grammar and meaning chapter three - lausd.net · chapter 3 grammar and meaning page 62 the grammar...

Teacher Education and Professional Development English Language Learners

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PREVIEW QUESTIONS:1. Why is grammar instruction important?2. What aspects of English grammar can be taught to

ELs?3. How can grammar be taught in the context of

discourse rather than in isolation?4. What specific grammar rules should ELs be taught?

When do students need to be taught these grammar rules?

5. How can instructors best determine their students’ grammar needs?

6. What should teachers know about their students’ first languages?

7. Must teachers hold students accountable for using the grammatical conventions of Standard English?

8. Where can teachers turn for additional information concerning English grammar?

INTRODUCTIONIn the last twenty years, grammar has often been ignored or under-emphasized in public school instruction. Many have not understood its importance in helping students express meaning, function in school activities, and accomplish communicative objectives. Some have not understood that students need more than knowledge of grammar rules and parts of speech; students need to be able to benefit from their knowledge of grammar. This knowledge should help them to communicate effectively in real situations. Knowledge of grammar without the ability to apply it is useless.

Many teachers do not understand grammar—let alone how to teach it to their students or how to help their students use their grammatical resources to express meaning. According to Wong Fillmore and Snow (2001), this is a nationwide phenomenon; many teachers have not been taught grammar. Consider, for example, the grammar test on the next page. At a recent workshop for high school English instructors and college instructors, fewer than 60% were able to pass the test.

The de-emphasis on grammar in our classrooms is unfortunate. Research has shown that elementary school teachers who focus their students’ attention on grammatical forms during communicative interactions

are more effective than those who do not (Lightbown, 1998; Spada & Lightbown, 1993). Today, most educators advocate teaching grammar in the context of meaningful communication and helping students increase their grammatical resources so that they can communicate effectively in a variety of situations (Celce-Murcia, 2001; Hinkel & Fotos, 2002; Larsen-Freeman, 2001; Weaver, 1996). They know that it is not enough just to teach the grammatical forms of English. As indicated in Figure One, they must teach students the meaning and the functions of linguistic forms (Celce-Murcia, 2001; Hinkel & Fotos, 2002; Larsen-Freeman, 2001). Teachers must ask themselves how is language formed, how, when and why is the form used, and what does the form mean?

In this functional/semantic view of grammar, grammatical features express meaning (semantics) and functions (pragmatics, including sociolinguistic and discourse competence; see Chapter One). Consider the sentence, “Antonia ran into the teacher last night.” The past tense form of the verb is used to indicate that the event took place in the past. The meaning of the

Grammar and Meaning CHAPTER THREE

THREE DIMENSIONS OF GRAMMAR LEARNING

Adapted from Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p. 4

FIGURE ONE

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Chapter 3 GRAMMAR AND MEANING

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THE GRAMMAR TEST

1. An is used to modify a noun.

2. Two adjectives in the sentences below are and . The plate is my favorite. It is a very hot day today.

3. An adverb is a word that is used to modify the meaning of a , , sentence or even another adverb.

4. Two adverbs in the sentences below are and . She drove slowly. Suddenly the boy jumped up and screamed.

5. The English articles are “a”, “an”, and .

6. The definite article “the” indicates a entity that both the reader and writer recognize.

7. There are two indefinite articles in English: and .

8. A clause is any group of words that has a and a .

9. In the sentence that follows, the dependent clause is . (Please write the clause in the blank.)

When I saw you last year, you were studying in Madrid.

10. A conditional sentence is a complex sentence that potentially expresses a hypothesis that is to fact.

11. Conditional sentences often begin with the word: . If it rains, I will stay inside.

12. A is a word that joins words, phrases, or clauses.

13. The sentences below contain two conjunctions: and . I like coffee and tea. I like ice cream, but I do not like cake.

14. A noun is a noun that can be preceded by a number indicating how many.

15. In the sentences below, there are four count nouns: , , and .

There are four books on my desk. There are ships in the harbor.

16. The opposite of a count noun is a noun (also called an ). Noncount words include water, rice, and mud.

17. Particles too small to be counted, such as , hair, and sugar, are noncount nouns.

18. In the list of words below, and are also noncount nouns. books pens love advice watches



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19. A sentence is a group of words that does not constitute a complete sentence. Three boys eating watermelon while playing Nintendo.

20. A is a verb with an -ing ending that functions as a noun. EXAMPLE: Skiing is fun.

21. An is a verb form that is not marked for tense or person. It is sometimes preceded by the word “to.”

EXAMPLE: He wanted to sing.

22. An intransitive verb is a verb that is not followed by an . EXAMPLE: “slept” in the following sentence: She slept late yesterday.

23. In the sentences below, the word, , can be both transitive and intransitive. John ate rice last night. John ate at ten last night.

24. include a class of verbs that indicate necessity, ability, possibility, permission, or obligation: can, could, would, should, ought, might, may, must, have to, had to.

25. In the sentences below, and are modal auxiliaries. Jane can ride horses very skillfully. I should study more.

26. A is a word indicating a relationship between two things that may be spatial, temporal, grammatical or metaphorical.

EXAMPLE: about, above, across, after, against, along, amid among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, for, from, in, into, like, near, of, off, on, out, over, past, since, through, to, towards, under, unto, up, upon, with, within

27. A pronoun is a form that takes the place of a or a noun phrase.

28. The subject pronoun in the sentence below is . She is not happy with her grade this quarter.

29. A sentence in written English occurs when two independent clauses are joined together with commas, inappropriate conjunctions, or no punctuation at all. EXAMPLE: I ate my lunch I polished my shoes I saw my friend and then I went to the mall.

30. The (of a sentence) is the noun or noun phrase of the MAIN verb in the sentence.

31. In the following sentences, the subjects are: and . Cows graze on grass all day long. Kennedy died before I was born.

32. A is a word that shows action or state of being.

33. In the following sentences, is an action verb. John runs quickly. Ku-sup is here.

34. Ten prepositions in English are: (The answer key is at the end of this chapter on pages 103 and 104.)



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phrasal verb ran + into could mean that the meeting was an informal chance encounter or the meaning of ran + into could mean that Antonia hit her teacher when she was running. To understand the how, when and why of the form, in other words, its pragmatic functions, it is important to know how the speaker intended to use the informal words, ran into, instead of the more formal words, encountered or hit. (This is discussed by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, 1999.) ELs need to learn not just specific forms of English grammar but also other forms that provide them with alternative, more appropriate means of expressing their meanings and accomplishing communicative objectives. The content of grammar instruction should include the texts that students read and write (Booth Olson, 2002; Weaver, 1996).

Teaching the forms, functions and meanings of English grammar requires knowledge of English grammar that many of our teachers lack. One reason that English teachers and others no longer know much grammar is that second language researchers and compositionists have often de-emphasized the importance of grammar (see, e.g., Krashen, 1981, 1982; Krashen & Terrell, 1983). However, all learners including ELs must receive grammar instruction in order to excel in academic settings (Jago, 2002; Scarcella, 1996). The demand for teacher expertise in grammar is immediate. The learner’s development of grammar must not be left to chance; it must be taught carefully. If teachers do not ensure that students learn an extensive array of grammatical forms, gaps in grammatical knowledge that appear developmental can stabilize and become a permanent part of the students’ language use (Brown, 1994).

It is not helpful to think about grammar as a finite set of static, decontextualized structures, nor merely as a list of prescriptive rules (Celce-Murcia, 2001). It is more helpful to consider what exactly grammar is and how grammatical structures and features convey meaning and help speakers and writers to express themselves effectively in a variety of situations.

1. WHAT IT MEANS TO KNOW ENGLISH GRAMMARGrammar includes many aspects of linguistic knowledge, including morphology and syntax.

Morphology

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaningful sound. An example of a morpheme is the -s ending on the word hits. English morphemes can be divided into the various categories indicated below:

English Morphology

Free Morphemes Bound Morphemes

Content Function Derivational Inflectional words words Morphemes Morphemes cat an successful drinks table but successfully asked

Free morphemes—consisting of content words, such as cat, milk, and desk— and function words, such as prepositions (in, on), articles (the, a), and conjunctions (and, or) make sense when they stand alone. Content words carry the content of a message. Function words are not sufficient by themselves to carry a message without some content words. However, people often think of function words as the glue of language, since they hold sentences together. Consider this example:

The old bucket sprang a leak.

In this sentence, the words the and a are function words and old, bucket, and leak are content words. Note that new content words are frequently added to English, whereas new function words are not. The distinction between content words and function words is basic and well-known. It pertains not only to English but to many other language groups.

Bound morphemes, such as the comparative –er on the word prettier, cannot stand alone. They must be attached to free morphemes to make sense. Speakers can answer the question, What do you want? with the free morpheme, milk. They cannot answer the question, What do you want? with the bound morpheme, –est.

Two important types of morphemes are inflectional and derivational.

1. Inflectional suffixes, meaningful word endings such as –ing, are attached to the base (or stem) of a word and often signify number or tense. Here are some



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examples of inflectional endings: the -s on runs, the -ed on painted, the -es on churches. Inflectional morphology is concerned with the manner in which word stems are combined with grammatical morphemes to mark plurality and tense. Word stems refer to the base forms of words. In the word runs, run is considered the base form. Only certain words can combine with specific inflections. Verbs combine with –s and –ed, but not with –ness. It is not possible in English to add an –ed past verb tense inflectional ending to nouns. For instance, it is not possible to form a verb, lamped, from the noun, lamp. Inflectional morphemes are often complex. One inflectional suffix is the agentive ending -er/-or. Most inflectional endings can attach to only one part of speech (such as a noun, verb, or adjective). However, the agentive ending -er/-or, which usually attaches to verb bases (as in the words singer, instructor, and catcher), also attaches to nouns (such as prisoner) and adjectives (such as the comparative, stranger).

Four inflections can be used with verbs:

The –s ending of third person singular present tense verbs: He shops everyday.

The –ed ending of regular past tense verbs. He walked yesterday.

The –en ending of regular past participles. He has eaten his breakfast.

The –ing ending of the present participle. He is sleeping.

Examples of Inflectional Morphemes

plural -s three bookspossessive -s Bill’s coatcomparative largersuperlative largest

third person -s He runs.regular past tense -ed forms He jumped.irregular past tense forms He sang, wept, and ate.present participle She is singing.past participle He has jumped.

2. Derivational suffixes, such as -ment in the word government, change the part of speech of their base. For instance, the derivational suffix -ly changes the noun form friend to the adverb form friendly. Where inflectional morphology is concerned with the combination of stems with morphemes, derivational morphology involves the construction of the stems themselves. Typical cases of derivational morphology involve the English suffixes that change parts of speech.

They can change nouns into adjectives, nouns into verbs, and verbs into nouns:

fool foolish (noun > adjective)

advertisement advertise (noun > verb)

advertise advertisement (verb > noun)

Examples of Derivational Morphemeshappy happinessfool foolishbad badlypay paymentpre previewdis disproveun unhappy

Characteristics of Morphemes

Morphemes have specific characteristics related to pronunciation, meaning, and word families. The base of a word affects the pronunciation of an inflectional morpheme. For instance, the plural morpheme -s assimilates or borrows the phonetic feature of voicing of the final sound in the base. As a result, students pronounce the -s in the word bees as a [z] and the -s in the word tops as a [s]. This is because the vowel e that precedes the -s in bees is voiced and the consonant sound p that precedes the -s in tops is voiceless.

Morphemes also always have some meaning. For instance, the progressive verb ending -ing in the word singing carries the meaning of duration. In addition, morphemes are related semantically to their base forms such that competent English speakers know that the word run is related to running and the word govern is related to government.

Inflectional endings are particularly difficult for ELs (Nation, 1993). First, these endings are often redundant and unnecessary to clarify meaning. Learners do not need inflectional morphemes to convey the gist of their messages in ordinary situations. Consider the sentence, He has two pencils. The word two indicates that the sentence is plural. The plural inflection –s is, therefore, redundant. It does not help to make the meaning of the sentence understood since the plurality of pencils is already evident. Second, inflectional endings are often unstressed in speech. Learners may not hear them or attend to them. Third, the speakers with whom many English learners interact may not use them. This is particularly the case in linguistically isolated communities where diverse dialects of nonstandard English are used. Fourth, many learners speak first



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languages such as Chinese and Korean that do not have inflectional morphemes. They may fall back on their knowledge of their first language when communicating in English. Finally, once ELs no longer act as though they are struggling to use English, speakers rarely provide them with instructional feedback on their use of morphemes when they are talking to them. They may help learners who are just beginning to acquire English to use them, but rarely do native speakers correct the inflectional endings used in conversation by students of intermediate or advanced English proficiency. Only in writing are errors in the use of morphemes corrected, and even then, often inadequately or inconsistently.

Derivational morphemes can also be problematic for ELs. Many academic ones are rarely used in everyday conversation. Also, related words are easy to confuse. For instance, ELs often have difficulty acquiring the -ful morpheme on the word successful. Consider, for example, these related words: succeed (verb), success (noun), and successful (adj.). Instead of stating: We succeed because we value success and we want to be successful, ELs might state: We succeed because we value success and want to be success.

ELs often make errors based on their partial knowledge of derivational morphemes. It is easiest for them to learn noun and verb forms and most difficult for them to learn adverb and adjective forms (Schmidtt & Boyd Zimmerman, 2002).

Syntax

Knowing English grammar also entails knowing its syntax. Syntax refers to the order of words in a sentence. It enables learners to combine words in different ways. Learners can combine words to change the meaning of their sentences. For instance, they can say, I saw a bear kill the man, or they can say, I saw the man that the bear killed. They can use juxtaposition; that is, simply string sentences together (I saw a man. He was killed. A bear killed him), or they can use conjunctions (I saw a man

and a bear killed him) or relativization (I saw the man who the bear killed).

Many words can be categorized syntactically. Verbs, for example, can be classified by the words that follow them:

VERB TYPE SYNTAX EXAMPLE

Intransitive verbs take no object Henry jumps.

Transitive verbs require an object John grows watermelons.

Ditransitive verbs take two objects I gave Pablo the book.

Linking verbs follow the subject and relate to it John is president.

Sentences can be simple, compound or complex. The simple sentence patterns are these:

Subject + verb John fell.

