towards an analysis of errors made by university students ... - DSpace

in
is 'an electrode which is made of copper', where 'a condensation
loss' is a loss which is caused by condensation and 'a combustion
chamber' is a chamber which is used for combustion", in WIDDOWSON,
H.G. Literary and scientific uses of English. English Language
Teachi ng Journal . London, Oxford University Press, 28(4): 277-359 ,
July, 1974. p.290. The difficulty posed by some ngps has also been
discussed by LEVI, Judith N. The syntax and semantics of complex
nomi nal s. New York, Academic Press, 1 978. p.75-117.
Sopher states that another difficulty comprises the use of
modifiers, usually adjectives and adverbs, which become qualifiers
in the students' native language; AN EXTENSIVE HEAT-AFFECTED ZONE
and AN EXTENSIVELY HEAT-AFFECTED ZONE are quoted by .Sopher as
examples of difficulties.. In SOPHER, E. An introductory approach
to the teaching of scientific English to foreign students. Engl i s h
Language Teaching Journal , London., 28(4) : 272-359 , July, 1974.
p.354. If our EL I students wer« required to translate these types
of ngps, which we have quoted from Widdowson and Sopher, they
should be able to insert a rankshifted group, or clause, at (q)
as the Portuguese equivalent from one of the English modifiers.
22
See Tables 3 and 4 in which the number of ngos in each
text has been presented together with the error rate per student,
in each ngp. Tables 5, 6 and 7 present the number of errors made,
the number of ngps in each text, the error rate per student,in
each ngp as well as the number of ngps according to the number
of words which form the ngps, found in each text.
23
We think that the translations of these deictics -A,
AN, THE, THIS, THAT, THESE and THOSE - might also reinforce
the same aspects of the problems which we have been dealing.with:
the incorrect identification of the headword in a ngp, or the
change of an exponent at (_m) into the headword of another ngp;
however, to make the counting up of words forming a ngp a simpler
procedure, we have decided to ignore those deictics.
24 SINCLAIR. p.147. He says that "almost everything that
occurs at (q) is rankshifted". He gives the following examples
of rankshifted.ngps at (q): A HAT THIS SIZE and THE MEETING
(m) h [q] (m) h
NEXT WEEK
[q]