エリック・クラプトンと英文法 – by 加藤

私の趣味の一つに、洋楽鑑賞があります。

皆さんはエリック・クラプトンをご存じでしょうか。イングランド出身の「(ロック・)ギターの神様」と呼ばれるアーティストです。

事故で幼くして亡くした最愛の息子のことを歌った「Tears in Heaven」(1992年の大ヒット曲)には、次のような歌詞があります:

Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?

「もしも天国で会ったなら、君は僕の名前を憶えているだろうか」

Would it be the same if I saw you in heaven?

「もしも天国で会ったなら、以前と同じだろうか」

これらの構文は、文法的にはまさに【仮定法過去】ですね。「現在または未来の事実と逆のことを述べたり、可能性が乏しいことの仮想表現」です。

(※ ちなみに、TOEFL iBT®であってもIELTSであっても、Writingの時に【仮定法】を用いて文を書くと、スコアが上がる傾向にあります。アゴスでは、たとえば、「TOEFL iBT® Writing Foundation」クラスのDay 2で、仮定法についての学習をしっかり行います。)

しかし、歌詞が進むと、次のように【直接法】に変わります。

I must be strong and carry on

「僕は気持ちを強く持って、生き続けなければならない」

‘cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven

「だって、ここ天国は僕がいるべきところじゃないと分かっているからさ」

この部分では、現実での事実を歌っているので、【直接法】になっています。

TOEFL iBT®やIELTSにおいても大事な文法項目である【仮定法】は、洋楽の中でもたくさん使われています。好きな歌を通じて学習すると、面倒な英文法も身につきやすいですね。

また逆に、英語の歌や映画で実際に使われている【仮定法】を見つけてみれば、それらの歌や映画はさらに味わい深いものにもなるでしょう。

是非、皆さんも試してみてください!

たかが冠詞の「a」、されど「a」(その2) – by 加藤

(以下は、私の前回のブログ記事『たかが冠詞の「a」、されど「a」(その1)』の続き(完結編)です。)

さて、これ以降は私が英語講師になってからの後付けの知識です。

このアポロ11号の月面着陸という、人類が初めて月面に一歩をしるす瞬間は、全世界に生中継され、また、世界史に永遠に残る一大イベントでした。船長であるニール・アームストロング氏は、宇宙船から降りて月に一歩を踏み出す時のために、「ここぞ!」とばかりのキメ台詞を用意していました。これが次のものです:

That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

「これは一人の男にとっては小さな一歩だが、人類にとっては偉大な飛躍である。」

しかし、息をのむ注目を地球の全世界から一斉に浴びていたせいか、または、ご本人が他の理由で緊張していたせいか、なんと、for a manのaを落としてしまったというのです。(ネイティブでも英語を間違えるものですね!)

「a man」ときちんと不定冠詞を付ければ「一人の男」という意味になり、上記のように意味が通じるセリフになります。しかし無冠詞で「man」としてしまうと「人間、人類(= mankind)」という意味になります。よって、船長のセリフは、「これは人類にとっては小さな一歩だが、人類にとっては偉大な飛躍である。」という、訳の分からないものになってしまいました。

これを、当時、日本の優秀な同時通訳者である西山千氏が原文(間違った発話)に忠実に訳したそうです。後日談では西山氏ご本人が「あれは私の訳し間違いだ」と謙虚におっしゃっていたらしいのですが、実はアームストロング船長ご自身の間違いとのことです(アメリカ人の私の同僚たちはそのように小学校で習ったとのことです)。これには諸説がありますが、実際私がその録音音声を聞いてみても、明らかに「for man」と、不定冠詞なしで発話されていると思います。

「たかが冠詞の『a (an) 』と、あなどることなかれ」、というお話でした。我々、英語学習者にとっても、背筋が伸びる思いですね。

たかが冠詞の「a」、されど「a」(その1) – by 加藤

今回は不定冠詞の「a (an)」のお話です。

私は当年取って58歳ですが、今からなんと52年ほど(半世紀以上!)前のお話です。時は1969年、私がまだ6歳の頃です。

そんなに昔のことでも、曖昧ながらも確かな記憶があります。というのも、歴史に残る大きな出来事があったからです。

アポロ11号が月面着陸し船長が月の上を歩く映像が日本にも生中継されました。それを、ワクワクしながら自宅で父と白黒テレビ(!)にかじりついて見ていました。当時の衛星中継技術のレベルもあり、また、月という超遠距離からのライブ配信ということもあり、「ピーピー」とか「ガーガー」などの機械的な雑音が多く、船長のセリフなんぞ部分的にしか聞こえてこなかったのを憶えています。しかし、それを日本にいる同時通訳者が見事に(orなんとか?)日本語に訳して、日本のお茶の間にいる視聴者に伝えていました。

