I need advice on how to teach sentence structure. Please can anyone help? I have found good sources on individual sections of grammar but not a clear, easy and effective way on how to string the constituent parts together. At which level should one start teaching this subject? Thank you.
Any suggestions for Shuk Yi? How do you teach complex sentence structures? Should students have an explicit formal knowledge of clause structure and sentence composition? What problems do your students have in this area? How have you helped them overcome these difficulties? Contact us
This question is from Shuk Yi Tam
Comments
rebecca2
I have a tip that can help you in teaching Sentence Structure that I have used in my large teenagers groups.
1. I presented the structure in a short reading or a short dialogue about something related to teens activities.
2. We underline the sentences and I give a translation in my own language.
3. I write the sentence on the board in large letters
4. I ask my students to identify what is first, if it is a person or an action, a place, etc
5. If there is an auxiliary I ask them to try to guess what is that word for and then I explain the function
6. I give a different example and we work in the same way.
7. Sometimes we have to work with more examples for more than a class
8. For checking if they learned I take to class cards with parts of a sentence and I ask some of them toplaceinthe right way on the board or we work unscrambling sentences on the notebook and on their course book
I can tell you that by that time they learn how to "discover" the magic order in English sentences. I hope these ideas can be useful.
Mary Greenfield, New Zealand
I have used this task with young adults working in groups.
Prepare different sentences for each group of students based on the pattern you have been teaching [Subject, verb, adverbial; subject verb object; etc.]using known vocabulary.
Produce these on paper in font [20 - 26] in a different style for each sentence. Cut them into sentence parts: word groups first, then single words to make it more difficult.
Give each group a bundle of cuttings of 2 - 4 sentences. They sort according to font first, and then spend time trying to arrange the cuttings into grammatically correct sentences. The teacher circulates, giving a hint here and there.
To extend the task, groups can pass their bundles of cuttings on to the next group and so on.
Keep a copy of the sentences for checking.
Laura Tiessen, Canada
I just recently had my students write sentences in the following patterns:
noun + verb; e.g., The bird is singing.
noun + verb + noun; e.g., She is fixing the car.
noun + linking verb + adjective; e.g., He is handsome.
noun + linking verb + noun; e.g.; Paul Martin is the prime minister.
Then I had them use compound nouns and verbs; e.g., The men and women are singing and dancing.
My students actually enjoyed this. I also reminded them that every singular common noun needs an article or possessive pronoun before it.
I used these simple sentence patterns, but you could use more complex ones if you desire.
I got this idea from a list of sentence patterns in "The ESL Book of Lists." I'm sorry I can't remember the author's name, but she's American and she has a doctorate.
(Ed - this may be the reference 'The Esl teacher's book of lists' by Jacqueline E. Kress Published by Jossey-Bass (April, 1993) ISBN 0876283075)