1. Grammar is a challenge because the student has been learning about grammar in his first language but
may not know how to apply all of the rules. The student is able to identify the following types of
sentences: Interrogative, Declarative, Imperative, and Exclamatory. However, in Spanish the question
mark is placed in the beginning and the end of a sentence. When the author of this paper wrote, “Did
you grow up in Puerto Rico?”, the student did not realize that it was a question because there was not a
question mark at the beginning and the end of the sentence.
Many students struggle going from L1 to L2 because they do not have a strong foundation in L1. What
can we do to help them improve their grammar skills?
I plan to explore how the nature of Spanish and its relationship to English may impact errors and which
of these errors are developmental. I have observed that many students struggle in the writing process
and it can be difficult for ESL learners to decide which grammar rule to apply at the correct time. For
example irregular verbs can be a difficult topic.
Passive Voice was another component that was difficult for the student. The phrase: The deck was
washed by my brother did not make sense. The student thought that the sentence meant that the deck
washed the brother. The teacher used charades and games to illustrate this point. They also drew a
picture of this sentence on a white board. They examined the picture together and encouraged the
student to describe the sentence in detail. Freeman and Freeman write that, “Students acquire
conversational language fairly rapidly, especially students living in an English speaking environment.
However, developing academic language takes more time” (Freeeman and Freeman,p.247).