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johntpartee
Joined: 02 Mar 2010
Posts: 3258
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 Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 1:46 am Post subject: |
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| 5. Pronouns. Mistaking masculine for feminine. |
That is THE quintessential cultural difference. Spoken Chinese does not differentiate between male and female. |
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Shroob
Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 1339
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 1:46 am Post subject: |
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| thatsforsure wrote: |
| pretty sad that someone who teaches EAP would think its acceptable to teach like that. there professors in aus. and england are not going to accept play computer in a essay |
Pardon?
On topic: I rarely see students' writing as my main duty is teaching Oral English. When I do see written work common errors include preposition misuse and incorrect punctuation. I think that spelling errors aren't as prevalent in Chinese learners than other nationalities I have taught. |
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RPMcMurphy
Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 90
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 2:39 am Post subject: |
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| Spelling is a real strength for Chinese students. Anything involving memorisation is a strength. I find the "ta": he, she, it error is mostly spoken. Written Chinese does differentiate, its just the spoken that doesn't. |
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Lobster
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 2040
Location: Somewhere under the Sea
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:00 am Post subject: |
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In addition to the many points already mentioned, I will add a somewhat irritating tendency to start sentences with 'And" and end sentences with "etc." or "and so on". I know that these are stylistic rather than functional errors, but they're all too common. I also often see the word "let" being used in some strange ways (e.g. "My boss is letting me work overtime this week."). Strangely enough, I seldom see the "there-their-they're" errors many writers on this forum make.
RED |
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RPMcMurphy
Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 90
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:55 am Post subject: |
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Use of passive voice. Writing in passive voice, to me at least, is unnatural and awkward, especially bad if the student's English is not good, the sentence can be incoherent.
A useful point from 7969.
For me, accurate and appropriate use of the passive voice, along with the ability to nominalise, is often the tie breaker between capable and good writers. I agree that clumsy passive voice is worse than not using it at all.
Red's comment on "etc" and "and so on" is a perennial problem. I think it must be a carry over from Chinese composition [if I mention contrastive rhetoric I'll get shat on], but it is very common and takes some getting rid of.
As a positive, I find that once Chinese students master the rubric of an expository essay they become quite good at it, often partially compensating for form-based errors. |
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roadwalker
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 1750
Location: Ch
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 5:22 am Post subject: |
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| 7969 wrote: |
{...}
The first step for me was to give them a basic proofreading plan, and a list of errors that I know they're going to make. ... We did our first one two weeks ago after a punctuation and caps lesson - I gave them a short story in which 50 words were missing capital letters, and they had to put the caps in the right place. Most students scored high on that exercise.
{...}
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Punctuation from Chinese students and often from teachers drives me batty. Two spaces after a period/full stop and after a colon. I haven't taught writing in some time now, but often do quick scans or run throughs for friends or students. For me, poor punctuation ruins the essay, story, whatever and it really doesn't seem to be emphasized or possibly even taught to English majors or most secondary students. If I end up with more writing classes, I will definitely begin with that one. Proofreading marks/symbols are a good idea: if you can teach a few marks that they will understand, it will save a lot of writing out responses. Symbols like the pound sign for space or some kind of squiggly for delete, and grammar marks such as P? for preposition missing. |
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GeminiTiger
Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 999
Location: China, 2005--Present
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:42 am Post subject: |
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| My students cannot use the words bored/boring and funny/fun or interesting/interest correctly so.. |
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RPMcMurphy
Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 90
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:23 am Post subject: |
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| ...so what do you do? |
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RPMcMurphy
Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 90
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:25 am Post subject: |
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| ...so what do you do? |
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johntpartee
Joined: 02 Mar 2010
Posts: 3258
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| Two spaces after a period/full stop and after a colon |
I've noticed that when I double space after a period on this website, it automatically deletes one of them (I do it anyway, old habits are hard to break) |
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thatsforsure
Joined: 11 Sep 2012
Posts: 146
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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| you all must have some exeptional students then .. all ive seen produced is indeciphrable nonsense . and/or direct copies from the net .. when they get to england and other western countries for college i do know they buy papers and cheat right and left .. |
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7969
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 5782
Location: Coastal Guangdong
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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| thatsforsure wrote: |
| you all must have some exeptional students then .. all ive seen produced is indeciphrable nonsense . and/or direct copies from the net .. when they get to england and other western countries for college i do know they buy papers and cheat right and left .. |
I've taught ~ 1600 English Education majors over the past seven years. Of that total number there are only two that I know of that went abroad to study further. The goal of the writing class isn't to teach the student to turn out a 40 page essay at a foreign university (most are not going there). The primary goal is to help the students improve enough so that they can pass the writing component of the TEM4 - write a 50-60 word note/notice, and a short composition (250-300 words/5 paras) on some topic. If given proper instruction on writing most of them can achieve this. Secondary goals can vary. |
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RPMcMurphy
Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 90
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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| thatsforsure wrote: |
| have wrote professionally quite a bit as well, made a good living at it, used to make 80k a yr on writig and tutering |
Guess #1. Employed by Indonesian website owners to write semi-literate, inane comments on forums. Salary 80,000 Rupiah.
Guess #2. A cake decorator in ROK, salary 80,000 Won.
I don't think thatsforsure has been to university lately. Plagiarism detection software is used universally.
Last edited by RPMcMurphy on Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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thatsforsure
Joined: 11 Sep 2012
Posts: 146
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| would the detection software prevent them buying papers ? you honestly think they all do there own work? sorely mistaken. |
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Dedicated
Joined: 18 May 2007
Posts: 972
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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| I work at a top-ranking UK university. Plagiarism software detects most offenders. However, every piece of written work (especially anything done in class) is photocopied and then compared to a submitted research essay. If we suspect the student has "bought" an essay, then they are subjected to a viva. They are rigorously grilled over references etc and usually it is clear that a student has not written it. Generally they confess and are failed. |
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