What part of grammar do your students have difficulty with?

[lix83]

I am trying to finish my university degree in English teaching. In order to complete my Diploma thesis I need to gather as many answers to this simple question: What part of grammar do your students have difficulty with? I am going to be teacher at elementary school so the range of grammar topics should apply to elementary schools. THANK you very MUCH.

[Syl]

Well, my pupils have great difficulty with the Present Tense & Present Progressive (Continuous), together with the Time Expressions. Their mother language is Hebrew, and Hebrew doesn't differentiate between the two tenses.

It's usual to hear them saying "She is walk" or "She walking", or using the wrong Time Expression, like in "She walks at this moment".

Another common difficulty is understanding the pronoun "it". They don't differentiate between "it" and "they" most of the time. If asked to fill in the right pronoun, like in "Our classroom", many use "we" as an answer. And consequently, there will be mistakes with the Present Tense as well.

Syl

[Khaledhass]

Same old classic...the " IF " rules, conditional, unconditional, Real Unreal,

"If I were You"...That's their biggest problem

[sunrisenow]

Word order and auxiliaries in questions in Present and Past Simple. Many of my Russian students forget about auxiliary verbs as they don't have them in their mother tongue.
And having no translation 'empty It-subject' (It's cold today) and There is/There are' construction.

[Syl]

Oh, I forgot indeed. "There is/are" , and mainly word order, which is completely different in their Mother Tongue.


Syl
Syl's English Corner - Learn English and Have Fun
http://www.ginnegar.0catch.com

[Graziela]

To Brazilian students, the most difficult part of grammar is the Present Perfect!!!
They just don't get the idea of it, because we don't have a similar verb tense in Portuguese....and it is hard for them to memorise the Irregular verbs!!!!
I guess that's it!!
Best wishes,
Graziela

http://www.getenglishlessons.com

[munh]

Hi
Many studnts have problems in verb tenses and word order. Aslo, they have problems in prepositions and they can't figure out what the differences are.
My best regards
Munh

[Hugo]

Always find students have problems with prepositions and also especially "a" vs "the", particularly students from languages that don't have an equivalent.

[eric_p_m]

Dear lix83,

In which country and what type of school will you be teaching at? Will all your students share the same language or will they be from different countries or dialect regions? Do you share your future students' native language(s)? The more you know about your students linguistic abilities, the better you should be prepared to discuss the English language.

Hugo, you forgot the concept of plurality for nouns for Asian students.

For indepth knowledge, lix83, contact me on-line.

Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe