Thank you for your kind response. 

I asked my students to interview their parents and grandparents or four people from these generations. They submitted a report on their findings. The purposes were language learning (comprehension, notes, summaries and written expression) along with an introduction to primary research. The ability to translate their first language into English was another necessary skill for this assignment. 

The students are in their first year at business school. You are right about their exposure to television and movies in English. I may have to watch "Joker" because of them. 

Reading English, unfortunately, is not as popular as watching it. 

Regards, 

Mahvesh

On Thursday, October 31, 2019, Natasha Artemeva <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Grammatically, all these expressions are proper. I do not think this is the issue of grammar. It sounds like your students watch a lot of television and movies in English. The issue is genre appropriateness. In what context and for what purpose do your students write?

Natasha

- -

Professor Natasha Artemeva, PhD

School of Linguistics and Language Studies

Chair, Carleton University Research Ethics Board

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, K1S5B6

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From: European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing - discussions <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Mahvesh Khan <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2019 4:29:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Grammatically confused

 

[External Email]

Hi, 

I'm a Pakistani lecturer teaching Academic and Technical Writing to Pakistani students. English is a second, third or fourth language for Pakistanis but is widely spoken here.

My problem is that students write certain commonly spoken words and phrases and I become confused about their acceptability. Online grammar checkers don't help - they simply state, "no problems were found."

Examples are: 

I "got to know" (this/that or the other). I'm substituting "learnt". 

Life was easier "back then". I'm removing the word "back". 

Here's a tough one: my father "saw the stern side of his parents". His early life was "dominated by restrictions".

I have more but these will do at the moment. 

I would be grateful for suggestions of softwares or books that might help tackle phrases like these? 

Best regards, 

Mahvesh

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