The document discusses various strategies and tips for learning English as a foreign language. It emphasizes that English should be learned naturally through interaction and enjoyment, rather than focusing too much on strict grammar rules. Learning the most common words and using context will allow understanding of around 80% of texts. Prefixes and suffixes can greatly expand one's vocabulary. Overall, the best approach is to learn English in a relaxed, engaging manner rather than stressing over quick mastery.

1. POINTS TO PONDER
ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
Prof. Dr. Durval A. Ramanholi
romagnollo@gmail.com

2. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
The teaching speech (authoritarian) break into at
least three laws of the speech:
1. The law of informativity: the listener must
want to know the fact that you point;
2. The law of interest: one can not legitimately
speak to others but what he is interested in; and
3. The law of usefulness: no one speaks just for
talking, but because there is a utility to do so.

3. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE AQUISITION
Children are not taught grammar when
learning the mother tongue. They learn the
language structures naturally experimenting
the idiom day by day. So you shouldn’t hope
to learn English in 2 or 3 years studying just
1 or 2 hours a week. By the way,
hypothetically, with your mother tongue,
you’re connected 24 hours a day.

4. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
The best strategy is learning naturally, following our
instincts and interacting with our surroundings.
The human being keeps easily pieces of information
when they are inserted in the referenced knowledge.
The new data have to be linked to our way of thinking
about the world and to our previous experience.
To get time for that it is easy if it will be pleasing. Take
this activity as something very nice to do, and that will
bring you great benefits, personally and as a
professional.

5. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
Choosing the texts is one of the most important step.
We do better when we like what we’re doing.
We learn the more recurrent words first, which we
read previously in several contexts. And because of
that they will appear more often in any text you
work with.
Everything that we learn actively will be kept alive in
our permanent memory along the years.

6. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
VOCABULARY BY NUMBERS
Cognate words figure out 20 to 25% of all the words
coming up in a scientific text/paper.
The 250 more common words of the English language
are equivalent to 60% of an entire text.
If we know the meaning of those 250 words mentioned
above plus the cognates we will be acquainted with
around 80 to 85% of any scientific paper.

7. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
TATTOO TIME
by John Rigg
The State of the Art Tattoo Convention

8. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
Tattoos are fashionable. Everybody seems to have
one, including top stars like Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck
and Eminem. Well, Derby may not be the most
fashionable English city, but tattoo enthusiasts from
around the world come each year for the State of the
Art Tattoo Convention. This year it takes place at the
Assembly Rooms on July 21st and 22nd. The world’s
top tattoo artists come to take part in the convention’s
prestigious competitions, while enthusiasts come to
see – and display – spectacular examples of body art.
There are three types of award: for small tattoos,
which cover a shoulder or arm; large designs, which
cover half the body; and, finally, “the body suit,”
which covers the entire body.

9. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
ASK A STUPID QUESTION!
Spectators watch the tattoo artists at work. Their
first question is always the same: does it hurt? Well, of
course, it does! The least painful areas are the arms and
shoulders, followed by the back; avoid joints such as
knees and ankles, and just forget about your neck.
Ouch! And remember: choose the design carefully, go to
a registered tattooist, certainly not the cheapest on
offer, and insist on new needles and new ink. Legally,
you have to be over 18 years old in Britain.

10. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
Enigma’s body

11. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
SHOCKING
Why do people get tattoos? The answer varies:
some people love the designs, some want to express
their inner selves, while others want to shock. Local
teenager Janine says: “My mother told me, ‘Proper
young ladies do not get tattoos.’ So I went and got
one immediately!” Finally, there are people like
Enigma who make a living from displaying their
tattoos as sideshow attractions. Enigma’s body
(pictured top, left) is completely covered in a blue
jigsaw design.

12. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
A Brief History of Tattoos
Tattoos first became fashionable in Britain at the end of the
18th century. The famous explorer, Captain Cook, returned from a
voyage to the South Pacific with a heavily tattooed Polynesian
chief named Omal, whom he presented to King George III. People
were fascinated and tattoos became popular with the upper
classes in this period. The word “tattoo” (derived from the Tahitian
“tatu,” meaning “to mark something”) first appears in Captain
Cook’s journals. Yet the art of tattooing dates back to Ancient
Egypt (3000 BC), a thousand years later we find descriptions in
Chinese literature of men completely covered in tattoos. In Europe
the Romans used tattoos to mark criminals and slaves, while
Britons, Danes and Saxons had tattoos of their family crests. In
fact, tattoos were common in Europe until AD 787, when Pope
Adrian I banned them.

13. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
READING STRATEGIES
1. Scanning: fast and narrow reading of a text in order to
placing specific information, setting the others apart.
2. Previewing and predicting: What can you preview and
predict by exploring the pictures and the titles only?
3. Skimming: fast and narrow reading of a text in order to
placing the main idea, and the more important ones.
What’s the text about?
4. Finding the main idea and supporting details (capital,
italics and bolds).

14. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
READING STRATEGIES
5. Identifying facts and opinions: fact is something
already known; opinion is just an idea that both the
author and the reader may have about the subject or
somebody.
6. Finding the tone: find out the voice the author used
to express his opinions and feelings about the theme.
7. Finding the purposes: why the author wrote certain
text (to inform, to entertain, to persuade…)

15. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
READING STRATEGIES
8. Focusing on vocabulary in context (making
inferences, recurrent words).
9. Focusing on word building (prefixes and suffixes).
10. Numbers, anthroponyms, and toponyms.

16. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
TEXTUAL LINGUISTICS
Recurrent Words
Semantic Field / Associative
Working with texts (real communication, contextualized), the most
recurrent words will be first learned.
LEXIS
Cognates
Words from Latin root. The real cognates constitute an
absolute majority. It is worth believing in the (possible)
meaning of the word.

17. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
THE MORE COMMON WORDS IN ENGLISH
1. THE 11. WITH 21. THEY 31. HIM 41. ME
2. OF 12. AS 22. FROM 32. AN 42. IF
3. AND 13.BY 23. WERE 33. SO 43. TO SAY
4. TO 14. FOR 24. THERE 34. ONE 44. THERE
5. IN 15. TO HAVE 25. THIS 35. SHE 45. WHEN
6. TO BE 16. BUT 26. OR 36. MY 46. WOULD
7. THAT 17. WHICH 27. YOU 37. THEM 47. MORE
8. HIS 18. ON 28. HER 38. WE 48. WILL
9. HE 19. AT 29. WHO 39.BEEN 49. SOME
10. IT 20. NOT 30. ALL 40. NO 50. WHAT

18. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
BUILDING UP WORDS
Productivity: Suffixes and Prefixes

19. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
HOW TO MULTIPLY YOUR VOCABULARY RAPIDILY
About he Cardinal Points
From the FOUR original ones: North, South, East and
West => if you add –ERN you got another FOUR:
Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western
From the FOUR original ones: North, South, East and
West => if you combine them together you’ll get
another FOUR, again:
Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest

20. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
HOW TO MULTIPLY YOUR VOCABULARY RAPIDILY
From the FOUR previous ones: Northeast, Southeast,
Northwest, Southwest => if you add –ERN again, you’ll
get another FOUR: Northeastern, Southeastern,
Northwestern, Southwestern.
Conclusion: suffixes are very productive – from the
FOUR original words we made SIXTEEN in less than a
minute. They are useful for reading and writing too.

21. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
1. For all the words in Portuguese ended in -DADE
(as the word CI-DADE) remove -DADE and put in its
place -TY and thus it has become CITY.
2. For all the words in Portuguese that end in “-
ÇÃO" (such as word “NA-ÇÃO”) draw out “-ÇÃO"
and put in its place “-TION" and thus the word
“NAÇÃO” is now NATION
3. For adverbs ending in “-MENTE" (as the word
“NATURAL-MENTE”), remove “-MENTE" and put in
its place “-LY"

22. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
4. For words ending with “-ÊNCIA" (as in the
case of “ESSÊNCIA”), remove “-ÊNCIA" and put
in its place “-ENCE.“
5. For words ending with "AL" (as in word
“GENERAL”) don’t change anything, write
exactly as it is in Portuguese and it will be the
same in English.

23. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
Some produtive suffixes in English:
-less = hopeless, fatherless, childless, homeless
-ness = happiness, kindness, illness, carefulness
-ful = beautiful, helpful, wonderful, successful, awful
-er = player, singer, teacher, worker, Maker, user
-ing = following, according to, amazing, charming
-ment = development, goverment, intertainment
-ous = ambitious, famous, numerous, enormous
-ist = tourist, psychologist, scientist, pianist
-dom = kingdom, freedom, wisdom,

24. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
Some produtive suffixes in English:
-ble = responsible, suitable, probable, portable
-ic = fantastic, fanatic, allergic, energetic
-en = to fasten, to shorten, to deepen, to harden
-ish = childish, greenish, oldish, yellowish
-y = healthy, smoky, rocky, muddy, heavy, asleepy
-hood = neighborhood, childhood, brotherhood
-ee = refugee, employee,
-ism = communism, criticism, heroism, socialism
-ship = friendship, ownership, headship

25. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
HERE COME THE PREFIXES
dis- = disappear, disagree, dissatisfaction
mis- = misunderstanding, mispronunciation, misplace
un- = unclear, unfortunately, unhappy, unreal,
in-/ i- = independent, illegal, impossible, illiterate
over- = overweight, overdo, overcome
out- = outlook, outnumber, outlaw, outdoor
under- = underground, underwear, underline,
underdeveloped

26. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
SOME INTERETING WORDS TO ANALYSE
THEIR FORMATION PROCESS
TEENAGER = teen+age+er
HOPELESSLY = hope+less+ly
UNFORTUNATELY = un+fortune+(a)te+ly
MISUNDERSTANDING = mis+under+stand+ing
UNCONSCIUOSNESS = un+conscience+ous+ness
BUSYNESSMAN = busy+ness+man
DISAGREEMENT = dis+agree+ment

27. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
SYNTAX
Basic Structural Rules
√ Word Order
√ Genitive case
√ Questions and negatives
√ Plural forms
The text points out which rules treat. What is
important is that the rules in use are contextualized
and applicant.

28. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
GENERAL
Tips
• You have to believe in what you teach, otherwise you won’t
convince.
• When reading (and also listening to) in a foreign language ignore all
unknown words and focus on the known ones. The fluency is more
important than the structure.
• Only use dictionary if the same unknown word occur three or more
times.
• Practice your English from texts, things and subjects you have
pleasure with. You have to enjoy what you do.
• Nobody learns from theory, you have to practice a lot. As we said,
“No pain, no gain.” Communication first; later grammar.

29. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
HEAVEN AND HELL
(Joke)
An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates of
heaven. St. Peter checks his dossier and says: "Ah,
you're an engineer; you're in the wrong place.
So the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let
in. Pretty soon the engineer becomes dissatisfied with
the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and
building improvements. After a while they've got air
conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the
engineer is a pretty popular guy.

30. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
One day God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with
a sneer: “So how's it going down there in hell?” Satan
replies: “Hey, things are going great! We've got air
conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no
telling what this engineer is going to come up with next.”
God replies: “What?! You've got an engineer? That's a
mistake. He should never have gotten down there: send
him up here!”
Satan says: “No way! I like having an engineer on the staff,
and I'm keeping him.”
God says: “Send him back up here, or I'll sue you!"
Satan laughs out loud and answers: “Yeah, right! And just
where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"

31. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
EL CONDOR PASA
(Song by Paul Simon)
I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail.
Yes I would.
If I could,
I surely would.
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail.
Yes I would.
If I only could,
I surely would.

32. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
CHORUS
Away, I'd rather sail away
Like a swan that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world
Its saddest sound,
Its saddest sound.

33. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
I'd rather be a forest than a street.
Yes I would.
If I could,
I surely would.
I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet,
Yes I would.
If I only could,
I surely would.

34. POINTS TO PONDER ABOUT LEARNING
ENGLISH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ALLEN, W. S. Living Structure for schools. 7th ed. London - GB: Longman, 1990
• CARDOSO, S. H. B. Discurso e Ensino. 2ª. Ed. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica/FALE-
UFMG, 2005.
• DIXON, R. J. Graded Exercises in English - a new revised edition, Rio de Janeiro:
Ao Livro Ténico AS, 1989
• GREENALL, S.; SWAN, M. Effective Reading: reading skills for advanced
students.Cambridge: University Press, 1986.
• KOCH, I. V. A inter-ação pela linguagem. 10ª Ed. São Paulo: Contexto, 2006.
• MURPHY, R. Essential Grammar in Use. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1994 (tenth printing 1997).
• ORNBY, A. S. at al The Advanced Learner's dictionary of current English. Lodon:
Oxford University Press
• THOMPSON, A. J. & MARTINET, A. V. A Practical English Grammar. 4th ed. London
GB: Oxford University Press. 1990 (eighth impression)