This booklet has been prepared
for a very special group of college and university entrance-level
students who are learning English as their second language.
Members of this group have already made great progress
in learning English, though their writing is still marred
by the difficulties they have in dealing with certain
English constructions that are not found in their first
language.
The eight problems of English usage
dealt with on the pages that follow have been selected
after a careful reading of several hundred essays written
by this group of students on the Language Proficiency
Index (LPI). Many of the papers looked at had excellent
ideas, and, usually, a good control of sentence structure.
What weakened them was the repetition of usage errors
of the type dealt with in this booklet. As already noted,
such aspects of English usage cause difficulty to this
group of students because similar structures are not part
of their native language.
The publishers of this booklet hope
that its notes, examples, and practice exercises will
help those for whom it has been written to make real progress
in perfecting their new language. We would, in addition,
like these students to know that we have sincere respect
for the progress they have already made in learning English,
and that we are very aware that, in addition to their
developing skills in English, these students can speak
and write one or more languages that will, regrettably,
forever remain a mystery to those who prepared this booklet.
© Copyright University of British Columbia,
2002.
|
