Grammar Vocabulary Journal

Grammar Vocabulary Journal:

Part 1: Grammar Vocabulary

Morphology: study of word structure.  Morphemes are the building blocks of words (eg. ‘words’ has two morphemes: word and s). Derivations morphemes are affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Inflectional morphemes are grammatical ie. gender, number, person, case, degree, and verb form (eg. men is plural of man)

Gender: masculine or feminine or neutral. Eg. he/she, him/her, his/hers.  Or no gender: I, you, we. 

Number: singular or plural. Countable or noncountable nouns (eg. boys  or milk)

Person: First, second or third (singular or plural). He/she/it (third person) must add an s to the verb.  The verb ‘to be’ is very irregular and often causes difficulty. 

Case: In English refers to a noun, pronoun or adjective.  Has the subjective (he), objective (him) and possessive or genetive (his) case.  Or for a noun, boy, boy and boy’s. 

Degree: adjectives: comparative (add ‘er’) and superlative (add ‘est’).  There are many that are irregular (eg. good, better, best). For adverbs use ‘more’ (comparative) and most (superlative). 

Verb forms: tells when an action occurred (tense) and if the action is complete or continuing. 

            Simple past usually just adds ‘ed’ but there are many that are irregular. Also, some change vowel and add ‘ed’, some don’t change (put, read).

Auxillary verbs such as be, have, do, can help indicate tense. The auxiliary verb changes.  Eg. is studying to was studying. ‘Studying’ is a participle, which is an unconjugated verb that is both a very and adjective.  Present participle eg. I am reading. Past participle eg. I have finished. 

Syntax: organization of words in sentences to create meaning. 

Word order:

subject/verb/object usually. Word order can change meaning.

Adjectives precede nouns. 

Determiners: precede nouns.  Eg. a, an, the, this, these, that, those, my, your, his, her, its, some, any, their.

Verb System: lexical (main verb), auxiliary (be, have, do) or modal (can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must) functions. Broad categories: present, past and future to indicate tense. All have simple, continuous and perfect forms. 

English verb forms
Form	Simple	Continuous (progressive)
Present	Live (lives)	Am (is, are) living
Past	Lived	Was (were) living
Future	Will live	Will be living
Present perfect	Has (have) lived	Has (have) been living
Past perfect	Had lived	Had been living
Future perfect	Will have lived	Will have been living

The verb ‘to be’ acts as an auxiliary word (I am working) or a linking verb to link or couple a subject to a noun, adjective or prepositional phrase.  eg. She is a teacher. 

Modal Verbs: convey nuance of meaning.  Eg. can, could, will would, shall, should, may, might, ought to and must. (possible, probably or certain: might, may, will)  (difference between suggestion, advice and order: could, should, must) 

Passive voice vs Active voice: 

Passive voice uses ‘be’ with a past participle. 

Used when want the focus on the person/objects affected by the action instead of who carries out 
       action. Eg. Passive: The army was surrounded by the enemy. 

                                    Active: The enemy surrounded the army. 

Passive also used when the agent is unknown.  Eg. Many cities were destroyed during the war. 

And to describe a process: eg. The experiment was carried out. 

Questions:

Two main categories: yes-no question and question-word-question.  Use auxiliary verbs and question words (when, how well, what, where, why, etc).

Negative statements: use an auxiliary word and not before the main verb.

Tag questions: usually if statement is affirmative, the tag (or question) is negative.  If the statement if negative, the tag is always affirmative. 

Phrasal verbs: verbs that combine a verb and adverb or preposition.  Eg. get up, put on, take out, sit down, give into). Can have separable and inseparable phrasal verbs  Eg. I put my coat on. I put on my coat. Eg. I put it on. Not “I put on it.”  ‘I got over it’ (inseparable).

Infinitives and Gerunds: 

Infinitive is the base form of the verb combined with ‘to’  eg. to dance, to sing, to eat. Ie. I want to dance.

Gerunds are like participles (ie the ‘ing’ form of the verb) by they are used as nouns. Eg. healthy eating, rough going, easy living. 

