On Apr 26, 9:59 am, Jim Walsh <jimNOwalsSPA...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Chinese (Mandarin) is enormously different from English. The size of the
> difference is one of the reasons that teaching by translation causes so
many
> problems.
>
> Let us consider the basic pronouns.
>
> The first person pronouns in English (I & me) are both translated by the
same
> Chinese word. So, when one says that the English word "I" means the
Chinese
> word "woe'", one is creating problems for the Chinese student.
>
> Naturally they will say, "John push I".
>
> The third person pronouns in English (he, him, she, her, & it) are all
> translated by the same Chinese word. So when one says that the English
word
> "he" means the Chinese word "tah'", one is creating problems for the
Chinese
> student.
>
> Naturally they will say, "He is my mother" & "He is my cat." (Taiwanese
> speakers of English famously make "he" - "she" errors. And it makes
sense
> that they do, since they were given misleading information in the first
> place.)
>
> After 20+ years experience, I can describe virtually endless examples of
> common mistakes which are created by the translation method of teaching.
>
> --
> Love, Jim
> (I often delete parts of the previous post and I often remove excessive
> crossposts.)
>
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Excellent point!
Can you suggest a particular book that would help ESL writing
instructors in dealing with this problem?
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