Final Error Entries from Mexico

By Category: English Applied Linguistics (EAL), Internship

I was teaching in a city of about 400,000, situated about 1.5 hours northeast of Mexico City. Once a hub of silver mining, Pachuca continues its creep up the mountainside from its historic center. The population seems to be mostly working and middle class, with my students apparently from the latter. I saw almost no visitors from other countries, and also few indigenous people, so Spanish was the first language of everyone I encountered.

I have drawn errors from my two low- to middle-intermediate classes:

  • Conversation: Eight students ranging from 15 to about 40
  • Grammar class: Six teenaged boys and a man in his early 40s

[Note: I’ve not included errors from my children’s class since their production was so low.]

These are the students whose names you’ll see below: JM (Juan Manuel), 40; Alejandro [late teens]; Jaime, early 40s; Adriana, 15; Magdalena, 72 (not my student); Diana, 14; Gabriella, 20; Illaly, 15; Sonia, late 30s; Daniel, 16; Roberto, 15; Samanta, 30; Alexis, 15

Pronunciation

  • Cheeldren are at a high risk for obessity… and diabetties. [JM, oral report]
  • It thundaired and lightning-ed last night. [Magdalena, casual conversation]
  • Estatistics show that people spend too much time in front of escreens. [JM, oral report]
  • The goe-bernment recoe-nize that eet ees a proe-lem. ah > oh [JM, oral report]

Articles

  • This is a picture of an fat man. [JM, oral report]
  • This illnesses is a big problem. [JM, oral report]
  • The childhood obesity is a big problem. It is often caused by the poverty. [JM, oral report]
  • It is [missing article] first instrument that my parents buy me. [Adriana, oral report]
  • My father is [a] geologist. [Samanta, written homework]

Spelling & Punctuation

  • I wen’t whith my family for seven days. [Illaly, written homework]
  • I went to mi cousins and mi aunt, that was so excited because mi aunt told us fifteen days after and we need to go renew the passport and… [Gaby, written homework]

L1 Transfer of Syntax & Vocabulary

  • When I was three years, I play on the swings. [Diana, classroom conversation]
  • Thirty percent of people have overweight. [JM, oral report]
  • We drove through coconut planatios [Sonia, oral report]
  • I traveled to Marte in a rocket. [Daniel, poem]

Adverbs & Adjectives

  • My thumb was a lot of sore. [Adriana, oral report]
  • My violin is the object that I like [she means “the most”]. [Adriana, oral report]
  • It is a song about oranges sweet. [Illaly, classroom conversation]
  • In the place more dark I saw a light. [Daniel, poem]
  • I feel quiet, emotion, relax, funny. [JM, written homework]
  • Never I saw the snow. [Jaime, classroom conversation]
  • It was a new and interest… interested experience. [Gabriela, classroom conversation]

Prepositions

  • I go to home. [Jaime, classroom conversation]
  • I go at the store  [Jaime, classroom conversation]
  • Leesten this. Leesten this. [JM, oral report]
  • I went to Costa Rica of vacations. [Gabriela, homework report]
  • Once I traveled to the universe. [Roberto, poem]
  • I remember that in the year at 2006, I [went] to Cancún.
  • This place is very important for me because I grew [up] there. [JM, written homework]
  • But for some days we didn’t have water because the water was frozen. [Samanta, written homework]

Infinitives

  • My brother taught me to skated [Adriana, oral report]
  • I went to played. [Alejandro, oral report]
  • I can to run. [Alejandro, conversation]

Pronouns

  • He insisted me and learn… He insisted me that I learned. [Adriana, oral report]
  • You can talk with he [about] whatever you want to talk and he is my friend. [Alexis, written homework]
  • Seventy percent of obese children, they will get sick. [JM, oral report]
  • I lived in a mining community, the place it named “Tocayos” [Samanta, written homework]
  • My worst teacher in school was M____. [He] Is a science teacher and that left a lot of homework and let us go out late at recess. [Roberto, written homework]

Verbs

  • I spended a lot of time at my uncle’s. [Diana, oral report]
  • I couldn’t learn because I fall … felt a lot of times. [Adriana, oral report]
  • Last week I do my homework. [Jaime, classroom conversation]
  • I didn’t went to work. [JM, classroom conversation]
  • My father working in a mining company. [Samanta, written homework]
  • I didn’t ask for help because I knew that my teachers will scold me. [Diana, written homework]
  • Suddenly when I stepped, my foot buried in the ground. [Alejandro, written homework]
  • The instructor told me that I’ll … I … should [would] drive it. [Sonia, oral report]