Consider this sentence and count all possible interpretations of this statement  if we add “only” in different strategic positions.  This is an excellent example for instructors to use to demonstrate  the importance of adverb placement to their students.  Let’s count all the possibilities here.  I will start with a few, but not all of the possibilities.  Please contribute other possible scenarios in the comments.

1.  Only she told him that she loved him.  Meaning: she was the only person to tell him that, but there could be other people who loved him.
2.  She told him that she loved only him.  Meaning: she told him that she loved only him and nobody else.
3.  She told him only that she loved him.  Meaning: that was the only thing she told him, and nothing else.
4.  She told him that only she loved him.  Meaning: She told him that she was the only person who loved him (nobody else did).

So, how many other possibilities do you see here?

If you guessed that the error is confusing your and you’re, you guessed it right.  The pervasiveness of this error is just mind bogging.  This error is common among both college graduates and  people who never got their high school diploma.  Why do people make this error?  I think the reason is laziness and discounting the difference between the two as something insignificant.  The reasoning goes something like this: they sound the same, and the context will help the receiver  of the message to figure out which one I mean, so why should I bother to spell them correctly? A close second is the “there, they’re, and their” confusion.

The ironic part is that non-native speakers learn to differentiate and use these words correctly relatively quickly.  This type of error is rare beyond the beginning level of English acquisition.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a native speaker making errors as basic as this, I can’t help but wonder whether this person is  also sloppy about other things in life…

When we list a few items one by one, we separate them with a comma:

We invited Roosevelt, Washington, Lincoln.

What if the last two items are joined with the conjunction and?  Do we still need a comma? In many languages, like Russian, Spanish, Greek, German, French, the comma before the conjunction is not the norm.  In English, however, opinions among writers and editors differ on whether to use the comma between the two final items.

1) We invited Roosevelt, Washington and Lincoln.
2) We invited Roosevelt, Washington, and Lincoln.

 The final comma before the conjunction and is called a serial comma or Oxford comma.

In American English most style and punctuation guides mandate the use of this comma because it helps avoid ambiguity (confusion).

This funny cartoon demonstrates how we could understand the sentence without the final comma.  Did we invite the rhinoceri and two people?  Or did we invite two rhinoceri who have human names?

Communicating with native speakers is one of the top goals of foreign language learners.  There are, however, certain challenges in teaching and learning conversational English that are difficult to address in a regular classroom setting.

Limited Classroom Exposure • even an excellent instructor is just one speaker, with just one individual pronunciation and personal communication style. The Internet, movies, and TV are excellent resources, but they do not provide feedback on comprehension.  In other words, how do learners know if they have understood something correctly?

Language is Culture Specific • without being a member of a cultural group, it is difficult to understand the attitudes, feelings, beliefs, personal values and subtle gradations of interpersonal relationships in the target culture.  In other words, the learner may understand what native speakers are saying, but may not understand why they behave the way they do. What are people concerned about or afraid of?  What makes them happy?  What is considered “good manners”?  When can you consider yourself a “friend”? Meaningful communication with people from another country, continent or region requires understanding of their cultural peculiarities.

Authenticity of Instructional Materials • most textbooks and instructional materials are written by professional authors and/or teachers with a heavy focus on Standard English.  Instructional dialogues and videos are staged and scripted and do not represent the variety of patterns of authentic communication.

Real life, authentic conversations are not prepared ahead of time.  They are spontaneous by nature. How does this spontaneous speech differ from the language of instructional dialogues?

Here is the comparison:

With so many distinct differences between the instructional and authentic materials, it is only natural that language learners, who have not been exposed to and trained in features of spontaneous speech, have difficulty communicating with native speakers. If your goal is making friends, living and working or doing business in an English-speaking country, it is essential you use instructional materials based on authentic, spontaneous conversations.