To the Teacher
Encouraging students to discover for themselves how to correct their mistakes makes more efficient use of teachers’ time, and it also helps to
Since I first started writing about the pitfalls of English for Japanese
promote a culture of independent learning. In particular, feedback on
learners, it has been suggested to me many times that the last thing
written reports becomes much more engaging when the teacher simply
Japanese people need is to have more attention focused on their English
writes the key words for the appropriate explanations and leaves
mistakes. It is my belief that teachers who take this approach do their
students to explore for themselves ways of correcting their mistakes.
students a disservice. Although you will struggle to learn a foreign language if you worry too much about your mistakes, your progress is
Beginning on page 11 is a section entitled How do you say this
going to be even more limited if no one ever corrects them for you.
in English? This covers everyday Japanese expressions such as itadakimasu and yoroshiku onegaishimasu that Japanese people
The Japanese introduction to this book beginning on page 8 relates a
inevitably want to know how to say in English. As well as suggesting
story about a time when I confused the words yasui (cheap) and yasai
translations where appropriate, the explanation also draws learners’
(vegetable). It explains how being laughed at by Japanese friends for
attention to cultural and other factors that can make a common
making that mistake almost made me want to give up studying the
expression in one language unnatural and redundant when translated
language altogether. However, it then goes on to describe how I learned
into another. It also discusses cultural reasons why English tends to
to use my mistakes as stepping stones to help me reach higher levels of
use fewer fixed expressions than Japanese. Asking your students to
proficiency. The aim of this book is to encourage Japanese learners to
read this section early on in the course will raise their awareness of the
use their English mistakes in the same way.
limitations of using direct translation as a means of learning a foreign language. If you speak Japanese, it will also save you a lot of time
Many of the mistakes made by Japanese learners of English are
answering their questions later!
predictable, and most can be avoided by giving students explanations of common pitfalls. An A-Z of Common English Errors allows teachers
Following the main body of this book is a workbook section with
to provide these explanations in the students’ language without having
exercises grouped by theme and type. These exercises allow teachers
to resort to speaking Japanese in the classroom. Teachers who provide
and learners to focus on specific grammatical areas such as tenses,
objective, non-judgmental feedback can turn errors into personalized
or specific themes such as self-introductions and describing places.
learning opportunities by giving students access to the explanations
A guide is provided to give teachers an indication of how much
they need as and when they need them, something that is not normally
time students are likely to need in order to read the explanation and
possible with large classes. Having the explanations written down in
complete each exercise, and a full list of answers is available at <www.
their own language also means that students can review the points they
btbpress.com>. Using the exercises as a diagnostic tool will allow
have learned whenever they need to.
more advanced learners to skip points they already know, but for most
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