Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom: Noticing, Exploring and Practicing

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Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom Noticing, Exploring and Practising

Rodney H. Jones and Graham Lock

Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom

Also by Rodney H. Jones ADVANCES IN DISCOURSE STUDIES (co-edited with Vijay Bhatia and John Flowerdew) DISCOURSE IN ACTION: Introducing Mediated Discourse Analysis (co-edited with Sigrid Norris) Also by Graham Lock FUNCTIONAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR: An Introduction for Second Language Teachers

Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom Noticing, Exploring and Practising Rodney H. Jones Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Graham Lock Adjunct Associate Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong

© Rodney H. Jones and Graham Lock 2011 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–0–230–27238–5 ISBN 978–0–230–27239–2

hardback paperback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

Contents

Index of Grammar Foci

vii

1

Introduction Presenting grammar in context Showing how grammatical choices are meaningful choices Noticing, exploring and practising A fresh look at grammar Integrating the procedures into a curriculum How to use this book Finding and preparing texts

2

Comparing General procedure Sample teaching idea one: Explosions Sample teaching idea two: Travel advice

11 11 12 17

3

Sequencing General procedure Sample teaching idea one: Lady Gaga Sample teaching idea two: A trip to London

29 29 30 37

4

Gap Filling General procedure Sample teaching idea one: Denials Sample teaching idea two: Stupid criminals

43 43 45 52

5

Reconstructing General procedure Sample teaching idea one: My favourite place Sample teaching idea two: Going on vacation

59 59 60 64

6

Elaborating General procedure Sample teaching idea one: The witness Sample teaching idea two: Dick’s dream

73 73 74 84

7

Transforming General procedure Sample teaching idea one: How coins are made Sample teaching idea two: Buying gifts v

1 1 2 3 6 8 8 9

91 91 92 100

vi

Contents

8

Combining Procedures Sample teaching idea one: Bigfoot Sample teaching idea two: Global warming

109 110 123

Appendix

133

Glossary

137

References

143

Index

145

Index of Grammar Foci

Adjuncts (placement of)

Chapter 3, Teaching idea two

Ellipsis

Chapter 4, Teaching idea one

Ergative verbs and agency


Given and new information

Chapter 3, Teaching idea three Chapter 7, Teaching idea two

Indirect Objects


Modality (obligation)


Nominalisation


Non-finite verbs (Verb + ing vs. infinitive)


Reference (pronouns, the)


Reporting and quoting speech


‘Sensing’ and ‘being’ clauses


Subjects and finite


Thematic organisation


Tense

Chapter 5, Teaching idea one Chapter 6, Teaching idea one

Voice


vii

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1 Introduction

This book presents six general procedures for teaching grammar to learners of English as a second or foreign language. We call these procedures: • • • • • •

Comparing Sequencing Gap Filling Restructuring Elaborating Transforming.

Each of these procedures involves students in working with texts in various ways which help them to understand and use different grammatical resources of English. The procedures are designed to: • Help students notice how grammar is used in particular contexts • Explore how grammatical choices are meaningful choices • Practise using these resources to make meaning. Each procedure is exemplified with two sample teaching ideas along with lesson plans, texts and worksheets. A general description of each of the procedures can be found in the Appendix.

Presenting grammar in context We do not speak or write in isolated sentences. We speak or write in meaningful units called texts, which consist of stretches of 1

2 Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom

language that ‘hang together’ in some way. Furthermore, texts are always produced in some kind of context. As features of context change, texts change. Or, to look at it another way, as texts change, the contexts that they evoke also change. Because of this, it is rarely possible to give an adequate account of why a particular grammatical feature is used in a particular clause or sentence without referring to, or trying to reconstruct, some context, including both features of the text that it comes from (the cotext) and features of the situation in which the text was produced (the situational context). It therefore makes sense to present grammar to learners in context, and to help them to understand how the grammar works within texts. However, this does not mean that we have to confront beginners with long stretches of language. Something as short as stand clear of the doors can be a complete text, as can a short exchange such as: Hi! What’s up? Nothing much. Okay, seeya. Seeya. The procedures presented in this book all involve learners engaging with grammar within texts, either written or spoken.

Showing how grammatical choices are meaningful choices In principle, every difference between grammatical forms represents a difference in meaning. This is easy to see in grammatical systems such as tense. Take, for example, the following two sentences. She slammed the door. She slams doors. Even without knowing more about the context, we are likely to interpret the first sentence as saying that the slamming of the door probably took place at some specified time in the past, perhaps evoking a narrative text involving a quarrel, while sentence two suggests to us

Introduction

3

that the slamming of the door is a repeated event, perhaps evoking a descriptive text about someone and her irritating habits. Of course, the difference in number (singular vs. plural) and reference (specific vs. generic) in the noun groups the door and doors also aids these interpretations of the sentences. Grammatical features work together to create meaning. It may be less easy to see meaning differences in a system such as voice. But they are still there. Take for example the following two sentences: George chopped down the cherry tree. The cherry tree was chopped down by George. We can interpret the first sentence as being about George, and the fact that he chopped down the cherry tree as the new and important information in the sentence, perhaps evoking some preceding cotext about George and the things he got up to. The second sentence can be interpreted as being about the cherry tree, and the fact that it was George who chopped it down is likely to be the new and important information, perhaps evoking some preceding cotext about the state of the tree. This aspect of meaning – the way grammar (as well as other systems in the language) contributes to the coherent flow of information in a text – is sometimes referred to as textual meaning. Of course, to fully understand the contribution of the choice of voice in these sentences to textual meaning, one needs to look at the cotext and probably also the situational context. And of course if these are spoken sentences, the intonation will also play a part in interpreting the textual meaning. The procedures presented in this book therefore seek to raise learners’ awareness of how differences in grammatical forms express differences in meaning.

Noticing, exploring and practising In order to learn a language, one obviously needs lots of exposure to it. The samples of language that learners are exposed to should ideally present some challenge – something new to learn – without being so


difficult that the learners are overwhelmed and able to understand little or nothing. This is sometimes expressed as the need for comprehensible input. However, there is plenty of evidence that comprehensible input alone seldom leads to satisfactory progress in language learning. Learners need to notice features in the samples of the target language they are reading or listening to. They also need to notice differences between their own uses of the language and those in the samples. However, without some help, it is difficult to notice important features of the language while one is concentrating simply on understanding what is being said or written. The procedures in this book therefore all include activities which provide learners with the support they need to notice what is important. Closely related to noticing activities are exploring activities. These encourage learners to discover, through interaction with texts, their teachers and their fellow learners, how the forms they have noticed are used or, more specifically, how they relate to meaning and context. The most important thing about helping students to learn how to explore the possible reasons why certain grammatical features are used in different contexts is that it helps them to become more independent learners. The kinds of support learners receive to notice and explore new things is sometimes called scaffolding. The sample teaching ideas in this book include examples of the kinds of exploration questions a teacher can use to provide the necessary scaffolding. The way these questions are used will of course depend very much on the specific teaching/learning context. In many cases, the ideal would be for the learners to work in groups going through the exploration questions together, with the teacher going around to the different groups providing support when necessary. However, where this is not possible, the exploration questions may have to be worked through in teacher/ whole class interaction. As far as possible, exploration questions need to be framed such that learners can understand and respond to them using whatever level of English they have. However, where all or some of the learners, and perhaps also the teacher, share the same first language, some of the exploration is likely to be in that language. We see no problem in this, as this component of a lesson is aiming at developing