Subject + verb + object They drank their milk.

Subject + verb + indirect object + object I sang him a song.

Subject + verb + subject predicate Paul is the teacher.

Subject + verb + object predicate Linn makes her happy.(Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999.)

Sentences can also be compound, consisting of two or more clauses that are of equal grammatical importance. (Remember, a clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb, but which is usually only a part of a sentence.) Coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but) connect compound sentences. Sentences can also be complex (containing a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses). Subordinate clauses may be introduced by subordinating conjunctions, because and although. Complex sentences can also be made by embedding a dependent clause in an independent clause. In the sentence, I believed that you were wrong, that you were wrong is the dependent clause.

Whereas in informal, everyday English, sentences are often linked together with the words and, but, and because, in academic English, sentences are often linked together by means of other transition words and connectors (sometimes called cohesive devices; see, e.g., Halliday & Hassan, 1976). These are listed on pages 65-68.



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TRANSITIONS AND CONNECTORSBETWEEN SENTENCES AND CLAUSES

Subordinating Conjunctions connect a dependent clause to an independent clause and generally appear at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence.

Coordinating Conjunctions join two words or sentence elements that have identical functions and generally appear in the middle of a sentence after a comma.

Transitions link and clarify the relationship between whole sentences and generally appear after a period or semicolon.

To Add InformationTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

and Coordinating Conjunction- use a comma They live in Los Angeles, and they study at before a coordinating conjunction that University High School. links independent clauses

also Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Hue loves to read fiction. Also, she likes nonfiction. two related clauses separated by a semicolon; use at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

furthermore Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Los Angeles is a beautiful city; furthermore, two related clauses separated by a semicolon; its architecture is interesting. use at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

in addition Transition- use a comma after a transition at the He speaks Cantonese. In addition, he is beginning of a sentence or after a transition that studying Thai. follows a semicolon

To Give ExamplesTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

for example Transition- use a comma after a transition at the For example, last summer I took classes at beginning of a sentence or after a transition that summer school. OR I took classes, for example, follows a semicolon math and history.

for instance Transition- use a comma after a transition at the There are many reasons I study. beginning of a sentence or after a transition that For instance, studying helps me get good grades. follows a semicolon

To Show Reason or CauseTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

because Subordinating Conjunction- only use a comma Because my brother worked until 3:00 A.M., after a subordinating clause that begins a sentence he is tired. OR My brother is tired because he studied until 3:00 A.M.

since Subordinating Conjunction- only use a comma Since he partied last night, he is skipping class after a subordinating clause that begins a sentence this morning. OR He is skipping class this morning since he partied last night.



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To Show SimilarityTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

likewise Conjunctive Adverb/Transition English was my best subject last year; likewise, - use to connect two related clauses separated by it is my favorite class this year. a semicolon; use at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

similarly Conjunctive Adverb/Transition The U.S. is a country of immigrants. Similarly, - use to connect two related clauses separated by Canada is composed of many immigrants. a semicolon; use at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

To EmphasizeTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

in fact Transition- use a comma after a transition at the There are many trees there; in fact, it is the beginning of a sentence or after a transition that largest forest in the nation. follows a semicolon

in other words Transition- use a comma after a transition at the They will be up all night; in other words, they beginning of a sentence or after a transition that have an important test tomorrow. follows a semicolon

moreover Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Stanford has high entrance standards. two related clauses separated by a semicolon; Moreover, fewer than 10% of applicants are use at the beginning of one sentence to show its accepted. relationship to the previous one

To ContrastTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

although Subordinating Conjunction- only use a comma Although Americans value independence, most after a subordinating clause that begins a sentence American families are strong. OR Most American families are strong although Americans value independence.

even though Subordinating Conjunction- only use a comma I want to study Calculus, even though it is after a subordinating clause that begins a sentence difficult. OR Even though it is difficult, I want to study Calculus.

but Coordinating Conjunction- use a comma before She got good grades, but she didn’t pass a coordinating conjunction that links independent the difficult test. clauses

however Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Class usually starts at 9:00; however, today it two related clauses separated by a semicolon; use started at 9:30. at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

in contrast Transition- use a comma after a transition at the In contrast to California, Oregon has more beginning of a sentence or after a transition that rainy than sunny days. follows a semicolon

nevertheless Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to She loves UCSF; nevertheless, she will go to connect two related clauses separated by a school at UCLA. semicolon; use at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

on the other hand Transition- use a comma after a transition at Kim studies a lot. On the other hand, her the beginning of a sentence or after a transition brother never opens a book. that follows a semicolon



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To Show ChoiceTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

or Coordinating Conjunction- use a comma I will go to pharmacy school, or I will go to before a coordinating conjunction that links medical school. independent clauses

To Show ResultTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

so Coordinating Conjunction- use a comma My study group meets frequently, so we have before a coordinating conjunction that links received good grades. independent clauses

consequently Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Ali is good with numbers; consequently, she is two related clauses separated by a semicolon; use majoring in math. at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

therefore Transition- use a comma after a transition at the She didn’t get financial aid. Therefore, she beginning of a sentence or after a transition works and goes to school. that follows a semicolon

thus Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Jim’s GPA is 3.8. Thus, he graduated with two related clauses separated by a semicolon; use honors. at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

To Show Time or OrderTRANSITION/CONNECTOR FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

after Subordinating Conjunction- only use a After she graduates, she plans to travel. comma after a subordinating clause that begins OR She plans to travel after she graduates. a sentence

until Subordinating Conjunction- only use a comma Until Kelly graduates from high school, she will after a subordinating clause that begins a sentence live in Fresno. OR Kelly will live in Fresno until she graduates from high school.

when Subordinating Conjunction- only use a comma I got an F when I plagiarized from the novel. after a subordinating clause that begins a sentence OR When I plagiarized from the novel, I got an F.

finally Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Finally, he finished the paper after three long two related clauses separated by a semicolon; use months. at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

meanwhile Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect I am studying physics; meanwhile, my sister is two related clauses separated by a semicolon; studying engineering. use at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

next Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect Next, Ana will quit studying and go to the two related clauses separated by a semicolon; use gym. at the beginning of one sentence to show its relationship to the previous one

then Conjunctive Adverb/Transition- use to connect She went to the movies with her friends. Then two related clauses separated by a semicolon; they went out for a coke. use at the beginning of one sentence to show its I combined the cake mix with water and eggs; relationship to the previous one then I put it in the oven.



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EXPRESSION FUNCTION AND USE EXAMPLE

not only . . . , but also Correlative Conjunction He is not only studying, but he also is listening to music.

both . . . and Correlative Conjunction Both my English and history classes require research papers.

either . . . or Correlative Conjunction We can either eat ice cream or cake.

neither . . . nor Correlative Conjunction Neither the weather nor the accommodations were as nice as we had hoped.

whether . . . or Correlative Conjunction Whether he works this summer or goes to school, he will move in August.

so . . . that Intensifier The instructor is so happy that the class is doing well.(Cain, Earle-Carlin, Hildebrand, & Scarcella, 2001, pp. 33-36)

Spanish-speaking students often have difficulty learning to use transitions to avoid run-on sentences in English and need considerable practice in avoiding run-on sentences and using complete sentences accurately. This could be because Spanish sentences are often longer than English sentences, or it could be that the students use lengthy, informal English clauses conjoined by and, but, and because in their writing. Many academic connectors and transitions are difficult to teach without careful planning. Students need to be exposed to these transitions, receive instruction in using them, learn their grammatical constraints, and review them systematically. Some transitions, such as in addition, finally, next, then, consequently, and in fact are easier to teach than others, such as however, therefore, and in contrast. Learners from some Asian language backgrounds (namely, Vietnamese and Chinese) need to be taught that specific transitions (such as although and but) cannot be used in the same sentence. (Sentences such as Although he likes me, but he is not my friend may be used by these students.) All learners need to know that the repeated use of transitions such as so and and will make their writing look overly informal and the overuse of transitions such as first, second, and third will make their writing look overly formulaic.

RATIONALE FOR TEACHING GRAMMARSupport for the idea that ELs are capable of acquiring grammar through natural exposure to conversational and reading input rather than instruction primarily comes from Krashen (1981, 1982; Krashen & Terrell, 1983). (See Chapter Two.) In Krashen’s theoretical work, he minimized the role of grammar instruction in teaching ELs. He proposed a model that distinguishes between two processes: acquisition and learning. He used the term acquisition to refer to acquiring the

language subconsciously—much as children acquire their first language. He used the term learning to refer to the conscious study of grammar rules. Krashen argued for the existence of a Monitor that uses memorized grammar rules to correct grammatical mistakes. In Krashen’s view, acquisition and learning are completely different processes. Learning plays a relatively minor role in second language development and does not lead to acquisition. For Krashen, the memorization of rules should be downplayed when teaching ELs. However, now that the results of statewide testing show that so many ELs have failed to acquire proficiency in English, instructors see the need for grammar instruction. In fact, it is considered an essential element of language learning in the California standards, curricular materials, and assessment. What follows is a list of practical arguments for the teaching of grammar.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GRAMMAR IN ACADEMIC SETTINGSGrammar plays a critical role in academic English. Without grammar, learners can communicate effectively only in a limited number of informal, everyday situations. They might be able to get away with using ungrammatical sentences such as My grammars no good. I still learn English with their friends, but their grades will be lowered if they use such sentences when they are making oral presentations in academic settings.

“Grammar is assessed in all the state’s English tests.”



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ACQUISITIONRecent research shows that grammar instruction makes a difference in second language development. It indicates that when learners are taught grammar rules or asked to attend to specific features of English grammar, their English improves. One set of studies suggests that when students pay attention to English grammatical features, they increase the rate at which they acquire grammatical features and attain higher levels of grammatical accuracy (Lightbown, 1998; Lightbown & Spada, 1990). Well-timed classroom instruction can speed the acquisition of specific grammatical features. Such instruction is given at a time when the learners: (1) have already acquired the prerequisite knowledge they need to process the instruction; (2) are paying attention to the instruction; and (3) are sufficiently motivated to use the instruction. A related set of studies indicates the importance of focusing the learners’ attention on grammatical forms. Swain (1998) argues that focus on form helps learners to learn grammatical features. Like Swain, Doughty (1991) also provides evidence that a focus on form (for example, by asking students to learn grammar rules, underline grammatical features, or talk about the grammatical features) facilitates English

language development. Doughty’s research shows the positive effect of focusing the learners’ attention on relative clauses. Long (1983) summarizes the results of 11 studies and shows that instruction helps learners acquire grammatical features. Six of the studies Long analyzed showed faster development in children and adults receiving formal instruction, two arguably had similar results, and three showed that instruction had a minor or insignificant effect on learner production. Long concludes that grammar instruction can help learners of all proficiency levels. (See, also, Fotos, 1994; Gass, 1982; Lightbown & Spada, 1990; Pavesi, 1986; Pica, 1983; and Weslander & Stephany, 1983. For useful reviews of the literature, see Doughty & Williams, 1998; Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991; and Long, 1983.)

INPUTWhen ELs study grammar, they receive valuable input for English language development. This is because learners memorize rules to produce language (output) that often serves as the learners’ own input and leads to further language acquisition. (See Figure 1).

Learners are not necessarily exposed in conversation and in books to the grammatical structures that they must acquire to further their language development. (See,

FIGURE 1

THE ROLE OF LEARNING AND ACQUISITION

LEARNS RULE

The learner memorizes rule. The learner learns to put an -s on the end of verbs with singular subjects.

USES RULE

The learner uses learned rule. Then the learner The learner starts to say, John go to school.

thinks of rule and applies it.

PRODUCES OUTPUT

The learner produces language with the The learner says, John goes to school.

use of the learned rule.

USES OUTPUT AS INPUT

The learner’s own output serves as input. The learner processes his or her own output.

ACQUIRES NEW GRAMMATICAL FEATURE

Input triggers acquisition of structure. The learner acquires the third person -s morpheme.

Scarcella & Oxford, 1993, p. 173



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for example, Schmidt, 1983; Schmidt & Frota, 1986; and Swain, 1985.) They are certainly not exposed in conversation to the grammatical structures of academic English (Rumberger & Scarcella, 2000). For instance, it is important for older learners to learn to use passive structures, such as The novel was written by James, since these structures frequently occur in their academic textbooks; however, passives occur infrequently in informal casual conversations. Instructors need to consider the grammatical features that their students should learn and expose their students to these features systematically. The grammar of social studies is different from the grammar of history or of science. The grammar of writing is different from the grammar of speaking.

Grammatical structures such as passives are not acquired suddenly. Rather, different aspects of their form, their meaning, and pragmatic use are acquired over time. As a result, there is a need to review or recycle the learners’ exposure to grammatical structures. While some repeated exposure to grammatical structures might occur naturally, (through the students’ reading, for example), systematic, scheduled repeated exposure to the structures is necessary so that the learners have sufficient exposure to the features. It is vital that the teacher “fill in the gaps,” in other words, introduce new structures that do not occur in the students’ input during natural classroom discourse (Spada & Lightbown, 1993).

Unfortunately, many learners cannot pick up grammar on their own through exposure to English input. None of the following necessarily facilitates grammatical development.

• Learners talking to friends;

• Learners talking informally to the instructor;

• Learners reading texts; and

• Learners writing a lot.

Learners do not necessarily acquire grammar from talking to their friends if their friends are ELs who have not acquired strong English skills (Lightbown & Spada, 1990). Even if their friends do speak Standard English, they will probably not acquire the grammar of academic English from them (Scarcella, 1996). This is because friends do not use academic English in ordinary situations. It would be considered very strange for a student to tell his friend, “As stated previously, I contend that students must be allowed to wear clothes of their own choosing.” It would be far more likely for a student

to say, “Like I said before, they gotta let us wear what we wanna.”

Learners do not necessarily acquire academic grammar from talking to their instructor. This is because instructors usually do not use academic English when talking informally to their students. Only when instructors give academic lectures or engage students in academic discussions are the learners usually exposed to academic English. However, even when the instructor deliberately exposes students to academic English, learners might not acquire the grammatical features of this variety of English. To acquire academic English, they need to pay attention to it and practice using it. This usually requires well-structured instruction.