Indirect Speech (Reported speech): 

Causes great difficulties with learners. 

1       Back shifting of tenses: I will do it -> I told her I would do it. 

       Changes in pronouns:  Why won’t you do it for me? ->  She asked why he wouln’t do it for her?

        Possessive and demonstrative pronouns change: 

I will read my book  ->  He said that he would read my book. 

         Imperatives become infinitive: 

Have supper with us. ->  They invited me to have supper with them. 

             Expressions related to time and space may change. 

I’ll do it tomorrow -> he said that he would do it the next day. 

        ‘If’ or ‘whether’ turn a question into more of a statement but still requires a yes or not answer.  Is everything OK? -> She asked if everything was OK. 

           Question words with verbs no longer in the question form

What time will they be there? -> She wanted to know what time they will would be there. 

Pronouns: 

-indefinite pronoun is one that doesn't refer to a specific person or thing (eg. another, each, either, neither, one, other).

- Relative pronouns show a relationship between a noun and a clause. The clause provides describing information about the noun. You can also use relative pronouns to combine two sentences into one (eg. that, which, who, whom, whose).

- A reflexive pronoun tells us that whoever performs the action in a sentence is also the one on the receiving end of that action. In other words, the reflexive pronoun reflects back to the subject. A reflexive pronoun can be used as the direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition in a sentence (eg. myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves).

-Interrogative pronouns ask questions (eg. what, which, who, whom, whose).

-Demonstrative pronouns show or point to objects or people (eg. this, these, that, those)

-personal pronouns: 

Personal Pronouns
	Subject		Object		Possessive
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st Person	I	we	me	us	my, mine	our, ours
2nd Person	you	you	you	you	your, yours	your, yours
3rd Person	he, she, it	they	him, her, it	them	his, her, hers, its	their, theirs

Pronoun Reference: 

Antecedents (it, he, this, which, whose) refer to words that have previously appeared in the sentence or paragraph. Difficulty if they are far apart from the original word. 

Literary Style: 

Variations in usual word order (unusual syntax) or meaning can cause difficulty in understanding.  Examples are in poetry, stories and song. 

Embedding and subordination: 

Inclusion of linguistic units in another unit. Embedded are often with comma marks.  Subordination: joining a subordinate clause to a clause of higher value (You can go as long as you have finished your work)

Creates complex sentences. 

Conditional sentences: 

Express a relationship in which one situation depends on another. Uses ‘if’.  Express 3 conditions: real or possible; hypothetical; impossible or unrealized.  (past, present, or future). The tense of the verb doesn’t always match the meaning, eg. If I have time tonight…  uses present tense but refers to something in the future. 

First, Second, and Third Conditional

1. First conditional:	If I have enough money, I will go to Japan.
2. Second conditional:	If I had enough money, I would go to Japan.
3. Third conditional:	If I had had enough money, I would have gone to Japan.

Long-noun groups: 

String of nouns together. Eg. water-cycle diagram.  Difficult to understand. 

Condensed syntax: 

Technical, academic, reduced forms are difficult to understand. Eg. air that is under pressure. 

Complex vs compound sentence: 

A clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. A compound sentencecontains two independent clauses joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction, or connecting word. A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

(https://study.com/academy/lesson/compound-vs-complex-sentences-in-english.html)

Order of adjectives: 

The order of adjectives in English is opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, and purpose. For example: A lovely, large, antique, round, black, Spanish, wooden, mixing bowl.

(https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/order_of_adjectives.htm)

Part 2: Grammar Teaching Approaches: 

      Grammar translation (translating from one language to another) may see like a relic from the past (going way back), but depending on the teaching context there may be some use for this method.  A class where you have learners with the same L1 may benefit from some grammar translation.  

       The natural approach and deep-ended Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), where students learn from full language immersion with no rules for grammar teaching.  