Introduction

5

awareness of the grammar rather than actively using it. However, some teachers feel strongly that in a second language classroom, use of the L2 should be maximised and the use of the L1 discouraged. This approach is of course different from that of lot of traditional ESL teaching, in which the learners’ attention is drawn to grammatical features by simply telling them the ‘rules’ for forming and using the target features and providing them with example sentences. Without denying that such an approach can be useful in a limited way with some kinds of learners, it has several disadvantages. Firstly, although some ‘rules of thumb’ concerning forms can be useful, many of the rules of grammar traditionally presented in ESL classrooms are at best half-truths, and at worst misleading. This is particularly so for rules about ‘usage’, such as we use the definite article ‘the’ when we mention something for the second time or we use passive voice when we are more interested in the person or thing affected by the action than in the person or thing that did the action (see Chapters 4 and 7 for discussion of these two rules). In fact, the more usual form used for second mention is a pronoun (see Chapter 4, Sample teaching idea two), and passive voice is often used to focus attention on either the agent or the process. However, it is not simply a question of coming up with better rules. It is in fact extremely difficult to adequately describe all of the grammatical patterns a learner will need to use in ways learners can both understand and usefully apply. We have observed many situations in which teachers have trapped themselves into embarking on long and confusing explanations because they are committed to ‘explaining’ to their students how a particular grammatical feature should be used, with the benefit of just one or two sentence level examples. Secondly, as many teachers have experienced, learners can often successfully apply the ‘rules’ they have learnt in carefully constructed exercises at sentence level, but do not go on to use the same features correctly in other contexts. This is hardly surprising given that, as observed above, the use of a grammatical feature in a particular clause or sentence can seldom be fully accounted for without reference to some context. Perhaps just as importantly, the ‘rules’ are imposed from outside and do not arise from the learners’ own experiences of the language. We learn best when we discover things


for ourselves and when we are able to integrate new knowledge with our old knowledge. Generalisations about grammar that learners are led to form for themselves on the basis of patterns they see in the language are much more likely to make sense to them and to be remembered and applied than rules provided by the teacher or the textbook. Finally, the examples-rules-exercises format embodies a view of language at odds with trends over the last few decades towards more meaning-focused and communicative pedagogies. It is also at odds with a view of language as a resource for making and communicating meanings. Noticing and exploring do not of course immediately translate into the kind of control over the grammatical systems of the language that learners will need to be able to use them appropriately and fluently in speech and writing. For this, learners need to practise what they have noticed. Traditional ESL teachers are quite right when they insist that lots of repetitive practice (sometimes unfortunately referred to as ‘drilling’) is to some degree necessary. However, opportunities for repetitive practice need not entail meaningless, de-contextualised drills. Repetitive practice can be designed to be meaningful and contextual. Practice activities that move the learners on from repetitive practice to practice in using the features to communicate in authentic-like contexts are also needed. All the procedures exemplified in this book either incorporate or suggest some element of practice. Of course, noticing, exploring and practising are not necessarily discrete sequential activities. Learners often, for example, notice in the process of practising or practice using forms at the same time they are exploring how they are used. Although these three processes are usually presented as separate steps in the lesson plans later, users of this book should not lose sight of the cyclical, recursive and dynamic aspect of these three processes in learning.

A fresh look at grammar If our aim is to help students to understand how grammar is used to make meaning in context, then we need a model of grammar that supports this. In other words, we need descriptions of English

Introduction

7

grammar that systematically relate grammatical forms to meaning and to context. Unfortunately, however, the descriptions of English grammar that are presented implicitly or explicitly in many existing ESL course books and grammar practice books do not do this very well. Although there are a few notable exceptions, it would be fair to say that most such books tend to: i. focus more on form than meaning ii. view learning grammar as mainly about learning and applying rules iii. view grammar as clearly separate from vocabulary and other aspects of language iv. present and practise grammar at sentence level only. In designing the activities in this book, we have therefore often found it useful to draw on descriptions of English grammar that differ from what one might call ‘traditional ESL grammar’. In particular, we have drawn quite a lot from work in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), an approach to linguistic analysis developed by M. A. K. Halliday and his colleagues. SFL provides useful interpretations of grammatical structures in terms of different kinds of meanings, and has a well worked out model of language and context. It already has a proven track record in applications to language education (see ‘Further reading’). However, this book certainly does not advocate teaching SFL, or indeed any other type of linguistics, to ESL learners. SFL is a resource that can be drawn upon by teachers where it is useful to do so, particularly in dealing with aspects of English grammar that tend to be poorly addressed in most existing ESL textbooks. Where insights from such linguistic descriptions of English grammar are made use of in this book, they are explained in ways that can be made sense of by teachers with no background in linguistics. Technical terms are kept to a minimum, and any that it has been found necessary to use are explained in the Glossary. There is a huge range of grammatical features that could be included in this book, and we have had to be selective. In making our selections, we have tried to include areas which have been ignored or not dealt


with adequately in traditional ESL grammar teaching and for which functional grammar can provide some insight. In particular we have focused on how matters of textual organisation affect grammatical choices (e.g. topic and comment, given and new information), and how different process types have different grammatical characteristics. Areas covered in more traditional treatments of grammar like tense and voice are also dealt with, but in a rather different way.

Integrating the procedures into a curriculum The sample lessons plans are suitable for use with students at different levels. This is specified according to the rough classification of beginner, intermediate and advanced. However, in principle, every teaching procedure can be used with any level of student, and many of the sample teaching ideas can themselves be adapted for different levels of students. The procedures in this book are sequenced according to the extent to which the students are required to change or produce text. Thus in ‘comparing’ (Chapter 2) students simply compare texts in order to discover grammatical differences between them and in ‘sequencing’ (Chapter 3) learners simply move bits of a text around. However, in ‘filling in the gaps’ (Chapter 4) they have to produce usually a fairly small amount of text themselves (minimally choosing between alternatives provided), in ‘reconstructing’ (Chapter 5) they have to reproduce a complete text they have previously read or heard, in ‘elaborating’ (Chapter 6) they have to produce a certain amount of original text, and in ‘transforming’ (Chapter 7), they have to produce complete texts for themselves, based on but different from other texts. These procedures by no means exhaust the possible kinds of activities that can be used to get learners to engage with grammar in texts. However, they are procedures that we have found most useful in our own ESL teaching and in working with other ESL teachers in developing language-teaching materials.

How to use this book Teachers who are interested in developing text-based teaching materials with a focus on grammar may wish to work through the book

Introduction

9

chapter by chapter, looking at the general procedures and sample teaching ideas, and then preparing materials suitable for their own students. Teachers who are interested in finding ways of teaching specific areas of grammar may wish to make use of the index of grammatical foci to locate relevant sample teaching ideas, which they may use ‘as is’ or adapt to the needs of their own students. Readers who are interested in learning more about functional grammar and its relevance to the ESL classroom may also make use of the grammatical foci index and the references that follow each grammar explanation. While the lesson plans in this book are presented in a ‘step by step’ fashion, much is left up to the teacher in terms of meeting the specific concerns of his or her students. For example, we do not usually specify that teachers should deal with unfamiliar vocabulary in the texts used, though this may often be necessary.

Finding and preparing texts Preparing texts for use in grammar teaching is not always straightforward or easy. Ideally, we might like to use entirely authentic texts, that is, pieces of spoken or written discourse that we have collected from ‘real world’ contexts, rather than texts concocted for the language classroom. Often, however, authentic texts present problems of unfamiliar vocabulary and grammar that can detract from a clear focus on the features of the text we are trying to raise the learners’ awareness of. Often, also, in authentic texts the target features may not occur frequently enough or in clear enough contexts to allow for effective awareness activities. One solution is to take an authentic text or authentic texts and adapt them by taking things out or adding things in.

Further reading For more information on language and context, see Halliday and Hasan (1990), Larsen-Freeman (2003) and Martin (1992). For techniques for teaching grammar through texts, see Thornbury (1999) and Carter et al. (1997). For discussions of grammar rules and grammar and meaning, see Batstone (1994, Chapter 1), Close (1992, Chapter 1) and Thornbury (1999, Chapter 1). For systemic-functional descriptions of English grammar, see Halliday and


Matthiessen (2004), Eggins (2004), Thompson (1996), Lock (1996) and Coffin et al. (2009). For applications of SFL to language education, see Christie (2005), Feez (1998), Johns (2002) Thornbury and Slade (2006), Paltridge (2001) and Gibbons (2002, 2006) (note: this is just a selection of the many works that have appeared over the last two decades, mainly associated with the ‘genre’ movement in language education). For an excellent discussion of scaffolding in second language learning, see Gibbons (2002). For discussions of noticing and exploring and the role of conscious awareness, see Schmidt (1990), Batstone (1996), Thornbury (2001, Chapter 3), Fotos (1994) and Bolitho et al. (2003). For collections of grammar teaching ideas and practice activities, see Frank and Rinvolucri (1987), Rinvolucri (1984), Pennington (1995) and Ur (1988).

Note 1. Technical terms in bold are explained in the Glossary.

