By Michael Swan Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and Other Problems (2nd Edition) (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers) (2nd Edition) Paperback – 10 May 2001

For every english learner as a second language and wants to understands what’s happening between L1 and other languages. For CELTA students it’s a must

I used this book while I was on my CELTA course as a reference for several of my written assignments, and found it to be invaluable! As I aim to take my teaching abroad, this book will come in handy pretty much wherever I go.The sections are very clearly laid out, and the explanations of the common problems that students have with English due to their L1 are very clear and easy to follow. The phoneme tables are especially helpful for planning pronunciation lessons for, for example, a group of students that are all Spanish.It's also just incredibly useful to know when a student is making an error based on direct translation from their own language, or an error that comes from somewhere else. It will also help your students if you've read up on their language, because you'll be able to empathise more easily with the difficulties they may have!All in all, great. Speedy delivery, much faster than expected, and the book was in perfect condition.

Of course you need your grammar books and inspirational books like Thornbury's but what do you actually need to know how to help individaul students and their problems when they meet English................. you need Learner English. Its a revelation to understand why Poles or Koreans have the problems they do. Of course if you have taught for 30 years you should know it all but we don't and I thank the team of writers they have asked who have given us the analysis of those language speakers have when learning english. I don't wish to sound ungrateful but I hope a 3rd edition will one day add even more languages.It doesn't matter whether you are straight off a CELTA or have taught for 20/30 years you will find your practice enlightened and helped by this book

This is a really great little resource that is full of helpful information about different learners' L1s, to help you understand your student and where some of their problems with English might be coming from, quickly and easily. There are a lot of different languages included, but it would be better if there were more still. Having this resource is great for understanding a student early on, makes planning lessons and finding materials that address the specific problems much easier and this helps towards building a great relationship with your students who feel understood and that they are working towards their goals with more speed and accuracy. I recommend this book.

A great book that will help you pass your CELTA - assignment 3. You would not be able to pass without this book as it is the only one that gives you very detailed infortmation on the specific mistakes L2 learners make. I strongly recommend this book if you studying to become a TEFL teacher - it will help you understand why L2 learners make the mistakes they make and will help you find the right approach how to teach your students avoid these mistakes.

Helped me through my CELTA course. Was extremely useful for one of my assignments. I continue to use this book as I have students from around the world studying with me. Helps to understand potential and real language problems.

Excellent book for both the CELTA and DELTA. It explains the difficulties of language learners broken down by countries / languages spoken citing specific items of phonology and syntax based on their primary language. This resource is a "MUST HAVE" whenever writing the lengthy DELTA LSA papers, DTA, Experimental Assignment and the Specialism (Modules 2 and 3). I

Depending on the range of student nationalities being taught, this is a well-researched and comprehensive resource for language teachers who want an insight into the problems faced by their learners.Perfect condition, well-packaged.

Great

A must for ESL and other foreign language teachers. Amazing amount of research went into compiling this book.

