Newsroom
The world's English pitfalls revealed
26 February 2007
A new study of the world’s biggest store of language used in exams has revealed the mistakes which cost English learners the chance of higher grades.
The Cambridge Learner Corpus is a vast database of 25 million words used by candidates taking the world-renowned University of Cambridge ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) exams, from the beginner exam KET (Key English Test) to the intermediate PET (Preliminary English Test) and FCE (First Certificate of English), to the advanced CAE (Certificate of Advanced English) and Certificate of Proficiency in English), as well as IELTS and BEC (Business English Certificate).
Patrick Gillard, English Language expert at Cambridge University Press, said: “In every language there are words and rules of grammar which cause problems. But why is it that learners from different backgrounds find such different English words a challenge?
“There are many words here which people with English as a first language commonly get wrong – like ‘accommodation’ and ‘receive’ – but there are also words and forms of expression which are specific to each language. One of the main reasons for this is where learners are distracted by similar spellings of words in their first language. Grammar rules which don’t exist in other languages are always going to catch learners out, and again, the use of wrong prepositions such as ‘on’ and ‘in’ is related to confusions with how they are used in the learner’s first language.”
For example, in China, most candidates misspelt ‘government’, ‘business’ and ‘grateful’; in India it was ‘receive’, ‘trainees’ and ‘projector’; and ‘department’, ‘course’ and ‘programme’ were among the different words which caused problems in Germany. The most common spelling errors among English test-takers overall are ‘advertisement’, ‘which’, ‘accommodation’, ‘comfortable’ and ‘nowadays’.
The most common grammatical errors are the following.
1. As they do not exist in many languages, learners commonly miss out the articles ‘a’ and ‘the’, especially in certain expressions:
- missing ‘a’ in quantifiers - a few, a little, a lot - “after (a) few days …”
- missing ‘the’ before certain nouns - the internet, the USA, go to the cinema/theatre, do the shopping - “our new office in (the) United States”, “We often go to (the) cinema.”
2. Choice of prepositions generally causes a lot of problems for learners. Two of the most commonly misused prepositions are ‘of’, especially after certain nouns, and ‘in’ before nouns which refer to a place:
- ‘of’ - “an advertisement of (for) an exhibition”, “a course of (in) web design”, “your invitation of (to) the conference”
- ‘in’ - “staying in (at) home”, “my favourite subject in (at) school”, passengers in (on) the bus”
3. Learners often confuse the usage of common verbs such as make, do, have, get, etc. Some of the most common verb + noun errors include:
- ‘make’ instead of ‘do’: make a good job, make business, make a course
- ‘do’ instead of ‘make’: do changes, do a phone call
- meet/find/get (make) friends
4. A lot of ‘false friends’ cause problems where the usage of similar words in English and their own language differs only slightly. For example, ‘propose’ for French learners. They tend to overuse the word in contexts where ‘offer’ or ‘suggest’ would be more appropriate in English:
- “the services proposed (offered) by the hotel”
- “I propose (suggest) you take the train.”
And Italian learners often use the nouns ‘possibility’ or ‘occasion’ instead of ‘opportunity’:
- “You will have the possibility (opportunity) to see lots of things.”
- “It would be a wonderful occasion (opportunity) for us to practise our English.”
The Cambridge Learner Corpus informs many of the English language books produced by Cambridge University Press, meaning students can be sure the materials will cover exactly the areas of language that they find difficult and teachers know the books will cover specific areas that cause problems for their students. The corpus is also central to the ongoing development and revision of each of the Cambridge ESOL exams.
Notes to editors:
More information on the Cambridge Learner Corpus can be found at www.cambridge.org/corpus
Cambridge University Press advances learning, knowledge and research worldwide. Founded in 1534, it is the oldest printer and publisher in the world and is a global leader in English Language Teaching (ELT) books and resources.
University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations, a not-for-profit organisation, is a department of the University of Cambridge and part of one of the world’s leading educational assessment organisations, the Cambridge Assessment group. Cambridge ESOL certificates are taken by over 2 million people in 130 countries each year.