Learners do not necessarily acquire English grammar by reading. Many learners have learned to read the gist of books without attending to their linguistic features. When learners read for the gist, they do not acquire English grammar from their reading (Scarcella, 1996).

Learners do not necessarily acquire English grammar by writing a lot. Writing without instruction helps ELs to develop confidence in using English, not accuracy (Scarcella, 1996).

Exposure to Nonstandard Varieties of English

Grammar instruction is particularly important when teaching learners who have acquired a nonstandard variety of English. These learners cannot acquire the grammar of Standard English through their everyday encounters. In situations in which learners do not have exposure to the standard variety of English, the classroom can help the learners to compensate for their lack of exposure to Standard English grammar. Instructors can deliberately structure grammar lessons that expose students to grammatical features, teach students the use of these features, provide students with practice using these features, and give detailed feedback on their use.

Motivation and Individual Differences

Many ELs like to learn English grammar because it fulfills cultural expectations. Some cultures place great value on grammatical correctness. For example, ELs who are recent arrivals to the United States from traditional Mexican backgrounds often appreciate the explicit instruction of rules. The traditional Mexican respect for the instructor’s authority is consistent with instructor-fronted lessons that have an emphasis on error correction and the memorization of grammar rules. A



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salient feature of Chinese education is also a concern with grammatical correctness (Maley, 1987). It is not surprising then that learners from such diverse cultures as El Salvador, Mexico, the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, and Russia all experience frustration when participating in classes in which there is no grammar instruction. Instructors from the United States may not feel comfortable providing this instruction, but many ELs both expect and prefer it.

Testing

Most students have to pass exams, such as the CAT-6, SAT-II and the California High School Exit Exam. These exams assess the students’ knowledge of grammar. Students can significantly improve the scores they receive on these exams by studying grammar. This is why Kaplan, the Princeton Review, and Ivy West—organizations that provide college test preparation to high school students—teach grammar to students who are preparing to take college entrance exams.

Understanding

Knowledge of grammar often helps learners understand the English that they read and hear (Scarcella & Oxford, 1993). In comprehending sentences, ELs often construct meaning by focusing on the content words that they understand, and their own background knowledge. However, ELs are able to understand sentences more accurately when they complement this knowledge with their knowledge of grammar.

Enjoyment

Grammar instruction can be enjoyable for both native and non-native English speaking students (Booth Olson, 2002; Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Swain, 1985; and Weaver, 1996). Many students look forward to discovering the way English grammar works. Older learners, in particular, often want to learn grammar to make sense of the language they hear and read.

ISSUES PERTAINING TO GRAMMAR INSTRUCTIONThe above rationale necessitates support for grammar instruction. To facilitate this instruction, the following issues should be considered.

The Effect of the Learner’s First Language

The students’ knowledge of their home language can have both a positive and a negative effect on their use of the grammatical features of English. If transfer is positive, it helps students to communicate effectively.

Transferring subject-verb-object word order from Hmong to English might be considered positive transfer. If it is negative, transferring features from their first languages into English prevents learners from communicating effectively and results in errors. Transferring the double negatives from Spanish into English might be considered negative transfer. Much has been written on second language transfer, transferring features of one’s first language into a second. However, it should be noted that many ELs are in the process of losing their first language or have never acquired the language used by their parents. These students are not likely to transfer features from their first languages into written English. They are more likely to transfer features of informal spoken English into their academic, written English than they are to transfer features of their first language into their second. Transfer, whether from oral English into written English or from the first language into the second, occurs when learners fall back on their previous linguistic knowledge when lacking the linguistic features needed to communicate effectively.

First language transfer is a common occurrence among international students and older learners who (1) have just arrived to the United States and (2) do know their first languages. This is particularly the case when the learners are just beginning to acquire English. Sometimes learners continue to transfer features from their first languages even when they are at the intermediate and advanced stages of second language development. Teachers who instruct ELs might find it useful to understand their students’ first languages. Knowledge of the students’ first languages will allow them to understand some of the grammar mistakes that their students make. It will also help them to provide their students with better grammar explanations.

To illustrate the types of grammar problems that some ELs make, what follows is a list of the major grammar problems that three specific groups of ELs of Spanish, Hmong, and Chinese first language backgrounds sometimes encounter. These problems were derived through an analysis of language contrasts and language use. (For a description of the grammar problems that students from other first languages make, see Swan and Smith, 2001.)

Caution: Many students will not necessarily make the error types listed. The list is only intended as a useful reference. Refer to the references on page 100.



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GRAMMAR PROBLEMS THAT SOME SPANISH SPEAKERS ENCOUNTER WHEN LEARNING ENGLISH

Overview

Compared with English, Spanish:

• has a highly inflected verb system

• has freer word order

• shows gender and number in adjectives and nouns

• uses definite articles for generalization (Spanish speakers might state, The medicine is an important field.)

• has no two-word verbs (such as call up, sit down, watch out)

• has no modal auxiliaries (such as can, may, must)

• has no equivalent of English there is/there are

• uses double negatives

• makes no distinction between subject and object pronouns (Spanish speakers might state, I gave the bike to he.)

• uses lengthier sentences with more embedded clauses and subordination

Adverbs

• In Spanish, adjectives typically come before nouns, while in English adjectives typically come after nouns. Spanish speakers might state: They live in the house green, whereas English speakers would state: They live in the green house.

• Noun phrases that are modified by many adjectives might be difficult for Spanish speaking students. The expression, High School Book Club, might be stated as The Club of Books of the High School.

• Spanish speakers might have difficulty knowing where to place adverbs of frequency (such as always, never, seldom, and frequently). In Spanish, adverbs may not be placed between the helping verb and the base form of a verb. Spanish speakers might state, Often she has helped. or She has helped often, whereas native English speakers would state, She has often helped.

Direct and Indirect Objects

• In Spanish, an indirect object must be preceded by the Spanish preposition a (a is translated into English as to) and the indirect object and direct object can go in either order. This is not the case in English. Spanish speakers might say, They gave to Mike the bike. They might also say, They gave the bike to Mike. In English, the indirect object Mike must precede the direct object bike. The correct sentence in English, They gave Mike the bike, might be very difficult for Spanish speakers because they might want to use to before the indirect object, Mike. As a consequence, they might try to avoid using this type of sentence.

Negation

• Auxiliaries (such as have, are and do) play no part in forming negative sentences in Spanish; the negative particle is no and Spanish speakers might replace the word not with no and come up with the following sentence: I no understand.

• Note that in Spanish, the negative word goes before the verb phrase. Spanish speakers might say, Lynn not found the book. or Lynn not has found the book.

• The double negative is expected and preferred in Spanish. Spanish speakers might say, I not saw nobody or I didn’t see nobody.

Modal Auxiliaries

• Since in Spanish modal auxiliaries (such as can, must, should, and would) do not exist, Spanish speakers might find the meaning of modal auxiliaries difficult to understand. Spanish speakers might say, She could find her car. (when they mean She managed to find her car.).

• Spanish speakers might try to make the modal agree with the subject. They might say Mary cans sing. instead of Mary can sing.

• Spanish speakers might use two auxiliaries in one sentence as in the following sentence: Do you can swim?

Verb Phrases

Many English verb phrases consisting of “be” + adjective are expressed in Spanish by “have” + noun.



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SPANISH EXAMPLE ENGLISH EXAMPLE

Have reason I have reason. Be right I am right.

Have hunger I have hunger. Be hungry I am hungry.

Have hot I have hot. Be hot I am hot.

Have years I have fifteen. Be years I am fifteen.

Verb Tense

• The simple present is often used in Spanish to refer to a future time. Spanish speakers might state:

Do I come tomorrow?

I do it next week.

I see her later.

• The present tense in Spanish is often used to refer to a period starting in past time and continuing up to the present. (English uses the present perfect to refer to events that began in the past and continue up to the present.)

SPANISH SPEAKERS MIGHT STATE: ENGLISH SPEAKERS WOULD STATE:

How long are you working How long have you been in your present job? working in your present job?

It’s a long time that I live here. I have lived here a long time.

Punctuation

Spanish punctuation conventions are similar to those of English, but commas are often used where English would use semicolons, and semicolons are used where English would use periods. Hence, Spanish speakers might make comma splice errors and run-on sentence errors when writing in English. The following sentence would be correct in Spanish, but incorrect in English: John is going to the store, Mary sees him.

THE GRAMMAR PROBLEMS THAT HMONG SPEAKERS MIGHT ENCOUNTER WHEN LEARNING ENGLISHCalifornia has the largest population of Hmong in the United States. The Hmong are thought to have originated in China’s Central Plain and migrated to Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, where they lived in mountainous areas and followed agrarian lifestyles. Many of the Laotian Hmong, uprooted by war, came to the United States. Presently, the largest population of Hmong is in California. There are large communities of Hmong in the Central Valley as well as in northern and southern California. They speak two mutually intelligent dialects, Green (sometimes called Blue) Hmong and White Hmong. The dialects are named for the colors of their

traditional dress. Writing systems for Hmong, dating to the end of the last century in China, were learned by only a small percentage of the people. Missionary linguists (Reverend G. Linwood Barney and Dr. William A. Smalley with Father M. Bertrais) and others wrote Hmong in the Roman alphabet in the 1950s. Hmong and English are in two different language families and have many grammatical differences.

Overview

Compared with English, Hmong:

• forms sentences with subject-predicate structures (such as The book is on the table in which the book is the subject and is is the verb) as well as with topic-comment structures (The cake, it is on the table in which cake is the topic and it is on the table is the comment.)

• forms new words through compounding (roommate, airplane) rather than by using prefixes (re-, un- dis-) or suffixes (-or, -er, -ly, -ation).

• does not inflect verbs to indicate time or aspect (e.g., Hmong speakers might say Yesterday I go.)

• does not mark subject-verb agreement (e.g., Hmong speakers might say, I go, he go.)

• does not mark nouns for gender, number (singular/plural), or case (nominative, accusative, dative, etc.) and uses classifiers with every noun to point out its specific characteristics (e.g., animate/non-animate, shape and functions). For instance, the classifier tus is used with nouns referring to human beings, animals, and things that closely affect people (such as disease). All nouns in Hmong have classifiers, which is why Hmong is called a classifier language.

• uses particles as classifiers to mark nouns, question indicators, tense and aspect indicators, pre-verbal and post-verbal intensifiers, topics, prepositions and many other linguistic features.

• does not mark pronouns for gender (e.g., she/he, his/her), and uses three groups of pronouns (singular, dual, and plural).

• does not use adjectives but instead uses stative verbs such as to be small/green/happy.

• forms questions by adding question words, not by changing word order or intonation.



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• does not use articles.

• uses series of verbs (I’ll go arrive your home; The lizard crawl go out the door.)

Sentence and Discourse Structure

Although both Hmong and English use the same subject-predicate structures, Hmong also uses topic/comment structures. Topics are not the same as subjects. Topics are what sentences are all about. They draw hearers’ attention to an entity about which some new information is provided (Jakendoff, 2002). In Hmong, sentences frequently have both a topic and a subject. Consider the sentences below.

Jane, visiting friend: Hmm. What should we read? I’ve got Amy Tan, Shakespeare, John Steinbeck. . .

Friend: I don’t like John Steinbeck. . .

Jane (breaks in): Oh, and I’ve got Hemmingway.

Friend: Hemmingway, I like. Let’s read Hemmingway.

Note that in the italicized sentence above, Hemmingway is the topic, and I is the subject. I like could be considered a comment about the topic, Hemmingway.

Hemmingway, I like.

Topic Comment

Topic/comment sentence structure occurs frequently in Hmong as well as in other Asian languages.

Parts of Speech

• In Hmong, though not in English, parts of speech are not formally identified. The same word may have different grammatical functions. Hmong speakers might not be able to distinguish related words such as difficult and difficulty, success and successful. They might also have problems understanding that certain places in an English sentence must be filled with words of specific parts of speech. Hmong speakers might state: Mrs. Smith has a lot of fail., or Mrs. Smith is fail., and Mrs. Smith fail.

Verb Forms

• Speakers of Hmong do not use inflections. What English speakers accomplish by changing verb forms (e.g., adding –ed to a verb to form the past tense), Hmong speakers achieve by using adverbs, word order, and context. English inflections might be confusing for some Hmong students. They might

make subject/verb agreement errors such as Nobody are here and The book and the pen is on the table.

• Hmong speakers might not know how to form past tense verbs. They might state, He paint house yesterday instead of He painted the house yesterday. Even though Hmong speakers do use helping verbs in Hmong, they might not know how to form complex verb forms with helping verbs in English. For example, they might state, He have see me and The phone was ring yesterday instead of He has seen me and The phone was ringing yesterday.

• Hmong speakers can string verbs together without coordination and/or subordination markers. In English, they might state: You must go look for ask visit others.

Time, Tense and Aspect

• Hmong speakers express time very differently from English speakers. As suggested above, they do not use verb endings to show time relations. Instead, they use temporal adverb expressions such as yesterday, next year, and tomorrow. In their view, using both verb endings (such as -ed) and adverbs (such as yesterday) is redundant. Hmong learners might have difficulty in handling English verb tense and aspect. Aspect refers to the grammatical way language profiles a situation in terms of duration (ongoing situation), completion (completed situation) or iteration (repeated situation).

HMONG LEARNERS MIGHT STATE: ENGLISH SPEAKERS WOULD STATE:

I have seen her last night. I saw her last night.

I still remembered when I remember when I was in I was in high school. high school.

• Some Hmong students might falsely believe that the names of the tenses indicate time. For instance, they might think that the present tense indicates the present time, and they might not understand these sentences:

There is a new movie out next week.

Towards the end of the play, Hamlet kills his father’s murderer.

• Progressive aspects might be particularly difficult for the Hmong. For example, they might state, What are you do? instead of What are you doing? They might state, I study here a long time instead of I have been studying here a long time.

Verb Patterns



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• Verb complements (words, phrases, or clauses that complete the meaning of predicates) might be particularly difficult for Hmong learners, since these do not exist in Hmong. Hmong speakers might make errors of the following types:

I suggest to come tomorrow. Most people describe that she is beautiful. She told that she’d be here.