2 Comparing

General procedure In comparing the learners are presented with two texts which differ systematically in some way. The differences may be related to such things as: • mode • tenor

e.g. a written text vs. spoken text on the same topic e.g. a polite request to a stranger vs. an order to a subordinate • time e.g. a description of a place now vs. 100 years ago • viewpoint e.g. a crime from the viewpoint of the criminal vs. the victim • topic e.g. a description of a specific thing vs. a class of things Activities guide the learners to notice and to explore the reasons for grammatical differences between the two texts. The general procedure is as follows. 1. Have the students read or listen to two similar texts which differ systematically in at least one area of grammar. 2. Have the students notice the grammatical differences between the two texts. 3. Ask the students to explore the differences with reference to differences in the topics, contexts, or purposes of the texts. 4. Have students practise producing texts similar to the models they have compared. 11


Comparing: Sample teaching idea one Explosions Grammar focus: Ergative verbs and agency There are many common verbs in English that can be used like the verb blow up as in the following: The spacecraft was blown up [by the terrorists]. The spacecraft blew up. Of course not all verbs can be used like this. For example:

The buildings were damaged by the explosion. Many people died.

*The buildings damaged *Many people were died by the explosion.

Note: The use of * indicates that a form would be considered ungrammatical in most or all contexts.

Clauses such as The spacecraft was blown up [by the terrorists] are called passive voice clauses, and clauses such as The spacecraft blew up are called middle voice clauses. Verbs that can be combined with both in this way are known as ergative verbs. Blow up is therefore an ergative verb, while die and damage are not. A more formal way of expressing this is to say that ergative verbs are verbs that can be used both in intransitive clauses and in passive voice clauses with the same subjects (The spacecraft blew up/The spacecraft was blown up). In terms of meaning, we can say that ergative verbs allow an event to be represented as either involving agency or not involving agency. In other words, an event may be represented as something that ‘happens’ (The spacecraft blew up) with no implied ‘doer’ or ‘causer’, or it may be represented as something that somebody or something does or causes. In the latter case, the doer or causer may be stated (The spacecraft was blown up by the terrorists) or only implied (The spacecraft was blown up). This can cause problems for learners. If they have been taught that a passive voice verb must be used whenever the person or thing affected by an action is the subject, they sometimes cannot

Comparing

13

see how clauses like the door opened, the stone moved and the meeting started can be correct. There is a tendency for such learners to overuse passive voice with ergative verbs and produce clauses such as the door was opened, the stone was moved and the meeting was started in contexts in which the implication of a causer or doer would be inappropriate. The following teaching idea is designed to raise learners’ awareness of ergative verbs and how the choice of voice either implies or does not imply agency.

Further reading For more information on ergative verbs and agency see the COBUILD English Grammar (Sinclair et al. eds. 1990, sections 3.60–6) and Lock (1996, pp. 87– 92). For a more theoretical account of ergativity in English see Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, pp. 280–303).

Level Upper intermediate

Preparation Find, adapt or write two texts about similar events, one of which should contain some ergative verbs in passive voice, the other of which should contain some ergative verbs in middle voice (see sample texts below).

Lesson plan: Disasters Noticing 1. Distribute the two sample texts and have students read them. 2. Check their understanding of the main events in the texts. 3. Have students list all the ‘main verbs’ (i.e. all the finite verb groups) in the texts in two columns, the verbs from one text in one column and the verbs from the other in another. 4. Ask students what differences they notice between the forms of the verbs in the two columns.


Exploring 5. Have students discuss the following questions: i. In text one did somebody deliberately cause the explosions? ii. In text two did somebody deliberately cause the explosion? iii. What difference in meaning is there between ‘something exploded’ and ‘something was exploded’? iv. Look at were not collapsed by the blast in the first sentence of paragraph two of text one. Why don’t the other verbs in this paragraph have similar phrases with by after them? v. Why are there so many verbs in the passive voice in text one but none in text two? 6. Give feedback on the students’ answers to the questions (see suggested answers below) and then have them discuss the following additional questions. i. Which passive voice verbs in text one could be changed to active voice verbs keeping the same subjects? ii. How would this change the meaning? iii. Which verbs in text two could be changed to passive voice keeping the same subjects? iv. How would this change the meaning? 7. Give feedback on the students’ answers to the questions (see Suggested answers below). 8. If appropriate, explain that the verbs that can be both active and passive with the same subjects are known as ergative verbs (see note 1). 9. Ask the students to decide which of the following verbs are also ergative verbs: open, close, walk, fall, shatter, rise, raise, lift, develop, change, boil, stir, heat. (They may need to consult dictionaries to do this.) Practising 10. Write the verbs drop, break, smash, rip, open, move, start, stop on the blackboard. Ask one half of the class to form groups to prepare short accounts of accidental events and ask the other half to prepare short accounts of deliberate events. Both groups should use at least four of the verbs. 11. Have the groups compare and comment on one another’s texts.

Comparing

15

Sample texts Text one: Hiroshima and Nagasaki In 1945 nuclear weapons were exploded for the first time over cities. On August 6th at 8.15 a.m. Japanese time, a USA bomber named the Enola Gay dropped the first atom bomb over Hiroshima. Late in the morning of August 9th, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the people of Nagasaki. In Hiroshima, almost everything was destroyed within a mile from the explosion, except for a small number of very strong concrete buildings, which were not collapsed by the blast, although their doors and windows were smashed. In Nagasaki, everything within half a mile from the explosion was destroyed, including heavy structures. In Hiroshima, about 66,000 people were killed instantly. Many more people died from radiation poisoning after the bomb was dropped. By 1950 about 200,000 people had died as a result of the bomb and between 1950 and 1980, a further 97,000 people died from cancers related to the radiation. In Nagasaki, out of a population of 174,000, about 39,000 were killed on the first day and by the end of 1945 about 70,000 people had died because of the explosion. The final number of deaths was probably also over 200,000. [Adapted from The Avalon Project: The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/abomb; History Learning Site at http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ hiroshima.htm; and The Manhattan Project at http://www.me. utexas.edu/~uer/manhattan/debates.html.]

Text two: The Challenger Disaster In 1986, the American space shuttle, Challenger, exploded as millions of people watched on live TV. The eight-member crew, including Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher from New Hampshire, all died in the accident.


Challenger was just over a minute into its flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida when it blew up. According to the commission that investigated the accident, a rubber seal in the spacecraft had hardened overnight because of freezing weather. The seal failed, and hot gases and flames escaped through the hole. The flames burned through one of the shuttle’s fuel tanks. The shuttle broke apart as the fuel ignited. [Adapted from http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/ Challenger_disaster.html; http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_ 761555519/Challenger_Disaster.html and BBC: On this Day at http:// bbc.co.uk.]

Suggested answers to exploration questions and tasks Step 5 i. Yes. ii. No. iii. ‘Something exploded’ does not imply that someone or something directly caused the explosion; ‘something was exploded’ implies that someone or something directly caused the explosion, that is, it was exploded by someone or something. iv. All the other verbs in that paragraph (was destroyed, were ripped out, was destroyed, were destroyed) could be followed by by the explosion or by the blast. The writer does not do this as it is clear from the context what the cause of all the damage was. v. Because in text one all the damage and the deaths are presented as directly caused by the deliberate dropping of the bomb and the blast of its explosion. In text two the explosion and the deaths are presented as resulting from an accidental series of events. Step 6 i. was exploded, was dropped, were collapsed (but only if by the blast is also deleted), were smashed, was dropped. ii. The changes would make the text sound odd, as if the events represented by the verbs were not directly caused by the action of the US bomber.

Comparing

17

iii. was exploded, was blown up, had been hardened, were burned, was broken apart, was ignited. iv. The changes would make the text sound odd, as if the writer is implying that the events in the accident were deliberately caused by somebody.

Notes 1. It is assumed that the students already have some familiarity with active and passive voice forms. Following common usage in school grammars, middle voice or intransitive clauses (i.e. forms like it exploded, it broke up) are referred to in the above procedure as a kind of ‘active voice’. 2. The term ‘ergative verb’ is not yet widely used in ESL students’ grammar books. However, it is used in some useful reference works intended for learners, such as the COBUILD English Grammar and the COBUILD English Language Dictionary.

Adaptations See the teaching ideas from Jones and from Lock in New Ideas for Teaching Grammar (Pennington 1995) for two examples of similar activities focusing on the same grammatical area but using texts appropriate to different types and levels of learners. A possible follow-up could be a proofreading exercise in which a text or extracts from texts containing some ergative verbs in active voice and some in passive voice are altered to make all the verbs passive. The students then have to decide which should be changed to active voice.

Comparing: Sample teaching idea two Travel advice Grammar focus: Modality – obligation The systems of modality provide us with resources for indicating our judgements and evaluations. Two main areas within modality are what are usually called probability, that is, judgements about how likely something is, and obligation, that is, judgements about how desirable or necessary something is. Many students’ grammar books deal with modality only in terms of modal verbs such as must, should, may, can and so on. However,


there are many other ways of indicating our judgements about probability and obligation. For example, instead of you must do this, one can say you are required to do this; it is necessary for you to do this or even I insist that you do this. In different contexts, different expressions will be appropriate. This is something that more advanced learners need to be aware of and to gradually develop control over. One relatively straightforward way of understanding expressions of obligation is in terms of two variables: strength and involvement. Strength is concerned with the strength of the obligation. It has three levels, high, medium and low. For example: High Medium Low

You must go. You should go. You may go.

