Challenges in Teaching Prepositions in a Language Classroom (original) (raw)
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Use and Misuse of Prepositions among EFL Secondary School Students
2021
This research aims at focusing on use and misuse of prepositions among the secondary school students who learn English as a foreign language. Students need balanced efforts and conditions to familiarize themselves with using prepositions properly. This research includes an experimental survey to reveal the causes of this problem as it affects hugely on the general knowledge of the students and their use of the language in writing or comprehension. The paper consists of four parts: the first part discusses the objectives, significance of the study, background questions and the methods used in building up this research. In part two, there is a review of the literature and many other ideas about definition, types and uses of prepositions and its roles in the field of language knowledge. Part three includes the survey findings, discussion, results as well as analysis of the test. In part four, there is conclusions and recommendations.
Teaching Prepositions for Learners of Low Levels of Proficiency
Although there are a limited number of prepositions in English, they are vital in meaning. Any slight change in, omission or addition of a preposition to a sentence can alter its meaning altogether. English learners from different levels, educational backgrounds and nationalities face many difficulties when dealing with prepositions. This is because firstly, prepositions are “polysemous” (Lindstromberg, S. 2010); that is, they mean different things in different contexts. Secondly, difficulties arise because prepositions are different from one language to another. For example, Swan (2001) points out that good intermediate Turkish students unexpectedly omit basic prepositions because such prepositions do not exist in their L1. Moreover, and despite the importance of prepositions, “remarkably little space is devoted to prepositions in ELT coursebooks” Lindstromberg (1996: 277).
A CASE STUDY ON LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE THROUGH PREPOSITION
ABSTRACT This study is defined that English language would be learnt through preposition in ESL class room. This article has been taken from Under Graduate students who are learning English language from English Literature and None English Literature class room in Government Arts and Science colleges in Coimbatore. They learn English with help of English preposition because they feel that there is their first language influence in English. Preposition is a word that describes the relationship between two nouns which can be used in any sentence after preposition words. Preposition words are needed for sentences because they bring surplus and essential details. The students would learn English when they are observing their class with meaning which has been taken as translation in their own mother tongue. Prepositions, in the form of prepositional phrases, provide specific information in a sentence for the reader. The students may confuse the preposition words that have different meaning and dissimilar usage in contexts. When the students are communicating with colleagues in their mother tongue, they never concentrate the usage of preposition. But when they learn English language, they should emphasis on the usage of preposition. The second language learners who can learn English easily through preposition that make them to understand English language. At the same time they will develop their communication skills and they can speak with other without any hesitation or confusion. The students need to learn the roles and correct use of preposition in second language English because their first language also is having preposition words but they are being used within all nouns and pronouns probably in end of the sentence. Key words: How to use Preposition, How to make the students to understand Preposition, Learning English through Preposition, Phrasal verbs and Preposition words.
Difficulties Facing first year Students in Using English Prepositions
We deal with this research those difficulties facing first year students in Sudan university of Science and Technology in using English prepositions. During writing English preposition inside full sentence of English language, we took them as one of problems in writing English as general and we found that the problem in the preposition that have more than one function and also has different meaning according to their use, inside the sentence.
Interference of L1 Prepositional Knowledge in Acquiring of Prepositional Usage in English
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013
The purpose of the current study is to examine the extent to which students rely on their L1 prepositional knowledge in acquiring an understanding of prepositional usage in English. Learning English is becoming essential in a time of worldwide communication, apart from different peculiarities of English language structure, preposition usage occupies one of the prominent place. Being the essential part of set-expressions, prepositional phrases, phrasal verbs and certain collocations they produce distinct problems not only for lower level students bur for advanced ones. Especially, in cases of the similar constructions (but with another preposition) in L1.Theoreticians and language teachers have long recognized the important role of a native language (L1) in the acquisition of a second language (L2). However certain elements in the first language hinder second language acquisition through negative interference. Therefore, the teacher of English can use the students L1 for structures that use equivalent prepositions in both languages. On the other hand, whenever there are verbs or expressions in the L1 and L2 that have different structures, with different prepositions, or that have no equivalent in one of the languages, instructors should point out these differences to their students.