その時、父が、「同時通訳ってのは大したもんだなぁ。お前も将来、同時通訳者になったらどうだ?」という無責任な発言をしたのを、今でもはっきり憶えています。

(ちなみに、それから30年弱後に、それこそプロの同時通訳者にはならなかったものの、通訳学校の講師にはなることはできました。その時の父の発言が影響していたかどうかは定かではありませんが。。。)

(「その2」に続く。1週間後にアップ予定です。)

A Wider Range of Grammar in IELTS

Hi everyone, and welcome to the instructor blog! I hope your studies at AGOS are going well.

 

I’m Mark, and today, I’m going to be talking about the importance of using a wider range of grammar, and how this can help you to improve your score in the IELTS speaking test. A lot of test takers in Japan struggle to use a wide range of grammar in the IELTS speaking interview, especially tenses which can be harder to use, such as the Past Perfect, Past Continuous, or Conditional sentences using ‘If’. However, using these structures can help you to achieve higher scores in this test.  Take the following example.

 

Here is part of a typical IELTS Speaking Part 2 question:

 

‘Describe an electronic device you use every day’.

 

A typical answer might begin as follows:

 

‘I’m going to talk about a useful electronic device I use. This is my smartphone. Actually, I bought a new smartphone last year and I use it every day. I bought my new smartphone because my previous smartphone was old and I accidently sat on my phone and cracked the screen, so I needed to buy a replacement. I take the train to work every day, so I use my smartphone to check the news, listen to music and send text messages to my friends, and …. er’.

 

The problem with this answer is that the speaker only uses a limited range of grammar, especially tenses. In this part of the answer, apart from ‘going to’, the speaker only uses the Present Simple and Past Simple tenses.

A much better answer to this type of question might be something like:

‘I’m going to talk about a useful electronic device I use, which is my brand-new smartphone that I bought last year. Actually, I’d wanted to buy a new one for a long time, but I was always working overtime and could never find time to go to the shop and buy a new one because it always takes ages. However, last year, while I was commuting to work on the train, I accidentally sat on my phone and cracked the screen. You see, I’d been standing for a long time, and because I was tired, I slipped my phone into my back trouser pocket and forgot about it until after I’d sat down. It’s very important to me so I was crushed. 

I take the train to work every day, so I use my phone to catch up on the news, listen to the latest tunes I’ve downloaded and send text messages to my friends. If I didn’t have my smartphone, I wouldn’t know what I’d do to pass the time.  Anyway I was very happy to get a new one.’

 

This is a much better answer to this question, and in my next blog, I will analyze why.

Why improving your English is key to increasingTOEFL and IELTS scores

Hi, this is Mike, and in this blog post I’m going to explain why improving your English is probably the key to improving your TOEFL or IELTS test scores, and to introduce a new course we’re developing to help you achieve your goals.

If you’re taking TOEFL or IELTS, you may have experience of ‘hitting a plateau’. This is when your score stops going up for an extended period of time. You keep practicing and taking the test, but your score just doesn’t change. It’s a very common problem, but why does it happen?

Basically, when this occurs it’s usually because you’ve reached your limit in terms of your English. It’s important to remember that TOEFL and IELTS are (very accurate) measures of your English level. So if your knowledge of English and ability to use it are too low, you’re not going to increase your test scores beyond your limit, even if your strategy is really good.

To help students overcome this issue, the Curriculum and Instruction team at Agos is currently developing and piloting a new course called ‘Essential English‘, which you can join from April 6th 2019.

We’re designing the course specially for TOEFL and IELTS students who are currently scoring 70-89 (TOEFL), or 5.5-6.0 (IELTS) who need to improve their English.

If this sounds like you, then check out the first in our series of videos about the course here. For more information, please visit the Essential English home page here. You can also register for a free demonstration lesson here on these dates:

Saturday 16th March, 14:30-16:00

Saturday 30th March, 15:00-16:30

Saturday 6th April, 14:30-16:00

Hope to see you soon!