.Reviewed by C J SinghTypically, the second-language learner's first language tends to impose its grammatical patterns that interfere with learning the second language. This guide admirably elucidates numerous interference patterns in learning English as a Second Language (ESL)specific to twenty-two first languages.However, as the book is intended for ESL teachers, it skips providing corrected English versions of the interfered sentences -- leaving that to the teacher. A simple way for adapting this teacher's guide for the ESL writer's use is to provide the corrected English version of each interference example. I provide hand-written corrections on the margin of this guide's copy of the relevant chapter and then ask them to revise their manuscript before sending for my editing. (Most of my ESL clients are post-doctoral scholars in fields such as comparative literature, psychology, social sciences, and creative writing.)The guide comprises twenty-two chapters, each contributed by one or more expert ESL teachers whose first language is usually the same as the learner's. Each chapter is about sixteen pages, beginning with a page or two on phonology, followed by examples of interference patterns in punctuation and grammar. (For Indo-European languages, a list of false friends is added; for example German "bekommen," sounds like English "become," but means "obtain" or "get." Well, of course, tomorrow you will become a book.)Samples of Dutch Interference Patterns in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 1-20):In Dutch, adverbs are identical with the uninflected form of the corresponding adjective. The use of unmarked adverbial forms is so deeply rooted in the Dutch speaker's competence that even advanced learners tend to make mistakes like:*She drives very careful.Correction to be provided: She drives very carefully.Dutch has no indefinite article in a subject complement with a countable noun denoting a profession, occupation or status, a religion or a nationality.*She is professor, Buddhist and Swede. *She's also widow.Correction to be provided: She is a professor, Buddhist, and Swede. She's also a widow.-----Samples of Interference Patterns of Scandinavian Languages in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 21-36).*The frontdoor is locked and the firealarm is on.Corrections to be provided: The front door is locked and the fire-alarm is on.*It/There was shot a man shot here yesterday.Correction to be provided: A man was shot here yesterday.*She spoke to me quite polite. ("Scandinavian adverbs of manner tend to be similar in form to adjectives, which lead to frequent mistakes.")Correction to be provided: She spoke to me quite politely.*I really must stop to smoke. ("The absence of the gerund in their own language tends to make Scandinavians use the infinitive.")Correction to be provided: I really must stop smoking.*The band plays now. (Scandinavian languages have no progressive verb forms.)Correction to be provided: The band is playing now.----Samples of German Interference Patterns in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 40-41):*I think, that there has been a mistake.*She knew exactly, what he meant.*She was very anxious, to get there as early as possible.Corrections to be provided: No comma needed in the above three sentences.The auxiliary "do" has no equivalent in German; interrogatives are made by simple inversion. *When started you to play the piano?Correction to be provided: When did you start playing the piano?--------------Samples of French Interference Patterns in grammar from the Guide (pages 58-59):Negatives in French are formed by putting "ne . . . pas" around a one-word verb, or around the auxiliary of a longer verb. This tends to incorrect placement of "not" as follows.*I have not said nothing.Correction to be provided: I have said nothing.French has no present progressive form. This tends to incorrect sentences such as:Julie can't come to the phone now. *She has/takes a bath.Correction to be provided: Julie . . . now. She is taking a bath.---Samples of Spanish and Catalan Interference Patterns in grammar from the Guide (pages 98-99): Word order is much freer than in English. This allows words that are emphasized to be placed last and tend to result in incorrect English sentences such as:*Yesterday played very well the children.Correction to be provided: Yesterday, the children played very well.Object complements are regularly placed before a direct object resulting in a pattern such as:*They took to the hospital her mother.Correction to be provided: They took her (their) mother to the hospital.---Samples of Hindi Interference Patterns in punctuation and grammar from the Guide (pages 227-243).Besides a simple past tense, Hindi also distinguishes the past habitual, past progressive and past perfect, though usage is not completely identical in Hindi and English. With the small group of common stative verbs including 'believe, hear, know, understand, want, which are rarely used in progressive forms, the English past progressive may be used inappropriately by analogy with the Hindi past habitual, formed with the present participle and past auxiliary:*We were wanting to go to England.Correction to be provided: We wanted to go to England.Hindi does not make the same distinctions between intensifying adverbs as are drawn by the English 'more, very, and too':*I like this music too much.Correction to be provided: I like this music very much.Here's the sequential list of chapters included in the Guide:Dutch;Scandinavian Languages;German;French;Italian;Spanish and Catalan;Portuguese;Greek;Russian;Polish;Farsi;Arabic;Turkish;Indo-European South Asian Languages (Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, etc.)Dravidian;West African;Swahili;Malay and Indonesian;Japanese;Chinese;Korean;Thai.An excellent compendium for ESL teachers and learners.

This book is a collection of brief but authoritative articles that describe the major errors learners of English make due to their specific language background. For each language, typcial interference phenomena on the level of phonology, orthography, grammar and lexis are described. In some cases, further information is provided (on attitudes to language learning, paraverbal behaviour etc.). The language backgrounds covered are: Dutch, Scandinavian languages, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Polish, Farsi, Arabic, Turkish, South Asian languages, Dravidian languages, West African languages, Swahili, Malay/Indonesian languages, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Thai. Thus, the book provides a quick but very useful overview of the errors that learners of these languages make due to their mother tongue. Recommended to everyone who teaches English to learners with these backgrounds.

Aside from the usual grammar, this book gave me specific errors common to each language group so that I can double-check that they receive a flawless copy of their manuscript. Thank you so much for helping me to better serve my ghostwriting and editing clients.