Auxiliaries, Questions, and Negatives

• In Hmong, auxiliaries are not used to form questions and negatives. Hence the use of do and does might present some Hmong learners with problems. Hmong speakers might state: Why he run?

• English modals might be difficult for Hmong speakers to learn since modal auxiliaries do not exist in Hmong. Instead, modality is conveyed by the use of modality markers. For instance, the notion of obligation is conveyed by using either yuav tsum or yuav tau before a verb. Markers do not have the same range of meanings as English modals. Hmong speakers might not use English modal auxiliaries frequently or might not understand their nuances. They might say, Please eat this instead of You may want to eat this, or You come here instead of Would you come here?

Articles

• Hmong does not use articles. Hmong students might find it hard to use them correctly. They might state: Let’s make fire or I can play piano.

• Hmong students might insert articles unnecessarily. For example, they might state, She is on the pins and needles instead of She is on pins and needles.

• Hmong students might confuse the use of definite and indefinite articles. They might state, for example: She is a kindest woman in the room or He was in the hurry.

Nouns

• Although Hmong uses the plural form cov (a group classifier) to pluralize nouns, Hmong speakers might drop the –s when referring to a plural noun in English. They might state, I have a lot of book or I have visited many site. Note that Hmong does not have final consonants, and this is one reason that Hmong speakers might have difficulty pronouncing the final –s on words in English.

Pronouns

• Hmong does not distinguish subject pronouns from object pronouns or possessive adjectives. Hmong speakers might state, I trip lasted three hours and The bike is my instead of My trip lasted three hours and The bike is mine.

• There is no gender distinction in Hmong in the spoken form of pronouns. Hmong speakers might say, I have a friend named John and she is at school now.

GRAMMAR PROBLEMS THAT SOME CHINESE SPEAKERS ENCOUNTER WHEN LEARNING ENGLISHThere are large communities of Chinese speakers throughout California, who are immigrants from People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. The Han language, as the Chinese call Chinese, has many dialects (sometimes referred to as languages). Mandarin is the basis of modern Standard Chinese and is the accepted written language for all Chinese. Chinese and English are in two different language families and have many grammatical differences.

Overview

Compared with English, Chinese:

• is non-alphabetic,

• does not identify parts of speech,

• does not show gender in pronouns,

• does not inflect verbs (e.g., it does not mark subject/verb agreement or past tense),

• has few modal auxiliaries and no auxiliary do,

• does not use verbs to indicate time relations,

• does not use articles,

• does not use plurals, and

• uses pairs of conjunctions (such as because/so and although/but) in complex sentences.

Parts of Speech

• In Chinese, though not in English, parts of speech are not formally identified. The same word may have different grammatical functions. Chinese speakers might not be able to distinguish related words such as difficult and difficulty, success and successful. They might also have difficulty understanding that certain places in an English sentence must be filled with words in certain parts of speech. They might state: Mrs. Smith is success; It is very difficulty to do the problem.



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Verb Forms

• Speakers of Chinese do not use inflections. What English speakers accomplish by changing verb forms (e.g., adding –ed to a verb to form the past tense), Chinese speakers achieve by using adverbs, word order, and context. English inflections might be confusing for some Chinese students. They might make subject/verb agreement errors such as Nobody are here and The book and the pen is on the table; They may not know how to form past tense verbs and state He paint house yesterday instead of He painted the house yesterday, and they may not know how to form complex verb forms: He have see me. The phone was ring yesterday.

Time, Tense, and Aspect

• Chinese speakers express time very differently from English speakers. As stated above, they do not use verb endings to show time relations. As a result, some learners might have difficulty in handling English tenses and aspects: They might say, I have seen her last night or I still remembered when I was in high school or She will finish by the time you come.

• Some students might have the wrong idea that the names of the tenses indicate time. For instance, they might think that the present tense indicates the present time and they might not understand sentences such as these:

There is a new movie out next week. The book we just read is interesting.

Progressive aspects might be particularly difficult for the Chinese. For example, they might state, What are you do? instead of What are you doing? They might state, I study here a long time instead of I have been studying here a long time.

Verb Patterns

• Verb complements might be particularly difficult for Chinese learners since these do not exist in Chinese. Chinese speakers might make errors of the following types:

I suggest to come tomorrow. The perfume smells sweetly. Most people describe that she is beautiful. She told that she’d be here.

• Adjectives and verbs are often identical in Chinese. The verb tends to be dropped when followed by predicate adjectives. Chinese speakers might say, I happy, She very busy.

Auxiliaries, Questions, and Negatives

• In Chinese, auxiliaries are not used to form questions and negatives. Hence the use of do and does might present some Chinese learners with problems. Chinese speakers might state:

How many books you have?

• Certain meanings of English modals have direct equivalents to Chinese modals, and are easy for Chinese speakers to learn. The modal, should with the meaning of advisability, for instance, has a direct counterpart in Chinese. However, English modals indicate a wider range of meaning than their Chinese counterparts. Chinese speakers might not use them frequently or might not understand their nuances. They might say, Please eat this instead of You may want to eat this, or You come here instead of Would you come here?

Articles

• Chinese does not use articles. Students might find it hard to use them correctly. They might state:

Let’s make fire or I can play piano.

• Chinese ELs might insert articles unnecessarily. They might state:

My mother gave me the love.

• Chinese ELs might confuse the use of definite and indefinite pronouns. They might state:

She is a prettiest here or He was in the hurry.

Gender

• There is no gender distinction in the spoken form of pronouns. Chinese speakers might say, I have a sister and he is at school now.

Nouns

• Chinese rarely uses a plural form. Chinese speakers might drop the –s ending of nouns. I have a lot of book or I have visited many site. This is particularly the case in spoken English because Chinese does not allow final consonant clusters.

• Count/noncount distinctions might be very difficult for Chinese students. What is not counted in English (e.g., furniture, equipment, luggage, news, etc.) can all be counted in Chinese.

Pronouns



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• English uses pronouns much more frequently than Chinese. Chinese tends to drop them whenever they can be understood from the context. In personal pronouns, Chinese does not distinguish between the subjective case (I) and the objective case (me). In the possessive, it does not distinguish between the adjective (my) and the nominal (mine). This is why Chinese students might choose the wrong pronoun in English. They might state. I am like he. or The pencil is my.

Position of Adverbs

• Chinese adverbials usually come before verbs and adjectives in a sentence. Learners might state: Tomorrow I’ll come instead of I’ll come tomorrow or This afternoon at 1:00 we’ll meet for lunch instead of We’ll meet for lunch this afternoon at 1:00.

Conjunctions

• Chinese speakers duplicate the use of conjunctions in sentences. They use them in pairs. In English, they might write:

Although she was full, but she continued eating.

Although he was tired, but he continued working.

Because he did not do the assignment, so he didn’t say anything.

Because he did not understand, so he did not answer the teacher.

Small Verbs

• Small verbs such as be, bring, come, do, get, go, have, make, take and work are characterized in English by a large range of meanings and the ways in which they combine with other words to form expressions. These verbs do not have equivalents in Chinese and might be difficult for learners to use.

The Selection of Grammatical Structures to Present in Class

In addition to considering their students’ first languages, English instructors should also consider the particular grammatical features that they teach their students. They do not need to teach all the grammatical features of the English language. They can focus instead only on those grammatical features that support California’s standards, are contained in the instructional materials, and cause ELs frequent difficulties. All ELs in the upper grades (6th – 12th grade) need to learn the ten grammar rules on page 78. These grammar rules are emphasized

in nearly all EL grammar textbooks. Even students who have not acquired their first languages or who have lost their first languages often benefit from instruction pertaining to these specific rules.

Sequencing Grammar Instruction

Larsen-Freeman (2001) has suggested that teachers think in terms of a grammatical checklist rather than a specific sequence and that rather than adhering to a linear progression in the presentation of grammatical features, they should assess the students’ developmental readiness to learn the features and should use their own resources for judgments on how to proceed; however, I argue that it is the English teachers’ responsibility to make sure that their ELs learn certain grammatical features by the end of the year, and it is easier to help the students do this if the teachers follow a more or less prescribed sequence in presenting grammatical features. The structures and features on page 78 will not necessarily arise naturally in the course of working on tasks. It is too difficult for teachers to determine when specific students are ready to learn them, and even if the teachers could, it would be difficult to structure group instruction effectively for students working on different grammatical features. It would increase the teachers’ workload concerning instructional materials, instruction, and assessment. Moreover, not having a prescribed grammatical sequence makes it difficult for teachers to know what their students have learned the year before. It makes it difficult to schedule review. If a set of prescribed features is not taught, then it is difficult to hold students accountable for learning specific grammatical features.

What, then, is a reasonable grammatical sequence? I am suggesting that all students in the upper grades be taught the ten grammar rules in their English classes each year. Those students who already know the features will find the grammar instruction a useful review. Those who are not quite ready for the instruction—perhaps because they lack the English proficiency to understand the rules fully—will still benefit from the instruction. Lightbown (1998) argues that even if students are asked to work on structures before they are ready to acquire them, this effort is not in vain because such instruction can prime subsequent learning on the part of students, thereby accelerating learning when they are ready. It might help them to pay attention to certain aspects of English at a later time. Larsen-Freeman (2001) argues that sometimes it is necessary to teach ELs’ grammatical features “before they are ready” to help ELs communicate effectively and access text.



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1. Sentences. All sentences have one subject and one main verb. A main verb is not a part of an infinitive that begins with to. My english instructor in high school key person to teach me. My English instructor in high school was the key person who taught me.

2. Subject - Verb Agreement. Subjects agree with verbs in number. Indefinite pronouns such as everyone are generally followed by singular verbs.

Everyone understand me. -> Everyone understands me. The “s” rule: Find the subject and the main verb. If the subject ends in an “s,” the verb cannot end in an “s.” The duck swims. -> The ducks swim.

3. Verb Tense. Use the present tense to refer to events that happen now and to indicate general truth. Use the past tense to refer to events that took place in the past. Generally use the present perfect (have/has + base verb + ed) with words such as since + a number of years, already, and yet.

My instructor explain to me that how important the books was for the student. -> My instructor explained how important books are for students. (explained–Use the past tense for a past event that took

place in high school; are–Use the present tense for a general truth.)

4. Verb Phrases. Certain verbs are followed by “to” + the base form of a verb while others are followed by a verb that ends in -ing.

My instructor persuaded me read many book. -> My instructor persuaded me to read many books.

5. Plurals. A plural count noun (table, book, pencil) ends in an -s. My instructor persuaded me read many book. -> My instructor persuaded me to read many books.

6. Auxiliaries. Negative sentences are formed by using do + not + the base form of a verb. Rule: do + not + base verb form Please do not makes me lose face. -> Please do not make me lose face.

7. Articles. Definite articles generally precede specific nouns that are easily identifiable because they are modified by adjectives.

I don’t speak Vietnam language. -> I don’t speak the Vietnamese language.

8. Word Forms. The correct parts of speech should be used. Nouns should be used as nouns. Verbs should be used as verbs. Adverbs should be used as adverbs. Adjectives should be used as adjectives. adj. noun

I have confident in english. -> I have confidence in English.

9. Fixed Expressions/Idioms. Idioms and fixed expressions (such as “to lose face”) cannot be changed in any way. Please do not makes me lose the face. -> Please do not make me lose face.

10. Word Choice: Formal words should be used in formal settings. Informal words should be used in informal settings. Dear Robbin, -> Dear Prof. Scarcella:

Other: Capitalization/Punctuation. Capitalize proper nouns. Punctuate sentences correctly. Use a comma after salutations: Dear Robbin -> Dear Robin, I don’t know vietnam language. I speak only english. -> I don’t know the Vietnamese language. I speak only English.

Prepositions: He discriminate me. -> He discriminated against me.



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When deciding what linguistic labels students need to learn, instructors should ask themselves what language terms will help the students attain specific standards and curricular goals. They should avoid using confusing linguistic labels or inventing their own terms. Instead, they should use common terms—the ones that occur frequently in most grammar handbooks. Students do not have to understand and use all the terms linguists do. They do not need to know such terms as ergative, preposition stranding, foregrounding, and left branching. However, they do need to know such basic terms as subject and verb.

Some terms can be taught as they are needed. However, older students are capable of learning a list of terms. A list of basic grammar terms is given on page 82.

I have suggested one way of presenting features to learners. It is not rigid. It should be modified to fit the needs of individual classrooms. If most of my ELs were Spanish, I would focus at length on the formation of complex clauses. I would spend much less time teaching articles and the formation of noun plurals. If most my students were Chinese-American, I would spend much less time teaching sentence structure and a great deal of time teaching the use of plurals and articles.

Important features of the language should be taught right away. This means that sentence structure should be taught first. Clusters of grammatical features that are related should be taught close together in a logical sequence. This means that nouns and plural endings should be taught before articles. Related features of the language that take a long time to teach should be taught slowly, over time and recycled. This means that the three verb tenses (present, past, and future) as well as features of aspect (present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, present continuous) should be introduced repeatedly to students. Each time they are introduced, the students should receive new information about the grammatical features.

Many teachers have little control over their syllabus; they are not allowed to deviate from the school or department’s syllabus that has been handed to them. However, English teachers at the middle school and high school levels who do have the liberty of incorporating a grammatical syllabus into their English syllabus should be encouraged to do so. Carefully developed grammar syllabi are needed at the middle school and high school levels. (Refer to Appendix 1.)

Using Grammar Terms Consistently

Grammar terms such as subject, noun, and verb need to be used consistently and explained carefully. Students should not have to learn different grammatical terms and definitions each time they change classes, subjects, and grade levels. Ideally, entire school sites and districts should use the same terms and definitions. This is particularly important in California, where student mobility is problematic, even in high school (Rumberger, 1999). However, using common grammar terms is also important at the university level. This is why at the University of California at Irvine, the undergraduate faculty decided to use common handbooks, a common list of grammar terms, and even common correcting symbols when teaching writing. (See Chapter Five.)

“Students should not have to learn different grammatical terms and definitions each time they change classes, subjects, and grade levels.“



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GRAMMAR TERMSAdjective - a word that is used to modify the meaning of a noun or noun phrase She is pretty. It is a very hot day today.