However, one problem with the way the strength of obligation is presented to students is that teaching materials often focus only on modal verbs. The strength of an expression of obligation, of course, does not just depend on the modal verb (e.g. should, must, may), but can also be affected by adverbs or prepositional phrases like definitely, certainly or under no circumstances, so while, for example, you should not go can be classified as medium strength (a recommendation), you should under no circumstances go should be classified as having relatively higher strength (a strong prohibition), and perhaps you should go should be classified as having relatively lower strength (a mild suggestion). Involvement is related to how much the speaker takes responsibility for what he or she is saying. This can be understood in terms of three orientations: impersonal (the speaker explicitly avoids taking responsibility for the obligation), personal (the speaker explicitly takes responsibility for the obligation) and neutral (the speaker neither explicitly avoids responsibility nor explicitly takes responsibility for the obligation). For example: Impersonal Neutral Personal

It is advisable to go. You should go. I recommend that you go.

Comparing

19

The following teaching idea seeks to raise learners’ awareness of some of the different expressions of obligation and the contexts in which they might be used.

Further reading For more details on modality see Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, pp. 147–50 and 616–24). For a simplified version of Halliday and Matthiessen’s model adapted for language teachers see Lock (1996, pp. 192–218).

Level Advanced

Preparation Prepare a dialogue in which someone is giving advice to a friend (see text one below). Also find, adapt or write some short texts that give advice at different levels of formality (see texts 2 and 3 below). Prepare a worksheet requiring students to write out and compare the different expressions of advice (see sample worksheet below).

Lesson plan: Travel advice Noticing 1. Have students read the three texts. 2. Ask students the following questions: i. What is the likely relationship between the speakers in the dialogue? (e.g. Travel agent and customer? Father and son? Colleagues? Friends?) ii. What are they talking about? iii. Look at texts two and three. What kinds of publications do you think each text comes from?


3. Ask the students to underline phrases in the dialogue which show that one speaker is giving advice to the other (e.g. you should, you need to, I recommend). 4. Check students’ answers (see suggested answers below). 5. Have the students read texts two and three and (as in step three) underline all the phrases that show that the writers are giving advice to the readers. Exploring 6. Distribute the worksheet and have the students do the following task: i. Look at the table on the worksheet and copy each phrase you have underlined into an appropriate square based on (a) which text is occurs in, and (b) how strongly the speaker believes the listener should follow the advice given (necessary, recommended, permitted). ii. Look at each square in the table. What difference can you find among the ways advice is given in the three texts in terms of (a) the pronouns that are used, (b) the verbs and verb forms that are used (e.g. modal verbs, active/passive voice) (c) which kinds of verbs and verb forms are used with different pronouns? iii. Why do you think the different texts tend to use different structures? Practising 7. Have pairs of students role-play giving advice to a friend who is going on a trip or visiting a place they have been before. They can give advice about such things as precautions they should take before they go, what they should or should not bring, what they should or should not do when they are there, and/or what they should or should not notice or pay attention to. 8. Ask them to write the most important pieces of advice from the role-plays in the form of official written guidelines for visitors to this place.

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Sample texts Text one: Dialogue Lindsay: Hi Graham. Listen, I’m thinking about taking a trip to Tibet this summer. I know you’ve been there a few times. Do you have any advice you can give me? I’m a bit worried about the health side of things. Graham: I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. As long as you use your common sense and follow the right precautions, you’ll be fine. Lindsay: So what precautions should I follow? Graham: Well, first of all, you should get some shots before you go. If I were you, I’d get shots for tetanus and typhoid. There are a few others. You can ask your doctor for a complete list. Lindsay: Sure. But what about altitude sickness? I hear that can be quite dangerous. People die from it. Graham: Sure, but you don’t need to be paranoid about it. You’ve just got to be sensible. First of all, if you ever get a really bad headache or feel dizzy, you should try to get to a lower altitude as soon as possible. I also suggest you drink lots of water and avoid too much physical activity. You really have to take it easy in Tibet, especially when you first get there. There are also some drugs you can take to prevent altitude sickness, but I personally wouldn’t recommend taking them unless absolutely necessary. Lindsay: Is there anything else? Graham: Yes. I would definitely stay away from dogs. There’s a lot of rabies in Tibet.

Text two: Your trip to Tibet Altitude sickness is the commonest problem in Tibet. If you have high blood pressure or heart problems, you must avoid ascending above 4000 meters. It is suggested that you do not take baths or engage in vigorous physical activity on your first day in Tibet. Be sure to drink plenty of water during your visit to Tibet. You should drink at least four litres at high altitudes and you must always make sure you have plenty of water with you when you go on long overland journeys.


If you feel symptoms of altitude sickness (headache, nausea, dizziness) you should get to a lower altitude as soon as possible. If you cannot go down immediately, you may treat the symptoms with acetazolamide and oxygen. In any case, it is essential that you seek medical treatment as soon as possible. You must not smoke if you are experiencing the symptoms of altitude sickness.

Text three: Travelling in Tibet Vaccinations are not officially required for Tibet, but immunization against cholera, hepatitis, typhoid, tetanus, polio, and yellow fever is advised. A vaccination for rabies is strongly recommended for travellers involved in activities which may bring them into direct contact with animals such as dogs and bats. Altitude sickness may occur in travellers who ascend to altitudes higher than 2500 meters. Acetazolamide may be taken as a precautionary measure at a dosage of 125 or 250 mg twice daily. Acetazolamide should under no circumstances be given to pregnant women or those with a history of sulpha allergy. Travel to high altitudes is not generally recommended for those with a history of heart disease, lung disease, or sickle cell disease.

Sample worksheet Necessary (‘you must/must not do it’) Text one

Recommended (‘you should/ shouldn’t do it’)

Permitted (‘you may do it/ you need not do it’)

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Text two

Text three

Suggested answers to exploration questions and tasks Step 2 i. The speakers are likely to be friends. ii. They are talking about travel to Tibet. One speaker is giving the other speaker advice about health concerns. iii. Text two seems to be a text from a travel guide or magazine. Text three seems more formal, like an official document, perhaps issued by a governmental office. Step 3 Lindsay: Hi Graham. Listen, I’m thinking about taking a trip to Tibet this summer. I know you’ve been a few times. Do you have any


advice you can give me? I’m a bit worried about the health side of things. Graham: I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. As long as you use your common sense and follow the right precautions, you’ll be fine. Lindsay: So what precautions should I follow? Graham: Well, first of all, you should get some shots before you go. If I were you, I’d get shots for tetanus and typhoid. There are a few others. Why don’t you ask your doctor for a complete list. Lindsay: Sure. But what about altitude sickness? I hear that can be quite dangerous. People die from it. Graham: Sure, but you don’t need to be paranoid about it. You’ve just got to be sensible. First of all, if you ever get a really bad headache or feel dizzy, you should try to get to a lower altitude as soon as possible. I also suggest you drink lots of water and avoid too much physical activity. You really have to take it easy in Tibet, especially when you first get there. There are also some drugs you can take to prevent altitude sickness, but I personally wouldn’t recommend taking them unless absolutely necessary. Lindsay: Is there anything else? Graham: Yes. I would definitely stay away from dogs. There’s a lot of rabies in Tibet. Step 5

Text two: Your trip to Tibet Altitude sickness is the commonest problem in Tibet. If you have high blood pressure or heart problems, you must avoid ascending above 4000 meters. It is suggested that you do not take baths or engage in vigorous physical activity on your first day in Tibet. Be sure to drink plenty of water during your visit to Tibet. You should drink at least four litres at high altitudes and you must always make sure you have plenty of water with you when you go on long overland journeys. If you feel symptoms of altitude sickness (headache, nausea, dizziness) you should get to a lower altitude as soon as possible. If you cannot go down immediately, you may treat the symptoms with acetazolamide and oxygen. In any case, it is essential that you seek medical treatment

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as soon as possible. You must not smoke if you are experiencing the symptoms of altitude sickness.

