Marcos Serrou Amaral
What are the most common mistakes done when studying english ?
May 22, 2014 2:26 AM
Comments · 11
2

I will address the question you wrote, rather than than the one you intended, but first I will chandler tge incorrect "done" to "made". 

I believe that teachers make the mistake of over stressing pronunciation and verb tenses because they can use these to assess a student.  Student assessment is much less important than teaching how to express ideas or interpret meaning.

Students make the mistake of believing that most English speakers use substandard English. Popular songs contain words that are considered inappropriate and are not used by most people. 

May 22, 2014
2
There are many pitfalls, but there is a rather interesting one which is result of the fact that (for example) a noun can also function as a verb without seeming to change. For example, "contact" can be a noun or a verb. As a verb, we say "to contact (someone)", but as a noun the expression is "to make contact with (someone)". However, I often hear students say "I contacted with (someone)", which is simply a wrong sentence. Another common mistake is confusing synonyms. "Talk" and "discuss" have similar meanings, but in a sentence they work differently: you talk about a topic, or you discuss a topic. Still, "discuss about (something)" is a very common mistake as well. Mistakes like these can be solved by finding out if the verb needs an object (What do you discuss? Who do you contact?). If this is the case, then there's no need to add strange prepositions.
May 22, 2014
1

In my humble opinion, :), I think many people make the same mistake when starting to study a new language: they start with books.

 

We all learn our first language very effectivly without books. How? By being with people who would talk to us. We wanted to communicate, and they wanted to understand.

 

Language is about people trying to understand each other.

 

The best way to start learning a language is to listen to someone who wants us to understand.

May 22, 2014
1

I think you'll find this helpful: http://www.italki.com/discussion/58880

May 22, 2014
1

Just as DIDI said, it is so diffcult to think in English since we are not native speaker. I can't control myself to translate between my monther tongue and English. Another problem is to choose the correct word/phrase when using synonym. 

May 22, 2014
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