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Abstract: Senior high school students have errors in writing due to negative influences of mother tongue. When it comes to choice of words, the use of a wrong word form, the unawareness of the part of speech of a word, a wrong choice among synonyms are commonly found errors. Causes of these errors are complicated; solutions to them can not be easy. But with regular efforts taken in writing classes, the teacher is able to arouse students’awareness in consideration of picking up the right word.
Key words: Senior High School Students; Writing Errors; Solutions
中圖分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711(2013)23-0012
I. Introduction
I have been teaching senor high school English teaching for approximately ten years . So far I have observed several types of errors my students often make in their writings. Targeting at those, I have tried some ways to improve their writing and found them effective. I intend to share my experience with teachers who are interested.
Finding errors is the first step to help students with their writing, but when it comes to correcting them, it becomes complicated. “Most students find it very dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it is covered in red ink, underlinings and crossings-out...over-correction can be a very demotivating effect.”(1, 84) In order not to made students feel their writing terrible, I usually design class exercises “for students to gain an awareness of the sentences they write”(3,140). Most of the exercises are done in collaboration by students themselves and checked with me later, because “Getting feedback from the teacher and from other students in the class enables learners to test hypotheses and refine their developing knowledge of the language system.”(2, 13)
II. Right word
The most common error is the choice of words. Every piece of writing by my students I have read so far is not free of this problem. The errors students have are: wrong word form, wrong part of speech and wrong synonym.
1.Wrong word form
Sometimes students know which word to use, but they have not taken correct form of the word into consideration. The reasons for this can be the lack of tenses or numbers in the Chinese language. So, students often have problems with subject-verb agreement, time/tense agreement, and consistency of number or tense as illustrated by the following examples. (All of the examples with errors in this article are taken form my students’writings with their content. In parenthesis are the corrections.) But I didn’t want to entered (enter) the exam, because I hadn’t yet prepared some subject (subjects).
We got up before six o’clock and prepare (prepared) to take (the, this is missing of an article) bus.
I arrived earlier and feel (felt) nervous even if I have (had) attended this kind of activities many times.
When we feel stressful, we can go on a trip ownself (on our own/by ourselves).
They thought (think) everyone is equal and have (has) right (the right, this is missing of an article) to live.
It is more complicated when it comes to non-verbal use of verbs in the English language Chinese has no infinitives, gerunds or participles. E.g.
I like sing (singing), play (playing) basketball, and watch (watching) TV.
He went home without tell (telling) teacher (the teacher, this is miss of an article).
When I was young, I wanted went to college (I wanted to go to college).
A woman come (came) to our village everyday sell ice-lollies (to sell ice-lollies).
They didn’t quiet after told not talk. (They did not become quiet after they were told not to talk. /After being told not to talk, they did not become quiet.)
The possibility of students’picking up the right form of a word lies basically in grammar. Errors caused by inadequate attention to the differences among English and Chinese grammars will decrease if teachers can help students build up a solid foundation of grammar. But it is very impractical to teach students systematic grammar thoroughly in a writing class, for it takes time and nobody wants to miss the forest for one tree. So I design ten to a dozen blank-filling items for students to discuss and decide the right form of word by themselves. It does not last long and students can learn from and help each other. More importantly students may increase their awareness of word form choice in the end. The following are examples I used in different classes. In brackets I include specific grammatical points the example is targeting at.
Some people saw it but (keep) quiet. [tense consistency]
Who (will) I be twenty years from now? [time consistency]
Studying for the exam makes me (boring) and a little tired./Studying for the test is (boring) and makes me a little tired. [gerund/particle]
After (take) the entrance exam, I was enrolled by No. 2 Senor High School. [gerund]
I made great progress in my English (study). [number]
2. Wrong part of speech Words are usually spelt differently when their part of speech changes in English, however, it is not so in Chinese. Students may not always consider the issue of part of speech when writing. Consequently, errors as listed below are not surprising.
After an excite (exciting) trip, they reached their destination.
Authorities are trying to solution (solve) it.
Others argument (argue) that everyone is equal.
It will bring peaceful (peace) and harmony to the society.
My writing teacher asked me to write a summarize of a passage (to summarize a passage/ to write a summary of a passage).
What I usually do for this specific problem is that I select some words which are wrongly used by my students and elicit as many spellings as possible when each of the words changes its part of speech. Then I give unfinished sentences from students’homework with their content. Students decide which word should be used. Here I quote some examples I have used in my class. The first word in parentheses is the wrong word used by my students, after it I list different parts of speech of the word given by my students in class.
My hometown is (location, locate) in the northern part of Inner Mongolia.
They would be very (pleasure, pleased, pleasant) to offer help.
As Chinese, I am (pride, proud) of Chinese history and culture very much.
The society is full of (compete, competition, competitor) and challenge.
With the (developing, development, develop) of economy, my hometown is becoming richer and richer.
After making each of the sentences correct, students give possible sentences in which other words may be used. Sometimes I still need to help by improving inappropriate ones and adding more examples. Guiding students to use a dictionary is very useful at this point because it is of authority. Students gradually understand the importance of the right part of speech in their writing.
3. Wrong choice of synonyms
Some errors are made because students can not tell the differences between synonyms. They may think since they are synonyms, it does not matter which one they use in their writing. Unavoidably, they have errors like those in the following examples.
I was very engry (angry, this is a miss spelling), because it was not my wrong (false).
