English...correction and error

Question

Could somebody please help me understand...because i have submitted this twice now already and he keeps saying its incorrect!

His remarks are>>>> AGAIN - PLEASE RE-SUBMIT THIS TASK, AS YOU HAVE NOT
ANSWERED THE QUESTION OF WHAT THE CAUSES (I.E. MOTHER TONGUE
INTERFERENCE, SLIP OF THE TONGUE, BEYOND LEVEL, ETC.) OF THE
ERRORS ARE.

YOU NEED TO USE THESE PROFESSIONAL TERMS FOR EACH TASK QUESTIONS

Please look at the student errors below. First identify what is wrong with the sentence. Then write

what caused the error ?
what type of an error it is ?
how you would correct it ?

Please note: All of the errors you will be analysing below are spoken errors rather than written!!!

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

nickydee -
Did you teacher give you a complete list of these "professional terms" to use for the cause of the error?

We don't know what mother tongue the teacher is referring to, so it will be difficult for us to tell if the cause is an interference.

What did you submit before? Did you identify the errors and how you would correct them?

Nickydee · Answer

Hi i have done the following:

Question>>>>>TASK 4: Please look at the student errors below. First identify
what is wrong with the sentence. Then write: 1. what caused the
error; 2. what type of an error it is; 3. how you would correct
it.

1. I "walk-id" to school today.
I "walk-id" to school today. - Should be pronounced walkd.
The speaker assumes that the written form 'walked' has two
syllables.
The error is mispronounciation of syllables
The correct sentence should be - I walked to school today.

( AGAIN - PLEASE RE-SUBMIT THIS TASK, AS YOU HAVE NOT
ANSWERED THE QUESTION OF WHAT THE CAUSES (I.E. MOTHER TONGUE
INTERFERENCE, SLIP OF THE TONGUE, BEYOND LEVEL, ETC.) OF THE
ERRORS ARE.) YOU NEED TO USE THESE PROFESSIONAL TERMS FOR EACH TASK QUESTIONS.<<<<<<all the tutors remarks!!!!!

2. I'd like to make a photo.
I'd like to make a photo. - This is logically and grammatically
correct.
However, 'take' is used with 'photo', it is an English idiom
The error is using the wrong word (infinitive verb)
The correct sentece should be: I'd like to take a photo.

3. He's a friendly girl.
He's a friendly girl. - Incorrect gender of pronoun.
Perhaps the speaker's mother tongue doesn't discriminate he/she?
Correct sentence should be : She's a friendly girl.

4. What do you eat for dinner yesterday?
What do you eat for dinner yesterday? - The verb needs to be in
the past tense: 'did'.
The error occurs when the speaker adds the qualifier 'yesterday'
as a sort of afterthought.They have used the wrong tense of
auxiliary verb.
Correct sentense should be: What did you eat for dinner
yesterday?

5. People is very friendly.
People is very friendly. -agreement - wrong number (verb) ”. The
verb should be in the plural: 'people are very friendly'.
Perhaps the speaker is treating 'people' as a mass noun like
'butter'.
The sentence should be: People are very friendly.

Ronda · Answer

I'm sorry but this is rather out of context for me... and I'm hoping I'm not doing your homework. It would be helpful to know what you've submitted twice before.

1. I "walk-id" to school today

The -ed is being interpreted as a separate syllable (They do this in French).

2. I’d like to make a photo

wrong choice of verb (take a photo). Why? a larger corpus is needed for error analysis.

3. He's a friendly girl

wrong choice of pronoun? wrong choice of noun (BOY?). No way to know without other samples.

4. What do you eat for dinner yesterday?

This 'mistake' is rather strange. The verb (or here the auxiliary) is not conjugated, but the person has learned the SUJ/ AUX inversion for questions. The latter is rather complexe for many learners. THere is a strange mixture of 'rules' learnt without having learnt tense.
5. People is very friendly

either PEOPLE is perceived as a singular, or the verb is incorrectly conjugated. If the former, then there is also the absence of the article to consider.

