Download noun phrases

Language Analysis
CHAPTER 10
Analyzing Grammar
Before teaching a
grammatical item, it is
essential that you
understand it well. This
usually involves some
research and careful
thinking.
Some steps to include when planning:
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Select the grammar items to teach.
Fine-tune the selection.
List situations, places and relationships.
Brainstorm between 5 and 10 typical sentences that use
the grammatical item naturally.
Select one of these sentences as a “target sentence”.
Decide on a situational context.
Analyze the form of the target sentence.
Analyze the meaning of the TG.
Analyze the pronunciation of the TG.
Analyze typical students’ problems.
Decide what learners should achieve (the main aim of the
lesson).
Analyzing Language:
Grammatical Form
Grammar is concerned with the FORM of
the language: that is, the patterns, the
regularities, the nuts and the bolts you
connect together in different ways. Some
common items have names: the past
progressive tense, reported speech,
uncountable nouns, relative clauses, etc.
Analyzing Grammatical
Patterns
• A substitution table is
an established teaching
device which could be
both a stimulus to
practice activities in the
classroom and a way of
recording the studied
grammar in notebooks.
• Simple variations on
the table can alter the
level of challenge
involved.
• Removing the
horizontal line,
blanking a column or
leaving spaces in a
column add to the
challenge and
probably the interest.
• Oral practice in the
form of drills is often
based on substitution
tables.
Substitution Tables
He
intended
leave
early
She
decided
go
punctually
Charles
wanted
start
at 6 o'clock
The mechanic
refused
arrive
the following day
This
This table
to
a substitution table
is
a series of columns
This diagram
something with structure
What's on the board
something that can change its parts
Recognizing Grammatical Items:
• In coursebooks or grammar books, they are usually listed
in three columns: the base form, the past form, and the
past participle.
• Many tenses require use of auxiliary verbs, short verbs
that show the speaker or writer’s attitude or interpretation
of the topic being discussed.
• When teaching verbs, it is important to cover the positive,
negative and interrogative forms.
• A verb can be multiword, comprising a main verb and one
or more particles (phrasal verbs or prepositional verbs).
The most commonly studied tenses and
verb forms are:
Present simple - Present progressive
Present perfect - Past simple
Past progressive - Past perfect
Will -Going to
Used to
• Nouns can be ___________ or ____________.
• __________________ are made of two or more words,
e.g. noun + noun or adjective + noun. Examples are:
__________, ___________, ___________.
• ______________ are combinations of words that act as if
they are nouns.
• Pronouns can be used instead of ____________ or
___________ usually in cases where we already know
what is being referred to.
• Nouns can be COUNTABLE or UNCOUNTABLE.
• COMPOUND NOUNS are made of two or more words,
e.g. noun + noun or adjective + noun. Examples are:
WASHING MACHINE, BLACKBOARD, ONE-WAY
TICKET.
• NOUN PHRASES are combinations of words that act as
if they are nouns.
• Pronouns can be used instead of NOUNS or NOUN
PHRASES usually in cases where we already know
what is being referred to.
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Prepositions are short words that tell us
about:
Where something is : on, at, against.
The movement of something: towards,
over.
When something happens: at, on, in.
Relationships between things, such as
cause and effect: because of.
ADD
INFORMATION
about a noun
or noun phrase
UNGRADABLE
COMPARATIVE
or the
SUPERLATIVE
ADJECTIVES
form
GRADABLE
Are used with modifiers
Show extreme
Conditions or describe
things that can be
one way
• Words that come in front of nouns and
noun phrases.
• The term includes :
articles (definite and indefinite).
quantifiers (how much of something
there is)
Relative clauses are parts of
sentences that tell us more
information about someone or
something.
They often start with a relative
pronoun, e.g. that, who, which,
when, where, why, what, whose.
Some Useful Advice
• Integrate your learning with your teaching.
• Slowly build up your grammar knowledge in
this way, lesson by lesson, item by item.
• Make good use of the notes in Teacher’s
Books as well as your own grammar
references.
• Gather and sort the information out to decide
what is most useful and helpful from your
perspective.
• Decide what small part of all the information
you can deal with in a single lesson.
• Learn as much as you can about grammar;
however, remember that students cannot
absorb it all in one go.
Analyzing Concept:
The Meaning of Words
In order to analyze the meaning of lexical items
effectively, we need to consider 3 different ways
of looking at it:
 Components of meaning of lexical items.
 The meaning of lexical items in context.
 Meaning in relation to other words.
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You can help students understand
meanings by:
Avoiding language more complex
than the word you are trying to
explain.
Focusing on the most important
usages.
Using examples.
Using your own and the student’s
knowledge and feelings to focus on
what we understand by this word.
To make language less complex…
• Avoid words that SS are
unlikely to understand.
• Avoid complex
grammar.
• Keep your
sentences short.
