Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Airborne9]

Some of my students came to me with some questions that they got wrong in an English exam. I was able to explain all the mistakes except two. I was hoping that maybe someone here could help me out.

Fill in the blank.

1."This product has the possibility _________ pests in houses for up to a year.

to annihilate/ of annihilating

The answer is "of annihilating". I would say "of annihilating" but I'm just at a loss to explain why.

2. There have been extinctions in the Earths's history, _________ around the time of the dinosaurs disappeared.

the last one we know of was / the last one we know of being

"the last one we know of being" is the answer. To be honest, I didn't pick that. I would have said "the last one we know of was" so I'm really stuck on this one.


Any help wold be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[schwa]

#1 you're right, but me too, I'd have trouble explaining that beyond common collocation. Someone else can probably weigh in with a rule.

But #2, you're definitely wrong. Your choice is clearly a comma splice -- two independent sentences joined by a comma.

[laynamarya]

For number one, possibility takes the preposition "of." If you replaced it with, say, ability, or power, then you could follow it with an infinitive. This is one of those things ESL learners just have to memorize. I've seen people studying lists of nouns+the prepositions they take.

For the second one, schwa is right, the comma makes it wrong. If there were a semicolon instead, you could get away with two linked independent clauses, but since there is a comma, you need to change the second clause.

[chickenpie]

Being an English teacher is retarted in Korea, why do we keep having to go over grammar points that no native speaker would ever even have clue about, teaching English should be about being able to actully use the language communicatively.

Hits head againt desk again and again.....

[laynamarya]

Be careful with that lovely head of yours, chickenpie.

Some folks are analytical language learners. When I study Korean, I usually want to know why I have to write things a certain way, or what the difference is between the various ways to show cause and effect in Korean, or why I need to use pure Korean numbers for some things but Sino-Korean numbers for other things. If my Korean teacher doesn't know or can't explain it so that it makes sense, I get a new Korean teacher.

Being able to communicate is the main point of learning a new language, I agree. But once you master getting your point across, most people are going to want to learn the rules and patterns of a language, so that they can move away from simply parroting phrases to having actual creative dialogues, taking the grammatical patterns they've learned and infusing them with their own thoughts and ideas.

That's how language learners move past formulaic conversations to sounding like they really know what they are doing. That's what I want to get out of my language learning, at least, so I can understand why ESL learners would expect the same from me, as their language teacher.

[Privateer]

[Airborne9]

Many thanks for the replies.