Download Form, Meaning, and Use - Todd Squitieri

Todd Squitieri
10-01-2014
Grammar Task #1
The following grammar task demonstrates form, meaning, and use for lessons focusing
on count and non-count nouns, subjects appearing plural (but are not), passive voice, real and
unreal conditionals, and phrasal verbs.
Count and Non-Count Nouns
Count nouns are nouns that can be counted, such as apple, banana, bottle, and hat. If there is
more than one of these, then an “s” is added to make it plural. Non-count nouns, on the other
hand, are nouns that cannot be counted or modified to become plural. Some examples include
water, rice, and sand. There are, of course, some exceptions, such as people (which is already
plural) and child (which becomes children).However, for the most part, “s” is added to make
count nouns plural.
Form
Ask the class if they know what a “noun” is. Depending on the level, students may or may not
know what a noun is. If the students do not know, write a simple sentence on the whiteboard
with a subject and verb. Afterwards, ask the class which parts of the sentence are nouns and
verbs. This should assist students in understanding what is being asked of the teacher. A possible
next step is to elicit more nouns from the students. The teacher could generate a list of nouns on
the board based on what the students say. The students themselves could also write a few nouns
on the board. Once understanding of nouns was achieved through this exercise, the teacher could
then draw two columns with the headings “count noun” and “non-count noun,” and provide a list
of her or his own.
Count
Apple(s)
Banana(s)
Drink(s)
Hat(s)
Non-Count
Rice
Water
Sand
Homework
In the count noun column, such words as apple, banana, drink, and hat could be provided along
with an “s” in parentheses to illustrate how the words are made plural. In the other column,
words such as rice, water, and sand may be used to illustrate the non-count nouns. Obviously,
the letter “S” would not be provided in parentheses because such nouns are already plural. The
teacher might ask the students what the difference is between both columns.
Meaning
Meaning is what you verbally say. In this example, you would orally enumerate the differences
between count and non-count nouns, using the chart for guidance.
Use
For practice, students may be asked to repeat some of the sentences that are written on the board.
For production, students can write sentences using both count and non-count nouns.
Subjects Appearing Plural But Are Not, and their Subject-Verb Agreement
Words, such as mathematics and news, may seem pluralized but in reality are not. They are
actually in singular form. This may be difficult for some students to understand. In a majority of
cases, an EFL instructor may have no other recourse but to tell students that there are some
exceptions to the general grammar rules.
Form
The instructor may wish to write some non-plural words on the board. At the bottom-center of
the board, the instructor may also want to provide a few sentences where these words are applied
and ask the students if there is anything different about these words.
Words: Mathematics, news, measles
Example: Mathematics is my favorite subject.
The news is on television every morning.
My friend has the measles. (Noun as direct object)
If the students are unable to see the difference immediately, a counter-example might need to be
used to more usefully highlight the basic difference between the special cases and their more
“normal,” counterparts.
Meaning
Meaning is demonstrated verbally. Sentences showing these unique words, along with pictures,
may help to clarify the concepts further.
Use
For practice, instructors may wish to create worksheets that direct students to pluralize a list of
subjects, some of which may already be in their plural form. Students may silently work on this
worksheet for five minutes and then review their answers with a fellow classmate. For
production, students can write their own sentences and share them with the class.
The Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous
The present perfect tense is a grammatical tense that indicates a past event that only recently
finished. For example, it is formed with the present tense of the verb “has,” followed by the past
participle of a verb. The present perfect continuous, on the other hand, is an action that was
started in the past but continues into the present. For example, “I have been driving my new car”
(ITTO, 2013, p. 337). In this particular sentence, the speaker is communicating that a past action
(in this case, driving) has occurred and continues into the present.
Form
The construction of the present perfect and present perfect continuous may be written on the
whiteboard, followed by a list of verbs in their participial forms:
Present Perfect: Noun + “Have” (Present tense) + Verb (Past Participle)
Present Perfect Continuous: Noun + “Have” + been + Present Participle of Main Verb
Past Participles: Driven, Spoken, Striven
Past Participle of Main Verb: Driving, Speaking, Striving
Meaning
Meaning is applied verbally. The instructor may wish to point to the timeline when reading a
sentence from a worksheet or textbook.
Use
Students should be invited to include some examples of their own so that the instructor can check
for comprehension. One exercise to aid students in producing this material would be to first
break a classroom into two large groups and have each group generate a list of sentences in both
tenses and to have each group share its examples on the whiteboard.
Passive Voice
“Active voice,” refers to a sentence that begins with a subject, followed by a verb, and which
ends with an object. A “passive voice,” on the other hand, is one which starts with verb in a
gerund form, followed by another verb, and then the subject. For example, “The cat ran home,”
is a sentence in the active voice. “Running home was the cat,” is in passive voice. Passive voice
is usually written in the past tense.