Adverb - a word that is used to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective, sentence, or even another adverb She drove slowly. Suddenly the boy jumped up and screamed.

Articles - a, an, and the The moon is full next Wednesday.

Definite article: the, which indicates a specific entity which both the reader and writer recognize: Give me the book.

Clause - any group of words that has a subject and a verb I ate the pizza while I studied chemistry.

Conditional Sentence - a complex sentence that expresses a hypothesis potentially contrary to fact If it rains, I will stay inside.

Conjunction - a word that joins words, phrases, or clauses I like coffee and tea. I like ice cream, but I do not like cake.

Count noun - a noun that can be preceded by a number indicating how many There are four books on my desk. There are ships in the harbor.

The opposite of a count noun is a noncount noun (also called uncountable). Noncount words include: water, rice, and mud

Fragment - a group of words that does not constitute a complete sentence Three boys eating watermelon while playing Nintendo.

Gerund - a verb with an -ing ending that functions as a noun Skiing is fun.

Infinitive - a verb form that is not marked for tense or person. It is sometimes preceded by the word to He wanted to sing.

Intransitive Verb - a verb that does not take a direct object She slept late yesterday.

Note that some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive. Juan ate rice last night. (transitive) Juan ate at ten last night. (intransitive)

Modal Auxiliary - a class of verbs that indicate necessity, ability, possibility, permission, or obligation: can, could, would, should, ought, might, may, must, have, to, had to Jane can ride horses very skillfully. I should study more.

Preposition - a word indicating a relationship between two things—which may be spatial, temporal, grammatical, or metaphorical. The prepositions include: about, above, across, after, against, along, amid among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, for, from, in, into, like, near, of, off, on, out, over, past, since, through, to, towards, under, unto, up, upon, with, within.

Pronoun - a form that takes the place of a noun or noun phrase She is not happy with her grade this quarter.

Run-on Sentence - in written English, two independent clauses that are joined together with commas, inappropriate conjunctions, or no punctuation at all I ate my lunch I polished my shoes I saw my friend then I went to the mall.

Subject (of a sentence) - the noun or noun phrase of the main verb in the sentence Cows graze on grass all day long. Kennedy died before I was born.

Verb - a word that shows action or state of being John runs quickly. Ku-sup is here.

Other Useful Terms: present perfect, past perfect, present progressive (or continuous), and passive construction

Caution: Just because students do not learn a specific term does not mean the teacher should delay instruction. Wise teachers teach a few terms at a time to young learners. Older learners are capable of learning many at the same time.

Teaching Grammar in the Context of Meaningful Discourse

Grammar must be taught in the context of discourse. This approach to grammar builds upon the work of Givón, 1993; Halliday and Hassan, 1973; Halliday, 1994 and others who contend that language is a system of “meanings,” and that grammar is used to convey meaning. If teachers are to teach grammar effectively, they need to teach it in the context of meaningful discourse, showing students how grammar is used



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to communicate—to persuade, summarize, evaluate, argue, etc. There are many ways that teachers can teach grammar in context. For instance, they can teach it through reading, text analyses, and the deconstruction of dialogues, stories and plays. If they only present grammar in isolated sentences, students will not learn how grammar functions in real life situations. As students progress through the grades, the demand to understand and produce complex sentences and make sophisticated use of English grammar increases. The students’ need for their teachers to provide them effective grammar instruction in the context of meaningful discourse increases as well.

Eighty exercises, related to teaching the ten grammar rules on page 80 can be found at this web site: http://e3.uci.edu/programs/esl/uciedits.html. They were created for high school and college students by Colleen Hildebrand.

Making Grammatical Features Salient

Instructors can make the grammatical structures they teach salient through a variety of means. They can recycle grammatical features periodically and present the features explicitly through different activity types. The grammar explanations can be presented clearly in simple, nontechnical language. Boxes, examples, illustrations, charts, and tables can be used whenever possible. In addition, instructors of older learners can provide overviews of related grammatical features that are presented as whole systems, such as verb tense, determiners, and modal auxiliaries. An example of an overview of verb tense is on page 84.

It is important to point out that the type of grammar that should be taught is descriptive and easy for learners to understand. It is not the type of grammar that is likely to be taught in linguistics courses; rather, it is pedagogical grammar. This is the grammar that is teachable and learners need to know. The presentation

The following editing exercise, written by Colleen Hildebrand at UCI, teaches grammar in the context of discourse. Students are asked to find errors related to the use of pronouns. The exercise is appropriate for high school and college students.

DIRECTIONS: How many pronouns can you find? Read the paragraph and find the errors in pronoun use. Then count the number of errors. Circle the correct answer: a, b, c, or d.In our lifetime, we meet many different people in a variety of places. When one is introduced to another person, he or she is able to tell one’s backgrounds by the way one talks, what one says, and what gestures he uses. Moreover, we can obtain more information about one’s background from his or her essays. When a person writes about their happiest moments, that is when one reveals their personalities, countries and cultures in their essays.

a. There are 5 errors in pronoun reference in this paragraph.

b. There are 7 errors in pronoun reference in this paragraph.

c. There are 11 errors in pronoun reference in this paragraph. (correct answer)

d. There are 14 errors in pronoun reference in this paragraph.

TEACHER FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS: This paragraph is confusing because its writer has been inconsistent in the use of clear pronoun reference. Using plural subjects will eliminate much of this confusion. Note that the verbs must also be changed so that they agree with their plural subjects. The revised paragraph should read: ANSWER KEY

In our lifetime, we meet many different people in a variety of places. When WE ARE introduced to OTHER PEOPLE, WE are able to tell THEIR backgrounds by the way THEY TALK, what THEY SAY, and what gestures THEY USE. Moreover, we can obtain more information about THEIR background fromTHEIR essays. When PEOPLE WRITE about their happiest moments, that is when THEY REVEAL their personalities, countries and cultures in their essays.



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FORMING VERB TENSES

TENSE USE FORMATION EXAMPLE SENTENCE EXAMPLE

Present To show what happens now The present form of the verb Sleep, works Now I sleep.The washer works. or can happen (add -s or -es for all singular work We work as mail carriers. subjects except I and you

Past To show what happened at The verb + -d or -ed (as well as Talked Yesterday, Lenora talked with a fixed time in the past irregular verbs such as ate, Harold. drank, and slept)

Future To show what will happen Will + present form of the verb Will fly In the future rockets will fly to in the future Mars every week.

Present Perfect To show what has happened Have (or has for all singular Have lived I have lived in this house for in the past and continues in subjects except I and you) seven years. the present; to show what + -d or ed form of the verb Has moaned The cat has moaned for ten happened in the past but minutes in the rain. at no particular time

Past Perfect To show an action in the past Had + -d or -ed form of verb Had stopped The car had stopped before the that happened even before (or irregular form) train had hit it. another event in the past

Future Perfect To show something that has Will have + -d or ed Will have By tomorrow Steve will have not yet been done before form of verb completed completed the paper. a set time in the future

Present To show an event that was Was (for singular subjects) Am building I am building a table. Continuous going on when something or were Is building Luisa is building a table. else happened (for plural subjects and you) Are building She and her sister + verb with –ing ending are building a table.

Past To show an event that was Was (for singular subjects) Was rowing I was rowing on Masapequa Continuous going on when something or were Were rowing Lake when it began to rain. else happened (for plural subjects and you) Sarah and Maxine were rowing + verb with -ing ending swiftly when their oars broke.

Future To show an event that will be Will be + ing form of verb Will be The guard will be reading a Continuous going on when something reading newspaper when we sneak up on else happens him.

(Wiener & Bazerman, 1996, p. 469)

of verbs outlined below would not be included in formal linguistics courses. In such courses, two or three verb tenses would be discussed before turning to discussions of aspect. Learners do not need such detailed and theoretical discussions of grammar, and instructors do not need to be confused by them.

The Frequency with which Grammatical Features are Presented

The grammatical features presented should be constantly recycled. English learners cannot be given one or two exercises on a given grammatical feature and be expected to use the feature effectively. If learners are absent

a week and miss work on punctuation, they need to make up this work and be held accountable for learning punctuation. This may mean that the instructor will have to individualize instruction or send students to websites for additional work on particular grammar features. Learners require considerable exposure to grammatical features in a variety of situations that have been designed to increase their knowledge of the use of the features. The explanations, examples, and activities must not bore students. Multiple explanations can be presented in various styles and formats. An ample number of illustrations and examples should follow these explanations. The activities should allow students to increase their awareness of a given grammatical



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feature by focusing on it in written and oral exercises. Activities can challenge ELs to use their knowledge of English grammar in classroom tasks, games, editing exercises, and writing assignments.

The Roles of Accuracy and Fluency

For all ELs, the goal of instruction should be native-like mastery. The goal should not just be the development of the grammatical proficiency needed to communicate effectively in everyday situations. English learners who are just beginning to acquire English need to gain fluency and confidence in using their new language. They should be asked to complete a variety of tasks in which accuracy is unimportant. Such tasks include writing daily journal entries and participating in informal role-play situations.

However, once ELs have gained confidence in using English and no longer need to expend tremendous effort communicating their ideas, increased emphasis must be placed on activities that lead to accuracy. They should be asked to complete a variety of tasks in which the accurate use of the language is important. Such tasks should include writing formal reports, making academic presentations, and participating in debates. Formal instruction with appropriate modeling and instructional feedback are critical in facilitating the development of accuracy.

The Role of Instructional Feedback

Instructional feedback can take a variety of forms. While ELs who are just beginning to acquire English generally benefit more from encouragement than instructional feedback, ELs who have acquired intermediate and advanced levels of English proficiency require instructional feedback to improve. Effective instructors tailor the feedback that they provide their students. They should consider the educational impact of instructional feedback on specific learners in the course of particular activities (Lyster & Ranta, 1997).

It should be noted that editing exercises should be shaped to the proficiency level of the learners. When ELs are unable to identify their own errors, the instructor should assist them—by marking the major errors with correcting symbols that help the learners identify their errors and fix them. Later, when ELs have gained more competence as editors, the instructor should indicate where the major errors have occurred by placing X’s in the margins of the students’ written papers or by underlining sections of the ELs’ papers containing errors. This helps the learners develop strong

editing skills that enable them to become independent of their instructors. (See Raimes, 1991 for an excellent discussion. Many exercises to help teachers learn to provide effective feedback can be found at this website: http://e3.uci.edu/programs/esl/symbols.html.)

Presenting Grammatical Features

A variety of activities can be used to foster the learners’ grammatical development. They include contextualized communicative activities.

Larsen-Freeman (2001) suggests several innovative communicative activities for teaching specific grammatical features. These activities provide learners with exposure to grammatical structures in the context of meaningfu2l communication. This is what is meant by contextualized grammar instruction. (See also Richards, 1985.) Frank and Rinvolucri (1983) suggest a wide array of useful communicative, contextualized grammar activities.

Well-written Text (rather than Simplified Text)

Note that in contextualized grammar instruction, grammatical features are presented in well-written, meaningful language texts. The instructor demonstrates the use of grammatical features within the context of texts as well as in communicative activities (such as writing notes or requesting information). These demonstrations expose students to native speaker use of grammatical structures in different situations. The instructor teaches grammar, helps learners become strong editors, and encourages learners to use the grammatical structures they study in purposeful communication.

Teaching Grammar through Direct Instruction

When teaching English grammar to ELs, instructors should teach the most basic features of English grammar (the ten rules discussed earlier) as well as additional ones that help ELs access their texts and communicate effectively.

The grammatical structures instructors present should have immediate use to students and be tied to the instructional materials they are using in class. Whenever possible, instructors should teach common patterns or systems that work for nearly all students all the time. For instance, when teaching students how to use noncount nouns, they might say, “Use noncount nouns to refer to particles too small to count—such as hair, sugar, rice, and sand; use noncount nouns to refer to liquids—such as gas, lemonade, coffee, and tea.”



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However, ELs also need to know the most common exceptions to rules and instructors need to teach them these exceptions.

In middle school, high school, and college, students are exposed to academic English. They will have difficulty accessing it if they do not have a firm understanding of the fundamentals of the English language. Instructors who teach ELs may find that many learners are able to communicate well in spoken English, but have difficulty conveying their messages accurately. Often learners seem to be more competent in oral English than they really are. The learners may be communicating with little grammar. Wise instructors listen to their students carefully to make sure that their students are adding the inflectional endings to words in their speech. When they find that their students do not use these endings or hear them, they teach them to use them, and they provide them with useful practice in listening to the endings and identifying them.

Instructors cannot assume that older learners have been taught grammar. They must assess the ten fundamental rules of grammar discussed on page 78 and make sure that all their students can use these rules. Then, instructors need to go beyond these basics and teach the grammatical features of academic English. Such features include the use of pronouns to add cohesion in written text, the use of transitions, and the use of complex sentence structure.

Middle school, high school and college students with an intermediate and advanced proficiency level in English are ready to learn very detailed information about the English language. They have the capability of learning about count and noncount nouns. They are able to use reference books to understand how to use count and noncount nouns. They benefit from explanations of grammatical features, such as those given below.

EXPLANATION OF COUNT NOUN AND NONCOUNT NOUN

In contrast to count nouns, which may be made plural, noncount nouns are always singular. Noncount nouns include mass nouns (such as water, silver and bread), abstract nouns (such as beauty, intelligence, and evidence), categorical nouns (such as furniture, luggage and machinery), and most gerunds (such as swimming, bowling and jogging).

Because noncount nouns are always singular, the pronouns and verbs that follow them must also be singular.

EXAMPLE: The lab equipment is in need of repair, but we can’t afford to get it fixed.

Specific quantifiers are used with count and noncount nouns.

COUNT NOUNS Few, a few Many, severalNONCOUNT NOUNS Little, a little Much

In addition, only count nouns can be preceded by the adjectives each and every and by the articles a and an.

Some nouns can be used as either count or noncount nouns.

EXAMPLES: Death is the only certainty in life. (Death and life are abstract [noncount nouns] in this sentence.) The drunken driver was responsible for six deaths. (Death is a count noun in this sentence.) The baby’s bib was covered with egg. (Egg is a mass [noncount] noun.) The recipe calls for three eggs. (In this sentece, egg is a count noun.)

