“Why Do They Say That Our English is Bad?” (an Excerpt) by Grace M. Saqueton
Thesis Statement: The educators should decide what to teach to the students and how to teach it.
1. English teachers’ frustration on the situation.
1.1. Errors of students are present.
Detail: There are mistakes made by students in word order, word choice, subject-verb agreement, tenses, prepositions, articles, punctuations, and others.
1.2. Also applicable to college students.
Detail: It is also very worrying that these mistakes not only occur to grade students but also to college students.
2. Teachers and linguists searching for a method to teach.
2.1. Studies and theories are used in the situation.
Detail: All kinds of studies have been made and all sorts of theories have been applied to the current situation.
2.2. Knowing the errors is important to solve the issue.
Detail: The teachers and linguists believe that knowing the repeated mistakes of the students will help solve the grammar issues of Filipino college students.
3. Saqueton’s analysis about the common errors.
3.1. Used different theories in the analysis
Details: Saqueton used error analysis, language acquisition theories and Fairclough’s paradigm of what is appropriate to explain what is the reason for these errors.
3.2. To help English teachers
Detail: Saqueton made the analysis in order to help the English teachers take the right kind of method to teach their own students despite having different backgrounds in the said topic.
4. The errors Saqueton found in the student’s essays.
4.1. The order of students’ common errors.
Detail: First in the list of having errors is the use of verbs, next is the use of prepositions, then word choice is third, and the last one is problem of subject-verb agreement.
4.2. There are also other errors that are evident.
Details: The other errors are found in the use of articles, conjunctions, pronouns and spelling.
5. There are certain standards for using English language.
5.1. Standards are what caused errors to be considered as errors.
Details: There are standards that are suggested by grammarians, and the teachers used this to educate their students to follow. Not being to follow these standards are now considered as errors.
5.2. The common standards that students and educators need to follow.
Details: There are problems related to what the standard English is, like who the ones who uses that particular standard and whether it is correct to follow that standards.
6. The standard to follow is a difficult problem to discuss.
6.1. A clear definition of what standard is needs to be disclosed.
Details: There is still no definition to what standard to use or who’s standard to use.
6.2. It is wrong to teach Standard English as if it is already there.
Details: Dr. Andrew Moody when teaching the Filipino students, the English language, it would be wrong to teach them the standard English because that standard does not particularly exist in the Philippines.
7. The concept of standard is problematic in and itself.
7.1. There is a need for a particular standard.
Details: Fairclough during 1995 said that there should be a single standard that can rationalize the policies of the Standard English.
7.2. The diversity of language has appropriateness.
Details: Fairclough also stated that being appropriate within majorities perspective of language diversity is a major cause of difficulty.
8. Situations of students learning English as a second or foreign language.
8.1. They are speaking in a substandard form of English.
Details: They are speaking in a lower kind of English because they do not follow the General America’s English standard.
8.2. Accepting substandard English as it is.
Details: Filipinos as an example, accepted the English considered as substandard to others as it is already enough for their needs and for certain situations.
9. Errors of Philippine English becomes a feature.
9.1. Philippine English is a language that had been creolized.
Details: English is the second language of Filipinos but they have a lot of languages being used, meaning, it is inevitable for it to be creolized.
9.2. A local variety of English will inevitably arise.
Details: No matter how hard an English teacher tries to teach the students using the standards, they will still somehow form a variety of the language.
10. Different Perspectives of Educators on this subject.
10.1. Mutual intelligibility or a certain standard?
Details: Should the teachers have the purpose to teach the students the English that is only needed for mutual intelligibility or the English using a certain standard.
10.2. Fairclough’s model of language learning.
Details: The educators and planners of language policies could use the model of language learning that was developed by Fairclough.
10.3. Educators should decide on their stand.
Details: The educators have to decide how important to the students English is and from that question they have to decide the things they need to teach to their students and how to deliver those.
English teachers often get frustrated with how the students make mistakes despite already being in college. They have been searching for a method for effective teaching. And through the studies about why the errors are made by students, they were able to find out that errors are what they are because there are certain standards in English. The problem that came next is the definition of what the standards in English are. A certain someone once said that there should be a particular standard to rationalize the policies in teaching English. However, in some countries like the Philippines, the substandard English is accepted and somehow became a feature of Philippine English. That is why educators should decide on which perspective they are going to take. To follow a certain standard or to teach English just for mutual intelligibility.