Text three: Travelling in Tibet Vaccinations are not officially required for Tibet, but immunization against cholera, hepatitis, typhoid, tetanus, polio, and yellow fever is advised. A vaccination for rabies is strongly recommended for travellers involved in activities that may bring them into direct contact with animals such as dogs and bats. Altitude sickness may occur in travellers who ascend to altitudes higher than 2500 meters. Acetazolamide may be taken as a precautionary measure at a dosage of 125 or 250 mg twice daily. Acetazolamide should under no circumstances be given to pregnant women or those with a history of sulpha allergy. Travel to high altitudes is not generally recommended for those with a history of heart disease, lung disease, or sickle cell disease.

Step 6 Necessary (‘you must/must not do it’)

Recommended (‘you should/ shouldn’t do it’)

Permitted (‘you may do it/you need not do it’)

Text one

You’ve just got to You really have to I would definitely

I wouldn’t…if I were you you should If I were you, I’d Why don’t you you should I also suggest I personally wouldn’t recommend

you don’t need to

Text two

Be sure to it is essential that you must you must you must not

It is suggested You should you should it is advised

you may


Text should under no three circumstances be given

is advised is strongly recommended is not generally recommended

may be taken (vaccinations) are not officially required

ii. Text one frequently uses the pronoun you with modal verbs like should, must and may and the pronoun I with verbs like suggest and recommend, along with the conditional structure I would (if I were you). Text two does not use the pronoun I at all. It uses the pronoun you with modal verbs like must, should and may. The clause be sure to drink plenty of water implies the pronoun you. It also makes frequent use of the pronoun it with is and an adjective (e.g. it is essential) or with a passive voice construction (e.g. it is advised). Text three does not use any personal pronouns at all within the expressions of advice. It also makes frequent use of the passive voice (e.g. is advised, is recommended, are not required). iii. As a dialogue between friends, text one is the most personal text. Using ‘you’+ modal, the giver of the advice directly addresses the friend he is giving advice to, and by using verbs like ‘recommend’ and ‘suggest’ in active voice as well as the conditional structure, he both addresses his friend and refers to himself (‘I’) as the giver of the advice. In text two, the use of ‘it’ + passive makes the advice much more impersonal in tone. However, since it is written for a guidebook or magazine, there is also a sense of personal connection with the reader through the frequent use of ‘you’ + modal. As an official document, text three is the most impersonal. The lack of personal pronouns and frequent use of passive voice makes the advice sound objective.

Note 1. The imperative be sure to … is, strictly speaking, not an expression of modality. Rather, it is a command. However, in the context above it functions like other expressions of modality to signal the giving of advice.

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Adaptations This teaching idea can be made suitable for lower level students by reducing orientation to two variables, for example, you must/you should etc. vs. you are required to/you are advised to etc. and by comparing only two texts. One such lesson that we have observed had students compare a simplified transcript of advice given by a secondary school student to a younger cousin about to enter the same school (you should always remember to … etc.) with an extract from the ‘school rules’ (students are required to … etc.). The teaching idea can also be adapted to focus on probability, which has a similar range of orientation options, for example, I’m certain that this is the answer/ this must be the answer/this is certainly the answer/it is certain that this is the answer.


3 Sequencing

General procedure In sequencing the learners are presented with a text that has been altered in terms of the sequence of elements. Elements that may be reordered include: • • • •

Paragraphs Sentences within paragraphs Clauses within sentences Words and phrases within clauses

Activities guide the learners to notice and to explore either (a) grammatical or lexical features in texts that give information about the sequence of elements (e.g. articles, pronouns and conjunctions) or (b) larger patterns of textual organisation. The general procedure is as follows:

1. Choose a text or series of texts and change the sequence of some of the paragraphs or sentences within paragraphs or of certain elements within sentences. 2. Have students work out what the original sequence might have been in one text or a portion of one text through noticing a particular grammatical feature or set of grammatical features. 29


3. Work with the students to explore further the kinds of grammatical features that can be used as clues to help to determine the original sequence and why the original sequence is better. 4. Have the students practise this procedure on their own with the rest of the text or another similar text.

Sequencing: Sample teaching idea one Lady Gaga Grammar focus: Thematic organisation When students are taught how to organise sentences into coherent paragraphs, instruction often does not go beyond vague notions of ‘paragraph topic’ (i.e. ‘each paragraph should have a topic sentence’) and ‘paragraph focus’ (i.e. ‘all the sentences in a paragraph should be about the same thing’). This information is usually not enough to help students write paragraphs in which information is introduced and elaborated on in a logical way. There are a number of ways writers relate sentences or clauses to those that come before them and those that follow. One method is to exploit the different kinds of prominence that information at the beginning of a clause has and that information at the end of a clause has. The beginning of a clause normally contains the topic of the clause, which is the jumping off point upon which the rest of the clause will serve as a comment. The topic of a clause typically contains information which links the clause to the larger context, often something previously mentioned. In other words, topics tend to contain information that the reader already knows about, while comments usually contain new information about the topic. This principle is one of the main ways that writers relate one sentence or clause to another in paragraphs. For example: Microsoft Windows is the most widely used operating system in the world. The software was developed by Bill Gates back in 1985. In this example, the topic of the second sentence is the same as the topic of the first sentence. When the reader encounters ‘the software’, he or she already knows that the paragraph is about Microsoft Windows, and the comments in both sentences contain

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new information about this topic. This example illustrates one of the most common patterns of textual organisation – the maintenance of the same topic from one sentence to another. This pattern may continue throughout one whole paragraph or even longer. Another common pattern is to transform new information in the comment part of one clause into the topic of the next clause. For example: Some people believe Gates based his operating system on a graphical user interface already developed by Apple Computer Inc. Apple had used this interface in computers for more than a year before Microsoft released its first prototype of Windows. In this example, ‘Apple Computer Inc.’ is new information in the comment of the first sentence. This information is then picked up to become the jumping off point of the second sentence. This is a pattern often used when a writer wishes to change from one topic to another related topic. For example, a writer may wish to shift the topic from something general to something more specific, as in the following: Lady Gaga was chosen as one of the ‘10 most Fascinating People of 2009’ by the American TV journalist Barbara Walters. In an interview with the journalist, Gaga talked about her family life and how it had contributed it her success. Here the writer shifts from the general topic of Lady Gaga to the more specific topic of an interview with her by Barbara Walters. Note that in the second sentence, the topic is a prepositional phrase that has been placed in front of the subject. Awareness of these two basic patterns of textual organisation can help students improve the coherence, or ‘flow’ of their writing. In this activity, students are guided to notice and explore these two patterns as they work to sequence jumbled sentences in a text.

Further reading In most of the relevant literature, the terms theme and rheme are used rather than the terms topic and comment (see note 1 below). For a good introduction to theme and text flow see, Coffin, Donohue and North (2009)


pp. 396–419. For a more in-depth account of theme and rheme and of given (‘old’ information) and new, see Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) pp. 64– 105. For a much shorter and simpler account aimed at ESL teachers, see Lock (1996) pp. 223–9 and 231–3.

Level Upper Intermediate

Preparation Find, adapt or write a text or two related texts in which the two patterns of textual organisation discussed above are illustrated. Prepare two worksheets in which the sentences in these texts are presented in a sequence different from the original (see sample worksheets below).

Lesson plan: Lady Gaga Noticing/Exploring 1. To help students understand the idea of topic, present them with three sentences with similar content but different topics, for example: a. Britney Spears released her first album Baby One More Time in 1999. b. Baby One More Time is by Britney Spears. c. In 1999, Britney Spears released Baby One More Time. 2. Ask students to match the following with the sentences they best describe. i. This sentence is about Baby One More Time. It tells the readers something about the album that they may not have known before. ii. This sentence is about Britney Spears. It tells the readers something about Britney Spears that they may not have known before. iii. This sentence is about 1999. It refers to something that happened in 1999 that the readers may not have known about before.

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3. Tell the students that one term for what a sentence or clause is ‘about’ is ‘topic’, and one term for what is said about the topic is ‘comment’ (see note 1). 4. Ask students to say where the topic is in the three sentences in step one. 5. Present the students with three more sentences about the same general subject, but in which the information in each sentence is not repeated in any way in the other sentences. For example: a. Lady Gaga began her music career in New York City. b. The music video that accompanies the hit song Poker Face features a variety of strange clothing. c. Bad Romance talks about the difficulties involved in falling in love with one’s best friend. 6. Ask the students the following questions: i. What is the topic of each of these sentences? ii. Is the information in these topics repeated anywhere in the other sentences? iii. Why don’t these sentences fit together well into an organised text? 7. Distribute worksheet 1 and ask students to discuss the questions in part 1 and to put the sentences in an order that seems to make sense to them. 8. Check to make sure students have sequenced the sentences properly and give feedback on their answers to the questions. 9. Explore with the students the questions in part 2 of worksheet 1, helping them to notice the two patterns of textual organisation.

