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

Michael Swan (Editor), Bernard Smith (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 26, 1987 | ISBN-10: 0521269105 | ISBN-13: 978-0521269100

As a teacher of English as a foreign or second language, have you ever wished you knew more about your students' mother-tongues? Learner English is a practical reference book which compares the relevant features of the students' own languages with English, helping teachers to predict and understand the problems their students have. The nineteen chapters, each of which covers one language background, are written by specialists with experience in teaching students from the areas concerned. The chapters describe and explain the most important typical pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and other mistakes of learners who speak Dutch/Flemish, Scandinavian languages (except Finnish), German, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Farsi, Arabic, Turkish, Indian languages, West African languages, Swahili, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai. The book is accompanied by a cassette with authentic examples of the various accents described in the book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

' ... a very usable and user-friendly work ... the contributors and editors have simplified, made accessible and rendered safer an area that is a potential minefield.' English Today

Book Description

Learner English describes and explains the typical pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and other mistakes of learners who speak Dutch/French, Scandinavian languages (except Finnish), German, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Farsi, Arabic, Turkish, Indian languages, West African languages, Swahili, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 26, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521269105
• ISBN-13: 978-0521269100
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,344,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Swan has written and co-authored a wide range of English language teaching and reference materials, informed by 20 years' TESOL experience in Britain and abroad. He has published a number of articles on the principles and methodology of second language teaching, and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adapting the ESL Teacher's Guide for the ESL Writer's Use, November 7, 2010

By 

C. J. Singh (Berkeley, California, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and other Problems (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers) (Paperback)

.
Reviewed by C J Singh

Typically, 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 used to do this for all of my ESL clients: hand-written corrections on the margin of this guide's copy of the relevant chapter and then asked them to study the handout and revise their manuscripts before sending for my editing. (Most of my ESL clients have been post-doctoral scholars in fields such as comparative literature, psychology, and social sciences. I am not active as an editor as I am pursuing other interests.)

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 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?

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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 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 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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reference for teachers of English (ESL, ELL), August 9, 2008

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Bay Area Book Buyer - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and other Problems (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers) (Paperback)

This in one of my favorite texts. I refer to its relevant chapter each time I start teaching English to a student with a primary language I've never encountered before. Predictions this book makes about common problems that may be encountered by the learner are right on the mark. I'd feel lost without my "Learner English" book!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INvaluable resource for English language teachers, December 28, 2007

By 

Marshalla Ramos "univerze" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and other Problems (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers) (Paperback)

If you have a desire to understand errors associated with English language learners that come from various cultural backgrounds, then this is the book for you!