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A knock came at my door. I invited the International student in. He says, "Please, I need some help with my writing. I don't know what I am doing wrong. If you could just teach me what I am doing wrong, I could improve."
Over and over again I have experienced this same scenario. How true it is that if we are able to identify the problem, we are able to correct the problem. Since this young man came to my door the same hour as Brother Samuelson's phone message for articles for this publication, I decided perhaps sharing ideas for identifying foreign student problems would be appropriate. I, therefore, hurriedly jotted down two problems that are usually present, or should I say not present, in the average foreign student's writing. Hopefully, someone out there will find these things useful in helping that "lost" International student identify his own problems.
1) International students (deaf students,also) from the far east lack syntax. The articles are not built into the far eastern languages (or sign language) so the student does not recognize when they should appear and when they should not. I make the student repeat a jazz drill to rhythm several times.
"What do I wear on my head?" a hat
"What do I wear on my hands?" gloves
"What do I wear on my feet?" shoes and socks
The foreign student is totally shocked at being asked to sound like a cheerleader at a football game. Thus, the student will never forget that when there is one of something, a marker is necessary with no 's' such as "a hat". When there is more than one, there is no marker present but you add 's' such as "gloves".
This jazz drill was authored by Carolyn Graham, a language specialist, and is particularly good because a far east student has a difficult time distinguishing between "s" and "sh". Most of them cannot say, "See the seashells by the seashore."
2. Most international students have a difficult time with verb tense. Since the 's' and the 'ed' are dropped from spoken language, they do not realize that those letters need to be added in written language. When we say, "I asked him to go with me," we only hear a 't' sound when, in fact, the spelling is 'ed'. Once the student understands that they need to change the tense of the verb to fit the past tense form, they begin to put "ed" onto every verb. It is not uncommon to see "quitted" or "hurted", and most common of all is to see the "ed" added to the infinitive such as "to loved". An irregular verb list to hand a student with this problem is a must. Then explain that infinitives are always present tense no matter what tense the sentence is using.
Certain sounds interchange in foreign student's spelling. I would be glad to give some pointers on this another month if anyone is interested.