Grammar drills that do not reach the page
In a Bhubaneswar high school, 42 Class VIII students study English as a third language for one 40-minute period a day. The teacher's routine is ten grammar rules on the board, twenty fill-in-the-blank items and a dictation. Students can recite 'third person singular takes -s', but a 30-word free-writing sample produced: 'Yesterday I am go to market. I purchase two kilo rice. My mother she is cook.' The annual examination gave a 70% average on fill-in-the-blanks and 34% on the 60-word writing task. Spoken English is avoided; when a boy mispronounced 'three' the class laughed, and he now refuses to read aloud. The teacher believes the children's Odia-medium background is the problem and that more grammar drills will fix it.
1. Are these errors random carelessness? Analyse them and explain what the idea of interlanguage adds to your diagnosis.
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The errors are systematic, not careless.
- 'I am go' - the learner has the past-time adverb but no stable past form, so the most practised frame (be + verb) is used for all narration. That is a tense/aspect gap, not a slip.
- 'I purchase two kilo rice' - the verb choice is acceptable English; 'two kilo rice' reflects the Odia pattern of an unmarked noun after a numeral. This is L1 transfer.
- 'My mother she is cook' - a resumptive pronoun plus a missing article, again an L1-influenced pattern.
Interlanguage. These are features of a rule-governed interim system that the learner actively constructs between the first and target language. 'Am go' follows the learner's own rule rather than being random, which is why the message still gets across. Two consequences follow: correction must target the rule, not the single instance; and because the meaning is largely intelligible, not every error needs immediate attention. Calling the errors 'carelessness caused by Odia medium' misreads a developmental system as a defect.
2. Should the teacher correct every error? Set out a feedback policy and explain why twenty fill-in-the-blank items a day have not transferred to writing.
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No - prioritise.
- Correct first what blocks meaning: where the tense sequence makes the order of events unclear.
- Prioritise by frequency and teachability. Past-tense forms are frequent and rule-based, so they deserve a focused two-week cycle; articles can wait.
- Use focused correction: on one piece of writing mark only past-tense verbs and let other errors stand. A learner cannot process fifteen corrections; a page of red ink produces avoidance, not accuracy.
- In speech, recast rather than interrupt. In writing, use a simple code (T for tense) so the learner self-corrects.
Why drilling has not transferred. Twenty single-sentence items with one gap train recognition under one-sentence conditions. Writing sixty words requires simultaneous control of tense, word order, spelling and idea generation - a different and much heavier demand. Practice must resemble the target: short pieces of connected writing, repeated, with focused feedback. His ability to recite 'third person singular takes -s' shows verbal knowledge only; it is not evidence of procedural control.
3. Design a 20-minute supported writing task with a four-criteria rubric, and explain how the teacher should protect the boy who was laughed at.
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Task (20 minutes). 'Write 6–8 sentences about a time you or someone you know lost something important. Use at least four different past-tense verbs and one sentence with because.' Scaffolds: three minutes to list verbs; a wall chart of eight past forms; a model paragraph read aloud; dictionaries allowed. It is a draft - no marks for neatness.
Rubric (four criteria, four marks each).
- Message clarity - can a reader follow what happened?
- Past-tense control - proportion of past-time verbs correctly formed (sample, do not count every word).
- Linking - at least one reason or purpose link used correctly.
- Risk-taking - attempts at new vocabulary or a complex sentence. Reward attempt alongside accuracy so that playing safe with five simple sentences does not outscore a more ambitious draft.
Protecting the boy. Set a class rule that nobody reads aloud unprepared; use choral, paired and whisper reading; let him read to the teacher or record himself; never use a student's pronunciation as a class example; address the laughter privately and immediately, naming it as unacceptable rather than as a joke.