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[dawnbuckley]

Hi,

I am doing a project on language difficulties Latvian speakers might have for my CELTA course, but I can`t find much information on it. The resource book in the library doesn`t have any section on Latvian/English language differences. Can anyone help?

What kind of typical errors do you come across?

Thanks!

Dawn

[jonniboy]

As with Slavic languages, the Baltic languages don't have articles so this is the most common mistake that I see at all levels. Prepositions are also used completely differently resulting in L1 influenced common mistakes like "depends from" / "afraid from" / "in Monday" / "I listen music".

In pronunciation terms the dipthong TH doesn't exist, so with becomes "wizz". W (another non existent letter/sound) and V are often confused - so I sometimes hear people saying that they are "werry vell". I have no idea why as Latvian does have V and it is pronounced exactly the same way as in English. Hard G/soft G and CH (students often say CHemist as in CHeese.)

Word pairings commonly confused include
Very/Really "I very like"
Stay/Live "I lived in hotel for 4 days."
Watch/Look "I look TV"
Young/New "The shopping centre is young."
Go/Drive "I drive with bus to work"
Like/Prefer "I better like"

Other problems:
Verbs followed by to infinitives "I like eat sushi" / "I enjoy to watch TV."
Conditionals (especially 2nd and 3rd conditional)
Word order "I and my family"

[dawnbuckley]

Hi,

Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to answer. That`s really helpful.