RPCV talks about Albanian Refugees
RPCV talks about Albanian Refugees
I taught EFL in Albania from 1992-1994 as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I also learned Albanian (and was lucky enough to marry one!) What follows is a brief description of the Albanian language and how this affects the way Albanians may learn English.
There are two main dialects of Albanian: Geig and Tosk. The Geig dialect is spoken in Central and Southern Albania and by most Albanians in Macedonia. Tosk is spoken by nothern Albanians, the Kosovar, and Albanians living in Montenegro. The differences between the two dialects are mainly pronunciation and vocabulary. Also, the Kosovar will also many borrowed words from Serbo-Croatian. My wife speaks the Geig dialect but she can understand most Tosk speakers.
Pronunciation problems are mainly with vowel sounds and from transfer problems. Expect confusion between the pronunciation of i and e sounds as these are alophones in Albanian. Also some dipthongs may present problems. Of a lesser issue are certain alophones in English that are phonemes in Albanian (the "dark" and "light" l come to mind)
Grammar problems are mainly with word order. Their grammar system is basically a case language. In other words, nouns have a different ending based on how it functions in a sentence. Also there are some differences in the use of different word tenses.
If they were exposed to English instruction it was probably through the Grammar Translation method, with all of the negatives that this approach offers. If you (hopefully!) try another approach, expect some resistance in the beginning.
I hope this helps some.