Adapted from: Sally Barr Ebest, Gerald J. Alred, Charles Brusaw and Walter Oliu (2000). Writing from A to Z. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co., pp. 362-363.



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The following information is not too difficult for high school or college students who have intermediate or advanced proficiency in English.

NONCOUNT NOUNS:She gave me the money.They had a little time.Don’t give me any advice.All work should be done.Some furniture is cheap.We do not have much milk.

SINGULAR COUNT NOUNS:

The other book is mine. Each lie is bad. Every banana is rotten. She’ll give me a chance. Every chair is broken. We have one glass of milk.

PLURAL COUNT NOUNS:

A few men are needed. The other students left. Some cars are expensive. Most chairs have four legs. We have five glasses.

General explanations are also helpful:

“For all ELs, the goal of instruction should be native-like mastery of English.”

COUNT AND NONCOUNT NOUNS AND DETERMINERSNONCOUNT NOUN SINGULAR COUNT NOUN PLURAL COUNT NOUN no S on noun no S on noun +S on noun (or irregular)

the the the a/an this/that this/that these/thosethe other the other the other another otherany other any other any otherany any anyno no nosome somelittle fewa little a fewmuch manya lot of a lot ofa great deal of severalmost mostmost of the most of theall all each every a couple of both one two, twenty, fifty a variety of various



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USING PREPOSITIONS1. Prepositions of time month / year Aidan arrived in Yorktown in June. He arrived in 1999. day / date He began classes on Monday. He began class on June 5. specific time The classes started at 9:00 am. general time The classes ended in the evening / afternoon / morning. approximate I’ll be home about 2:00. Let’s meet around 5:00. He said he’s call between 9 and 10 o’clock. duration My family lived in Guam for six years. I have thought of you often through the past years.

2. Prepositions of place city / country Fred lived in Toronto for three years. He lived in Canada for five years. street He worked on Battery Street. address He lives at 16 Queen Lane. motion He goes to the park for lunch. (walk to, run to, drive to, ride to, race to, fly to) They walked toward me.

3. Prepositions of position The book is on the desk. The notes are in my notebook. Let’s meet at the library. The dog is sitting beside its owner. My house is between the library and the bridge.

4. Prepositions of reason They will do the job for little money. He was pleased by her kind words. We talked about the news.

5. Prepositions of manner He can understand their accent by listening carefully. She is good at speaking foreign languages. They finished the test with ease.

6. Prepositions of comparison We are so close that he is like my brother.

7. Prepositions of possessions The hat of the good-looking student is on the desk. Dino is a good friend of mine.

(Cain, Earle-Carlin, Hildebrand, & Scarcella, 2001, p. 37-38)

Prepositions

A preposition connects a noun or a pronoun to another word in a sentence and indicates a relationship, often of place, time, cause, purpose, direction, or means.

Prepositions are usually one word but can also be two or more words. The most frequently used one-word prepositions are at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, and with.

Some prepositions with more than one word are according to, along with, away from, and in front of. Other prepositions you may be familiar with are above, across, after, against, along, among, before, behind, below, beside, between, into, over, through, up, and without.



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When a noun is singular and countable, a determiner is necessary. When talking in general, use plural count nouns with no article. Only use the definite article THE with a count noun if it is specific.

(Cain, Earle-Carlin, Hildebrand, & Scarcella, 2001, p. 28)

Instructors should try to increase their students’ awareness of the ways in which language features function.

In advocating this approach, Wong Fillmore (2000), describes how the following text, which comes from the Hidden Lives of Dogs, can be used. (See Chapter One.) She correctly argues that it is not too difficult for learners who are not proficient in English or who cannot read well, providing their instructors help learners access it.

According to Wong Fillmore, while the entire book might be daunting for students who are in the process of

The dog who adopted a human mannerism is my husband’s dog, who amazed us all one hot day this past summer after my husband had bought himself an ice cream cone. As my husband took the first taste, he noticed that the dog was watching. So he offered the cone, expecting the dog to gobble it. But to everyone’s astonishment, the dog politely licked a little ice cream just as my husband had done. My husband then licked a little more, and again offered it to the dog, who also licked a little more. In this way, taking turns, they ate the ice cream down to the cone. Then my husband took a bite. The dog watched him. Assuming that the dog would bolt the rest of the cone, my husband passed it on for what he thought would be the last time. But drawing back his lips to expose his little incisors, the dog took the most delicate of nibbles. Twice more my husband and the dog took turns biting the cone, until only the tip remained.

Astounding? Not really. For eight years, my husband and this dog have built a relationship of trust and mutual obligation, neither making unreasonable demands on the other or patronizing the other, or trying to subordinate the other, but each doing exactly what he wants, usually in the other’s company. Only in such a setting, only when both participants consider themselves equals, could this scene have taken place. Only a dog who thought for himself, a dog who wasn’t brainwashed by excessive training, a dog who depended on his own observations and imagination for guidance, would ever figure out the very human method of taking alternate bites as a form of sharing. After all, when two dogs share food, they eat simultaneously while respecting each other’s feeding space, which is a little imaginary circle around the other’s mouth. But the idea of taking alternate bites is totally human. Even so, the dog fathomed it, and without ever having seen it done. Who ate the tip of the cone? My husband ate it. The dog let him have the last turn.

learning English to tackle it by themselves, an instructor could have the book read to the class serially. This enables students to hear the sounds of academic English. As Wong Fillmore (2000) points out, the text could be read by the instructor or by various members of the class who are proficient enough speakers and readers of the language to do a good oral reading. It could also be taped by a talented dramatic reader for serialized play-backs. Learners who are not yet proficient in English who have to read it by themselves will find the task too painful and laborious, and instructors should avoid asking them to read it aloud in front of the class.

After the text is read, the instructors need to help the students break it down and sort through the linguistic relationships. Here are some of the features that Wong



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Fillmore suggests that the students can learn:

Cohesive devices—the grammatical means for linking ideas into larger, coherent discourse.

Use of grammatical markers to indicate explicit connections and relationships between clauses and parts of the larger discourse—connectives and subordination:

so, but, and, that, as, who, after, for, until, etc.

Use of pronominal reference between sentences and clauses to mark inter- and intra-sentential relations:

they, it, him, he, etc.

Rhetorical devices—the grammatical means for structuring texts into effective and interpretable pieces of discourse.

Indications of logical relationships between pieces of the text. Indications of temporal and sequential relations between activities and events in the text:

so, but, even so, in this way, after all(Wong Fillmore, 2000, p. 3)

TEACHING YOUNG ENGLISH LEARNERS IN GRADES K – 3

Even young ELs can be taught some grammar through explicit instruction, modeling, and carefully designed language-learning tasks. Appendix 1 contains a list of grammatical features that are appropriate to teach to young children. Teachers need to minimize the terms used to teach grammar to young children. They should primarily teach grammar by exposing students to multiple models and by eliciting the targeted grammatical feature in a variety of tasks. Grammar needs to be taught in multiple ways through multiple modalities (speaking, listening, reading and writing) over time to young children. Teachers may like to use sentence frames with young children. A sentence frame consists of a sentence with some part of the sentence missing. Examples follow:

Her name is Mary, and his name is .

I’m wearing pants, and she’s wearing .

Students fill in the blanks orally as a group, chorally, or individually. Sentence frames generally teach structures in sentences only and need to be supplemented with other types of instruction. Games and pair work can provide young students a means of practicing grammatical features. One of the best ways to teach grammar to young ELs is by reading aloud to them,

discussing the reading with the children, and getting the students to do something with the words in the reading (e.g., retell the reading, reconstruct the reading with prompts, explain or analyze the reading). Reading aloud to small children and talking to them about the way the language in the reading is used exposes the children to grammatical features and helps them to understand the use of these features in meaningful discourse.

Here is an example of an exercise that is not appropriate for teaching young children:

Ineffective Grammar Exercise

DIRECTIONS: Only one of the words that is underlined is correct. Circle the correct words.

1. Susan walk/walks to school.

2. John is here. He/She is late.

3. Today I sing. Yesterday I sing/sang.

4. I like apple/apples.

The exercise attempts to teach students the present tense, subject pronouns, the past tense and noun plurals. It would take me many months to teach any one of these features. Each feature needs to be taught repeatedly. Many examples of each feature are needed. Children need multiple exposure to the features and extensive practice in using the features.

A question may arise concerning the necessity of grouping very young ELs by English grammatical proficiency levels—beginning, intermediate and advanced. There is no empirical evidence addressing this issue. Practical concerns such as teacher time, the availability of appropriate instructional materials, and reliable, valid assessment instruments might determine whether such grouping is feasible. Because beginning students who have entered school in the 3rd grade might need individualized instruction, those students might need to be grouped at times. When grouping dilutes the amount of instructional time that the children receive, it is probably a good idea to use grouping judiciously. English learners in grades K-3, regardless of their proficiency level, can benefit from whole group instruction. This is not the same case in the upper grades, where there are wide differences in English proficiency levels, because older children have more language to learn to access their grade-level reading material.



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Teaching More Advanced English Learners in the Upper Grades

Instructors should review and teach those specific features that older, more advanced students lack. Instruction should become more individualized and more content-oriented. Although instructors should still teach the basic grammatical features of Standard English (including the ten rules outlined on page 78), they must also teach academic grammar. (See Appendix 1.) More information should be provided about the features of academic English. Such grammatical features as parallel structures, troublesome verb forms, and adjectives formed from -ing or the -ed/-en participle should be presented. See for example, the Verb Form Reference Guide on pages 92-93. It tells students what words follow specific verbs. For example, when students use the word admit, they can check the Verb Form Reference Guide to determine whether admit is followed by a noun or pronoun and another verb form ending in -ing.

In addition to these grammatical features, increased emphasis should be placed on helping learners gain effective editing skills that will improve their written work. Not only should students receive detailed instructional feedback, but they should also receive instruction on the types of grammatical features that are needed to excel on California’s High School Exit Exam, the California State University Proficiency Test, the University of California’s Subject A Exam and the SAT—II Writing Exam. (See Appendix 2 for a description of a writing assessment that provides students with grammar instruction and feedback.)

Older ELs are ready to study grammar very analytically. In high school and college, ELs are ready to study verb forms such as those on pages 92 and 93. They are capable of using these charts and referring to them when they complete their written assignments.

Intermediate-level and advanced-level ELs are also capable of understanding their own errors. They can refer to lists such as the one beginning on page 94 to avoid making specific error types.

Information for using the Verb Form Reference Guide on pages 92-93: Find the verb “admit” under the first column (FIRST VERB). Notice that it is not followed by a noun or a pronoun. That is why there is a 0 in the column under the second column (NOUN/PRONOUN). Notice that the verb “admit” is followed by a verb ending in –ing. See the third column (SECOND VERB FORM).

“Among academicians it is said:

If it stinks, it’s biology.

If it blows up, it’s chemistry.

If it doesn’t work, it’s physics.

If it’s boring, it’s English.

The challenge is getting students to realize the value of English grammar.“



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VERB FORM REFERENCE GUIDEFIRST VERB + NOUN/PRONOUN SECOND VERB FORM EXAMPLE

ADMIT 0 V + ING She admits taking the pen.ADVISE + TO + V I advise you to take the class.AFFORD 0 TO + V Minh can’t afford to go.AGREE 0 TO + V We agreed to see him.ALLOW + TO + V John allowed me to come.ARRANGE 0 TO + V They arranged to be here.ASK * TO + V We asked to see him.We asked him to be here.ATTEMPT 0 TO + V Jose attempted to ski.AVOID 0 V + ING They avoided answering him.BE (AM, IS, ARE, 0 V + ING = CONTINUOUS She is playing tennis.The poem is written in French. BEEN, BEING) V+ ED/EN/T = PASSIVE BEGIN 0 V + ING TO + V We began reading at noon. We began to read atnoon.CAN 0 BASE V She can live with me.CAUSE + TO + V I caused him to fall.CHOOSE * TO + V We chose to live here. We chose him to be on the team.CONTINUE 0 V + ING TO + V Please continue reading.Please continue to read.CONVINCE + TO + V Sal convinced me to stay.COULD 0 BASE V She could try harder.DECIDE 0 TO + V Han decided to leave early.DEMAND TO + V THAT + He demanded to see me. He demanded that I leave. someone + BASE VDESERVE 0 TO + V Maria deserves to win.DO / DOES DID 0 BASE V They didn’t see me there. Do you live in the dorm?ENJOY 0 V + ING She enjoys swimming.EXPECT * TO + V I expect to arrive at 9. I expect him to arrive at 9.FEEL 0 V + ED/EN/T The baby feels tired.FINISH 0 V + ING Please finish writing now.FORCE + TO + V Don’t force Tu to stay.FORGET 0 TO + V She often forgets to buy milk.GET 0 V + ED/EN/T We got married in NY.HAD BETTER 0 BASE V You had better be on time.HAVE / HAS / HAD 0 V + ED/EN/T = She has broken the date. They have tried to fix it. perfect tenseHATE 0 V + ING TO + V Dong hates speaking English. Dong hates to speak English.HEAR + BASE V We heard him leave.HELP + BASE V They helped her pass the class.HOPE 0 TO + V I hope to be here next year.IMAGINE 0 V + ING I can’t imagine living in Africa.INSIST THAT + SOMEONE + BASE V They insist that he leave.INTEND 0 TO + V We intend to graduate in 4 years.INVITE + TO + V Bob invited Joe to go out.KEEP 0 V + ING Please keep trying!LEARN 0 TO + V I learned to drive on the freeway.+ = mandatory; 0 = not allowed; * = optional (Cain, Earle-Carlin, Hildebrand, & Scarcella, 2001. pp. 26-28)



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VERB FORM REFERENCE GUIDEFIRST VERB + NOUN/PRONOUN SECOND VERB FORM EXAMPLE

+ = mandatory; 0 = not allowed; * = optional (Cain, Earle-Carlin, Hildebrand, & Scarcella, 2001. pp. 26-28)

LET + BASE V They let us take their car.LIKE *0 TO + VV + ING We like to play. We like him to play. We like reading mystery novels.MAKE + BASE V They made him study more.MAY 0 BASE V We may see you later.MIGHT 0 BASE V Thusa might go home today.MIND 0 V + ING I don’t mind waiting for you.MISS 0 V + ING We miss celebrating New Year’s.MUST 0 BASE V You must see a doctor.NEED 0 TO + V Sam needs to study more.OFFER 0 TO + V She offered to drive me home.ORDER + TO + V I order you to pay her back.OUGHT 0 TO + V You ought to pass this class.PERSUADE + TO + V We persuaded him to take off.PLAN 0 TO + V Diego plans to visit Guatemala.PRETEND 0 TO + V Don’t pretend to know it.PRACTICE 0 V + ING She practices typing in the lab.PREFER 0 TO + VV + ING I prefer to live at home. I prefer living at home.PROMISE 0 TO + V They promised to write us.RECOMMEND 0 V + ING THAT + I recommend reading more. SOMEONE + BASE V I recommend that he read more.REFUSE 0 TO + V They refused to see me.REMIND + TO + V We reminded him to practice.SEE + BASE V They saw my mother leave.SEEM 0 TO + V Ariel seems to be happier now.SHOULD 0 BASE V You should try it.START 0 TO + VV + ING We started to dance. We started dancing.STOP 0 TO + V Stop making so much noise.SUGGEST 0 V + ING THAT + I suggest listening carefully. I suggest that you listen carefully. SOMEONE + BASE V TEACH + TO + V Chu taught me to speak Chinese.TELL + TO + V We told him to take the bus.TRY 0 TO + V They tried to be here on time. USED TO 0 BASE V We used to live in Mexico. WANT * TO + V Tía wanted to leave. Tía wanted him to leave.WARN + TO + V I warned Frank to get help.WATCH + BASE V We watched the flower grow.WILL 0 BASE V They will take that class.WOULD 0 BASE V They wouldn’t do that.WOULD LIKE * TO + V I would like to go to bed now. I would like you A base V is a simple verb form such as go, sing, or sit.



