Abstract:

Second language learners often face difficulties when applying specific syntactic rules pertaining to the second language. Even though most of these second language learners seem to grasp the grammatical structures of the second language, in our present case; English, nonetheless they fail many a time to render their abstract knowledge of the grammaticality of rules into a more concrete outcome, which is in the rendering of acceptable linguistic forms. In this present classroom research, the author has looked into the use of the verb “to be”. This verb is one of the most problematic language phenomena for native speakers of Arabic in the acquisition of English. This article sheds some light on the challenges faced by second language learners when using this particular verb. It also gives some insight on remedial language activities that could improve these learners’ linguistic performance.