Investigating Preposition Usage Problems of English Language Education Study Program Students
SAGA: Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
As one of the English grammar elements, prepositions might be considered difficult for students of English as a foreign language (EFL). Many studies on this topic have been conducted but it remains problematic and unresolved. Accordingly, the researchers aimed to explore the prepositions in this paper. Gathering the data from fifty acknowledgments of undergraduate theses of the English Language Education Study Program (ELESPA) of a private university in Yogyakarta, the researchers analyzed preposition usage problems that occurred in the acknowledgments. Results showed that three main problems involving the use of prepositions, namely the misselection of prepositions for, in, and to, insertion of prepositions about and to, and omission of prepositions about. Factors causing the problems were investigated and it was found that students’ first language (L1) influenced the incorrect usage of English prepositions.
Cognitive Problems of Learners in English Preposition Usage
The present study has explored reasons for the faulty usage of English prepositions by Pakistani students of grade-XIII. Twenty-five participants were given forty-eight Urdu sentences to translate. Their errors were noted and analyzed. The analysis was supported by two strategies: interviews with the participants, and contrastive analysis of the test items. The findings suggested that the learners had made mistakes because of three basic reasons: (1) Inter-lingual Correlations, (2) Superimposition of Personal Time Scale, and (3) Transfer. Inter-lingual Correlation refers to the literal translation of Urdu case markers/postpositions into English prepositions. Superimposition of Personal Time Scale specifies that the learners superimposed their personal time frame on the time frame of the text and remained confused about the use of since and for in the perfect progressive tenses. Transfer means that the learners translated the L1 sequences verbatim, in violation of the rules of L2 grammar. The researchers suggest that the teachers should avoid teaching prepositions by translating them into L1; they should help the learners memorize and use prepositions in as many diverse situations as possible; oral drills may also be helpful in this regard.
Difficulties in Learning Prepositions and Possible Solutions
Linguistic Portfolis, 2012
Prepositions are notoriously difficult for English Language Learners to master due to the sheer number of them in the English language and their polysemous nature. Numerous analyses of the linguistic output of ELLs have revealed that prepositional errors of substitution, omission, and addition account for the majority of syntactic errors. Since prepositions present such an immense challenge for language learners, it is vital that teachers develop effective instructional methods. In this paper, we will analyze the traditional method of teaching prepositions, and evaluate alternative methods.
Malay ESL Students’ Difficulties in Using English Preposition
—The study attempts to undertake an error analysis of prepositions employed in the written work of Form 4 Malay ESL (English as a Second Language) students in Malaysia. The error analysis was undertaken using Richards's (1974) framework of intralingual and interlingual errors and Bennett's (1975) framework in identifying prepositional concepts found in the sample. The study first identified common prepositional errors in the written texts of 150 student participants. It then measured the relative intensities of these errors and found out possible causes for the occurrences of these errors. In this study, one significant finding is that among the nine concepts of prepositions examined, the participant students tended to make the most number of errors in the use of prepositions of time and place. The present study has pedagogical implications in teaching English prepositions to Malay ESL students.
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2016
The current research paper attempted at investigating the use of prepositions of standard, prepositions of possession and prepositions of accompaniment by some Jordanian learners of English. A total of 53 Jordanian English Majors participated in the study from the department of English language at Princess Alia University College. In collecting the needed data for the purpose of the study, the researchers employed fifteen items of a multiple choice test. The results of the study showed that Jordanian learners of English encountered moderate difficulty in learning the three aforesaid usages of prepositions. This difficulty is ascribed mainly to first language interference more than intralingual interference. It was also found that prepositions of standard are the most difficult to learn by the participants, followed by prepositions of accompaniment and prepositions of possession respectively.