Very limited
vocabulary. Predominance of "all purpose verbs" with very general
characteristics (make food for cook). Use of basic prepositions and adverbs of
affirmation, negation, order and a few of quantity. Very limited use of time, place and
modal adverbs.
Predominance of
economising lexical strategies - gestures, deictics, generic words, onomatopoeia…
Repeatedly asking directly for assistance. Very little use of explanatory devices
(definitions, descriptions, analogies…).
Errors of
confusion between copulative verbs, opposite pairs of verbs (to come vs. to go) or verbs
from the same semantic field (to ask vs. to say) or between other verbs (to carry vs. to
take).
Very simple noun
phrases: Omission of the definite article during the first months; omissions of the
indefinite article; very few adjectives; frequent errors of gender, particularly feminine.
Not so many noun errors.
Verbal syntagma:
frequent omission of the main verb. Frequent malformation of verbs, even in the
indicative. Use of present, imperfect and indefinite tenses, but perfect and future tenses
not used by half the students. Use of conditional rare and subjunctive exceptional, and
always unnatural, i.e. forced.
Use of
unstressed pronouns very limited and full of mistakes.
Progressive
grasp of coordinate, subordinate, temporal and completive clauses. Relative and final
clauses are unusual.
A lot of help is
needed from the interlocutor: low speech density: more than two turns of phrase required
on average (as well as help) to provide a full item of information.
Speech autonomy
very scarce: one single output of 4 UIR in one turn of phrase from the whole.
Resorts easily
to Spanish in complete statements (some 15% of UIRs are formulated in Spanish).
Difficulties may
arise in understanding what the interviewer is saying. A considerable number of students
are inhibited and display extreme shyness throughout the whole interview.
No personal
contribution to the conversation: limited to simply responding to questions. Tendency to
avoid complex subjects (e.g. the popular festivals: I don’t know…).
Minimal subject
development.
Reading: a good
command of reading out loud is very unusual.
Proficiency in
reading narrative texts is so rare as to be exceptional.
Only one
(female) student managed to understand the news item and the expository text.
Almost a quarter
of students could not manage to write even the smallest text. Only a quarter of students
can construct a simple, understandable and cohesive text.
INT: So
what’s the lamb festival like over there, in Morocco? How do you do it? What do you
need to do?
ABD: erm… eat
lamb.
INT: Very good!.
But how? Do all your friends get together? And what do they do?
ABD: No. Everyone
has a lamb. And with the lamb… They come to make party with us.