The Audio lingual and Direct Methods, which both claim to be more 'natural based'.  The Direct method focuses more on oral skills with little grammar instruction, requiring students to pick up the language from immersion, just as children learn language too.  The audiolingual method focuses on learned behaviour and uses a series of pattern drills.  Therefore, it's not surprising that it was developed to teach soldiers languages during the second world war, and is also called the Army Method (TEFL, n.d.).  Its primary focus is on the memorization of material. These methods might be very difficult for older learners where memorization of material can be difficult

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) (shallow-ended) is an inductive method that allows students to study material and work out the grammar rules themselves, so it falls closer to the Grammar Translation end of the scale with more focus on the rules of grammar. 

Inductive vs deductive: 

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) (shallow-ended) is an inductive method that allows students to study material and work out the grammar rules themselves.  It incorporates 'focus on form' and 'consciousness raising', which draw attention to the rules of grammar, helping students notice the features of the language (Thornbury 1999, pg. 24). This is very important, and without it, students can stall in their learning, risking fossilization of language. This develops critical thinking skills, and allows students to apply what they have learned.  This often requires more preparation and longer time periods, but is more learner-centered (Sikorzynska 1995). 

Some aspects of grammar require an explicit or deductive approach which teaches the grammar rule, and then allows students to practice it.  This method sometimes works well for beginner learners, or with complicated grammar structures, such as prepositions, conjunctions, modal and phrasal verbs and other parts of language that are not common in many languages.

Error Correction: 

Types of mistakes: 

1) slips: mistakes learners can self-correct

 2) errors: mistakes leaners need help correcting

 3) attempts: mistakes made when trying to say or write something without knowing it yet.

Interlanguage: the learners current state of language at any stage of development

Assessment Feedback

1)    Responding: showing students how their writing can improve by using comments and suggestions

2)    Coding: using codes and symbols to show errors in writing

3)    Focusing: restrict feedback to one particular aspect of language. Eg. spelling.

4)    Direct feedback: Showing the correction for the mistake.

5)    Indirect feedback: indicating there is a mistake and asking the student for correction. 

Part 3: Lesson Planning

Types of Lesson Plans: 

1   1) Task-based: focus on the fluency and accomplishment of a specific task, where students learn through doing.  CLB outlines tasks of accomplishment for all levels.  Learner-centered approach

2    2) Skills-based: focus on development of a specific skill, and the use of the skills. Learner centered approach.  

3     3) Present-Practice-Produce: traditional type of lesson plan where info is given and students must repeat and produce. Very controlled and teacher-focused, where language is learned in pieces, with not focus on whole language.

Tips for lesson planning (Harmer 2001, pp. 308-320)

      1) Pre-planning: focus on activities, skills to develop, language elements to learn and interesting content

2    2)   Loose planning vs tight planning: do we want to go with the flow or write down all the details in formal lesson plans (advantages and disadvantages to both).  Most teachers in the middle. 

3     Things to consider when making a formal plan: 

a.     The class context and timetable

b.     Lesson aims (objectives): what the student should be able to do at the end.

c.     Activities and procedures (timing)

d.     Problems encountered (have a backup plan) and possibilities (open to changes)

Lesson plans in the overall picture: 

11)    Have an overall scheme for weeks or months 

22)    Set short and long term goals

33)    Use themes to create links amoung lessons

44)    Plan organized incorporation of language elements

55)    Balance amoung different types of activities.

Using Lesson Plans: 

11)    Use lesson plans as a ‘proposal for action’ not to be followed explicitly

22)    Be open to change if magic moments and diversions happen (teachable moments)

33)    Be prepared for problems and how to react

44)    Use lesson plans to note and keep record of what has been done, and what can be changed. 

Coelho, E. (2004). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms. Chapter 4: No More Red Pen:Teaching English Grammar.

Ellis, R. (2009, April). A typology of written corrective feedback types. ELT Journal, 63(2), 97-107.

Harmer, J. (2004). The practice of English language teaching. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited.

Lynch, L. (n.d.). Grammar Teaching: Implicit or Explicit. Retrieved

from https://www.eslbase.com/teaching/grammar-teaching-implicit-explicit

Sikorzynska, A. (1995). Discover it yourself. Wydawnictiwa Szkolne: Pedagogiczne.

Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach grammar. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited.