Grammar

I wish to share some interesting and intricate features of the structures that I came to know of during my teaching and learning of ESL. I will also be posting the following:

• Some difficult to answer grammar questions that we as teachers can expect from our students
• Suggestions to teach grammar
• Interesting activities

As you know there are two approaches to teaching grammar. They are inductive and deductive approaches.

Deductive Approach

First the grammar rules are outlined. Teacher defines the grammar structure before getting the students to practice it. I believe this approach is good if the proficiency level of the students is low. For example, if students don't know what conditional clauses are, it's better to show the structure first and analyze it before talking about examples.

Inductive Approach

In this approach the analysis of the grammar rule comes last. First examples of the intended structure is given/ practiced. Then students are expected to discover the elements of rules. When I teach conditional clauses most often I use the inductive approach. (Please see below)

I find inductive approach more interesting than deductive approach. Most often I try to use inductive approach even when teaching lower levels and resort to deductive approach only when the first doesn't yield intended results. Inductive teaching a great way to keep the students actively engaged in the learning process. It also helps the teacher to find out how much prior knowledge students have and to figure out how much of scaffolding is needed.

Indirect / reported Speech -1


According to my experience teaching indirect/ reported speech is not an easy task.

Let's start from easy to difficult.

In reported speech we have to pay attention to the time factor.

Example 1: If we are reporting something immediately after it's spoken and while the effect still pervades, we use present time.

At 1.00 p.m.
A says to B :      "I'm tired." At 1.01 p.m.
B reports to C:   A said that he is tired. (It's more correct to think A is still tired.)

Example 2.
A said he was tired. (If you are reporting much later in the day you could expect that A is not tired anymore)

Example 3.
A to B : "I will visit you tomorrow afternoon." The following day morning B to C: A said he will visit me this afternoon. The following day evening B to C : A said he would visit me this afternoon.

When reporting speech verbs change in the following manner.

Present tense He said, “I'm tired.”	Past tense He said he was tired.
Present continuous He said, “I'm planning to buy a house.”	Past continuous He said he was planning to buy a house.
Present perfect He said, “I have watched that movie.”	Past perfect He said he had watched that movie.
Present perfect continuous He said, “I have been working hard.”	Past perfect continuous He said he had been working hard.
Simple past tense He said, “I forgot to lock the door.”	Past perfect He said he had forgotten to lock the door.
Past continuous He said, “I was watching a movie at that time.”	Past perfect continuous He said he had been watching a movie at that time.
Past perfect NO  CHANGE He said, “I had already posted the letter.”	Past perfect   NO  CHANGE He said he had already posted the letter.
Past perfect continuousNO  CHANGE He said, “I had been answering the phone at that moment.”	Past perfect continuousNO  CHANGE He said he had been answering the phone at that moment.

Passive Voice - 1

I will start with the basics of passive voice. In the next couple of postings you will find some interesting points about this structure that I came to know of when I prepared for a five minute presentation in my Pedagogical grammar of English class.

Simple Present Tense

Am	Is	Are
My brother hits me.	Joe eats bread.	I read books.
I am hit by my brother.	Bread is eaten by Joe.	Books are read by me.

Present Continuous/ Progressive

Is	Are
Joe is eating bread.	I am reading books.
Bread is being eaten by Joe.	Books are being read by me.

Present Perfect Tense

Has	Have
Joe has eaten bread.	Raj has bought two tickets.
Bread has been eaten by Joe.	Two tickets have been bought by Raj.

Present Perfect Progressive

Has	Have
Nelu has been watching a movie.	Nelu has been watering the plants.
A movie has been watched by Nelu.	The plants have been watered by Nelu.

Simple Past Tense

Was	Were
Sam wrote a letter.	Sam bought two stamps.
A letter was written by Sam.	Two stamps were bought by Sam.

Past Progressive

Was	Were
Sam was writing a letter.	Sam was buying two stamps.
A letter was being written by Sam.	Two stamps were being bought by Sam.

Past Perfect Tense

Had

Sam had posted the letter.

The letter had been posted by Sam.

Past Perfect Progressive

Had

Sam had been practicing the guitar at that time.

The guitar had been practiced by Sam at that time.

 

Future Tense

Will

Sam will write a letter.

A letter will be written by Sam.

Future Perfect Tense

Will

Sam will have written a letter.

A letter will have been written by Sam.

Questions

1. I know how to construct passive voice sentences but I'm not sure    when to use it.

2. Can  all the active voice sentences be written in passive voice?

Let's try to find answers to the first question.

1. I know how to construct passive voice sentences but I'm not sure when to use it.

Task 1

Why do you think the following are written in passive voice?

1.  I was born on March 20th 1975.
2. A mistake was made.
3. The car was stolen last night.
4. Two people were injured in the accident.
5. Sam gave Ruth some books. A total of 13 was given.
6. It is said that the number 9 is bad luck.
7. 'Two students were suspended.' / 'Wanted'
8. A massive destruction was caused by the earthquake.

Check your answers.

1. When the agent (doer) is obvious. Some passive sentences do not have active voice counterparts.
2. When we want to avoid mentioning the agent.
3. When the agent is not known.
4. When the agent is less important than the recipient.
5. When the agent is obvious from the context.
6. It + passive verb + that clause serves to introduce a topic, since the new information  
    comes at the end  of the sentence.
7. Reduced passive form is used in newspaper headlines or signs.
8. When the agent is nonhuman.


