Direct vs Reported Speech

Another area that needs correction is the way we use Direct speech when we report something. For example -

She told me, I will follow you, you go ahead, when I asked her to the cafeteria.

In most regional languages of India, we use the direct speech even when we report it to someone. Think back in your first language – which should be easy, because that is exactly what we do when we frame sentences in English! The corrected sentence should be this -

She told me she would follow me and asked me to go ahead when I asked her to the cafeteria.

Here is what I found on about.com, which gives you the rules, lesson plans, quizzes which focuses on using the reported speech in conversation.

http://esl.about.com/b/2008/09/05/tell-others-what-she-said.htm