Essay: Verbs

Sample Essay

Words 1,430

The English language is spoken all over the world. Wherever it is not spoken people are trying to learn it or become better at it because it has many advantages and provides a common method to communicate with the world. Learning the English language though is no easy task. It is comprised of many rules and regulations and the English verb system poses a great deal of difficulty to English learners. Although the task is difficult there are various strategies teachers can use and implement to make the task of understanding the English verb better.

“A substantial body of literature has been developed to analyze the problems and promises of learning and teaching foreign languages.” (Huxley 67) The English verb system is one of the most complex problems and poses a lot difficulty for people whose second language is English. “ESL students whose first language is Portuguese or Spanish experiment difficulties in setting up new parameters when learning…verbs in English.”(Almeida 610) The same difficulties apply to people who speak Arabic and are trying to learn English. There is no Copula in the Arabic language so they usually omit it when they are translating into English. A lot of other things are missing in the Arab language and there are fewer restrictions regarding when to use a tense and which verb it should be linked to. They also have confusions when trying to decipher the passive voice. (Ruhaif 8) “They drop the auxiliary and keep the past participial of the main verb. This has to do with the passive structure in Arabic which changes the internal vowel as in (shariba-shuriba, drink-drunk)” (qtd. in Ruhaif 8)

“The English verb phrase is a notoriously difficult area for the foreign or second learner of English.”(McEldowney 137) The author of the article Teaching Imperatives in Context presents a solution to minimize the difficulties associated with the English verb. “An important initial step in this respect is to establish one form for one function and to deal always with the chosen form in the classroom in conjunction with this function.” (McEldowney 137)

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