The Broadview Book of Common Errors in English - ESL Edition / Edition 1

by Martin Boyne, Don LePan

Overview

The ESL edition of Common Errors in English offers a comprehensive survey of the sorts of difficulties second language learners most often experience with English—and provides real help to students in overcoming them. The body of the book is organized according to grammatical categories, covering such topics as Verb Tense difficulties; Word Order Problems; Negation; Gerunds and Direct Objects; Singular and Plural Difficulties; and Direct and Indirect Speech. Included as well is a comprehensive section on usage and meaning, and a list of words commonly misspelled.

The authors take care to avoid the harshly prescriptive; the book is informed throughout by a sympathetic understanding both of the difficulties that face every ESL student and of the particular problems faced by individuals from different linguistic backgrounds as they learn the peculiarities of English grammar and usage. The book includes a generous selection of exercises informed by these principles, and an accompanying answer key.

Common Errors in English: ESL Edition will be an invaluable reference text for second language learners at a wide variety of levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551110080
Publisher:	Broadview Press
Publication date:	05/31/1995
Edition description:	ESL
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Martin Boyne recipient of the Governor-General's Medal when he graduated from Trent University, now teaches English to second language students at the same institution.

Don LePan is the author of The Cognitive Revolution in Western Culture (Macmillan, 1989) and of the first-language edition of The Broadview Book of Common Errors in English (Broadview, 2/e 1992).

Table of Contents

Preface

Verbs

• Tenses
  Active and Passive
  Negatives
  Commands
  Questions
  Dangling Constructives
  Irregular Verbs
  Ommision of Verbs
  Indirect Speech

Nouns

• Gender
  Articles
  Plurals
  Pronouns

Other Parts of Speech

• Adjectives
  Adverbs
  Prepositions
  Phrasal Verbs
  Conjunctions

Negation
Word Order
Usage and Meaning

• Homonyms
  Other Easily Confused Words
  Confusing Adjectives
  Interchangeable Adjectives
  Problems with Usage
  Affixes
  Two words or one?
  Infinitives, Gerunds, and Direct Objects

Capitalization
Spelling

• Spelling and Sound

Punctuation

• The Period
  The Comma
  The Question Mark
  The Exclamation Mark
  The Semi-Colon
  The Colon
  The Dash
  Parentheses
  The Apostrophe

Specific Language Difficulties

• The Problems of English Problems of specific languages and language groups

Language and Gender

Exercises

• Part I: Exercises on specific grammatical points Part II: General Diagnostic and Language Specific Exercises

Answer Key to Exercises

Editorial Reviews

A practical, well-organized and straightforward guide. This book is a must for every ESL teacher and every ESL student.” — Mark Angerilli, ESL Teacher Training Program, University of British Columbia.

“An excellent easy-to-use reference guide for all students. Especially helpful are the exercises which address specific problems of students who speak certain specific foreign languages.” — Sister Marie Lorraine Bruno, Immaculata College

From the Publisher