English Beyond the Basics
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The Number 1 Reason: There is no other book like English Beyond the Basics:
A Handbook for Spanish Speakers available. This full-length handbook (approximately
500 pages) deals with 300 named errors, ranging from simple errors students continue
to make to sophisticated issues that, when corrected, add polish to their language.
Other books focus on teaching students the language. English Beyond the Basics
helps solve the problems of students who are able to communicate reasonably well
in English but who need specialized help in getting beyond that level. It can
be used as a handbook in a classroom setting or for individual, independent study.
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Demographics indicate that Latinos are the fastest growing minority in the United
States, and obviously that reality is reflected in our English classrooms. Despite
what some may think, these students recognize the importance of mastering English
at a more sophisticated level than what can be expected as the normal outcome
of completing an ESL program. This book attempts to "close the gap" that exists
for these students between ESL instruction and full fluency in spoken and written
English.
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At the basic level, English is best learned from the ground up by imitating the
natural process of language acquisition without references to any specific language
base; after a certain point, however, older students can also benefit from instructional
material geared toward their own language background to help them untangle certain
persistent errors that the "natural process" cannot readily eliminate.
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The assumption that students who have completed or are in the final levels of
ESL study are ready for unmodified instruction in English is false because - although
those students may have the "basics" in place - their residual errors put up a
wall that keeps them from going "beyond" those basics. This handbook attempts
to bring down that wall by considering the deep-rooted influence their own linguistic
background has on maintaining such errors.
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This handbook is a unique resource that will give Spanish speakers a more focused,
thoughtful, and productive way for dealing with residual errors than the traditional
approach, which essentially boils down to "with practice sooner or later it will
sink in." Without proper guidance, practice does not make perfect.
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Generic handbooks do not address the special errors made by Spanish speakers in
their writing but rather address the needs of all writers in general (especially
those who are already English-dominant).
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ESL sections contained in some handbooks target all nonEnglish language groups
and - because of their limited length - address only the most obvious second-language
errors, some of which are not even exhibited in the writing of Spanish speakers
(for example, the failure to mark for plurality).
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Because the authors were frustrated by the limited value the general handbooks
provided the Spanish-speaking student and because they could find nothing else
on the market that would meet these special needs, English Beyond the Basics:
A Handbook for Spanish Speakers became a reality. We believe this text does
meet the special needs of Spanish-speaking students.
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The explanations for the errors found in this handbook are intended to show what
goes wrong in the final jump from Spanish to English. The text is generously sprinkled
with Spanish to show the origin of errors in influence from Spanish - either errors
of commission (in which some aspect of Spanish is misapplied to English, as in
assuming the more flexible word order of Spanish extends to English) or of omission
(based on misunderstanding of how a feature not found in Spanish is used in English,
as in possessive apostrophes). Another type of error that can relate to either
errors of commission or omission is overgeneralization of perceived patterns (as
in logical nonwords in which certain word formation patterns are extended to cases
in which they do not apply - as exemplified in #19 below). Note: While the book
was written for Spanish speakers, it has been used practically in the classroom
by speakers who are dominant in other languages besides Spanish. All, including
one Arabic speaker, reported the book's basic usefulness because it deals with
structures that are problematic for many language groups and that are not covered
in any "English-dominant" handbook. Although the Spanish contained in the textbook
is not translated into English, the meaning is usually made obvious in follow-up
discussions. All explanations are always completely in English.
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The text reflects Mina Shaugnessy's philosophy of "getting under errors" to expose
the faulty wiring so that it can be repaired or replaced. As such, it is not intended
as a beginning text that lays the groundwork (a kind of work that should NOT focus
on errors), but as a "finishing touches" text that that attempts to eliminate
the flaws reflected on the surface.
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English Beyond the Basics also incorporates the types of errors made by
writers in general but, whenever appropriate, explains how second-language variables
make some of these errors even more problematic for Spanish speakers (such as
the difference between direct and indirect questions) than they are for English-dominant
students.
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Because English Beyond the Basics covers errors that specifically relate
to Spanish speakers as well as those that relate generically to all writers of
English regardless of language background, the text is an excellent stand-alone
handbook for students in a basic writing course and serves as an effective bridge
from an ESL grammar to a standard general handbook. We have also prepared a crosswalk
of this text with Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference and would be happy
to do so for any other major English handbook.
