidgins which have been proposed in the last hundred years or so. These can be presented as a basic group of five theories which show a degree of overlap; note that a mixture of origins is also a possibility which should also be considered.

1) The baby-talk theory At the end of the last century Charles Leland, when discussing China coast pidgin English, noted that there were many similarities with the speech of children such as the following features:

   a)     High percentage of content words with a correspondingly low number of function words 

   b)     Little morphological marking 

   c)     Word classes more flexible than in adult language (free conversion) 

   d)     Contrasts in area of pronouns greatly reduced 

   e)     Number of inflections minimised

Later linguists, notably Jespersen and Bloomfield, maintained that the characteristics of pidgins result from ‘imperfect mastery of a language which in its initial stage, in the child with its first language and in the grown-up with a second language learnt by imperfect methods, leads to a superficial knowledge of the most indispensable word, with total disregard of grammar’ (Jespersen 1922: 234). The evaluative nature of such views would be rejected by linguists today.

2) Independent parallel development theory This view maintains that the obvious similarities between the world’s pidgins and creoles arose on independent but parallel lines due to the fact that they all are derived from languages of Indo-European stock and, in the case of the Atlantic varieties, due to their sharing a common West African substratum. Furthermore, scholars like Robert Hall specify that the similar social and physical conditions under which pidgins arose were responsible for the development of similar linguistic structures.

3) Nautical jargon theory As early as 1938 the American linguist John Reinecke noted the possible influence of nautical jargon on pidgins. It is obvious that on many of the original voyages of discovery to the developing world many nationalities were represented among the crews of the ships. This fact led to the development of a core vocabulary of nautical items and a simplified grammar (at least as regards English). Later pidgins show many of these lexical items irrespective of where the language varieties are spoken. Thus the word capsise turns up with the meaning ‘turn over’ or ‘spill’ in both West Atlantic and Pacific pidgins. So do the words heave, hoist, hail, galley, cargo. One of the shortcomings of this otherwise attractive theory is that it does not help to account for the many structural affinities between pidgins which arose from different European languages.

4) Monogenetic/relexification theory According to this view all pidgins can be traced back to a single proto-pidgin, a 15th century Portuguese pidgin which was itself probably a relic of the medieval lingua franca (also known as sabir from the Portuguese word for ‘know') which was the common means of communication among the Crusaders and traders in the Mediterranean area. Lingua franca survived longest on the North African coast and is attested from Algeria and Tunesia as late as the 19th century. 

   The theory maintains that when the Portuguese first sailed down the west coast of Africa in the 15th century they would have used their form of lingua franca (sabir). Afterwards in the 16th and 17th centuries when the Portuguese influence in Africa declined, the vocabulary of the then established pidgins would have been replaced by that of the new colonial language which was dominant in the area, say English or French. As the Portuguese were among the first traders in India and South East Asia a similar situation can be assumed to have obtained: the vocabulary of the original Portuguese pidgin was replaced by that of a later European language. 

   Note that with this theory the grammatical structure of pidgins would not have been effected by the switch in vocabulary (this is what is meant by the term relexification). Thus the obvious similarity in structure of all pidgins would go back to the grammar of the proto-pidgin coming from the Mediterranean area. What this theory does not explain is why the structure (analytic) should be of the type it is. Furthermore there are a number of marginal pidgins (Russenorsk, Eskimo Trade Jargon) which cannot conceivably be connected with Portuguese and which are nonetheless analytic in structure just as the pidgins based on the main European colonial languages are.

5) Universalist theory This is the most recent view on the origin of pidgins and has elements in common with the other theories. However, the distinguishing mark of this theory is that it sees the similarities as due to universal tendencies among humans to create languages of a similar type, i.e. an analytic language with a simple phonology, an SVO syntax with little or no subordination or other sentence complexities, and with a lexicon which makes maximum use of polysemy (and devices such as reduplication) operating from a limited core vocabulary. To put it in technical terms, a creole will be expected to have unmarked values for linguistic parameters, e.g. with the parameter pro-drop, whereby the personal pronoun is not obligatory with verb forms (cf. Italian capisco ‘I understand'), the unmarked setting is for no pro-drop to be allowed and indeed this is the situation in all pidgins and creoles, a positive value being something which may appear later with the rise of a rich morphology.

Developmental stages of pidgins/creoles

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	Social situation	Linguistic correlate
1)	Marginal contact	Restricted pidgin
2)	Nativisation	Extended pidgin
3)	Mother tongue development	Creole
4)	Movement towards standard language (not necessarily input language)	Decreolisation

Pidgins are generally characterised as restricted and extended. In the life-cycle of pidgins one can note that they start off as restricted language varieties used in marginal contact situations for minimal trading purposes. From this original modest outset a pidgin may, assuming that there are social reasons for it to do so, develop into an extended type. The latter is characterised by the extension of the social functions of a pidgin. One very frequent scenario in the later development of a pidgin is where it is used as a means of communication not just among black and white speakers but among native speakers themselves who however have very different native languages. This is the major reason for the survival of pidgin English in West Africa. The function of pidgin English is thus as a lingua franca, i.e. a common means of communication between speakers who do not understand their respective native languages.

The process of pidginisation is very common in any situation in which a lingua franca is called for. Normally any such variety dies out very quickly once the situation which gave rise to it no longer obtains. If the situation does continue to exist then the pidgin is likely to survive. The steps from restricted to extended pidgin and further to creole are only taken by very few languages, particularly the major restructuring typical of pidgins is not normally carried out by any but a very small number of input varieties.

Reasons for creole development Creoles may arise in one of two basic situations. One is where speakers of pidgins are put in a situation in which they cannot use their respective mother tongues. This has arisen in the course of the slave trade (in the Caribbean and the southern United States) where speakers were deliberately kept in separate groups to avoid their plotting rebellion. They were then forced to maintain the pidgin which they had developed up to then and pass it on to future generations as their mother tongue thus forming the transition from a pidgin to a creole. A second situation is where a pidgin is regarded by a social group as a higher language variety and deliberately cultivated; this is the kind of situation which obtained in Cameroon and which does still to some extent on Papua New Guinea. The outcome of this kind of situation is that the children of such speakers which use pidgin for prestige reasons may end up using the pidgin as a first language, thus rendering it a creole with the attendant relinquishing of the native language of their parents and the expansion of all linguistic levels for the new creole to act as a fully-fledged language.

Source:

http://www.uni-due.de/SVE/VARS_PidginsAndCreoles.htm