The ESL edition of Common Errors in English offers a comprehensive survey of the sorts of difficulties second language learners most often experience with English—and provides real help to students in overcoming them. The body of the book is organized according to grammatical categories, covering such topics as Verb Tense difficulties; Word Order Problems; Negation; Gerunds and Direct Objects; Singular and Plural Difficulties; and Direct and Indirect Speech. Included as well is a comprehensive section on usage and meaning, and a list of words commonly misspelled.

The authors take care to avoid the harshly prescriptive; the book is informed throughout by a sympathetic understanding both of the difficulties that face every ESL student and of the particular problems faced by individuals from different linguistic backgrounds as they learn the peculiarities of English grammar and usage. The book includes a generous selection of exercises informed by these principles, and an accompanying answer key.

Common Errors in English: ESL Edition will be an invaluable reference text for second language learners at  a wide variety of levels.

Comments:

"A practical, well-organized and straightforward guide. This book is a must for every ESL teacher and every ESL student." - Mark Angerilli, ESL Teacher Training Program, University of British Columbia.

"An excellent easy-to-use reference guide for all students. Especially helpful are the exercises which address specific problems of students who speak certain specific foreign languages." - Sister Marie Lorraine Bruno, Immaculata College

Martin Boyne, recipient of the Governor-General's Medal when he graduated from Trent University, now teaches English to second language students at the same institution; Don LePan is the author of The Cognitive Revolution in Western Culture (Macmillan, 1989) and of the first-language edition of The Broadview Book of Common Errors in English (Broadview, 2/e 1992).

Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies; complimentary copies remain readily available to adopters and to academics very likely to adopt this title in the coming academic year. When adoption possibilities are less strong and/or further in the future, academics are requested to purchase the title with the proviso that Broadview will happily refund the purchase price (with or without a receipt) if the book is indeed adopted.

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]
Preface

Verbs

Tenses
Active and Passive
Negatives
Commands
Questions
Dangling Constructives
Irregular Verbs
Ommision of Verbs
Indirect Speech

Nouns

Gender
Articles
Plurals
Pronouns

Other Parts of Speech

Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Phrasal Verbs
Conjunctions

Negation
Word Order
Usage and Meaning

Homonyms
Other Easily Confused Words
Confusing Adjectives
Interchangeable Adjectives
Problems with Usage
Affixes
Two words or one?
Infinitives, Gerunds, and Direct Objects

Capitalization
Spelling

Spelling and Sound

Punctuation

The Period
The Comma
The Question Mark
The Exclamation Mark
The Semi-Colon
The Colon
The Dash
Parentheses
The Apostrophe

Specific Language Difficulties

The Problems of English Problems of specific languages and language groups

Language and Gender
Exercises

Part I: Exercises on specific grammatical points
Part II: General Diagnostic and Language Specific Exercises

Answer Key to Exercises