For example:
To illustrate the meaning of Wellingtons:
You wear them on your feet.
They are made of rubber.
You wear them when you walk in mud.
You wear them when it rains.
You wear them in the snow.
You wear them when you walk in or near water.
Farmers often wear them.
Fishermen often wear them.
Walker often wear them.
• Collocations are two or more words
that usually go together (collocate).
They are an essential key to using
English well.
• It may be that knowledge of
collocations is more useful to a
student than an understanding of the
fine differences of meaning between
words.
• It is much more important to
understand the general meaning of a
word and to know which word is
normally used in certain context.
COLLOCATIONS
come
go
get
come close
come complete with
come direct
come early
come first
come into view
come last
come late
come on time
come prepared
come right back
come second
come to a compromise
come to a decision
come to an agreement
come to an end
come to a standstill
come to terms with
come to a total of
come under attack
go abroad
go astray
go bad
go bald
go bankrupt
go blind
go crazy
go dark
go deaf
go fishing
go mad
go missing
go on foot
go online
go out of business
go overseas
go quiet
go sailing
go to war
go yellow
get a job
get a shock
get angry
get divorced
get drunk
get frightened
get home
get lost
get married
get nowhere
get permission
get pregnant
get ready
get started
get the impression
get the message
get the sack
get upset
get wet
get worried
We can help students better understand
meaning in context by:
• Pointing out
collocations when they
occur.
• Designing activities
that focus attention on
the collocations of
particular lexical
items.
• Encouraging the use
of dictionary research
to check whether a
collocation is typical
or not.
• Setting text gap-fill
exercises.
• Asking learners to
guess meaning from
clues in the context,
rather than always
relying on explanations
or dictionaries.
• Getting learners to
predict likely meanings
or lexical items before
seeing or hearing a text.
SUPERORDINATE/ HYPONYMS
Gradable / ungradable
antonyms
MORPHOLOGY
nail
Ate / eight
Allowed / aloud
Higher / hire
Plain / plane
Synonyms of Soft
Downy, silky, dull, low, weak,
spongy, limp, malleable
Synonyms of Wet
Moist, watery, soppy,
soggy, drenched,
awashed
Analyzing Concept:
Grammatical Meaning
I HAD MY HAIR CUT
I HAD THE SWIMMING POOL EMPTIED
I HAD A NEW LOCK FITTED
The situations are all different, but the core grammatical meaning is always
there.
Another way to focus on meaning is by turning them into concept questions.
Why Analyze Concept?
• It is more useful to students if
the meaning is dealt with in
simple and clear ways.
• By asking concept questions,
teachers can also establish
whether students are clear about
meaning. Avoid asking ‘Do you
understand?’
Why Analyze Concept?(cont’d)
• The grammatical names of language
items can actually get in the way of
understanding the meaning. The present
continuous in “I’m going to the movies
tomorrow” does not express present,
but it is a sentence about future.
• A focus on form is useful, but it will
have considerably less use if there is no
parallel focus on meaning.
Analyzing Communicative Function
May I help you?
Time is up!
Could you pass me the sugar?
Single room, please.
Cheers!
What are the communicative
functions of these exponents?
We speak or write because we have messages to communicate
or there is something we hope to achieve. These purposes are
the communicative function of what we say.
The communicative function is not
always directly stated or transparent.
Its success is achieved because
listeners are used to interpreting what
such exchanges mean.
In many cases, it’s hard to decide
exactly what the communicative
function is unless we know the
context and who is speaking.
For example, in the sentence:
Someone is at the door
A student talking to his teacher
(someone wants to talk to you)
A mother talking to her son
(Can you open the door?)
A woman talking to someone on the phone
(Wait for me, I need to open the door
FUNCTIONS AND THEIR EXPONENTS
EXPONENTS of a function are examples of language used to
achieve a particular function. Some are fixed formulae that
allow for little or no alteration.
I can’t go along with you there Exponent
(disagreeing)
Function
Other exponents have more generative possibilities.
Would you like some coffee?
Exponent
(inviting)
Function
A change in stress and intonation can make an exponent
change its function.
He is very smart
Exponent
(praising) (being sarcastic)
Functions
SETTING
GENDER
TOPIC
APPROPRIACY
PARTICIPANTS
CHANNEL
• Setting
• Gender
• Informal spontaneous language at home
whereas we may use more pre-planned formal
speech in an office or work environment.
• Research shows that men and women use
language differently when addressing either
members of the same or the opposite sex.
• Channel
• Speaking : Face to face, on the phone,
speaking through a microphone
• Participants
• The people involved in the exchange:
colleagues, friends, family members, etc.
• Topic
• The topic we are addressing affects our lexical
and grammatical choices.
Designed as a companion for “Learning
Teaching” Methodology IV by S. Valdivia
Office of Academic Research - ICPNA