Problems with pronunciation instruction in ENL or ELL classrooms
Each student will be required to identify a ‘grammar issue.’ A ‘grammar issue’ refers to structural ‘problems’ that are produced by learners of English or exist in varieties of English. The important thing for this project is that you identify a REAL grammar issue produced by a REAL learner of English. One way to think about this is to identify a type of ‘error’ that you find produced in the speech or writing of an English learner. For example, if someone says to you “I going to try” this would be an example of a grammar issue related to verb formation. In the first stage of the project, you can collect an assortment of issues and then we can narrow down your topic or figure out if they are all a similar type. You don’t have to be limited to ‘errors’ — you can think of other types of patterns or behaviors that are interesting if you like.
All of your examples need to come from ONE person that you can identify their age and other languages they know. You will have to make a note on WHO produced the error. The person who produced it needs to be a learner of English at any proficiency level.
Sometimes this process takes time and you will need to use your judgement — did you find relevant articles? Are they too ‘off topic?” Remember, you can find articles that relate to:
1) linguistics — articles that explain how your topic ‘works’ in English
2) language acquisition — how learners acquire the forms of your topic or factors that influence how your topic is learned
3) education — how can you teach this topic to learners.
Maybe you will find more articles in one area or another — that is okay. You just have to find THREE! You can also look at the end of the chapters in your grammar and linguistics textbooks and find the resources that they list there.
