The Reflection Paper
Troublespot 1
Troublespot 1 covers the basic structure of a sentence in English (Raimes 1). It also offers to the learners options for expanding this structure. In my opinion, this troublespot is essential for English teachers to understand because it explains how the sentence structure in English is different from other languages. Covering options for expanding the basic structure is also important as the learners need to be able to express one idea in several ways.An English sentence must contain a subject and a verb (Raimes 4). The standard word order requires that subject comes before the verb, and the object comes after the verb. However, the author points out that in many languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Bengali, and Korean the order of words in the sentence is different.
A typical mistake of learners from these countries is putting time adverbial expressions between the verb and subject (Raimes 4). It is very important for the teacher to understand that the sentence structure may trouble ELLs. Thus, explaining the basic sentence structure and stressing on its necessity is an important task for the teacher.The chapter also covers the grammatical structures, which the learners can use to add the information to a simple sentence, without turning it into a complex or compound sentence (Raimes 6). In practice, it allows the learners master different forms of packing information in the sentence. This way they learn to express their thoughts diversely and avoid repetition of the one sentence pattern.
Troublespot 2
The Troublespot 2 covers connecting and combining clauses (Raimes 9). It explains how the ELLs can build a complex or compound sentence in order to establish logical relationships between clauses (Raimes 9). Connecting and combining clauses is an essential part of learning English because it assists in expressing complex ideas and related events. In my opinion, teaching these rules to ELLs is important because it helps them to express their ideas more clearly and structure their writing more cohesively. The chapter introduces the main ways of connecting clauses such as a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction; a semicolon, a transition, and a comma; and a semicolon in closely related sentences (Raimes 9-12). It also introduces the common errors of ELLs such as run-on sentences, fragment sentences, and comma splices, which, in my opinion, are very important for the teacher to stress on. If ELLs do not learn how to punctuate a compound or complex sentence correctly, their writing will be not understandable, and can be even misinterpreted by the readers. The ideas in such writing will interfere with each other, and the logical order will be violated.
Troublespot 3
Troublespot 3 offers a deeper overview of the common errors ELL’s make when combining clauses. It explains how there errors are formed and how to correct them. The main errors covered are a sentence fragment, a run-on sentence, and comma-splice (Raimes 19). The teacher can learn from this chapter how to assist ELL’s in avoiding these …