2. Can all the active voice sentences written in passive voice?

There are two types of verbs. They are transitive verbs and intransitive verbs.
A transitive verb has an object whereas an intransitive verbs does not have one.

I read books. - transitive verb - there is an object The sun rices at 6.30a.m. - Intransitive verb

Only sentences with transitive verbs have a passive voice.

Conditional clause - Type 1

What I usually do is write a few sentences on the board and tell students to identify a pattern that is discernible in the structure. I like to use inductive style of teaching because students get a chance to discover the rule on their own rather than being told. And this leads to a dynamic learning process. 

Example

If you study hard, you will pass the exam.

If you don’t study hard, you will not pass the exam.

If she goes to the party, she will meet her friends.

If you go to the party, you will meet all your friends.

If you help me, I will help you.

Sometimes I tell the students to construct similar sentences to find out whether they have identified the structural features. 

If students find it difficult to figure out the exact structure because of low proficiency level, I highlight verbs in order to scaffold them. 

For example,

If you study hard, you will pass the exam.

Next, I go on to explain how ‘will’ can be replaced with ‘can’, ‘may’, and ‘shall’.

It’s important to discuss why this tense is called a conditional clause. In here we can distinguish the condition introduced by the ‘If clause’ and what occurs as a result of the condition which is called the main clause. 

If you study hard (if clause), you will pass the exam(main clause).

It’s important to focus on the comma. Students need to know that the conditional sentences can be written in two ways. 

a)     If you study hard, you will pass the exam.

b)    You will pass the exam if you study hard.

In (a) comma has to be placed between the ‘if’ and the ‘main’ clauses.

But in (b) comma is not placed. 

Finally, adequate time is allocated for students to practice this tense and internalize it. My favorite activity is the chain story where students construct sentences as if in a story. Mostly the stories turn out to be funny.

Chain story sample:

1.     If you study hard, you will pass the exam.

2.     If you pass the exam, you can get a good job.

3.     If you get a good job, you can earn a lot of money.

4.     If you earn a lot of money, you can buy a house.

5.     If you buy a house, you ………………………………………………

In this story each person begins a new sentence by switching the main clause of the previous sentence into ‘if clause’ in the new sentence. In switching the two the following changes take place. 

The verb of the previous main clause (for example, ‘will pass’) in sentence one is turned to simple present (pass) in sentence two.

Conditional clause - Type 2 

After teaching type 1 it’s easy to teach type 2 and 3. I follow the same method of inductive teaching for this too. I begin with a few sentences on the board and tell students to identify a pattern that is discernible in the structure. If students find it difficult to identify the rule, I provide some scaffolding. 

Examples

If you studied hard, you would pass the exam.

If you didn’t study hard, you would not pass the exam.

If she went to the party, she would meet her friends.

If you went to the party, you would meet all your friends.

If you helped me, I would help you.

Next, I tell the students to construct similar sentences to find out whether they have identified the structural features. 

After that, I go on to explain how ‘would’ can be replaced with ‘could’, ‘might’, and ‘should’.

It’s important to discuss why this tense is called a conditional clause. In here we can distinguish the condition introduced by the ‘If clause’ and what occurs as a result of the condition which is called the main clause. 

If you studied hard (if clause), you would pass the exam (main clause).

Students might need help understanding the meaning conveyed by this tense. For example, if Sam won a lottery, he could buy a house.

I usually ask students the following guided questions.

i.                    Did Sam win a lottery? No

ii.                 Did Sam buy a house? No

iii.               When can Sam buy a house? One day if he wins a lottery.

iv.               Is it a dream of Sam to win a lottery and buy a house one day? Yes

Another simple example to illustrate the meaning of this tense is,

if I had money, I would take you (the students) on a trip.

Explanation - but in reality I cannot take you on a trip because I don’t have money. I wish I had money to spend on a trip.

You can use type 2 to give advice.

For example, if you studied hard, you could pass the exam.

The implied meaning is, you didn’t pass the exam because you didn’t study enough. Next time, you study hard so that you can pass the exam.

It’s important to focus on the comma. Students need to know that the conditional sentences can be written in two ways. 

a)    If you studied hard, you would pass the exam.

b)    You would pass the exam if you studied hard.

In (a) comma has to be placed between the ‘if’ and the ‘main’ clauses.

But in (b) comma is not placed. 

Finally, adequate time is allocated for students to practice this tense and internalize it. I use the chain story which I discussed under type 1 to give practice in using this tense. 

Chain story sample:

1.     If you studied hard, you would pass the exam.

2.     If you passed the exam, you could get a good job.

3.     If you got a good job, you could earn a lot of money.

4.     If you earned a lot of money, you would buy a house.

5.     If you bought a house, you ………………………………………………

The verb of the previous main clause (for example, ‘would pass’) in sentence one is turned to simple past (passed) in sentence two.

References

Sadlier, M., Riggenbach, H., & Samuda, V.  (2000). Grammar dimensions: Form, meaning, and use (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Heinle.

Frodesen, J., &  Eyring, J. (2000). Grammar dimensions: Form, meaning, and use (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.