She'll write sentences like "Indeed, in global warming, the largest problem, currently, is the commitment's lack from the governments of countries, such as those as China and India." There's some English in there, but to make it sound natural means moving a lot of things around.
I tried researching a rule behind how to choose between ironman and man of iron, or sister's friend and friend of my sister (noun + noun, or noun of a noun). I even asked my mom, who gave me the following answer:
There is no rule. It depends on the desired meaning.
I think that using the prepositional phrase raises the concept to a larger
or even global concept, away from the individual.
A medical doctor is one person and the subject is the doctor. What kind of doctor? A medical doctor. A doctor of medicine implied a bigger concept - that he/she studies all kinds of medicine. Or, the context might change this. We say 'medical doctor' but we don't say 'educational doctor.' He/she has a doctorate in education, and then clarify whether it's a Ph.D. Or an Ed.D.
There aren't any rules. It's being a native speaker and understanding the emphasis and the contextual meaning.
I hope that helps.
I don't know if anyone has any tips, or if I'll just have to tell my student to read a lot in English to get the hang of it because there aren't any shortcuts.
During my searches for how to help ESL students with syntax I came across a study evaluating the syntax of ESL teachers' speech inside and outside the classroom. The purpose was the evaluate if the teachers exposed their students to the same language as they used with their linguistic peers. I thought that was really interesting because I know I modify my speech with students or French people with whom I'm speaking English. I think it's partly an effort to simplify my language for improved comprehension (for the students especially), but it's also partly not controlled because I have a natural tendency to copy the speech of people I'm speaking with.
1 comment:
Lol. That's hilarious. But the lack doesn't belong to commitment and it looks like she just wrote it like it was a possessive where it's not. Otherwise, take out all those commas and it's already a lot better.
I would say when in doubt avoid the "of ...." and use the other form.
Plus you're actually supposed to say "a friend of my sister's" anyway to obey the same rules as when you say "a friend of mine". And I think we only use that when we're trying to say it's one of many. You would never say "it's a my sister's friend." (Though I have a friend who tried.)
Not sure that helps... I'm about to do some sentence structure work with my students too but mostly to get them to stop saying things like "What means climate change today?"
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