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PROBLEM WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

ADVICE (noncount noun) / ADVISE (verb) I gave him some good advice. I advised him not to drop the class. NOT — advices; advice someone; give advise

AFFECT (verb) / EFFECT (count noun) The lack of sleep didn’t affect him, but the effect of the alcohol was obvious. NOT – They didn’t effect me; I saw the affects

AFRAID (adjective) / TO BE AFRAID + TO/OF (verb phrase) She was afraid to see him. They are afraid of failing the class. NOT: she afraid ; they are afraided

AGREE ON + st / WITH + so We agreed on all the answers. She agrees with her father.

NOT — she is agrees

ALL OF A SUDDEN The rain fell all of a sudden. All of a sudden, the lights went out. NOT: all of the sudden

AS A RESULT We passed the test. As a result, we can go to high school. NOT — as the result

BECAUSE (+ clause) / BECAUSE OF (+ noun) Because we had a test, we couldn’t go. Because of the test, we couldn’t go. NOT — because of we had the test

BELIEF (count noun) / BELIEVE (verb) We have strong beliefs. We believe in truth and justice. NOT — strong believes; we belief

BESIDE (next to) / BESIDES (in addition to) He sat beside me. NOT – sit besides me; beside math Besides studying together, we also worked in the same lab.

BETTER / HAD BETTER You had better see a doctor. You’d better see a doctor. NOT — you better

CARE ABOUT (to be interested in) / CARE FOR (to take care of) I don’t care about my grades. I have to care for my grandmother.

NOT – I have to care about her.

CONCERN / TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT Those problems concern me. I am concerned about those problems. NOT — I concerned about

DAY AFTER DAY We practice day after day to improve our skills. NOT — days after days



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DESPITE Despite her effort, she couldn’t lose weight. NOT — despite of her effort

DIFFERENT FROM (NOT THAN) I am different from my parents. NOT – different than

EACH / EVERY + singular noun Each student has a handbook. Every mother loves her children. NOT — each students; every mothers

EMPHASIZE / PUT EMPHASIS ON The instructor emphasized grammar. She put a lot of emphasis on verbs. NOT — emphasize on grammar

EVEN (intensifier) He doesn’t even know his father. NOT: he even doesn’t

EVEN THOUGH / ALTHOUGH Even though I like the instructor, the class is boring. NOT — even I like; although I like her, but

EXIST Those problems exist everywhere. NOT — are exist

FACE / BE FACED WITH We face new issues every day. We are faced with new issues every day. NOT — we face with; we are face new issues

HOPE I hoped you would come. I hope you can come. I hope you will come. NOT — I hope I would; I hope I could

IN OTHER WORDS It’s broken. In other words, it doesn’t work. NOT — inanother word; in the other word

IN SPITE OF In spite of her diet, she couldn’t lose weight. NOT — in spite her diet

IN THE FIRST PLACE In the first place, you shouldn’t be here. NOT — in a first place

KNOW / MEET I met him in high school. I have known him since then. Use MEET not KNOW when talking about first getting to know someone.




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MATTER - IT DOESN’T MATTER IF It doesn’t matter if you come later. It doesn’t matter if they are late. NOT — It doesn’t matter they come late.

MOST / MOST OF THE Most children obey their parents. Most of the children obey their parents. NOT — most of children

NOWADAYS Nowadays, most people have computers. NOT — now a days; nowaday

ON CAMPUS We want to live on campus. NOT — at campus; in campus

ONE OF THE + PLURAL NOUN One of the books on the shelf is in French. One of the men has a new car. NOT — one of the book; one of the man; one of the men have

PEOPLE The people are living in poverty. NOT — the people is; the people lives

RATHER - WOULD RATHER He would rather be in China. He’d rather be in China. NOT — he rather

SEEM It seems unfair; it doesn’t seem fair. NOT — it isn’t seem

SUCCEED (v) / SUCCESS (n) / SUCCESSFUL (adj) We succeed because we value success and we want to be successful. NOT — we success; we want to be success

THAN (conjunction with comparatives) /THEN (adverb - at that time) She is taller now than I was then. NOT – He is taller then I. Than I left.

THE UNITED STATES We live in the United States now. NOT — in United States

WISH (for things that are not real/true) - HOPE (for things that are possible) I wish I could swim faster. She wishes she had a pet.

She hopes she gets one soon. NOT — wish I will; wish I can; she wishes she has

YEAR-OLD / YEARS OLD He is a ten-year-old boy. He is ten years old. NOT — ten years old boy; is ten year old(Cain, J. (2002) Eye on Editing 2. New York: Longman, pp. 134-135.)




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It is important to point out errors to ELs so that the learners’ ungrammatical use of words and expressions will not stabilize and become a permanent part of the students’ linguistic repertoires.

To illustrate the complex grammatical knowledge needed to excel at the university-level, consider the writing prompt of the University of California Subject A Examination.

Directions: Read carefully the passage and the essay topic. Respond to the topic by writing an essay that is controlled by a central idea and is specifically developed.

You will have two hours to read the passage and to complete your essay.

You may underline the passage and make marginal notes as you read. Plan your essay before you begin writing, using the “Notes” side of the blue Information Sheet. Allow time to review and

proofread your essay and to make any revisions or corrections you wish.

Your essay will be evaluated on the basis of your ability to develop your central idea, to express yourself clearly, and to use the conventions of written English. The topic has no “correct” response.

(Copyright © 1994 by the University of California. All rights reserved. Produced for the University of California by Educational Testing Service. Permission to use this passage has been granted by George E. Taylor for the Estate of Florence R. Kluckhohn Taylor.)

Introductory Note: Clyde Kluckhohn (1905-1960) was professor of anthropology at Harvard University. The following passage, adapted from his book Mirror for Man, defines what anthropologists mean by culture and explains culture’s influence on how people think, feel, and behave.

One of the interesting things about human beings is that they try to understand themselves and their own

behavior. While this has been particularly true of Europeans in recent times, there is no group which has not developed a scheme or schemes to explain human actions. To the insistent human query “why?” the most exciting illumination anthropology has to offer is that of the concept of culture. Its explanatory importance is comparable to categories such as evolution in biology, gravity in physics, disease in medicine.

Why do so many Chinese dislike milk and milk products? Why during World War II did Japanese soldiers die willingly in a Banzai charge that seemed senseless to Americans? Why do some nations trace descent through the father, others through the mother, still others through both parents? Not because different peoples have different instincts, not because they were destined by God or Fate to different habits, not because the weather is different in China and Japan and the United States. Sometimes shrewd common sense has an answer that is close to that of the anthropologist: “because they were brought up that way. By “culture” anthropology means the total life way of a people, the social legacy individuals acquire from their group. Or culture can be regarded as that part of the environment that is the creation of human beings.

This technical term has a wider meaning than the “culture” of history and literature. A humble cooking pot is as much a cultural product as is a Beethoven sonata. In ordinary speech, “people of culture” are those who can speak languages other than their own, who are familiar with history, literature, philosophy, or the fine arts. To the anthropologist, however, to be human is to be cultured. There is culture in general, and then there are the specific cultures such as Russian, American, British, Hottentot, and Inca. The general abstract notion serves to remind us that we cannot explain acts solely in terms of the biological properties of the people concerned, their individual past experience, and the immediate situation. The past experience of other people in the form of culture enters into almost every event. Each specific culture constitutes a kind of blueprint of all of life’s activities.

A good deal of human behavior can be understood, and indeed predicted, if we know a people’s design for living. Many acts are neither accidental nor due to personal peculiarities nor caused by supernatural forces nor simply mysterious. Even we Americans who pride ourselves on our individualism follow most of the time a pattern not of our own making. We brush our teeth on arising. We put on pants—not a loincloth or a grass skirt. We eat



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three meals a day—not four or five or two. We sleep in a bed—not in a hammock or on a sheep pelt. I do not have to know individuals and their life histories to be able to predict these and countless other regularities, including many in the thinking process of all Americans who are not incarcerated in jails or hospitals for the insane.

To the American woman a system of plural wives seems “instinctively” abhorrent. She cannot understand how any woman can fail to be jealous and uncomfortable if she must share her husband with other women. She feels it “unnatural” to accept such a situation. On the other hand, a Koryak woman of Siberia, for example, would find it hard to understand how a woman could be so selfish and so undesirous of feminine companionship in the home as to wish to restrict her husband to one mate.

Some years ago I met in New York City, a young man who did not speak a word of English and was obviously bewildered by American ways. By “blood” he was American, for his parents had gone from Indiana to China as missionaries. Orphaned in infancy, he was reared by a Chinese family in a remote village. All who met him found him more Chinese than American. The facts of his blue eyes and light hair were less impressive than a Chinese style of gait, Chinese arm and hand movements, Chinese facial expression, and Chinese modes of thought. The biological heritage was American, but the cultural training had been Chinese. He returned to China.

Another example of another kind: I once knew a trader’s wife in Arizona who took a somewhat devilish interest in producing a cultural reaction. Guests who came her way were often served delicious sandwiches filled with a meat that seemed to be neither chicken nor tuna fish yet was reminiscent of both. To queries she gave no reply until each had eaten his or her fill. She then explained that what they had eaten was not chicken, not tuna fish, but the rich, white flesh of freshly killed rattlesnakes. The response was instantaneous, often violent vomiting. A biological process is caught in a cultural web.

All this does not mean that there is no such thing as raw human nature. The members of all human groups have about the same biological equipment. All people undergo the same poignant life experiences, such as birth, helplessness, illness, old age, and death. The biological potentialities of the species are the blocks with which cultures are built. Some patterns of every culture crystallize around focuses provided by biology: the difference between the sexes, the presence of persons of different ages, the varying physical strength, and skill of individuals. The facts of nature also limit culture forms. No culture provides patterns for jumping over trees or for eating iron ore. There is thus no “either-or” between nature and that special form of nurture called culture. The two factors are interdependent. Culture arises out of human nature, and its forms are restricted both by human biology and by natural laws.

ESSAY TOPICHow does Kluckhohn explain the differences and similarities among the world’s peoples? What do you think about his views? Use examples from your own experience, reading, or observation in developing your essay.

TEXT ANALYSISGrammatical Features—Here are some of the grammatical features that students must know to interpret Kluckhohn’s text accurately. Such features are precisely the type that should be taught to students when they are reading texts in class.

• The expression of certainty, uncertainty, necessity, and possibility through modals:

would, could

On the other hand, a Koryak woman of Siberia, for example, would find it hard to understand how a woman could be so selfish and so undesirous of feminine companionship in the home as to wish to restrict her husband to one mate.

• The use of temporal adjunct phrases to locate events in time: some years ago; once.



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Note that temporal frames of reference are very subtly conveyed—for example:

Another example of another kind:

I once knew a trader’s wife in Arizona who took a somewhat devilish interest in producing a cultural reaction.

• The use of spatial phrases to locate events in places:

in the home; a Koryak woman of Siberia; in New York City

• The use of passive construction to foreground actions and background the agents of those actions—for example:

A biological process is caught in a cultural web.

Phrases—the most elusive aspect of really knowing a language; the natural, idiomatic or preferred ways of expressing ideas in the language, without which, things might be “grammatical” but nevertheless unnatural.

• Some examples of habitual ways of stating certain ideas in this text: remote village; orphaned in infancy

Rhetorical and Cohesive Devices—the grammatical means of linking ideas into larger, coherent discourse, and of structuring texts into effective and interpretable pieces of discourse:

• For example, the use of adverbial and preposition phrases that make explicit the relationships between events, acts, and situations:

On the other hand, for example

STANDARD ENGLISH AND WRITINGA question might arise concerning the importance of teaching students to use the grammatical conventions of Standard English. The answer is complicated, because increased globalization and the development of world English have challenged the notion of a single Standard English. The increasing number of immigrants in our high schools and colleges raises questions about the expectations concerning grammatical correctness even in written English (Frodeson, 2001). Also, Clark (2001) argues that grammar can be separated (though not entirely completely) from the semantic content and logical structure of writing. It might be reasonable to assume, therefore, that grammar is relatively unimportant and should not be a significantly important factor in determining students’ grades. However, Clark points out that research has proven repeatedly that it is precisely the grammatical features of text that determine how people respond to student writing. He suggests that

a close adherence to the conventions of English grammar is usually most important to readers with the least formal training in the analysis of written texts, even when these readers claim not to care much about the “mechanics” of writing. Knowing the grammar of Standard English is now tested on the California High School Exit Exam. Students who do not learn it will not receive their high school diplomas. Consequently, teachers must insist that EL writing, in fact all student writing, conform to the basic conventions of Standard Written English. It is a precondition for participating successfully in the academic discourse of any field or subject matter. Some students will have more problems with this requirement than others, but fortunately most of these problems can be remedied with close attention, instruction, feedback and practice.