Mike Thundercliffe, Manager Curriculum and Instruction, Agos Japan

 

Grammar for IELTS Writing – Using a variety of complex structures – by Danny Robinson

Hi everyone, my name is Danny and I teach IELTS classes here at Agos.  Today I’m going to give you some advice about how you can start to show more grammatical range in your writing.

Why is using a range of grammar important?

To achieve the higher bands for the IELTS Grammatical Range & Accuracy criterion (Band 6 or above) in writing, you have to show that you can accurately and flexibly use a variety (range) of structures, including complex structures. If you only use simple structures, you will be limited to a 5 for this criterion.

This means that you need to be very aware of the structures you are using, otherwise it is very easy to just use the same patterns again and again.  Here are some strategies for avoiding this.

Strategy 1: Changing the order of the sentence

There are many ways that sentences can be structured.  So one of the simplest methods of avoiding too much repetition and showing grammatical range is to simply change the order of the different language “chunks” that make up the structure you are using.  Here is an example of this using a sentence from a typical Task 1 graph analysis essay:

 Over the period shown, the number of crimes committed by children under 15 years of age increased significantly to just over 30% of the total reported in 2010, rising from around 10% in 1990.

 This can be changed to the following sentence, which expresses exactly the same ideas:

Rising from around 10% in 1990, the number of crimes committed by children under 15 years of age increased significantly over the period shown to just over 30% of the total reported in 2010.

Strategy 2: Change the verb forms

Slightly changing the grammar of the verbs can create another different structure:

 Increasing significantly over the period, the number of crimes committed by children under 15 years of age rose from around 10% in 1990 to just over 30% of the total reported in 2010.

Strategy 3: Using a good balance of sentence lengths

However, also remember that good writing is about clearly and precisely expressing what you want to communicate as simply and efficiently as possible.  Unnecessary complexity can also be a problem.  A balance is best.  You should always aim to express yourself in the simplest and clearest way possible while considering the complexity of the idea or information you are expressing.  If you can achieve this balance, it should also have the positive effect of making your writing more engaging for the reader.

A useful starting point for assessing how well you are achieving a balance between clarity and efficiency, as well as showing that you can use complex structures accurately and flexibly, is by considering sentence length.  A series of long complex sentences with several subordinate clauses is just as boring to read as several short simple sentences, and again, may actually reduce clarity by being unnecessarily difficult.

  • Avoid adding subordinate clauses for their own sake:
 The process of industrialization has resulted in the raising of the economic performance of many of the poorest countries in the world.  

 This can be changed to the following sentence, which expresses the same ideas more efficiently:

 Industrialization has boosted the GNP of many poorer countries.

While this first sentence demonstrates impressive complex grammar it isn’t really necessary to express the writer’s point.  It is OK to include some sentences like this, but if all your sentences are this length, your writing may become overly complex and difficult to read.  Also, you will be more likely to make errors, and you will probably find it difficult to include everything you need to say within the time limit of the test.

  • Break up long sentences when possible:
 The immediate effects of reducing government support for the unemployed would probably be to cause protests from charities, to make richer people who pay higher taxes happier, and to scare people on lower incomes, who have long benefited from such programmes.        

 This can be changed to the following sentences, which express the same ideas more clearly:

 Reducing government unemployment support would probably have three immediate effects. Firstly, it would cause protests from charities. Secondly, richer people who pay higher taxes would be happier. Lastly, it would scare people on lower incomes, who have long benefited from such programmes.         

  • Combine short sentences

Equally, if you have a series of one or more very short sentences, see if it is possible to combine them, without losing clarity, by using conjunctions and/or punctuation.  In fact, sometimes this might actually improve clarity as well as efficiency:

 Television can be a useful educational tool. It is a tool that prevents education.

 This can be changed to the following sentence, which expresses the same ideas more clearly:

 Television can be an educational tool, but it may also prevent education.

How can I improve?

Achieving the best balance between showing a range of grammar knowledge and flexibility, without allowing your language to become overly complex and difficult to read requires a lot of practice.  Here are some things you can do:

  • Study different grammar patterns
  • Analyse model answers to see how other people use a variety of grammar
  • Read and analyse texts related to common IELTS topics that you can find in English newspapers and a variety of online sources
  • Apply some techniques to answer real IELTS questions

With study and practice, you can improve your grammatical range and flexibility, and so achieve your IELTS writing scores.  Good luck and perhaps I’ll see you in class soon!