Teach english new edition r

Explaining language construction
We have already seen (on page 81) how the teacher can model a sentence such as ‘He’s 
painting the house’, isolating the features (‘he’s’ and ‘painting’) which are essential parts of 
its grammatical construction. We can use fingers or hands, too, to show how ‘he is’ turns 
into ‘he’s’ in speech or how ‘fast’ and ‘er’ are joined together to make a comparative adjective. 
We can also dem onstrate word and sentence 
stress 
by beating tim e with our arms. We can 
show 
intonation patterns 
by ‘drawing’ the tune in the air.
Some students will find such graphic gestures sufficient, but others like to see written 
explanations, or diagrams on boards and overhead projectors. If we are teaching the third 
conditional (see page 74), we m ight write the following on the board:
X -f 
/iad 
p a s t partic.lp/& ->■ to o u /d + ha$/e> + p a s t p a r tic ip i &
W ith an overhead projector, the teacher can write on overhead transparencies to draw 
attention to grammatical construction, as in the example on page 85 where the two main 
language areas of interest are the way headlines are written, and the use of pronouns for 
reference within a text (see anaphoric reference on page 
7 7
):
The same can be done with technology such as an interactive whiteboard (see page 
252). This has the added advantage that the end result can be saved or printed out for 
students to keep.
Another way of dem onstrating grammatical sequence is to write words on individual 
cards which can then be moved around (to show the difference between affirmative sentence 
order and the syntax of questions, for example). We can also m anipulate a set of 
Cuisenaire
rods 
(small blocks of wood of different colours and lengths). They can be used to show 
parts of speech, stress patterns and sentence construction.
Finally, it is often easiest to explain language construction. For example, if we want 
students to understand the rule about the third person singular of the present simple, we 
can say:
‘ Listen ... we say I play, you play, we play, they play, but with he, she and it we add 
an s. Listen, I play, she plays ... you play, he plays ... we play, it p lays.’
However, we will need to be careful that (a) explaining the construction of the language is 
fairly easy to do, and (b) that we can do it in language which the students we are teaching 
will find easy to understand.
84

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Teaching the language system
h&ad/'tne
. 3
o/yjit
articJ&s etd
“ NEIGHBOUR 
DOG IN STREET DISPUTE
- 
pt-e.Ss.rft St/yip
/ s
is o-Pten
USed
/’/? 
headhneS
C -G /y j/y jO S
US&d to
S e p a ra te  
p h ta s e
A (47-year-old max), W illiam Jesperson, bitC h ^Q eig hbo ur’s) 
dog in a dispute ab o u t(^ e ^ garden fence yesterday. Mrs 
(c a ro l Ramsey)has com plained to the police and her dog 
needed four stitches. The argument between neighbours 
( w illiam Jesperson and Carol Ram sey)started when Mrs 
Ram sey took down the fence between(fchei^two gardens.
She told her neighbour she was going to replace it with 
a newer one but she has not vet done so b e c a u s O she 
claim Q fche cannot afford to.
When the fence was removed Mrs Ram sey’s dog used Mr 
jesperson’s garden to play in, on one occasion frightening 
his tw o-year-old son. Despite repeated com plaints Mrs 
Ram sey had done nothing and when the dog chased Mr 
jesperson’s pet rabbit, the outraged father andG e t-lo v e j)
y o i/
took action.
‘We are investigating’, says a spokesw om an for Tham es 
Valley Police.
t h n k ?