Form
One possible way to present this topic would be to write down its formula for the students.
Writing the formula for non-native speakers may be a useful introduction.
Active Voice: Subject + Verb + Object
Ex. The cat was walking.
Passive Voice: Object-as-Noun + Verb + Subject
Ex. Walking was the cat.
Meaning
The meaning is expressed verbally, and it may be useful for the teacher to clarify that some
sentences may mean the same thing, despite what voice they are written in.
Use
Students can form a circle and pass a ball around while saying sentences that alternate between
active and passive voices. If this is too difficult for the students, they can work in pairs and
attempt to generate two sets of sentences for both voices, and then present them to the class.
Real and Unreal Conditionals
Real conditionals are types of sentences that describe what people do in normal situations. For
instance, when a person says “Generally, on Saturdays, I go to the beach,” he or she is speaking
about a real situation that happens after a certain state of affairs take place. On the other hand,
unreal conditionals are types of sentences that convey what a person might do in an imaginary
situation (The English Page, 2014). For example, a person who says “If I had a knife, I would
cut his head off,” is speaking about what she or he might do in an imaginary situation that, in all
likelihood, will never happen. This sentence is considered unreal conditional.
Form
In an upper level class, teachers may be able to gently introduce the form of the conditionals by
writing a short monologue on the whiteboard and underlining the words to emphasize which
parts make up the conditional sentence, using words such as “if” and “would.” The instructor can
also show a calendar to indicate the time that the monologue refers to. The monologue may refer
to something the speaker does on the weekends or during the weekdays. The instructor can have
one of the students read the monologue and as the student is making a reference to time, the
teacher can point to the time that the speaker is referring to:
|----------X------------Present-----------------------|
Past
Future
For unreal conditional, the instructor can ask students what material things they really want (cell
phones, Ferrari, a mansion) and ask them what they would do if they had them. Instructors can
also ask students what they would do if they won the lottery, which may help bring students into
the mind-frame to think in unreal conditional statements. Generally speaking, the topic of
conditionals should probably be reserved for more advanced classes since there are so many
words in the English language that can be used to form a conditional sentence, whether real or
unreal.
Meaning
Meaning is demonstrated verbally through the above examples.
Use
For practice, students can complete fill-in-the-blank worksheets with missing key conditional
words. For production, students can generate both real and unreal conditional statements with
each other and have a representative of their pair/group write their responses on the whiteboard.
Lists can be generated about many activities that students typically engage in during the
weekdays or weekends (given certain conditions), or about activities that they would do if certain
conditions in their life were met.
Phrasal Verbs
According to the International Teacher Training Organization’s Guide to English teaching
(2013), phrasal verbs are “made up of a verb + an adverb, or a verb + a preposition, which
creates new meanings for the verb” (p. 340). Although by no means an extensive list, some
phrasal verbs include the following: Fall apart, figure out, grow up, and make up. Phrasal verbs,
by definition, are more than one word.
Form
The formula for phrasal verbs can be written on the board, exactly as stated above. For beginning
level classes, the clustered words can be bracketed to illustrate how the words are functioning in
the sentence. For example, one could write the following sentence: “Tom [took over] the diner.”
Took over in this sentence is being used as a verb.
Meaning
The bracketing of the words should help. Obviously, the meaning will vary depending on what
words are being considered for the lesson. Meaning is expressed verbally. Using synonyms to
replace phrasal verbs, when possible, should also help to clarify that the lesson is mostly about
“dressed-up” verbs.
Use
For practice, students can complete worksheets that include word banks with phrasal verbs
inside. For production, the teacher can have the students form a circle with the students and
challenge them to think of synonyms with phrasal verbs that the teacher pitches to the group. For
example, if the teacher assigns “make up” to one of the students in the circle, then that student
can supply the class with a synonym, such as “create.” Going around in the circle, the next
student can say “invent” and still another could say “design.” The student that cannot come up
with a word would be forced to step out of the game for this particular round. The game can be
repeated many times. This exercise can be anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on
how pressed for time the teacher is.
Discussion
Form-Meaning-Use methodology may prove useful for designing lesson plans for EFL students,
regardless of level. It provides the teacher with both a template and a base to work from, and
ensures that lessons are addressing all aspects of language acquisition. Hopefully, the exercises
above will stimulate further thinking over the ways to integrate Form-Meaning-Use in EFL
pedagogical and andralogical teaching approaches.
References
International Teacher Training Organization. (2013).
The English Page. (2014). Present Conditionals [data file]. Retrieved from
http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/presentconditional.html