He's Not here Anymore

A friend of mine dropped by a colleague's place of work to say hi. She asked the receptionist if Tom was still in. The receptionist answered: "Tom is not here anymore." My friend July was very confused. She had spoken to Tom on the phone not 2 days before and he had said that he was working at Acme Inc. Indeed, that was one of the main reasons July had decided to stop by Acme Inc. in the first place. Perplexed, she asked the receptionist "when did he leave?" to which the answer was "about 30 minutes ago". July being a clever person instantly realized that:

a) Tom had just been laid off/fired
b) Tom had finished for the day
c) Tom had just quit
d) None of the above

The answer is____
Why:

Come back tomorrow for the answer

This is Not "Omitable"

Often students omit prepositions, "S's", determiners and other constructions that to Native speakers are basic. The question that has always fascinated me is "why do students, especially those that have had years of English study, often continue to omit words and/or letters?" I don't really have an explanation as to why this happens but I do have a few examples of how confusing it can be when it does.

Recently, an English Language student said in reference to a book: "I missed one." I interpreted this statement as he having lost a book. However, after much confusion and conversation, I realized that he had omitted a word. He failed to to say this. "I missed this one." I re-interpreted this statement as he was in need of a book. In fact he was. He had forgotten his textbook at home and was asking me, as best he could, if could borrow a specific book from me.

The point of this story is that even when an English Learner misspeaks, s/he can be much better understood if they include all the necessary grammar elements in their speech.´

Homework: Why do some learners continually have problems with omission?
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