Practising 10. Distribute worksheet 2 and ask students to reorder the sentences appropriately using the principles they have discussed. 11. Check students’ answers and discuss any difficulties.


Sample worksheet 1 Lady Gaga (I) Part 1 Read through the following four sentences from a text and answer the questions. a. Lady Gaga is perhaps the most popular female pop star today. b. The album, titled The Fame, includes the hit singles Just Dance and Poker Face. c. She began her music career in New York City and released her first album in 2008. d. Poker Face went on to become one of the most successful songs in the history of pop music, topping the charts in more than 17 countries. i. What are the topics of each of the sentences? ii. Can you find the information in these topics mentioned in some form in any of the other sentences? iii. What do you think is the best sentence to put first? iv. How can the rest of the sentences be sequenced to make an organised text? Part 2 Now look at the paragraph you have written by ordering these sentences and discuss the following questions. i. Why did you sequence the sentences the way you did? ii. Is the topic of the second sentence referred to in the first sentence? Where? iii. Is the topic of the third sentence referred to in the second sentence? Where? iv. Is the topic of the fourth sentence referred to in the third sentence? Where? v. Based on the above, what TWO patterns can you identify that help to make the paragraph better organised?

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Sample worksheet 2 Lady Gaga (II) Reorder the following sentences to create two coherent paragraphs. a. (First Sentence) Her second album, The Fame Monster, was released in the following year. b. Bad Romance talks about the difficulties involved in falling in love with one’s best friend. c. In an interview with the journalist, Gaga talked about her family life and how it had contributed it her success. d. Lady Gaga was chosen as one of the ‘10 most Fascinating People of 2009’ by the American TV journalist Barbara Walters. e. This album featured Gaga’s new hit single Bad Romance. f. She said in the interview, ‘I’m not just a performing artist. I’m also a daughter and a sister.’

Suggested answers to exploration questions and tasks Step 2 i. describes b; ii describes a; iii describes c. Step 4 The topic is the first thing mentioned (element/phrase) in each sentence. Step 6 i. ‘Lady Gaga’; ‘The music video that accompanies the hit song Poker Face’; and ‘Bad Romance’. ii. No. iii. Because they all consist of new information which is not repeated or referred to in any of the other sentences.

Worksheet 1 Part 1 i. Sentence 1:‘Lady Gaga’, sentence 2: ‘The album’, sentence 3: ‘She’ (i.e. Lady Gaga), sentence 4: Poker Face.


ii. Yes. ‘Lady Gaga’ is also the topic of sentence 3 (in the form of a pronoun); ‘the album’ is mentioned in the comment of sentence 3 (‘her first album’); and Poker Face is mentioned in the comment of sentence 2. iii. Sentence 1. iv. She began her music career in New York City and released her first album in 2008. The album, titled The Fame, includes the hit singles Just Dance and Poker Face. Poker Face went on to become one of the most successful songs in the history of pop music. Part 2 i. The students may give a range of answers here. Note that ‘clues’ for sequencing the sentences are not restricted to the two patterns of textual organisation that are the focus of this lesson. Students may, for example, point to the use of the pronoun ‘she’, which refers back to ‘Lady Gaga’. ii. Yes. The topic (‘Lady Gaga’ – ‘she’) is the same in both sentences. iii. Yes. In the comment (‘her first album’). iv. Yes. In the comment (Poker Face). v. The topic of one sentence is the same as the topic of the next OR new information is introduced in the comment of one sentence and picked up to become the topic of the next sentence.

Worksheet 2 Her second album, The Fame Monster, was released in the following year. This album featured Gaga’s new hit single Bad Romance. Bad Romance talks about the difficulties involved in falling in love with one’s best friend. Lady Gaga was chosen as one of the ‘10 Most Fascinating People of 2009’ by the American TV journalist Barbara Walters. In an interview with the journalist, Gaga talked about her family life and how it had contributed to her success. She said in the interview, ‘I’m not just a performing artist. I’m also a daughter and a sister.’

Notes 1. Teachers familiar with systemic functional grammar may prefer to use the terms ‘theme’ and ‘rheme’. However, in our experience, teachers and

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learners prefer the more transparent terms ‘topic’ and ‘comment’. At the level of analysis presented here, the two sets of terms can be regarded as synonymous. 2. In worksheet 2, where the topic ‘Lady Gaga’ is reintroduced, this suggests a natural paragraph break because the topic repeats neither the topic nor the comment of a previous sentence.

Adaptations This procedure can be used for a wide range of texts in different genres. Teachers and learners might consider exploring how different types of texts (e.g. scientific descriptions or narratives) might use these patterns differently. Ideally, learners should move from activities like this to analysing the textual organisation of their own writing.

Sequencing: Sample teaching idea two A trip to London Grammar focus: Placement of adjuncts ESL learners are often taught that adjuncts that give information about space and time (such as prepositional phrases like ‘in the morning’ and ‘on the table’ and noun groups like ‘tomorrow afternoon’) tend to come at the end of the clause in English, but that their position is actually flexible and they also commonly occur at the beginning of the clause. For example: On Tuesday morning, we saw the Big Buddha. (Instead of We saw the Big Buddha on Tuesday morning.) However, learners are seldom given much help in working out when and why to place such adjuncts at the end or at the beginning of a clause. As mentioned in the previous lesson of this chapter, the first part of a clause is its topic. Like other topics, adjunct topics typically link in some way to the larger context. Sometimes the adjunct may pick up information introduced in the comment of a previous clause or sentence, for example: We visited the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament. At the Houses of Parliament, we were allowed in to watch a debate.


Often, a series of time or space adjunct topics contribute to the chronological or spatial organisation of information in a text. For example: Yesterday morning the cat caught a mouse in the kitchen. In the afternoon she got hold of a lizard in the living room. And this morning she killed a bird in the garden next door. As you enter the building, on your right there is staircase leading to the second floor. At the top of the staircase there is a large window. Underneath the window there is a potted plant, and underneath the potted plant you’ll find the spare key. In the above examples, each adjunct topic signals the next step in a time sequence or a spatial progression. However, when a time and space adjunct contains new or important information for the reader, a writer will usually put it at the end of the clause. This is because when a clause is spoken aloud, it is natural for us to stress most heavily a syllable of the phrase that is at of the end of the clause. For example: We met them at the Houses of PARliament. This is sometimes referred to as the information focus. This activity begins with the teacher exploring with the students the difference between adjuncts as topics and adjuncts as information focus. They then use this awareness to decide how a text might be improved by moving some of the time and space adjuncts to topic position.

Further reading For brief accounts of the placement of adjuncts, see Sinclair et al. (eds) (1990) section 10.92 and Parrott (2000) pp. 274––7. For readings on topic and information focus, see the further reading section of the previous lesson of this chapter.

Level Intermediate

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Preparation Find, adapt or write a short text containing some adjuncts of time and place, some at the beginnings of clauses and some at the ends of clauses. Also create a version of the same text with all the adjuncts at the ends of the clauses. Prepare two worksheets, one with the altered version of the text and the other with the original version (see sample worksheets below).

Lesson plan Noticing/Exploring 1. Ask the students to imagine they are taking a holiday in Hong Kong and that someone asks them the following question: When did you arrive in Hong Kong? 2. Ask them to decide which of the following would be the better answer to the question. If necessary, write the two answers on the board. (a) On Sunday morning we arrived. (b) We arrived on Sunday morning. 3. Have students discuss the following questions. i. Which parts of the answers repeat information that comes from the question? ii. Which parts of the answers contain new information that answers the question? iii. When you say the answers, which words do you stress most? Are they part of the repeated information or the new information? iv. Is it better to put the new information at the end of the clause or at the beginning of the clause? Exploring/Practising 4. Distribute worksheet 1 with the adjuncts all in final position and ask the students to rewrite the text by changing the position of time and place adjuncts in a way they think is appropriate.


5. Distribute worksheet 2 with the original version of the text and have the students compare it with their revised versions. 6. Ask the students to try to explain any differences between their versions and the original and whether they think their versions should be changed.

Sample worksheet 1 Here is an extract from Anna’s blog about her trip to London with a friend. The positions of some of the time and place phrases have been changed. Can you work out which ones have been changed and what their original positions were?

