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Sunday, August 05, 2012

Grammar/Vocab Pet Peeves of Today's ESL Teachers

I asked my TESL certificate students to name their grammar (or vocab) pet peeves last week. Here's the list:

- there/they're/their
- contractions in formal writing
- nucular
- anyways
- the word "moist"
- misuse of 's
- your / you're
- the word "bro"
- overuse of articles by ESL students
- the term "VVTI" as relating to cars (this was a bit of an outlier)
- "can not" vs "cannot" (not sure which is right!)
- WRITING IN ALL CAPS
- the word "can" (overused?)
- "my bad"
- "mindful"
- "there is" / "there are" confusion
- you & I vs you & me
- confusion with plurals (for ESL Ss)
- the word "chillax"
- misuse/underuse of apostrophes
- overgeneralization of grammar rules (ESL Ss)
- "wuz up" (spelling)
- "have a fun" (apparently said by Korean moms)
- How to answer "do you mind if..."
- Effect vs affect
- "I could care less"
- "A lot" vs "Alot"
- overuse of exclamation marks
- "_____ one's ass off" (what is its origin, why do people say it?)

3 comments:

Gavin said...

Yes, some of those are on my list as well. Cool blog by the way, interesting to see what other applied applied linguists are thinking about. Aloha!

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Ha, this is great!

I'm an English teacher, and I look forward to asking my students the same thing -- it should lead to some interesting discussions!

Monica V : )