Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
they're working at them
English answer:
they [the children] are working on the exercises they have been given to do
English term
they're working at them
A real conversation with an ESL Teacher
--------------------------------
Teacher: I guess my favorite type of class is when I don't talk
at all where they have activities and they're working at them
and they're ... they're in some sort of group activity and
they're discussing things and they're only using me as a
resource. How would you say this? What's the correct
grammar in this sentence? What does this word mean?
Then I'm, I'm just the resource and they're doing their own
learning.
--------------------------------
What does "they're working at them" mean in this dialogue?
Thank you
Aug 18, 2021 18:05: AllegroTrans changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Aug 19, 2021 09:29: Tony M Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (3): Tony M, Yvonne Gallagher, AllegroTrans
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Responses
the children are working on the exercises they have been given to do
| Thank you so much, Tony |
Germany
Highly qualified, social sciences
Native in: English 
Works in: English, German, Afrikaans, and 9 more.
the children are working on their own
| Thank you so much, Petrus |
| agree |
Andrew Bramhall
: Yes, working on their own initiative;
18 mins
|
| neutral |
Tony M
: Although fortuitously that happens to be the case, I think your answer is confusing, since 'working at them' does not literally mean 'working on their own' as your answer appears to imply — in fact, they may be working in groups.
18 mins
|
|
yes, working literally alone on activites that the teacher has given to do can be literally quite confusing. Grammatically, "at them" refers back to the activities, as José literally points out
|
|
| neutral |
Yvonne Gallagher
: over-extrapolation. it doesn't say if they are working alone or in groups.
2 hrs
|
| neutral |
AllegroTrans
: Agree with Tony and Yvonne; "on their own" is over-interpretation here
9 hrs
|
Something went wrong...