Grammar mistakes when learning new languages

One thought...

You might see if you can find any English-Arabic forums online, for Arabic speakers practicing their English or asking questions about it, and see what mistakes are made and what non-native mannerisms creep into the language.

Keep in mind that accents can be tricky, too--that might make for some great comedic misinterpretations, come to think of it. When an accent makes a word unclear, we'll sometimes hear something that sounds the same, but occasionally we take our cues contextually, so "milk" might be heard as "water," baffling as that will be for both parties. Truth is stranger than fiction, though, so I'd be careful not to overdo it.

You might also look at grammatical structure-- (sorry, I don't much about Arabic) but my German-speaking student has trouble getting some phrases right. The one I find most amusing is instead of saying "I'll see you later" she says "We'll see us later." She also regularly says "When I became a baby" rather than "When I had a baby."

I agree with the suggestion of finding English-language forums populated by Arab people practicing their English.

A few tips: verb tenses always confuse language learners, especially the difference between the present perfect ("He has gone to New York") and the simple past ("He went to New York"). They'll say things like "he has gone to New York last week"--which everyone can understand, but it's not correct, it's not how native speakers speak. And once you get into complicated tenses like, say, the present perfect continuous ("he has been practicing his dance moves"), all bets are off, oh my god.

The difference between this/that and these/those also confuses language learners whose native languages don't make such a distinction, or whose languages make that distinction in a different way. You'd have to check whether Arabic is like that. Or you could just decide that, since your character's language is LIKE Arabic but isn't actually Arabic, that her language has that problem, so she has trouble with this/these vs. that/those. The problem ESL students have is that they don't know when something is near or immediate enough to say this/these, or when it's too far or remote so you have to say that/those. They'll talk about "this car" when they're referring to a car that's a block away, and there are several other cars between them and the car they're referring to; they'll say "that book" for a book they're holding. And they don't get subtle things like why you can say "this year" and mean this current year now, but you have to say "last year" and "next year"--why can't you say "that year" for those?

So just pick a few mistakes and have her make them consistently.

Ah! This relates to my day job (so, clearly, writing this post while at work is totally okay). I develop language proficiency tests and ESL curriculum materials.

A couple common types of errors:

-- Dropped or incorrect articles. Even advanced English students will still make errors with the usage of a, an, and the. Advanced speakers will often notice their mistakes and immediately correct themselves, though: "I want to buy a apple -- I mean, an apple." Lower-level speakers will often rely on one type of article or leave most of them out.

-- Reliance on one or two verb tenses. You see this a lot with beginning students. They'll begin to master the simple present, simple past, or present progressive, and use one or two of those for nearly all occasions, sometimes continuing to do this even after they've learned other tenses. When I taught ESL, I often had to break students of their present-progressive habits before we could move on to learning other tenses. They'd say things like "I like to eating chocolate," or they'd use the form correctly, but they wouldn't use it in the correct situation. They'd say "I am eating lunch at noon" when they were trying to describe something they habitually do.

-- Prepositions! Oh man. These are so easy to mix up for non-native speakers. Students I had from all cultures told me these were the toughest things to master in English, especially because there's so much memorization involved in learning prepositional phrases. I would still hear higher-level speakers mixing up "in" and "on," and "at" and "to."

... I don't have time to finish this right now, but I'll come back and add a few more, plus give you some links to some of the language testing organizations where they describe the proficiency levels.

When I was teaching writing to ESL students, one of the things that many students had trouble with was using articles for abstract concepts. Either they'd write "he was devoted to the truth and the beauty" or they'd write "she was fascinated by philosophy of science."

Another common issue was tense errors. "Yesterday I am going to the doctor" and similar constructions cropped up a lot.

I'd suggest finding out the ways in which Arabic is structurally different than English, because a lot of the mistakes would probably fall in those areas.

I have no idea whether any of these apply to Arabic (sorry), but some examples:

Prepositions! Definitely. You can take any verb and play with it. You can even create humorous situations as a result of confusion.