In all these examples, I do not see how we can talk about: mother-tongue interference (is this a professional term? I would say first-language interference, if anything), slip of the tongue (which does not explain anything. It's WAY to vague as an analysis- where does the 'slip' come from?), beyond level.... In language learning, I don't believe we can talk about "beyond level". We can in a classroom setting. Yet, none of these examples are very advanced. So I still wouldn't use 'beyond level' as an explanation.

Goodman · Answer

Hi NickyDee,

I have responded to your post with errors pointed out. But you didn't ackonwledge. Don't make it sound like as if no one responded to your request.

By the way, a jesture to show your appreciation for help received will be most motivating for the volunteers.

I am not sure what your teacher is looking for in terms of "labels" for the erorrs. Is your teacher's mother tongue English? Please don't ask me why I asked this question. Just judging from the way these questions were formed, I have weird gut-feeling that he is not.

Nickydee · Answer

Hi i am new on this site and apologise if i have not thanked anyone who has responded! thank you and i appreciate your advice!

I am still confused as to what my tutor is expecting me to answer in this task though. I have emailed him and will inform you as soon as i know myself.

He is English and yes your right... the questions are strange?

This is a business English course to teach English in a foreign country.

I am finding it slightly difficult because i am learning online and not attending a class. I am just trying to understand and get opinions from people more qualified and expercienced than I am.

Thank you all again and i welcome any advice you have to offer on the question posted

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Hi Nickydee:

Please don't use all the different color highlights in your postings. It makes your question difficult to understand. I have put some causes in line. You have correctly identified the errors.

nickydeeHi i have done the following:

Question>>>>>TASK 4: Please look at the student errors below. First identify
what is wrong with the sentence. Then write: 1. what caused the
error; 2. what type of an error it is; 3. how you would correct
it.

1. I "walk-id" to school today.
I "walk-id" to school today. - Should be pronounced walkd.
The speaker assumes that the written form 'walked' has two
syllables.
The error is mispronounciation of syllables
The correct sentence should be - I walked to school today.
Ok - That is the correct spelling, but not the correct pronunciation. I would write "walkt" as the correct pronunciation, instead of "walk-id". The cause is most likely that it is beyond the student's level of understanding of irregular pronunciations. If the student were reading the sentence literally without understanding, walk-ed would have 2 syllables.

( AGAIN - PLEASE RE-SUBMIT THIS TASK, AS YOU HAVE NOT
ANSWERED THE QUESTION OF WHAT THE CAUSES (I.E. MOTHER TONGUE
INTERFERENCE, SLIP OF THE TONGUE, BEYOND LEVEL, ETC.) OF THE
ERRORS ARE.) YOU NEED TO USE THESE PROFESSIONAL TERMS FOR EACH TASK QUESTIONS.<<<<<<all the tutors remarks!!!!!

2. I'd like to make a photo.
I'd like to make a photo. - This is logically and grammatically
correct.
However, 'take' is used with 'photo', it is an English idiom
The error is using the wrong word (infinitive verb)
The correct sentece should be: I'd like to take a photo.
Yes,. The cause is most likely a slip of the tongue, because most mother tongues have the consonant sounds for "t" and "m". It may also be a confusion of vocabulary, beyond the student's level of distinguising the idiom "take a photo" versus "make a photo".

3. He's a friendly girl.
He's a friendly girl. - Incorrect gender of pronoun.
Perhaps the speaker's mother tongue doesn't discriminate he/she?
Correct sentence should be : She's a friendly girl.
The cause may be mother tongue interference if the mother tongue does not have genders. However, this is very unusual as most languages distinguish men and women. The most likely cause is slip of the tongue. It is not likely beyond understanding, since the pronouns are among the earlliest of English lessons.

