Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

i thought to compile a small list of the mistakes commonly made by chinese in oral english. i'll add a few here that i can think of, and i think it would be great if anyone can add to the list. with a more comprehensive list, it seems to me this would be useful to teach/correct in class.

here's my small contribution:

1. personal pronouns (he/she/we) are often confused.
2. "i'm exciting." "i'm boring." confusing adjectives and verbs.

btw, if such a list already exists, please direct me to it. i searched for it but it didnt turn up.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

http://www.vobs.at/ludescher/total_physical_response.htm

Asher cautions teachers about preconceptions that he feels could hinder the successful implementation of TPR principles. First, he cautions against the "illusion of simplicity," where the teacher underestimates the diffi�culties involved in learning a foreign language. This results in progressing at too fast a pace and failing to provide a gradual transition from one teaching stage to another. The teacher should also avoid having too narrow a tolerance for errors in speaking.

You begin with a wide tolerance for student speech errors, but as training progresses, the tolerance narrows.... Remember that as students progress in their training, more and more attention units are freed to process feedback from the instructor. In the beginning, almost no attention units are available to hear the instructor's attempts to correct distortions in speech. All attention is directed to producing utterances. Therefore the student cannot attend effi�ciently to the instructor's corrections.

As Latin evolved over time into Romance languages, and as China's invaders became Sinicized, so will English-in-China lose the past tense, for just one example. As in:
"Cut---cut---cut"
"Let---let---let"
"Hit---hit---hit"

But not this year...

Even folks who've lived/worked in US/GB/etc. for many years...still use the 'eternal now" in past tense English narration. In English we also have the "eTERNAL nOW" past tense...when we're narrating the story of a movie...

British Council has a book-let, published in China: "The Future of English"

[7969]

CMM, that's good information, but a bit off from what i was asking for.

another mistake commonly made by my students:

"nice to meet you" when they've already met me in the past and mean to say "nice to see you."

[Spiderman Too]

What did you see? (What did you say?)

Err big brown fox jumped over ....... (A big brown fox jumped over .....)

You need to wear more clotheses (I'm not sure how to spell the way they pronounce clothes).

You are in Beijing, a person from Shanghai introduces themselves. Invariably their introduction will include, "Welcome to Shanghai!". (But I'm not bloodywell in Shanghai!)

And CM; talking about common student speech errors with one's peers does not necessarily imply lack of tolerance (not that you suggested such).

[7969]

i've heard those as well. "clotheses" often said by the kids here.

whenever i've been invited to visit someone somewhere else, it's always "welcome [/b]in shanghai" instead of "welcome to shanghai" which i still think isnt correct. english speakers never really say that. more often we'd just say, "you're welcome to visit me in shanghai."

[Girl Scout]

There have...

or

have with no object.

The most embarrassing thing is that after three years in Asia I've actually started saying have with no object.

[Babala]

Another common mistake is "can you borrow me some money" instead of saying lend. I also find, even in the most advanced classes is the trouble with putting verbs in the 3rd person. He work, he live...

[Ralf]

Another common mistake - using the wrong term(s) for nationality and language, resulting in:

"I am China"
"I would like to learn France"
"Soccer is a famous sport in German"

[7969]

right, adjectives for nationality are always mistaken. i've almost never heard a chinese student say "germany" when they meant the country. it's always "german." same for france/french.

[kev7161]

I very like . . .

instead of

I like _______ very much.

[burnsie]

Alot of the common grammar errors are the cause of translating from chinese to english. As Chinese grammar is quite simple without the complex past, present and future tenses you will find that they will constantly make the mistakes. Until constant correction and understanding of the mistakes will they learn.

It's always good to learn some of the basic Chinese grammar to have an understanding of why they make the same mistakes.

[monju]

One common mistake is the use of the future simple when they should use "going to" or just the present continuous.
I'll give an example: I ask a student, "What are you are you doing after class/this weekend etc. The student usually answers with "I will play basketball/go shopping etc " rather than "I'm playing basketball/going shopping etc".
I know this is quite advanced and that the rules really breakdown on this one, but for some reason it really irritates me. I've actually tried to teach this before, but they still make the same mistake. (So, I'm intolerant!)
One of my own teachers put this down to bad teaching by their Chinese teachers.
Anyway it looks like the future Chinese variety of English may lose this lovely (but illogical) use of the present continuous to talk about plans for the future.

[Road_runner]

Hello there,
Perhaps some insight into the Chinese Language would help the English
speaker understand why such common mistakes:
In the Chinese language the different forms of a word are determined by the position of the character(word) rather than by the some change in the word as in English. For example: " The English man lives in England." In Chinese.
" Yingguo ren zhu zai Yingguo." or literally translated "The England man lives in England." So in Chinese the noun becomes an adjective when it is placed in front of the noun it describes. Therefore "The Shanghai man lives in Shanghai." is spoken in Chinese.
My pinyin is in need of improvement so Mandarin speakers please help.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

As Asher shaid...said...

[7969]

well, after reading that quote from asher, once a student is able to get his/her point across in english (with mistakes), it seems to me the next thing to do is fine tune the students english. meaning: correct the mistakes. thus, the reason i would like to have a list of the commonly spoken errors that we hear every day.

i think if a students speaks half decent english, and i dont correct ANY of the mistakes, then i'm not doing my job. i certainly dont correct every mistake, but some corrction is needed. thus, i do show some tolerance. what does asher say about that?