Our trip to London We arrived in London on the 17th June, at about 3 in the afternoon. We took the train into town and quite easily found our hostel in Holland Park. We went to a ‘pub’ that’s nearly 200 years old that night. (They call bars ‘pubs’ in England.) It was fun. We saw the Tower of London, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament the next day. It was great! Especially the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament. You get a fabulous view over the river and the city from the London Eye, and we were even allowed in to watch a debate at the Houses of Parliament. We were too tired to do anything except have dinner and go to bed that night. The next morning was quite stressful. We had booked a coach tour to Cambridge and we found that the coach left at 8 a.m. and we had to check out of our hostel the same morning! But we made it. We both loved Cambridge. However, we had to find our way to our new hostel in West London after the tour. We didn’t get there till nearly midnight. Luckily, they let us in!

Sample worksheet 2 Here is the original version of Anna’s blog about her trip to London. Compare the positions of the time and place phrases in this version to the changes you made on Worksheet 1.

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Our trip to London (original) We arrived in London on the 17th June, at about 3 in the afternoon. We took the train into town and quite easily found our hostel in Holland Park. That night we went to a ‘pub’ that’s nearly 200 years old. (They call bars ‘pubs’ in England.) It was fun. The next day, we saw the Tower of London, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. It was great! Especially the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament. From the London Eye you get a fabulous view over the river and the city, and at the Houses of Parliament we were even allowed in to watch a debate. That night, we were too tired to do anything except have dinner and go to bed. The next morning was quite stressful. We had booked a coach tour to Cambridge and we found that the coach left at 8 a.m. and we had to check out of our hostel the same morning! But we made it. We both loved Cambridge. However, after the tour we had to find our way to our new hostel in South London. We didn’t get there till nearly midnight. Luckily, they let us in!

Suggested answers to exploration questions and tasks Step 3 i. ‘we arrived’ ii. ‘on Sunday morning at about 8 a.m.’ iii. (a): ‘arrIVED’ – part of the repeated information; (b): ‘MORning’ – part of the new information. iv. The better answer has the new information at the end where it is naturally stressed. Step 6 In discussing with the students their own answers, it is important not to lead them to think that only sequences that conform to the original are correct. Some points that have come up in tryouts of this activity are: i. Some students thought they should move all the time adjuncts to the beginning of the clause. However, in the first sentence, it would be odd to move the time and place phrases to the beginning because (a) they are new information, and (b) the arrival of


Anna and her friend in London can be considered known information (note: the title is ‘Our Trip to London’). ii. Similarly, in sentence 12, it would be odd to move the time adjuncts to an earlier position because they are new and important information (they explain why the day was stressful). iii. In sentence 6, if ‘the next day’ is not moved to the beginning of the sentence, a reader might begin to think that they saw all these places while they were having fun in the pub! In other words, a signal is needed at the beginning of the sentence alerting readers that what follows is about what happened on the next day. The same point can be made about sentence 3. iv. In sentence 9, although it would not be incorrect to leave the place adjuncts at the end, it is better to put them at the front as they link back to what has just been mentioned and they are not new information.

Notes 1. It may be necessary to demonstrate this to the students if their control of intonation is weak, e.g. On Sunday morning at about 8am we aRRIVED. We arrived on Sunday morning at about 8 ‘ay EM’. 2. During or after working on the questions and answers in steps one to four, you may wish to remind the students that in many contexts the ‘old’ information in the answers is left out [ellipsed]. For example, Q: When did you arrive in Hong Kong? A: We arrived On Sunday morning at about 8am.

Adaptations This activity could easily be adapted for beginners using a simpler text. With such students an additional focus could be selection of appropriate prepositions for the various time and place adjuncts. As a follow-up, the students could either be asked to write about a trip of their own, including information about times and places, or they could be given notes from a trip, just giving times, places and main activities and asked to write a text based on this information.

4 Gap Filling

General procedure Grammar books used to be (and sometimes still are) full of exercises with instruction such as ‘fill in the gaps’. Usually, such exercises consisted of lists of isolated sentences and the gaps were things like missing verb forms or missing articles. Such exercises have many disadvantages. At best, they can provide some very limited practice in certain grammatical forms. However, where there is no context beyond the single sentence, it is very difficult to establish clear links between the forms and how they are actually used to make meaning, and learners can often successfully fill in the blanks in a very mechanical way without really knowing why certain forms are used. Not surprisingly, it has been the experience of teachers that learners are often able to complete such exercises yet subsequently are unable to use the target features appropriately in other contexts. Another problem with many gap-filling exercises is that the features blanked out are usually single words rather than phrases, forcing student to focus more on form (e.g. morphology) rather than meaning. However, gap filling has its uses. Having learners either listen for the missing ‘bits’ in the transcript of a spoken text, or try to work out from the context what is missing in a written text can be good ways of drawing their attention to the use of particular forms in particular contexts, and can provide a starting point for exploration of their functions. Also, having them compare ways that they 43


have filled in blanks with the original version of a text or conversation can help them notice where they are having difficulties producing appropriate forms and to explore why certain forms are appropriate and certain forms are not. Having longer gaps (beyond the word) allows students to consider how different meanings are made within broader contexts and provides more room for them explore a range of acceptable options. In this regard, exploration discussions can focus more on appropriateness and effectiveness than correctness. It is important to note that such a procedure should not become a testing activity. The students fill in the gaps not to demonstrate their knowledge of something but to have their attention drawn to patterns in the language presented or differences between their own meaningmaking practices and those they find in the texts they are presented with. The general procedure is as follows:

1. Find, adapt or write a text containing occurrences of a particular feature you would like your students to work on. 2. Prepare a version of the text with some or all the occurrences of this feature blanked out. They may be single words or longer stretches of text like phrases or clauses. 3. Have the students fill in as many gaps as they can, either based on some limited exposure to the original text (listening to it or reading through it once) or based on their own contextual or grammatical knowledge. 4. Present the original text to the students (either in spoken or written form) and have them compare the ways they filled in the gaps with the occurrences of the feature in the original text and notice the kinds of forms that are used and where their answers are different from the original. 5. Have students explore the reasons why certain forms are appropriate or inappropriate by trying to either justify what they wrote or explain why it should be changed. 6. Have students practise producing the feature in an appropriate way in similar conversations or texts.

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45

Gap filling: Sample teaching idea one Denials Grammar focus: Subjects, finite verbs and ellipsis When people are interacting they often have to repeat subjects and finites introduced by other people, especially when they question one another (Is it?, Did they?), affirm things (it is, they did) or deny things (it isn’t, they didn’t). This, however, can sometimes be tricky as the conversationalist must not just ‘pick up’ subjects and verbs from other people’s speech but also use a range of finite verb forms (such as do, does, did, is, are, am, was, were, has, have, had, don’t, doesn’t may, might, should and so on) appropriately to give information about things like tense, person, number, polarity (positive and negative expressions) and sometimes modality (e.g. probability and obligation). One particularly challenging aspect of this in English is that sometimes the finite is the same as the lexical verb (the verb which expresses the process, e.g. he goes), and sometimes the finite is separated from the lexical verb (e.g. does he go?, he did go and he might go). Another challenging feature of English conversation is that when we ‘pick up’ and repeat clauses from other speakers, we are often able to leave out certain parts of the original clause because they are easily assumed or understood. For example: A: Did you pass the test? B: I think I did In this example, the information pass the test is left out of speaker B’s answer. This phenomenon is called ellipsis and is one of the most common features of spoken language, especially in answering questions or otherwise responding to other people’s speech (such as affirming or denying what they have said). This is one reason why the old instruction to ‘answer questions with full sentences’ is not helpful for learning in this area. In real speech, we hardly ever answer questions with ‘full sentences’. While some learners may realise this, they may not have complete control over what is appropriate to include and what is appropriate to leave out in ellipsed expressions. In some languages like Chinese, the subject is ellipsed much more freely than in English.


In the following activities, gap filling is used to draw learners’ attention to different forms of finite verbs and to the use of ellipsis in clauses affirming and denying what has been said and to practise these forms in order to help them develop a sufficient level of routinisation to be able to participate in ‘full speed’ dialogues.

Further reading For a fuller analysis of mood structures, see Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, pp. 111–20). For a (simpler) teaching-oriented account of the functions of subject and finite, see Lock (1996, pp. 11–15). For an account of mood structures within the context of casual conversation, see Eggins and Slade (1997, pp. 74–81).

Level Beginner

Preparation Adapt or write several short dialogues in which person A accuses person B of having something belonging to him/her. Person B denies the accusation and person A reaffirms it (see sample dialogues below). Either record the dialogues or be prepared to act them out in class. Also prepare a worksheet with transcripts of the dialogues in which, in the affirmations and denials, everything except for the words yes and no is blanked out (see sample worksheet below).

