RE: Helping a non-native speaker

["Barbara Vega" <BarbaraV -at- libertyims -dot- com>]

Hi

I taught ESL to adults for many years. The use of articles is very
idiomatic and one of the trouble spots for non-native speakers, but
there are some rules.

I am going to dig through my files and see if I still have some of the
handouts I used to have.

In the meantime, I am not sure what his native language is but there is
a forum http://forum.wordreference.com/index.php which is excellent. It
has an "English-Only" section as well as sections for many languages. It
is set up to be a place where non=-native speakers can ask the questions
they need, and ESL experts answer. The answers given are from an ESL
standpoint - instead of from a Native Speaker standpoint. 

Cheers



~Barbara~

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+barbarav=libertyims -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Helping a non-native speaker

This question is directed especially at whirlers that have experience
teaching English as a second language.

I work for a small software company in the US that has a number of
developers that are not native English speakers.  One of these
individuals has been assigned to write his first functional spec and has
asked me to help him improve his written English.  

I have a good idea how to address most of the issues I'm seeing (I have
a fair amount of experience with editing), but one has me stumped.  This
individual's native language does not have articles (a/an/the), so he
uses them very inconsistently in his written English.  The result is
text that is surprisingly difficult to read even though most of the text
is actually pretty sound.  

Does anyone know any techniques that I can recommend to help him use
articles more consistently?

Thanks.

JAWD

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