English Me This

Sign #1 my students are finally learning to understand and speak English: 2 students can almost completely correctly translate my words into Mandarin for the rest of the class;  all except 2 of the rest of the students can understand me 3/5 to all of the time, whether or not they can speak in English. :-)

Sign #1 that we still have a long way to go:
         T--'There are three red ducks and an apple.'
               (repeating student's choice of spelling words to form a coherent sentence)
         S--'There are three red ducks and a apple.'
         T--'No.  There are three red ducks and an apple.  "An."
               Not "A".' (something like 2nd or 3rd explanation use of "a/an")
         S--'An?'
         T--'Yes, an.'
         S--'There are three red ducks and apple.'
         T--'No.  You must say, "and an apple.' (with full explanation--again)
         S--'There are three red ducks an and apple.'
         T--'No, "and an apple".'
         S--'Erase the "d"?'
         T--'Yes, erase the "d".'
         S--'There are three red ducks an apple.'
         T--'*Sigh*.........'
              (rework mental process--think like a 7 yr old who is learning English)

Learning the writing process is going to be...........a process; some more comprehension skills as well.  :-)