"To Be or not to Be!" – where is the question?

Most learners of English as a foreign language make mistakes while speaking or writing. Of course, that is not because they are bad learners, but because – particularly here in Egypt – they do not get enough chances to be exposed to the language in natural contexts.


Mistakes are tolerable so long as they do not hinder communication. If you can make yourself clear with some grammatical mistakes, it is fairly acceptable. Problems arise when one's mistakes block their being understood by other people.


Nonetheless, some people need to be not only fluent language users, but also accurate speakers/writers. That might be because they care about their image in the eye of their audience; or maybe they feel they should not make any sort of mistake. No matter why one may need to sound accurate – as well as fluent – it is always a good thing to be so.



One of the most frequent mistakes I noticed is the absence of words like "am, is, are, was or were" when they must be there. These words are perhaps some of the most recurrent in spoken and written English. Following are some examples in which such words are used:


  • Her name is Sarah.
  • That's my book.
  • Today is Saturday.
  • It's the 1st of March.
  • Yesterday was a holiday.
  • They were at the beach.
  • I'm at home now.
  • He's on the phone.
  • Ali is a teacher of French.
  • She's my aunt.
  • The book is LE 5.
  • The general feeling is that she should be asked to leave.
  • I won't be able to come with you.
  • It's just that we rarely agree on anything!
  • What I need to say is that we should visit them.
  • Where you should go before leaving for London next week is to your uncle's.

Now, here is the question:


    * When do we usually use such words as we speak/write?

 Glossary


 hinder communication

make communication/understanding someone difficult

AYR

Comments

Homemaker said…
At the time I wrote this, I was working for Berlitz Egypt. The methodology there prescribed no explicit grammatical explanations and avoiding using grammatical terminology.

For some, grammar is still daunting, however competent they are at speaking and writing. Well, grammar is not an end in itself - unless you are a linguistics student. For this reason, an alternative way of looking at rules is in terms of functions or LABELS. The first sentence above, for instance can be labeled 'SAYING SOMEONE'S NAME'.

What labels can you give the other sentences?
Sunday, February 17, 2013 10:20:00 PM
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