Now, when I recall the first time I won champion, I’m not sure if I worth (deserved) it.
We saw a lot of primary school students, they are (were, this is a wrong form) lovely, and made us recollected our childhood (reminded us of our childhood).
Key words: Senior High School Students; Writing Errors; Solutions
中圖分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711(2013)23-0012
I. Introduction
I have been teaching senor high school English teaching for approximately ten years . So far I have observed several types of errors my students often make in their writings. Targeting at those, I have tried some ways to improve their writing and found them effective. I intend to share my experience with teachers who are interested.
Finding errors is the first step to help students with their writing, but when it comes to correcting them, it becomes complicated. “Most students find it very dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it is covered in red ink, underlinings and crossings-out...over-correction can be a very demotivating effect.”(1, 84) In order not to made students feel their writing terrible, I usually design class exercises “for students to gain an awareness of the sentences they write”(3,140). Most of the exercises are done in collaboration by students themselves and checked with me later, because “Getting feedback from the teacher and from other students in the class enables learners to test hypotheses and refine their developing knowledge of the language system.”(2, 13)
II. Right word
The most common error is the choice of words. Every piece of writing by my students I have read so far is not free of this problem. The errors students have are: wrong word form, wrong part of speech and wrong synonym.
1.Wrong word form
Sometimes students know which word to use, but they have not taken correct form of the word into consideration. The reasons for this can be the lack of tenses or numbers in the Chinese language. So, students often have problems with subject-verb agreement, time/tense agreement, and consistency of number or tense as illustrated by the following examples. (All of the examples with errors in this article are taken form my students’writings with their content. In parenthesis are the corrections.) But I didn’t want to entered (enter) the exam, because I hadn’t yet prepared some subject (subjects).
We got up before six o’clock and prepare (prepared) to take (the, this is missing of an article) bus.
I arrived earlier and feel (felt) nervous even if I have (had) attended this kind of activities many times.
When we feel stressful, we can go on a trip ownself (on our own/by ourselves).
They thought (think) everyone is equal and have (has) right (the right, this is missing of an article) to live.
It is more complicated when it comes to non-verbal use of verbs in the English language Chinese has no infinitives, gerunds or participles. E.g.
I like sing (singing), play (playing) basketball, and watch (watching) TV.
He went home without tell (telling) teacher (the teacher, this is miss of an article).
When I was young, I wanted went to college (I wanted to go to college).
A woman come (came) to our village everyday sell ice-lollies (to sell ice-lollies).
They didn’t quiet after told not talk. (They did not become quiet after they were told not to talk. /After being told not to talk, they did not become quiet.)
The possibility of students’picking up the right form of a word lies basically in grammar. Errors caused by inadequate attention to the differences among English and Chinese grammars will decrease if teachers can help students build up a solid foundation of grammar. But it is very impractical to teach students systematic grammar thoroughly in a writing class, for it takes time and nobody wants to miss the forest for one tree. So I design ten to a dozen blank-filling items for students to discuss and decide the right form of word by themselves. It does not last long and students can learn from and help each other. More importantly students may increase their awareness of word form choice in the end. The following are examples I used in different classes. In brackets I include specific grammatical points the example is targeting at.
Some people saw it but (keep) quiet. [tense consistency]
Who (will) I be twenty years from now? [time consistency]
Studying for the exam makes me (boring) and a little tired./Studying for the test is (boring) and makes me a little tired. [gerund/particle]
After (take) the entrance exam, I was enrolled by No. 2 Senor High School. [gerund]
I made great progress in my English (study). [number]
2. Wrong part of speech Words are usually spelt differently when their part of speech changes in English, however, it is not so in Chinese. Students may not always consider the issue of part of speech when writing. Consequently, errors as listed below are not surprising.
After an excite (exciting) trip, they reached their destination.
Authorities are trying to solution (solve) it.
Others argument (argue) that everyone is equal.
It will bring peaceful (peace) and harmony to the society.
My writing teacher asked me to write a summarize of a passage (to summarize a passage/ to write a summary of a passage).
What I usually do for this specific problem is that I select some words which are wrongly used by my students and elicit as many spellings as possible when each of the words changes its part of speech. Then I give unfinished sentences from students’homework with their content. Students decide which word should be used. Here I quote some examples I have used in my class. The first word in parentheses is the wrong word used by my students, after it I list different parts of speech of the word given by my students in class.
My hometown is (location, locate) in the northern part of Inner Mongolia.
They would be very (pleasure, pleased, pleasant) to offer help.
As Chinese, I am (pride, proud) of Chinese history and culture very much.
The society is full of (compete, competition, competitor) and challenge.
With the (developing, development, develop) of economy, my hometown is becoming richer and richer.
After making each of the sentences correct, students give possible sentences in which other words may be used. Sometimes I still need to help by improving inappropriate ones and adding more examples. Guiding students to use a dictionary is very useful at this point because it is of authority. Students gradually understand the importance of the right part of speech in their writing.
3. Wrong choice of synonyms
Some errors are made because students can not tell the differences between synonyms. They may think since they are synonyms, it does not matter which one they use in their writing. Unavoidably, they have errors like those in the following examples.
I was very engry (angry, this is a miss spelling), because it was not my wrong (false).
Now, when I recall the first time I won champion, I’m not sure if I worth (deserved) it.
We saw a lot of primary school students, they are (were, this is a wrong form) lovely, and made us recollected our childhood (reminded us of our childhood).