Take the verb come for example:

come about - come across - come after - come along - come apart - come around - come at - come away - come by - come down - come in - come into - come of - come off - come on - come out - come over - come through - come to - come under - come up - come upon - come with - come within

Perhaps the following interesting facts will generate some ideas for you. You just need to flip them around:

The English sounds “v” and “p” have no equivalent in Arabic.

Alphabet: Most texts do not write vowels. You need to figure out the vowels by yourself based on your knowledge of vocabulary and understanding of the phrase.

Pronunciation: Arabic is a difficult language to pronounce, with many, many unique consonants that will put in motion parts of your mouth you did not know you had. Achieving a correct pronunciation is not easy, and speaking with no accent very difficult.

Vocabulary: The Arabic vocabulary is very large and is the biggest obstacle the student must overcome when learning the language. -

Perhaps your similar-to-Arabic speaking character could have difficulties explaining her feelings or abstract concepts to a similar-to-English speaking character, as she/he fails to find similarities in English. I know this for a fact, take the difficulties of translating Holy Qur’an into any language for example.

Hope this helps...

Phaedo said:

Prepositions! Definitely. You can take any verb and play with it. You can even create humorous situations as a result of confusion.
Take the verb come for example:
come about - come across - come after - come along - come apart - come around - come at - come away - come by - come down - come in - come into - come of - come off - come on - come out - come over - come through - come to - come under - come up - come upon - come with - come within

Click to expand...

Those are all phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are a goldmine of mistakes for the language learner.

Those are 'phrasal verbs'? Thanks, I did not know.

What about the word 'up'? It means 'in the general direction of the sky or ceiling' but what about:
Clean it up.
Get it up.
Throw up.
Going up the Canada.
Marrying up.
etc. etc.

There are a lot of words in English that are like this.

I think you could also have a lot of fun with colloquiums. I've noticed that Americans particularly, can speak for long periods of time using phrases that don't literally mean what they say, but are understandable by a native speaker. I don't know how accurate her confusion is, but the humor is effective.

There's a character on the TV show NCIS who is from Israel and mixes up colloquiums all the time.

I know you're dealing with Arabic, but a grrrrreat book that demonstrates what it's like to learn a language (AND a culture) is A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. The book is written from the point of a young Chinese woman coming to live in London, and the book is written kind of like a diary, so at first the English is hugely broken and it slowly improves as her understanding of the language and the culture does. As a novel, it kind of broke down for me at the end, but as a former EFL teacher I found the first half hilarious. (As an example, she meets a guy who says... ah, I forget how he words it, but he means does she want to visit his flat. She is in a bit of trouble with her living situation, and she thinks he means does she want to LIVE there. So she shows up on his doorstep with all her suitcases.)

Hi, IdiotsRUs!

Just wanted to add something to your discussion from the language acquisition/linguistics angle. When you're having your character speak, it's good to remember that the learner's first "strategy" for avoiding error is generally silence. So your character may avoid speaking at all in some circumstances, and may have particular constructions that give her trouble, so she may try to "talk around" them. The other thing that happens a lot in non-native discourse is that the learner will abruptly change topics in the middle of a discussion when she runs into a linguistic roadblock.

I'd be cautious with pronunciation transcription, because it can be difficult for the reader to wade through, and may in some cases look too ridiculous for your purposes. If you're interested, I have a discussion on how to use dialects in stories posted on my language and culture blog, http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com . It's from last week, called "Do you want to take on dialects?" I got some really neat commentary from a lot of other writers, so check it out if you feel it might help.

Good luck with your story! So few people have the courage to take on real language acquisition - it's really cool to see that you're doing it.

The obvious ones: "You was", They says" etc. Make use of stereotypes. Listen to interviews on radio.

Just thought I should let you know I was inspired by your topic to talk about language learner speech on my blog. So thanks for the good idea!

Juliette