Errors and Expectations: Chapter Four

Chapter Four: Common Errors

What follows is a description of the most common errors that Shaughnessy discusses in this chapter along with ways to overcome those errors. Halfway through, starting with a section titled On Teaching Students to Avoid Errors, I have noted the practical strategies for working with students on their errors that Shaughnessy speaks about in more general terms. So, if you’re interested in verbs, nouns, etc., read on. If you want to know more about how to work with students generally, skip down.

The most common errors (including errors with verbs, nouns, pronouns, and subject-verb agreement) occur frequently because they have learned a different vernacular outside of school from their families, friends, and communities. Though these errors are "…grammatically less important… [because they] do not seriously impair meaning" (90), too many of them are distracting, at best, for the average reader. These errors can also be difficult to teach because they are surprising (missing –s and –ed endings, for example) and figuring out the logic behind the errors is also complicated (92).

On Verb Errors:
Verbs probably cause the most problems for the BW, mostly because there are so many forms of them—including a myriad of irregularities.

A sampling of verb issues:
1. Inflections (like the –ed or –t) can be lost in speech (94).
2. Adding the –s to a verb is difficult for some students to remember (like "makes" or"finds")—it’s kind of redundant to have the –s, but it’s what we do (96). –ed can also be tough—it’s sometimes redundant, it disappears when spoken, and it’s not always regular (97).
3. Infinitive verb forms are hard to predict because sometimes the "to" is there, and sometimes it’s not (99).
4. The incorrect use of –ing happens because it’s often misused in speech (goin’ to town) (100).

Remember that when students are shifting from the vernacular that they’ve been used to do the vernacular of Standard English, they transition at different rates, applying different rules in different contexts (104). As such, if we are to help students, we need to "…trace the line of reasoning that has led to erroneous choices rather than upon unloading on the student’s memory an indifferent bulk of information about verbs, only part of which relates to his difficulties" (105).

On Noun Errors:
"…many errors occur with nouns, most of them involving the letter –s" (106). For example, students will often leave s’s out when it seems most obvious, like "holding down three job at a time." In fact, it’s because the number in the sentence indicates a plural noun that the writer may find it redundant to add the –s (106-7). Students are often resistant to what they view as redundancies in the language. They may wonder why it’s important to spend time learning something that doesn’t really matter (110-11). Working through these attitudes is important.

On Pronoun Errors:
We see the same problems with pronouns (the "they" being used as a singular; a shift from "he" or "she" to "you") in our student essays that Shaughnessy notes in this chapter. She states that the "you" shift usually results from an uncomfortable sense of the audience, and by shifting to "you," the writer feels more comfortable with that audience (113).

The third person can cause the most problems because of gender irregularities, so starting off a discussion of pronouns with the third person is logical. Consider also "…giving special lessons on the correct use of that family of generalized pronouns so commonly used in abstract discourse (he, one, everyone, etc.)…" (114). Consider also doing the classic exercise of having students show graphically in sample sentences what nouns the pronouns are referring to (114). This gets the students thinking more about the relationships between the pronouns and antecedents.

On Subject-Verb Agreement: The most difficulty with subject/verb agreement arises because of plurality of the subjects and constructions like this: "There is two openings per year…" Basic writers view "are" as being too formal and tend to avoid it (116).

When teaching subject/verb agreement, consider doing the following:
1. Define what "agreement" means.
2. Explain what "number" means.
3. Show the student how to find subjects and "separate the nucleus of a subject phrase from its surrounding modifiers."
4. Finally, the student needs to be able to look at verbs and be able to tell if they are singular or plural (117).

On Teaching Students to Avoid Errors:

1. "Errors matter but not as much as most English teachers think" (120). Not only are we more sensitive to the "linguistic variety" that presents itself in our classrooms, but the variety of students in our classes who are unable to master the easier concepts can make us wonder if those concepts are, indeed, that easy. This changes how we view our students, and brings about what’s called the "territory of tolerable error." Different types of errors and the numbers of those errors determine whether these errors are tolerable or not (120-2).

2. " The teacher should keep in mind the cost to himself and the student of mastering certain forms and be ready to cut his losses when the investment seems no longer commensurate with the return" (122). Remember: we are getting our students to think about their errors and apply a roadmap to correctness to their writing, not guaranteeing that their writing is going to be error-free right away. All we can do is give the student as many opportunities as possible to apply the roadmap to their own writing (122-3).

On Student Motivation and Correctness:

Because students know that they can communicate reasonably well already, being native English speakers, their motivation to spend a lot of time on what seem to be minor errors is not that great: "…our student knows too much to be patient" (123-4). When students are motivated, it is usually negative motivation: they wish to avoid a bad grade or the perceived social stigma that might go along with error-riddled writing (124).

What might motivate them:
1. Knowing why they should learn the material and that it doesn’t disrespect the social group from which the errors come (125).
2. Students like the challenge of applying rules to their writing. The best way to do this, though, is to allow students to figure out the rules for themselves rather than telling them what the rules are. This can take longer, but is ultimately more fruitful (127).
3. Success breeds motivation. If they "get" something, they’re more likely to want to spend more time figuring other things out (127).
Note: Don’t just ignore the errors. Doing so makes them seem mysterious and threatening rather. Instead, give students the tools that will help them overcome their errors (128).

Shaughnessy Suggests:

1. For the sentence: Have students practice building up simple sentences (without adding a completely new sentence). This gives them the opportunity to understand things like adverbs and prepositional phrases without having to talk about those things as rules. We can also ask students to expand sentences in certain ways, getting them used to the possibilities for their writing. Finally, we can then have other students reduce the longer sentences into their basic parts, giving them practice in understanding subjects and verbs (131-2). "The perception of the sentence as a structure rather than a strong of words is probably the most important insight a student can gain from the study of grammar…that is likely to influence him not only as a proofreader but as a writer" (133).

2. For inflection: Because the –s and –ed endings are often skipped over in speech, the teacher must first discuss why these inflections are important, show the reasoning behind different inflections, and then have students apply that reasoning to their own writing. If the student over-generalizes on a rule, make sure that he understands what the exceptions are (and that exceptions do not overturn the rule) (133).

3. For tense: This is a hard one to teach. The student must practice with the formal system for changing tenses, and he must also "develop an ‘ear’ for tense combinations in a range of situations" (135). Sometimes skill and drill is the best method here, and some teachers have also found that relying on ELL handbooks is helpful (135-6).

4. For agreement: This is another one where skill and drill could work. There are lots of possibilities for error here, and individualizing instruction based on the particular student’s errors is necessary. Sometimes it’s useful to talk about agreement in general, though, and note that agreement is something that spans a variety of other languages (136-7).