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English Beyond the Basics gives instructors who either don't know Spanish
or who haven't fully analyzed the linguistic connections between the two languages
insight into Spanish-influenced errors and provides explanations in logically
coded "chunks" of manageable length that they can refer their Spanish-speaking
students to.
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With referrals to this text or by self-study, Spanish speakers will see how certain
persistent errors are connected to features of their own language that are slightly
or vastly different from equivalent features of English and at the same time learn
how to negotiate those differences to arrive at correct expressions.
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English Beyond the Basics
is based on the most common errors made by students in basic English classes.
The authors collected and categorized these errors over the years from essays
of Spanish-speaking students in regular composition classes struggling to learn
English at El Paso Community College (on the border with Mexico), where 75% of
our student body consists of Spanish speakers.
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The errors are modeled, as are the correct forms. Some 859 error examples are
given, with more than a thousand correct forms given to show students exactly
how to use the forms that provide the most common problems. Hundreds of other
models of both errors and correct usage are also imbedded in the discussions of
particular errors. An instructor will have no trouble developing exercises from
both the named errors, as well as from the correct models. Additionally, the authors
are also preparing an exercise book that will be forthcoming soon.
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Each error is identified with a unique number and grading code. The errors are
clearly labeled and easy to use (as in SV-1 for "subject verb agreement" and "SV-1f
" for "English vs. Spanish linking verb agreement"). The codes allow the student
to look up the problem, read about the source of the error, and understand the
reason it's an error. However, the student who has trouble following the explanation
is encouraged to work with the models first and try to understand the correct
form intuitively and then return to the explanation later.
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Five chapters are devoted to verbs. On the theory that verbs are the engine of
any language and often the most troublesome, much space has been given to verb
issues. These range from problems with tenses to the uses of modal verbs to the
subjunctive mood and passive voice to verb attachments and endings to the most
fundamental of all: subject-verb agreement.
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In addition to examples of common errors and their corrections, the mechanisms
that give rise to them are also discussed. Here are three examples:
a. One common error is the inductive conclusion that because of common patterns, certain words should exist that don't. We call these "logical nonwords": If English and Spanish have "compensation"/ compensación and "compensate"/compensar, and if there is "conversation"/conversación, then there must also be a "conversate," right? This is a logical thought process but because language is not always logical, the result is a nonword.
b. Other errors occur because of mispronunciation, leading some to conclude that "this" is the proper spelling of "these" and "live" is the proper spelling of "leave."
c. Yet other errors occur because of difficulty Spanish speakers have learning the use of structures nonexistent in their own language: apostrophes, initial consonant clusters beginning with "s," letter combinations (with varying pronunciations!) that Spanish doesn't use sometimes for sounds it doesn't have. For example, th, d, and t create many problems because they represent similar sounds, but Spanish doesn't even have the th sound, so as a result confusions such as "There was a dead in the family" and "Death persons don't reveal any secrets" are not uncommon. -
The book is conveniently organized. Not only are the numbered errors organized
by part of speech but also according to other logical categories: special functions
such as possession, negation, and connections; diction; word order; sentence structure;
spelling; and mechanics and punctuation. Anything not covered can easily be supplemented
by the instructor. In addition to these features, the book also has convenient
"quick menus" at the beginning of each chapter, as well as a composite error list
and a thorough index.
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There are numerous visuals to make information easy to grasp. These include tables
with lists of common logical nonwords (verbs, nouns, and adjectives), false cognates,
irregular verbs, and models for certain kinds of structures (such as modals, adjective
and adverb placement in sentences).
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Tell-tale errors that demonstrate a lack of fluency are indicated. Although not
all errors are rated as to seriousness, numerous errors that represent a fundamental
lack of mastery of English are marked to show the student which problems are most
noticeable to native speakers (such as "He have a lot of problems" and "We did
went to the party").
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There is a detailed discussion of the differences between English and Spanish.
While many people may know these differences at the practical level, articulating
them helps attune the student and the instructor to the existence of certain patterns,
which can account for errors in English. These differences are discussed in general
in the introductory material and more specifically with regard to individual errors
to which they apply.
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The book also attempts to show variations within levels of English: what types
of linguistic practices are appropriate for colloquial contexts; what types are
appropriate for more formal contexts, including academic writing; and what types
are not appropriate for either.
- The current edition has been completely revised. The text was first used in a "preliminary edition" at El Paso Community College with the authors' own students in a basic writing course. As a result of this experience, the number of entries was expanded, the number of examples increased, the explanatory material simplified, and the organization considerably tightened.
