Download Function Words - Intensive English at Pratt

Function Words
or, the dark matter of English
Cynthia Elmas: IEP Professional Development
Friday, April 12
I first saw this in a
pronunciation textbook.
Sue F. Miller, Targeting Pronunciation.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Function words are like
dark matter because
They are EVERYWHERE in ENGLISH,
but LEARNERS HAVE a HARD TIME
NOTICing and MASTERing
them.
The opposite of function words
are content words: easily heard;
always stressed.
Nouns
Main verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Numbers
Negatives*
Question
words
For example,
“Apple has beautiful
glass stores.”
[all content words]
These are function
words
Helping
verbs
articles
pronouns
conjunctions
prepositions
Forms of ‘be’
Word
endings
For example,
We will have been at the table in the
middle of the room for about two hours.
[white words are function words]
Their ‘dark matter’
characteristics:
Unstressed in speaking
Unsalient for listening
visually small, which doesn’t
help in regards to reading
and writing
So, why bother using
them as teaching tool?
Listening comprehension
Necessary for the natural rhythm and
sentence stress of spoken English
Good for explaining ‘chunking’ and
contractions for listening and speaking
Why bother, cont’d
Markers of proficiency in writing and
speaking
Vulnerable to L1 interference in
listening, speaking, and writing
Just plain confusing, often with
idiosyncratic or highly conceptual
grammar meanings
Let’s notice them…
Visually, in reading
Aurally, in listening
Visual noticing in reading
Introduce function words.
Have Ss circle all the function words in a
few sentences of a reading.
Have them read aloud.
Aural noticing in
listening
Have Ss do a listening transcription.
Introduce function words.
Give them a copy of your perfect
transcription
Have Ss compare theirs with yours. They will
see what they missed: new vocabulary, and
function words.
Let’s use them…
in speaking
In writing
Speaking
2 STUDENT RECORDINGS: first the wrong way;
second, the right way. Model both for them first.
MIMIC SENTENCE STRESS of a recording of a native
speaker.
WRITING THEIR OWN TEXTS, and MARKING THE
UNSTRESSED WORDS.
Writing and Grammar
LOW ER LEVEL: Simple but evil
cloze exercises where the blanks
are function words. Based of a
previously-read text. Limited to
grammar that they know.
Writing and Grammar,
cont’d
HIGHER LEVEL: use function words as a template
Grab some writing, published or student writing.
Take out content words, and students fill in with
other content words.
Then have Ss write something, and create their own
function word ‘shell’ to fill in with content words.
..or vice versa!
Other related lessons
How to hear and say ‘can’ [helping verb, function word] and
‘can’t’ [negative, content word]
Chunking of words in speaking [Give it to him], with linking
The unstressed schwa –the ‘dark matter’ of vowel sounds
The stress difference between
phrasal verbs [come out/carry on/give up]. The particle is
necessary for the meaning of the phrasal
verb>>content>>stressed.
Verb + preposition combinations [come for/go to/ think of] The
preposition does not affect the meaning of the
verb>>function>>unstressed
Thank you!