8 Comments
User's avatar
Phượng Hồng's avatar

Lovely sharing about fossilization. As a learner in English, I am stuck with many repeat mistakes - that make my ielts test listening could not improve. Thanks for your sharing :).

Expand full comment
Shea Co's avatar

Thank you so much for reading! Hopefully, it will help improve your study routine :)

Expand full comment
Fabine Fernandes's avatar

I think this is it about my intermediate English skills. 🦕☄️ I keep postponing deliberate effort because it's just so... Comfortable. I'll think about how to baby step towards real progress. 🔬

Expand full comment
Lou's avatar

I loved to read your take on this as a language teacher. I sometimes get anxious that I'll learn something wrong from the beginning 😁 in my experience, exposure helped me fix a lot of them!

Expand full comment
Victoria's avatar

That's a really good question I've never thought about. I really like how students can prompt us to consider things we've never considered before.

Expand full comment
Victoria's avatar

Thanks for providing different examples of fossilization and ways to fix them! It can be so difficult to realize you're making mistakes if you don't get feedback. In some cases though, native speakers may be able to tell you something is wrong but don't exactly why.

Just a note on your syntax example, while double negatives are incorrect in standard American English, double negatives are correct in other English registers like AAVE.

I got corrections from a native speaker of Mandarin a few weeks ago and I asked why the syntax was incorrect in a sentence. The answer I got was that she didn't know exaclty why and would get back to me. I sitll have yet to get an explanation but I'll have to make sure not to make that mistake again. 😂

Expand full comment
Shea Co's avatar

Many native speakers acquire grammar implicitly, which is why they may struggle to explain why things are the way they are. However, their considerable and clear advantage lies in their inherent knowledge of both the language and the culture. Non native speakers tend to teach using more abstract principles, making students more “consciously aware” of the language rather than focusing on using it to communicate meaning. In fact, this research shows that they prepare for their classes more carefully. I think it is crucial to be exposed to both native speakers and qualified teachers. https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/5996/1/RAEI_10_07.pdf

Thank you for pointing out that double negatives are indeed correct in other cultures and situations! When I teach EFL, I strive to avoid them because double negatives in English can lead to confusion and misunderstandings. In standard English, a double negative is often understood as creating a positive statement.

Earlier this year, one of my classes asked me why they could "make" friends and "get" a girlfriend/boyfriend. That really stumped me, and my Google searches failed me at the time. My students were troopers about it and just said something along the lines of, "sometimes we just know whats correct and need to say things a certain way to sound natural." I still think about that interaction a lot. I'm sure my linguistics professor would be able to explain it without a second thought though and I just need to keep working on expanding my knowledge. Thank you so much for reading!

Expand full comment
Fabine Fernandes's avatar

Maybe because love relationships were kind of business deals at some point? So it was something to be acquired. But friendship doesn't have legal implications, so it is something exclusively build? I'm guessing a lot hahahhaha if you get the answer, please share with us! I love your anedotes. (Is this the right term?)

Expand full comment