If you are a native speaker of English, you don’t even have to think about how to use grammar correctly, at least for the most part. If you have ever watched a child develop language, you know that, at a very young age, children know what is necessary for language to make sense.
When a nonnative speaker of English makes grammatical errors, he could be doing it unknowingly, he may not be aware that he is just translating his thoughts and ideas from his native language to English.
When it comes to formal speaking and writing, many nonnative speakers are not familiar with the conventions or the “rules” of correctness.
Not every international student has a great command of the English language. I would like to talk about India, India is a multi-lingual country; there are multiple states and multiple languages.
I know besides my mother tongue, four Indian languages, I am not counting English since English is a foreign language ;))
Folks, I worked for a while as a tutor in an Institute of Spoken English in India, my students comprised of Doctors, Engineers, Advocates and graduates of other streams, all these students had their regional language as the medium of instruction till they finished high school, sometimes even up till graduation.
So, I had to treat them as ‘adult learners’ and I was actually younger than most of them. It was tough teaching them Spoken English, we were given no study material, we had to write our own lesson plans and write the content too. The chief objective was to enable these learners to speak English fluently, confidently and correctly.
All the students had to write an entrance exam, based on their performance they were grouped as fundamental learners, moderate learners and advanced learners. Advanced learners had a good grip over the language but they lacked confidence, so these students were made to stand on the dais and speak on a given topic, mock interview sessions were conducted, they were seated around a rectangular table and there would be a moderator when the session commenced. Minute details were observed, how they conducted themselves, their body language was also keenly observed by the tutor and we had to then give an appraisal. The learner’s caliber was thus tested.
Teaching the fundamental learners was very challenging. Most of them came from a rural background and they would literally translate any sentence from their mother tongue to English. In most Indian languages, the sentence pattern is – Subject + Object + Verb
In Hindi for instance – ‘main pustak padd raha hoon’ when literally translated into English it means –
I book reading ;))
Another example – ‘main kapade dho rahi hoon’ – in English – I clothes washing ;))
These errors are committed because of their mother tongue influence. The language they think is not English but in their mother tongue. I had to always tell them ‘try to think in English’ in that way you will avoid these mistakes……but that was not so easy for them……teaching them Subject + Verb + Object sentence pattern takes time and a lot of patience ;))
The fundamental learners were however very eager and enthusiastic, they would leave me breathless, I had to stop the urge to laugh…..;))
One day during class, I had just cited an example of a farmer growing cotton in his field. An overenthusiastic learner raised his hand and said, ’Madam, I grow wool in my fields’! I had to hide my smile but the entire class broke into guffaws of laughter and I burst out too ;))
Being correct goes beyond the basic grammar that language needs in order to function. Being correct means knowing the rules that a given culture has established to judge the language of individuals. There are far more usage rules than grammar rules and they are far more difficult to master. Many of them you just have to learn and after you learn them, you have to use them over and over and over in order to incorporate them into your language.
That is why as a tutor we introduced new words as often as possible, reinforcing them by making the learners use it again and again in different contexts. Till they became familiar with new words and thereby expanded their vocabulary. We made learners practice, practice, practice!
Friends, if you have studied a foreign language or taught a foreign language then feel free to share your experience;))
