I have never begun whit greater misgiving. English , like all languages, is replete whit problems for the foreign learner. They emerge at the start, and their negative impact increases even as the student reaches and passes the intermediate level. Thus may begin, but few finish their studies. After studying English as a foreign language for thirty-five years, the author has finally found the courage to complete and hopefully illuminate some problems facing these students that are often overlooked in standard texts.
The content of this book requires some explanation. There is general agreement that the listener hears only about 50 percent of the sound produced by the speaker and provides the rest from his own perception of the context.This explains why a foreign language is usually easier to speak than to understand when spoken, and why unfamiliar word must be spelled out. Why written text, one can manage somehow; at least one can return to it over and over again, dealing whit every unfamiliar word. Not so whit spoken language. Only just pronounced, the word flies away and disappears into space and the next one follows. If one of them just happens to be unfamiliar, you have already lost the thread it the story. On the other hand, the listener who is a native speaker has full possession of the vocabulary, grammar, and structures of his language, making it easy to get the sense of a phrase even if it is imperfect.the listener is not a native speaker, however, he or she must not only hear the series of sound produced by the speaker , but must interpret them and sometimes translate them into his own language. Conveying message is easier then getting a message. The situation is exacerbated by the many homophones and homographs in English. Thus word that sounds alike but mean different things complicate processing speech, and words the are spelled the same but have different meanings cause similar problems in interpreting written English.
My aim in writing this book was not to provide a dictionary, but to produce a handy single-volume reference work that deals whit some of the brain-busters which occur so often in English. I cannot claim that I was finally qualified to write in this topic,nor was I original. At the same time, i know that inexactness is inevitable in a book that has no pretence of being academic. I was motivated by the many discrepancies I found in dictionaries of homophones. I could not understand the reason for those dictionaries, nor could I find a teacher who could explain to me why some word parts that were not homophones were in fact included in them. To explore the reason, I have had to venture into certain fields if phonetics and linguistics bearing the sign "No Trespassing", and in doing so i run the risk of severe criticism. On the other hand. I certainly do not claim to have written a definitive work. This book does not pretend to be exhaustive. I do hope, however, that this volume is comprehensive in its way and helpful to those who use it. If so, my goal will be finally achieved.
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