Problems In English Language Teaching: Make & Do

CENTRO DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES Y HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS
LICENCIATURA EN ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS
SEMESTRE 3

SUBJECT:
COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR.

FINAL PROJECT:

“DIFICULTIES TO LEARN A SECOND LANGUAGE: MAKE AND DO”

STUDENTS´ NAMES:
Araujo Hernandez Victor Manuel.
Rosales Andrade Nerlyn Guadalupe.

TEACHER`S NAME:
Norma Rocha Rendòn.

DATE:
Friday, December 07th, 2012

Theuse of ‘make’ and ‘do’: Headaches for English Language Learners

When we pretend to study a new language sometimes we have problems to understand certain grammatical structures and words involved in them. That happens because of the differences between our language and the new one; each language has its own set of grammatical rules. Although translation, drills and conversation skills arenecessary in learning a foreign language, frequent grammar practice is predominant to success. Without proper knowledge of grammar, a person will commit unintentional errors. Also, cultures are different. Traditions can influence the native language and cause confusion for non-native speakers. Sometimes, to understand a language you have to understand a bit from the other culture in order to understandidioms and phrases. All these aspects about use between two languages leads us to one of the most important topics that students from beginner to intermediate level have problems with: the use of ‘make’ and ‘do’ and why is so difficult for Spanish speakers to apply.
One of the most complicated topics for learners is “Make and Do”; it becomes their most painful headache, not just to pass an exam,but also to apply it in real life situations. They get confused with the usage; sometimes they do not know how and under what circumstances to use one and other; for this reason, they get desperate and frustrated. Their perspective of the topic gets worse each time they make a mistake at the moment of speaking or answering an exercise related to it. This big problem has a logic explanation; we asSpanish speakers apply the word “hacer” (and all its conjugations) as a verb for everything; there is no rules regarding use: “Voy a hacer la tarea”, “Haré un pastel”, “Haremos una fiesta la siguiente semana”, “Hazme un favor”, etc. So, what’s the problem for Spanish native speakers to understand the use of ‘make’ and ‘do’? Both words have the same meaning in Spanish, that’s the reason whystudents have problems using these words.
For the reasons before mentioned, the present essay has the purpose of explaining the main characteristics of one language and other; their differences and similarities, and the most meaningful difficulties that a second language learner might face. The basis of this essay starts from a difficult topic for learners, that is “make and do”, so the explanationsare focused on these two difficult verbs that provoke many headaches on to students. There is also an efficient alternative of solution that might be applied at the moment of teaching this topic; it includes a brief description of the methodology to follow, the materials, activities and sequences of actions that might produce successful results.
In English there are several uses including ‘do’ and‘make’, the first one is when we use ‘do’ for activities that usually produce no physical objects (“do homework”, “do the dishes”, “do the ironing” or “do housework”). The second use is for general ideas. In other words, this happens when we do not name the activity. This form is often used with the words ‘anything’, ‘something’, ‘nothing’, ‘everything’, etc. Some examples of this type of formare “do something”, “I’m not doing anything today”, or “We are doing nothing at the moment”. The third use for ‘do’ is standard expressions. These standard collocations are a mix between the word ‘do’ and a noun. The only way to understand this type of form is memorizing their meaning. Some examples of this form are: “do me a favor”, “do one’s best” or “do harm”.
Regarding the use of ‘make’,...