It might be useful to compare language 1 (L1) and language 2 (L2) in order to understand some of the difficulties learners of L2 face. Arabic-speaking students may have difficulty in using verbs to be because there are no such verbs in Arabic. Thus, in Arabic, a nominal sentence starts with a noun followed immediately by a predicate which could be a noun, a verb (not a verb to be of course), a prepositional phrase, etc. That is why it is very common to hear sentences like "She clever" from your students.
When those students become aware of the importance of the use of verbs to be in English, there appears another problem which is overusing those verbs. As a result, many students - I insist on 'many' - would say, "He is work in a school," wrongly inserting a verb to be before a present simple verb.
You are right Wafa. These interlanguage features are a part of the learning process. Last week I taught them 'be' and then present simple tense. They were OK with using 'be' but after learning present simple tense; the students came up with a structure like "He is works in a school". My way of tackling the problem is by trying to make then notice the difference in the structure of the two languages. Though not an Arabic speaker myself, I try to use my good students (who can communicate in English)by eliciting from them the patterns or structures of the Arabic and then showing them that both languages are different. Another problem is also adjective+ noun combination, probably in Arabic it is noun+ adjective and most of the time students come up with this structure even advanced ones. Any further suggestions on how to tackle this interlanguage issues?
ReplyDeleteWafa, thank you for the suggestion. I've been struggling with this as well ("I am study at the college," or "They are like to play video games."). The stronger students have been really useful, but I hadn't thought of utilizing them in the manner Hamid describes...that should be helpful. Question: are there any grammar books available (as in, on campus) that highlight the differences in structure?
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ReplyDeleteFatima, I'm not really sure about the availability of such grammar books in the campus. Anyway, I'll check. Meanwhile, I'm willing to answer ALL your queries related to this issue; I'm whole-heartedly interested in it.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Hamid's remark about the adjective-noun order, I'll state the following.
Yes. Arabic is different from English when it comes to the order of the noun and adjective. While in English the adjective precedes the noun it modifies, it follows the noun in Arabic. Thus, the Arabic phrase
‘مكان مريح’ (Notice that Arabic is written and read from right to left) would be translated literally, retaining the same positions of words as *’place comfortable.’
It might be useful in this case to draw a simple chart that shows the difference. I've tried to create the chart here but it won't work. The following representation might be helpful.
ADJECTIVE NOUN
ARABIC مكان مريح
ENGLISH comfortable place
Again, please feel free to ask me about any such issues. (I'm sure all the other Arabic-speaking colleagues are also ready to answer your questions.)
Soon inshaAllah I'll try to clarify the differences in articles.
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