4. What do you eat for dinner yesterday?
What do you eat for dinner yesterday? - The verb needs to be in
the past tense: 'did'.
The error occurs when the speaker adds the qualifier 'yesterday'
as a sort of afterthought.They have used the wrong tense of
auxiliary verb.
Correct sentense should be: What did you eat for dinner
yesterday?
The cause could be mother tongue interference if tenses in the speaker's native language are constructed using adverbs of time. It is not a slip of the tongue, since the student did put in an auxiliary and pronounced a legitimate word. It icould also be a tudent's lack of practice in past tense interrogative pattern.

5. People is very friendly.
People is very friendly. -agreement - wrong number (verb) ”. The
verb should be in the plural: 'people are very friendly'.
Perhaps the speaker is treating 'people' as a mass noun like
'butter'.
The sentence should be: People are very friendly.
The cause icould be mother tongue interference. Many students, especially Chinese and related mother tongues speakers have a lot of difficulty with subject-verb agreement and the use of plurals. Native speakers of the Romance and Germanic languages do not have as much difficulty, because their languages are similar to English in the use of plurals. This is very difficult for many ESL students to master.

Anonymous · Answer

I've had the exact same problem with this section. Teacher just rejected my answers saying


"THE QUESTION ALSO ASKS YOU TO SAY 1. what caused the error?
' I.E. MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE. PLEASE LOOK AT THE MODULE 
NOTES AGAIN AND RE-SUBMIT YOUR ANSWERS ONLINE.
However, to pass the 
course you need to demonstrate that you are aware of the rules 
for English punctuation. Therefore, I would like you to resubmit 
this module, making sure your answers are grammatically correct. 
Please also see my comments below task 4 which you need to 
resubmit"

I noticed that in some of your responses your spelling is incorrect. Sentences for example, 
not sentenses. Did he also mention this? However, on the question of the error correction, 
I have no clue what to change. None of their terms seem to fit well. Also, have you listened 
to the accompanied recording? This goes through the different terms that can be used.
(the mother tongue interferences/slip of the tongue/ false cognates/ over generalisations etc)

Hope I pass next time, still got 3 modules to do in 9 days!

Anonymous · Answer

nickydee,

Let me set the record straight for you.

I walk-id to school today.

The error is that in most cases in English the "ed"(past tense) used at the end of the verb is pronounced as "id", eg. noted would be pronounced notid, delighted pronounced delighted. So the error would be pronunciation. Walked could have been pronounced walkid due to the rule stated above. However, some words like walked are not pronounced with the "id" but rather the "t" at the end (walkt). Other words are parked (parkt) and escaped (escapt) follow this rule.

2. I'd like to make a photo
You cannot make something already in existence or when a person or an equipment would be the one doing the work for you. Making something involves you being physically able to complete the steps in the process, you cannot automatically make something. So you can make a cake but the oven bakes it. You can make a copy of the original photo or a portait from the photo but the camera makes the photo and you simply modify it. So the verb should be take (meaning you will get or capture the snap shot that the camera should use). The error is faulty diction - using a word out of context.

3. He's a friendly girl
This is a misplaced pronoun. "He" cannot be used to address a female (girl). This is an error in grammar.

4. What do you eat for dinner yesterday?
This is simply a problem of tense. "Do" is used when speaking of the present or the future; "did" is used to suggest time past (like yesterday). So, in the sentence "do" should be replaced with "did".

5. People is very friendly.
The plural of "person" is "people". Therefore you cannot use the noun people with a singular form of the verb (is); it has to be used with a plural form (are). So this error is known as subject/verb agreement, the subject being the noun "people" and the verb being "is".

I hope this helps you to understand more easily.
All the best.

Ajrb69 · Answer

What was not said about these errors is what level the learner is who made the error. An elementary student makes errors. An advanced student should not make the same errors, but makes errors at his own level. At the upper-intermediate level, this is a mistake. Correction at this level is administered differently than at the primary level.

It's important and necessary to read all of the instructions and parameters given to answer correctly and completely. Otherwise, it reveals to the tutor your inability to follow directions. If you don't understand any part of the question, do research through the resources available or contact a tutor directly.

English...correction and error

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