I received a comment from a friend who read my blog recently. He says that the title of this blog does not really portrays what's inside it. Well here I would like to express my thanks to all my friends who are willing to visit and comment on my blog.
Since MALAYSIAN ENGLISH FOR DUMMIES is a new blog, I am actually experimenting on this new technology. Blogging and using new IT tech is not really my field as I am a General Studies Lecturer, however at the moment I am trying to linger around this technology and trying to 'upgrade' my IT knowledge (which is limited to only using Microsoft Office) to a new level...exploring the language through the net.
At the initial phase of designing this blog, my actual objective is just to share with the readers on the simple basic English language usage especially by my students which are currently limited to primary schools, secondary schools and college levels students. However, since some of the readers suggest that I should 'decorate' this blog with a funnier section of Malaysian English (or should I say silly mistakes made by Malaysian in their attempt to use English), then I might as well disclose some really silly mistakes made by my students. Just to share it with the readers.
Thus, keep commenting on this blog. All criticisms and comments are most welcome for discussions and upgrading of this blog. May this blog lead our way to improving our Malaysian English!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
DRILL EXERCISES FOR VERB TO BE
Yep!That was what I did to my students. Since many of them are very careless while using the BE verbs in their essays or sentence structure, thus i make some drill exercises for them focusing on certain area of the tenses. For example:
THE PRESENT TENSE:
1. Ali _______ (is/are) a good boy.
2. They _________ (is/are) looking for the lost purse.
3. It ____________ (is/are) a good story.
THE PAST TENSE
1. Last Monday _________ (was/were) a good vacation.
2. It ___________ (was/were) looking at me yesterday.
3. They ___________ (was/were) absent from class last week.
When they have improved their skills in determining the singular and plural form of both present and past tense I also revised my exercise.
Exercise: Determine the verb to be for the following sentences either in present tense or past tense.
1. I __________ looking at the window when she walked into the class.
2. She ______ a very polite lady.
3. They ___________ quarreling when mother entered the room.
4. Abu and Ahmad _______ talking to each other when Lydia calls.
5. He ___________ sleeping on the couch last night.
6. I ____________ a lecturer in a college.
As you can see from the above exercise, students need to recognize the tenses used in the sentences before they choose the singular or plural be verbs.
The result of this drill exercise is quite encouraging when almost all of my students can answer the questions with a 100% correct.
THE PRESENT TENSE:
1. Ali _______ (is/are) a good boy.
2. They _________ (is/are) looking for the lost purse.
3. It ____________ (is/are) a good story.
THE PAST TENSE
1. Last Monday _________ (was/were) a good vacation.
2. It ___________ (was/were) looking at me yesterday.
3. They ___________ (was/were) absent from class last week.
When they have improved their skills in determining the singular and plural form of both present and past tense I also revised my exercise.
Exercise: Determine the verb to be for the following sentences either in present tense or past tense.
1. I __________ looking at the window when she walked into the class.
2. She ______ a very polite lady.
3. They ___________ quarreling when mother entered the room.
4. Abu and Ahmad _______ talking to each other when Lydia calls.
5. He ___________ sleeping on the couch last night.
6. I ____________ a lecturer in a college.
As you can see from the above exercise, students need to recognize the tenses used in the sentences before they choose the singular or plural be verbs.
The result of this drill exercise is quite encouraging when almost all of my students can answer the questions with a 100% correct.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Careless Mistakes with the VERB TO BE
I figure out that most Malaysian students (primary or secondary) usually have problems determining the choices of the verb to be. Note that the use of verb to be is predetermined by the type of tenses used in the sentence or the text itself.
Below are some notes regarding the VERB TO BE or the BE verbs.
Present Tense Singular = is
E.g: She is cooking in the kitchen.
Present Tense Plural = are
E.g: They are cooking in the kitchen
Past tense Singular = was
E.g: She was cooking in the kitchen yesterday.
Past Tense Plural = were
E.g: They were cooking in the kitchen yesterday.
Based on my experience as a teacher for Standard 5 and 6 students, most of them make mistakes when they failed to determine whether the sentences are in present tense or past tense. Example:
They were cooking in the kitchen.
instead of
They are cooking in the kitchen.
(students need to use present tense when there is no time indicator/no time frame mentioned in the sentence.)
Some of them also make mistakes when they fail to recognize the subject (whether it is singular or plural) Example:
They is cooking in the kitchen.
instead of
They are cooking in the kitchen.
In the next post I will discuss on what are the steps that I take in order to solve the problems.Stay tune!
Below are some notes regarding the VERB TO BE or the BE verbs.
Present Tense Singular = is
E.g: She is cooking in the kitchen.
Present Tense Plural = are
E.g: They are cooking in the kitchen
Past tense Singular = was
E.g: She was cooking in the kitchen yesterday.
Past Tense Plural = were
E.g: They were cooking in the kitchen yesterday.
Based on my experience as a teacher for Standard 5 and 6 students, most of them make mistakes when they failed to determine whether the sentences are in present tense or past tense. Example:
They were cooking in the kitchen.
instead of
They are cooking in the kitchen.
(students need to use present tense when there is no time indicator/no time frame mentioned in the sentence.)
Some of them also make mistakes when they fail to recognize the subject (whether it is singular or plural) Example:
They is cooking in the kitchen.
instead of
They are cooking in the kitchen.
In the next post I will discuss on what are the steps that I take in order to solve the problems.Stay tune!
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