The Reading English Language Arts Framework and standards require all students to become proficient in Standard English and acquire enough proficiency in English to participate successfully in a variety of settings, including academic, professional, and business contexts. While slang, regional idioms, and informal kinds of self-expression are appropriate in many informal contexts, they are out of place in formal writing. Teachers in the lower and upper grades must expect all students to demonstrate proficiency in using the conventions of Standard English in their written work. Various academic fields—social studies and science, for example—have different conventions for structuring written work and presenting information, but all written work should be characterized by conventional uses of Standard English diction, grammar, punctuation, and spelling, in addition to intellectual sophistication and creativity. Students’ written work should, therefore, be graded on the basis of their use of Standard English as well as content. Teachers in the content areas may find it useful to give two grades to students—one for content and one for language use (including vocabulary and grammar). Students should be expected to edit their work carefully and accurately, making sure that their sentences are clear, precisely worded, and syntactically appropriate. English and Language Arts teachers should not assign passing grades to writing assignments that do not exhibit sustained control of the sentence-level conventions of Standard English, even if the assignments’ organization and argument are of passing quality. They should not cushion ELs who are in the intermediate or advanced stages of learning English. If they consistently overlook the grammatical mistakes that their students make, the students will not improve their English.



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CONCLUSIONInstructors can no longer simply hope that their students will acquire English grammar. For the majority of students—whether native or non-native English-speaking, the grammar of academic English cannot be acquired accurately without instruction. For ELs who have reached a plateau in developing English, grammar instruction is necessary. This instruction must show learners not only forms but the meanings of these forms and how to use the forms to accomplish purposeful communicative goals. Unstructured and unplanned grammar instruction is a disaster for ELs. Grammar instruction cannot be incidental. It must be taught in a principled manner. Not to do so is a disservice to students. Instructors must provide excellent grammar instruction with clear explanations. They must integrate grammar instruction throughout their lessons systematically. Grammar must be selected and presented sensibly, keeping in mind the standards, the curricular materials, and the need for varied activities, repetition, feedback, and assessment. This does not mean teaching grammar in isolation, relying on handbooks to teach grammar instead of curricular materials, or boring students with meaningless exercises. It means carefully planning grammar instruction and incorporating it into ongoing lessons.

The following guidelines are intended to facilitate grammar instruction.

• Provide language instruction concerning particular forms of grammatical features, meanings of grammatical features and functions of grammatical features.

• Provide students with sufficient exposure to increasingly challenging texts that provide interesting and appropriate models of academic grammar.

• Make regular use of classroom activities and assignments that encourage students to use targeted grammatical features.

• Regularly use classroom activities and assignments that encourage students to attend closely to the features of grammar.

• Provide learners with accurate feedback concerning specific aspects of their use of grammar.

• Provide frequent assessments (including entry placement level assessment, diagnostic, formative assessments, and summative assessments) using multiple measures. These measures accomplish the following objectives: (1) they allow teachers to measure students’ developing grammar and to tailor instruction appropriately and (2) they give instructional information to ELs that helps them learn English grammar.

• Use organizational and classroom management strategies that maximize the students’ exposure to the grammatical features of Standard English, attention to the grammatical features of Standard English and the use of Standard English.

The topic of grammar is once again at the forefront of discussions in language teaching, due in large part to the recent research of Doughty (1991), Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991), Lightbown & Spada (1993), Rutherford and Sharwood Smith (1988), Swain (1998), and others. There is a need for explicit, formal instruction of grammar—in which learners are exposed to grammatical structures and required to use these structures in a variety of meaningful speaking and writing activities.



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FURTHER READING

Websites

Individual grammar tutorials and information for teachers are now readily available.

Helpful sites on teaching grammar to high school and college ELs who have an intermediate or an intermediate or an advanced proficiency in English include the following:

• Self-Study Quizzes for ESL Students— http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/ offers multiple quizzes organized for interest by person, geographical places or subject (automobile vocabulary, etc.) as well as by grammatical parts of speech.

• The Internet TESL Journal’s ESL Grammar and English Usage – http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/ has precise links for various problematic issues in English, past tense questions, confusing words, clauses, adjective order, auxiliary verbs, passive voice, pronouns, etc.

• The Internet TESL Journal (articles, research papers, lessons plans, classroom handouts, teaching ideas, and links; this is a monthly web journal.) http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/TESL/ - Links from the Internet TESL Journal to books, articles, conferences, associations, computer-assisted language activities.

Helpful websites on teaching grammar to elementary school children are found at:

• Funbrain.com Grammar Gorilla helps children identify parts of

speech. Other activities at this site teach children new words, (animals, fruit and shapes), idioms and spelling.

• http://www.ManyThings.org Contains lesson plans, grammar activities involving

flashcards, hangman exercises, pictures, stories, and magnet boards.

• http://www.res.sd8.bc.ca/Language%20Arts.html Includes an online resource for grammar rules and

parts of speech listed in alphabetical order, practices and a grammar clinic.

• http://www.pumpkinancompany.com/PAC/Teachers-Web_Tesources_R1.htm

Lists many links to grammar exercises and activities.

• http://www.sla.purdue.edu/fll/JapanProk/FLClipart Contains interesting grammar activities.

• http://www.indianchild.com english_grammar_help.htm

Contains information on English grammar for teachers and student resources.

Links to sites to share with high school and college students include the following:

• UCI Humanities ESL Program – http://e3.uci.edu/programs/esl/links.html Provides links to grammar exercises, explanations and other language resources.

• Internet TESL Journals’ “Quizzes”– http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/ESL/Quizzes/ Provides a host of grammar quizzes on the specific grammar problems experienced by many ELs.

• Brigham Young University Hawaii Language Center – http://www.lc.byuh.edu/cnn_n/CNN-N.html Contains advanced grammar exercises were developed at Brigham Young University Hawaii Language Center that use authentic texts from CNN reports.

• Grammar Links for Students – http://userpages.umbc.edu/~kpokoy1/grammar1.htm Has useful grammar exercises, references and quizzes.

• ESL Quiz Center –http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/#grammar Has good exercises for teaching irregular verbs, verb tense, count nouns, and prepositions.

• Dave’s Café –http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/grammar.html Has numerous exercises, explanations and activities for learners.

• Advanced English Grammar – http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ Has Powerpoint presentations on grammar as well as activities and quizzes.



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Handbooks and Grammar Series:

Grammar series for international and recently arrived immigrant college students (and sometimes high school students) who have been educated in their home countries:

Bates, L., Lane, J. & Lange, E. (2000) Writing Clearly. An Editing Guide. (2nd ed.) Boston: Heinle & Heinle. A grammar book that contains good examples of common EL errors, explaining how students can avoid making the errors. Defines grammatical terms in lay terms.

Byrd, P. & Benson, B. (1994). Problem/Solution: A Reference for ESL Writers, Boston; Heinle & Heinle. A grammar book that is most useful for older, international students.

Understanding and Using English Grammar Chartbook. (3rd ed.) Azar, B. (1998). New Jersey; Pearson Education/Prentice Hall. A grammar book that has clear explanations. Most useful for college students.

Grammar Dimensions 1-4. (2000) (2nd ed.) D. Larsen-Freeman, B. (Ed.) Boston: Heinle & Heinle.A grammar book for long-term residents of the United States, designed for college students but used as well by many high school students.

Eye on Editing. (2001). Cain, J. New York: Longman. Grammar editing books for intermediate and advanced ELs at high school and college.

Teacher Reference Books

Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course. (2nd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Provides comprehensive information about teaching English learners grammar. The form, meaning and use of each grammatical structure is treated systematically and many practical suggestions are provided.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (Forthcoming). Teaching Language: From grammar to grammaring. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Provides an overview of theory and research as well as practical information about teaching grammar to ELs.

Locke, G. (1995). Functional English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Contains useful information about the functional usage of specific grammatical features.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES FOR HMONGBlake, J. L. and Dao, Y. (1992). Hmong for English Speakers. Minneapolis, Minnesota: WorldBridge Associates.

Jaiisser, A. (in collaboration with Martha Ratliff, Elizabeth Riddle, David Strecker, Lopao Vang and Lyfu Vang). (1995). Hmong for Beginners. Centers for South and Southeast Asia Studies. University of California at Berkeley.

Center for Applied Linguistics (n.d.). The Hmong Language: Sounds and Alphabets (Indochinese Refugee Education Guides, General Information Series #14). Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Center for Applied Linguistics (n.d.). The Hmong Language: Sentences, Phrases and Words (Indochinese Refugee Education Guides, General Information Series #15). Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Lewis, J. (editor). (1992). Pronouncing names, (pp. 2- 7). Context: Southeast Asians in California. Vol. 13, Nu. 98.

Thowpaou Bliatout, B., Downing, B., Lewis, J. and Yang, D. (1988). Handbook for Teaching Hmong-Speaking Students. Folsom Cordova Unified School District, Southeast Asia Community Resource Center. pp. 48-59.

Wheaton Fuller, Judith. (1988). Topic and comment in Hmong. Bloomington, Indiana: The Indiana University Linguistics Club. Originally prepared as a Ph.D. dissertation thesis the University of Minnesota, 1985.



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REFERENCESBarr Ebest, S., Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C., & Oliu, W. (2000). Writing from A to Z. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.

Booth Olson, C. (2003). The reading/writing connection: Strategies for teaching and learning in the secondary classroom. Boston: Pearson Education.

Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Cain, J., Earle-Carlin, S., Hildebrand, C., & Scarcella, R. (2001). UCI ESL student handbook. Unpublished manuscript. University of California, Irvine.

Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Grammar pedagogy in second and foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 25 (3), 459-480.

Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) (2001). Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher’s course. (2nd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Doughty, C. (1991). Second language instruction does make a difference: Evidence from an empirical study of SL relativization. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13, 431- 469.

Doughty, C., & Williams, J. (Eds.), (1998). Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fotos, S. (1994). Integrating grammar instruction and communicative language use through grammar consciousness raising tasks. TESOL Quarterly, 28 (2), 323-351.

Frank, C., & Rinvolucri, M. (1983). Grammar in action: Awareness activities for language learning. Oxford: Pergamon.

Gass, S. (1982). From theory to practice. In M. Hines & W. Rutherford (Eds.), On TESOL ’81 (pp. 129-139). Washington, D.C.: TESOL.

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GRAMMAR QUIZ ANSWER KEY1. An adjective is used to modify a noun.

2. Two adjectives in the sentences below are BLUE and HOT. The blue plate is my favorite. It is a very hot day today.

3. An adverb is a word that is used to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective, sentence or even another adverb.

4. Two adverbs in the sentences below are SLOWLY and SUDDENLY. She drove slowly. Suddenly the boy jumped up and screamed.5. The English articles are a, an, and THE.

6. The definite article “the” indicates a specific/particular/definite entity that both the reader and write recognize.

7. There are two indefinite articles in English: A and AN.

8. A clause is any group of words that has a subject and a verb.

9. In the sentence that follows, the dependent clause is WHEN I SAW YOU LAST YEAR. When I saw you last year, you were studying in Madrid.

10. A conditional sentence is a complex sentence that expresses a hypothesis that is potentially CONTRARY to fact.

11. Conditional sentences often begin with the word: IF.

12. A conjunction is a word that joins words, phrases, or clauses.

13. The sentences below contain two conjunctions: AND and BUT. I like coffee and tea. I like ice cream, but I do not like cake.

14. A count noun is a noun that can be preceded by a number indicating how many.

15. In the sentences below, there are four count nouns: BOOKS, DESK, SHIPS and HARBOR. There are four books on my desk. There are ships in the harbor.

16. The opposite of a count noun is a noncount noun (also called uncountable or uncount noun). Noncount words include water, rice, and mud.

17. Particles too small to be counted, such as SALT/SAND, hair, and sugar, are noncount nouns.

18. In the list of words below, LOVE and ADVICE (abstracts) are also noncount nouns. books pens love advice watches

19. A sentence fragment is a group of words that does not constitute a complete sentence, EXAMPLE: Three boys eating watermelon while playing Nintendo.

20. A gerund is a verb with an -ing ending that functions as a noun. EXAMPLE: Skiing is fun.

21. An infinitive is a verb form that is not marked for tense or person. It is sometimes preceded by the word “to.” EXAMPLE: He wanted to sing.

22. An intransitive verb is a verb that does not take a direct object. EXAMPLE: “slept” in the following sentence: She slept late yesterday.

23. In the sentences below, the word, ATE, can be both transitive and intransitive. John ate rice last night. John ate at ten last night.

24. Modal auxiliaries/modals include a class of verbs that indicate necessity, ability, possibility, permission, or obligation: can, could, would, should, ought, might, may, must, have, to, had to.



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25. In the sentences below, CAN and SHOULD are modal auxiliaries. Jane can ride horses very skillfully. I should study more.

26. A preposition is a word indicating a relationship between two things that may be spatial, temporal, grammatical or metaphorical. EXAMPLES: about, above, across, after, against, along, amid among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, for, from, in, into, like, near, of, off, on, out, over, past, since, through, to, towards, under, unto, up, upon. with, within, etc.

27. A pronoun is a form that takes the place of a noun or a noun phrase.

28. The subject pronoun in the sentence below is SHE. She is not happy with her grade this quarter.

29. A run-on sentence in written English occurs when two independent clauses are joined together with commas, inappropriate conjunctions, or no punctuation at all. EXAMPLE: I ate my lunch I polished my shoes I saw my friend and then I went to the mall.

30. The subject (of a sentence) is the noun or noun phrase of the main verb in the sentence.

31. In the following sentences, the subjects are: COWS and KENNEDY. Cows graze on grass all day long. Kennedy died before I was born.

32. A verb is a word that shows action or state of being.

33. In the following sentences, RUNS is an action verb.

34. SEE ITEM 26 ABOVE FOR A LIST OF PREPOSITIONS.

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