ESL Learning (Language Acquisition) Issues

Why do students still make preposition, the/a/an (article), and third person singular (–s) errors despite repeated instruction and review in class?

These types of errors are indicators of where the ESL student is in the English language acquisition process. Some of these errors, prepositions and articles (the, an, a) in particular, will take years of “being surrounded by English” for the ESL student to master, because there are a multitude of specific words and situations that require different uses, not one or two basic rules of use.

Research shows English second language learners, regardless of their first language, learn English in the same basic, sequential order (Dulay & Burt, 1974 and Dulay, Burt, and Krashen, 1982). It is unrealistic and defeating for both teachers and ESL students to expect ESL students to master an English language element nowhere near their current place in the acquisition order. So, try to identify where each of your students is in the general acquisition order currently. Then, expose them to the English structures of the next level of the sequence. Look for evidence of mastery in follow-up writing. Inform the content-area teachers of these advances.

And, what is the Order of Acquisition? Well, it is NOT an exhaustive checklist of every English language element used. It IS a grouping of some of the major English language elements used in the progression in which they are mastered.

•  The first group of English concepts mastered includes nouns as subjects, nouns as objects, and the word order of simple statements.

•  The second group includes the singular (is) and plural (are) of the verb “to be” in the present tense, these same words used as helping verbs, as well as the “-ing” ending for the present continuous/progressive verb tense.

•  The third group includes the irregular simple past tense (“went” instead of “goed”), the possessive (‘s), adding the “-s” for he/she/it (“he goes” instead of “he go”), the conditional auxiliary verb (would), and the “-es” ending for plural words.

•  The fourth and final group includes the perfect verb tense auxiliary (have) and the past participle used in a variety of tenses (-en).

It is also believed that other factors contribute to the speed in which English acquisition takes place. Some of the most common factors include: the learner's age (before or after puberty when first learning English), personality type (shy vs. outgoing, risk-taking vs. more cautious); structural differences and similarities with the learner's first language; and whether or not the learner was fully fluent in the written and spoken first language prior to moving to America.