Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and Other Problems (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)

.Reviewed by C J SinghTypically, the second-language learner's first language tends to impose its grammatical patterns that interfere with learning the second language. This guide admirably elucidates numerous interference patterns in learning English as a Second Language (ESL)specific to twenty-two first languages.However, as the book is intended for ESL teachers, it skips providing corrected English versions of the interfered sentences -- leaving that to the teacher. A simple way for adapting this teacher's guide for the ESL writer's use is to provide the corrected English version of each interference example. I provide hand-written corrections on the margin of this guide's copy of the relevant chapter and then ask them to revise their manuscript before sending for my editing. (Most of my ESL clients are post-doctoral scholars in fields such as comparative literature, psychology, social sciences, and creative writing.)The guide comprises twenty-two chapters, each contributed by one or more expert ESL teachers whose first language is usually the same as the learner's. Each chapter is about sixteen pages, beginning with a page or two on phonology, followed by examples of interference patterns in punctuation and grammar. (For Indo-European languages, a list of false friends is added; for example German "bekommen," sounds like English "become," but means "obtain" or "get." Well, of course, tomorrow you will become a book.)Samples of Dutch Interference Patterns in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 1-20):In Dutch, adverbs are identical with the uninflected form of the corresponding adjective. The use of unmarked adverbial forms is so deeply rooted in the Dutch speaker's competence that even advanced learners tend to make mistakes like:*She drives very careful.Correction to be provided: She drives very carefully.Dutch has no indefinite article in a subject complement with a countable noun denoting a profession, occupation or status, a religion or a nationality.*She is professor, Buddhist and Swede. *She's also widow.Correction to be provided: She is a professor, Buddhist, and Swede. She's also a widow.-----Samples of Interference Patterns of Scandinavian Languages in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 21-36).*The frontdoor is locked and the firealarm is on.Corrections to be provided: The front door is locked and the fire-alarm is on.*It/There was shot a man shot here yesterday.Correction to be provided: A man was shot here yesterday.*She spoke to me quite polite. ("Scandinavian adverbs of manner tend to be similar in form to adjectives, which lead to frequent mistakes.")Correction to be provided: She spoke to me quite politely.*I really must stop to smoke. ("The absence of the gerund in their own language tends to make Scandinavians use the infinitive.")Correction to be provided: I really must stop smoking.*The band plays now. (Scandinavian languages have no progressive verb forms.)Correction to be provided: The band is playing now.----Samples of German Interference Patterns in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 40-41):*I think, that there has been a mistake.*She knew exactly, what he meant.*She was very anxious, to get there as early as possible.Corrections to be provided: No comma needed in the above three sentences.The auxiliary "do" has no equivalent in German; interrogatives are made by simple inversion. *When started you to play the piano?Correction to be provided: When did you start playing the piano?--------------Samples of French Interference Patterns in grammar from the Guide (pages 58-59):Negatives in French are formed by putting "ne . . . pas" around a one-word verb, or around the auxiliary of a longer verb. This tends to incorrect placement of "not" as follows.*I have not said nothing.Correction to be provided: I have said nothing.French has no present progressive form. This tends to incorrect sentences such as:Julie can't come to the phone now. *She has/takes a bath.Correction to be provided: Julie . . . now. She is taking a bath.---Samples of Spanish and Catalan Interference Patterns in grammar from the Guide (pages 98-99): Word order is much freer than in English. This allows words that are emphasized to be placed last and tend to result in incorrect English sentences such as:*Yesterday played very well the children.Correction to be provided: Yesterday, the children played very well.Object complements are regularly placed before a direct object resulting in a pattern such as:*They took to the hospital her mother.Correction to be provided: They took her (their) mother to the hospital.---Samples of Hindi Interference Patterns in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 227-243).Besides a simple past tense, Hindi also distinguishes the past habitual, past progressive and past perfect, though usage is not completely identical in Hindi and English. With the small group of common stative verbs including 'believe, hear, know, understand, want, which are rarely used in progressive forms, the English past progressive may be used inappropriately by analogy with the Hindi past habitual, formed with the present participle and past auxiliary:*We were wanting to go to England.Correction to be provided: We wanted to go to England.Hindi does not make the same distinctions between intensifying adverbs as are drawn by the English 'more, very, and too':*I like this music too much.Correction to be provided: I like this music very much.Here's the sequential list of chapters included in the Guide:Dutch;Scandinavian Languages;German;French;Italian;Spanish and Catalan;Portuguese;Greek;Russian;Polish;Farsi;Arabic;Turkish;Indo-European South Asian Languages (Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, etc.)Dravidian;West African;Swahili;Malay and Indonesian;Japanese;Chinese;Korean;Thai.An excellent compendium for ESL teachers and learners.

This book contains useful information about other groups of languages and how they compare with English. Each chapter focuses on a different language family and what sounds are unique to them. I appreciate how this book gives me insight on the issues my students are likely to face based on their native language. I grew up in a Slavic speaking county and now teach English to native Chinese speakers and this book has been spot-on with the pronunciation helps it offers. It's a great resource to have on hand to understand the challenges unique to each language as the speaker learns English.

Aside from the usual grammar, this book gave me specific errors common to each language group so that I can double-check that they receive a flawless copy of their manuscript. Thank you so much for helping me to better serve my ghostwriting and editing clients.

For identifying the many types of interference from an ESL/EFL learner's L1 language, I have yet to find any book as comprehensive & useful as Learner English. Be aware that there is little, if any, content related to strategies for --correcting-- L1 interference; this is not that kind of book. For advice on how to improve your ESL/EFL learner's pronunciation & grammar you will need to look elsewhere.A note to teachers of American (and other varieties of) English: as an imprint of Cambridge University Press, it should come as no surprise that the the pronunciation comparisons in this book are made with respect to British English. There is a (very) brief description of this in the introductory notes; teachers of MUSE/ASE should be aware that they will need to customize the advice accordingly. This is also true for the grammar sections, but to a much lesser extent.Until the day they decide to issue an Americanized edition, there really is nothing comparable to Learner English. Highly recommended.

I think that this is an excellent resource - as it is focused on the needs of Learners from different countries and cultures. As a teacher of Business English, I find this to be an important tool to enhance the ability to do business in English. Here is its benefit: whatever mistakes a person is having in English, they can relate back to their culture's general relationship to English. This way, an individual doesn't feel like they are the only one having the problem. That alone can be a major benefit. Thanks to Michael Swan!

This book came in handy in working with ESL students. It helped narrow down what issues they were having, or, at the very least, it put me on the right track to finding ways to help them. The book is organized well enough to make it an easy reference. When lesson planning, this book is always in arm's reach so that I can foresee any potential issues.

If you teach English or ESL get this book NOW. It really helps the instructor understand the word order/syntax of the student's home language and can prove useful to college-age students in understanding the differences between what they know and what they are trying to learn. I use this book constantly.

The book took a while to reach me, but I won't need it for another month. Good thing I thought ahead. I use the book frequently to assist in planning lessons for a diverse class of learners, and I find it useful in pinpointing areas for additional practice and explanation. I am also a student of Russian, and I appreciate seeing literal translations of Russian sentences, such as I found in Learner English. These are helpful in making the transfer from English into Russian and vice versa.