The worst relative pronoun exercises you've ever seen...

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fluffyhamster
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

Post by fluffyhamster » Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:22 am

So it seems that your boss thought that 'do' was the default option, the most semantically bleached option, and I can certainly see how it would be useful as a general question (e.g. a Taiwanese student abroad might be trying to start or continue a conversation with another potential EFL or ESL speaker), versus modals requesting somebody to speak English (as opposed to some other language) or act as a translator etc. But I'd agree that to say that 'do' is the only correct answer when there is little or no supporting context (i.e. without exploring the possible function(s) (meaning-uses) of at least the one form, if not the other "opposing" forms also) is no way to teach<>test English, unless the aim is to produce a student with just the bare minimum of understanding (mainly in relation to the prescribed forms studied, and little more. It's like the "test" is simply to recall the item that was used in the texbook).
Last edited by fluffyhamster on Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

jotham
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Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:51 am

Post by jotham » Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:10 am

That must have been some time ago. I don't think any of the Taiwanese schools use the old government textbooks anymore. The market opened up around eight years ago. Our textbooks keep these things in mind; I even edit out remotely possible answers in situations that students are unlikely to conjure up when the exercises are based on grammar rather than situational appropriateness.

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John Hall
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Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 6:12 pm
Location: Costa Rica

Post by John Hall » Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:52 am

Think Taiwanese government textbooks are bad? Try the ones the Costa Rican government puts out for elementary English classes. About one error per page.

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