Job Discussion Forums

[Neilhrd]

I have an upper intermediate teenage private student. He is a bright boy who wants to learn. But he has one annoying grammar problem.

His use of basic plural forms of nouns is good. But when it gets to more complex expressions he persistently writes sentences such as:-

The research involves a series of step.

We have plenty of tomato in the fridge.

There are not enough doctor in Britain.

The students come from a variety of country.

He doesn't seem to realise that expressions such as a series of, many, most, enough, several, a few, both etc are talking about more than one object and therefore require the use of a plural if the noun is countable.

I have corrected his writing, and prompted him to self correct, many times. But the errors continue. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Does anyone have any suggestions for an interesting activity or game to help him assimilate inert knowledge and produce correct sentences?

Although we are working in China his native language is Vietnamese. I don't speak this and I am wondering if it is an interference problem.

[Sonnet]

Sounds like it's quite an ingrained problem; I don't know of a quick fix.

I'd keep going with the feedback and correction; it might just take time. How long have you been teaching him for?

Keep asking him "how many" questions; how many steps/tomatoes/doctors/countries is he talking about? Persistent problems tend to require persistent nagging... uh, feedback, in my experience.

[Steppenwolf]

Have the boy mark the writing of some other student(s) - he will notice others' mistakes!