Lesson plan: Denials Noticing 1. Distribute the worksheet to the students and have them fill in the gaps to the best of their ability. 2. Have students listen to the dialogues and compare what they wrote with what they heard. It will be necessary to repeat this several times.

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Exploring 3. Ask students to report any differences between what they heard and what they wrote. 4. Discuss with them the appropriateness of what they wrote compared to what is in the original dialogue. 5. Ask students to either justify keeping what they wrote or explain why it should be changed. Practising 6. Ask students to practise the dialogues in pairs working from an uncompleted copy of the worksheet, filling in the gaps appropriately based on what they have noticed and explored. 7. Go around class accusing individual students of having something belonging to you. They deny the accusations following the patterns of the model dialogue. 8. Have students work in pairs to similarly accuse one another of having their property and to deny and affirm.

Sample worksheet Denials Dialogue one A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B:

That’s my dictionary you’ve got there. No, ______. Yes, ______. No, ______. Yes, ______. It’s got my name on it. No, ______. Yes, ______. No, ______. Yes, ______. Look inside the cover. Oh! Yes, sorry you’re right. It has.

Dialogue two A: Those are my notes you’ve got there. B: No, ______.


A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B:

Yes, ______. No, ______. Yes, ______. They’ve got my name on them. No, ______. Yes, ______. No, ______. Yes, ______. Look on the front. Oh! Yes, sorry you’re right. They have.

Dialogue three A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A:

You stole my pencil. No, ______. Yes, ______. No, ______. Yes, ______. I saw you take it. No, ______. Yes, ______. No, ______. Oh, wait a minute. You didn’t. Here it is. I’m terribly sorry.

Suggested answers to worksheet and exploration questions Worksheet Dialogue one A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B:

That’s my dictionary you’ve got there. No, it isn’t. Yes, it is. No, it isn’t. Yes, it is. It’s got my name on it. No, it hasn’t. Yes, it has. No, it hasn’t. Yes, it has. Look inside the cover. Oh! Yes, sorry you’re right. It has.

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Dialogue two A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B:

Those are my notes you’ve got there. No, they aren’t. Yes, they are. No, they aren’t. Yes, they are. They’ve got my name on them. No, they haven’t. Yes, they have. No, they haven’t. Yes, they have. Look on the front. Oh! Yes, sorry you’re right. They have.

Dialogue three A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A:

You stole my pencil. No, I didn’t. Yes, you did. No, I didn’t. Yes, you did. I saw you take it. No, you didn’t. Yes, I did. No, you didn’t. Oh, wait a minute. You didn’t. Here it is. I’m terribly sorry.

Exploration questions (steps 3 to 5) There will be a number of likely differences between the original text and what the students might write. The three most important areas are likely to be ellipsis, the forms of the finite and pronouns. (a) Ellipsis: Many students will fill in the blanks with complete sentences (e.g. No, it (that) isn’t your dictionary or No, I didn’t steal your pencil. In such cases you can engage the students in discussions about whether or not the extra information they have added is necessary, and the differences between spoken and written expression. Other students may leave out too much. Typically, they may leave out the subject (e.g. No, didn’t or No, isn’t). In such cases they need to understand that in English the subject is rarely omitted in elliptical constructions. If necessary, follow-up


questions like those below can be used to help students explore these issues further: i. Why have the speakers not used ‘full sentences’? ii. What has to be added to it is, it isn’t, it has, it hasn’t, they are, they’re not to turn them into ‘full sentences’. (b) Finite verb forms: It is likely that some students will produce errors in terms of number (e.g. are instead of is), tense (e.g. do instead of did) or polarity (e.g. No, I did). They+ may also use the incorrect finite verb (e.g. is instead of has). If necessary, follow-up questions like those below can be used to help students explore these issues further: i. In lines 2, 3 and 4 of dialogue one, it isn’t and it is are used. In lines 6, 7 and 8 it hasn’t and it has are used. Why are these forms different? ii. In dialogue one, it is and it has are used. In dialogue two, they’re not and they have are used. Why are these forms different? (c) Pronouns: Some students may use the wrong pronoun. One reason might be that they are simply ‘picking up’ the pronoun from the previous utterance but not transforming it when necessary (e.g. That’s my dictionary > No that’s not or You stole my pencil > No you didn’t or They’re my notes > No, it’s not.) If necessary, follow-up questions like those below can be used to help students explore these issues further: i. In the first part of dialogue one it is used. In part one of dialogue two, they is used. Why? ii. Why is the pronoun that changed to the pronoun it?

Notes 1. The initial dialogues may be pre-recorded or performed on the spot by one teacher playing two parts, by two teachers or by a teacher and a (previously briefed) student. 2. Although the grammar focus of this lesson is suitable for beginners, even quite advanced learners may find the practice activities challenging in terms of producing the correct forms at great speed. 3. Successful performance of the dialogues depends on use of appropriate stress and intonation. This could be a secondary learning focus for this lesson. 4. Some students may put it’s not, they’re not instead of it isn’t and they aren’t. These forms are of course acceptable alternatives. An additional

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exploration question could get the students to explore the subtle differences between them (e.g. with it isn’t the finite is stressed but with it’s not the negative is stressed, and this strengthens the denial). 5. It’s got tends to be characteristic of British English. Where US English is the target It has can be used, and the finite of affirmation or denial becomes does.

Adaptations The activities can be made much more challenging by introducing a wider range of finites, e.g. You live in Newtown. No, I don’t; You were absent yesterday. No, I wasn’t etc. The following practice activity, known as ‘verbal tennis’, is a game designed to further develop learners’ ability to produce a range of appropriate forms at speed. 1. Put students into groups of three. 2. Student one ‘serves’ a statement that student two must immediately ‘return’ by denying. 3. Student one returns the same statement and student two must again immediately deny it again. 4. After student two has denied the statement at least twice, student one may serve a different statement which student two must again immediately deny at least twice. 5. This continues until student two makes a mistake (e.g. denies using an incorrect finite form) at which point student three must shout ‘fault’. 6. Student two then serves a statement that student one must return. 7. The game continues for a set period of time (e.g. 10 minutes) and the student who has made the fewest faults wins. As they get the hang of the game, the class should realise that the keys to winning are serving and returning serves as fast as they can and producing serves with finites different from the previous serves to try to confuse their opponents. It is surprising how even quite advanced students find this a very challenging activity.


Gap Filling: Sample teaching idea two Stupid criminals Grammar focus: Pronouns, definite article in back-pointing reference To produce coherent text learners need to develop control over the resources of reference. In a narrative text, this will usually involve at least use of the definite article the, and personal pronouns such as he, she, they and it to refer back to and keep track of participants (people and things). Grammar practice books for ESL learners can sometimes be a little misleading in this area. For example, they may say something like ‘we use the indefinite article “a” when we mention something for the first time, and we use the definite article “the” when we mention something for the second time’. However, if we look at the ways in which participants are referred to in real texts, it becomes clear that in fact the usual way of referring to something or someone for the second and subsequent times is to use a pronoun. For example: Suddenly, a young man came into the room. He was wearing a tuxedo. My mother gave me a sweater for Christmas. It’s a nauseous green colour and far too big for me. The + noun is normally used in cases such as the following: When it would be confusing to use a pronoun because it would not be clear which noun was being referred to, for example: A lorry and a car came around the corner. The lorry stopped. When something is added to the noun on a second or subsequent mention, for example: There was a man coming towards us across the bridge. I yelled out to warn him but the silly man just kept on walking. Where something is referred to a second or subsequent time by a different noun, for example: They were all pushing a donkey, but the animal was refusing to move.

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When the first mention of the noun occurred a long time before, and it would not be clear which noun the pronoun referred to. Ellipsis may also be used for back-pointing reference. However, English is quite conservative in its use of ellipsis compared to some other languages (see the previous sample teaching idea). In particular, the ellipsis of subjects tends to be restricted to the subjects of the second or subsequent clauses in compound sentences, particularly in written texts. Learners who speak languages where ellipsis is more freely allowed may overuse it. The following activity is designed to get learners to explore the use of these referrers or ‘pointing’ devices in tracking participants in simple anecdotes. It is slightly different from the previous gap-filling activity in that rather than simply blanking out the referrers, pictures are used to indicate which of the participants are being referred to. For the definitive treatment of reference see Halliday and Hasan (1976) pp. 31–87. For teaching-oriented accounts of articles and reference see Berry (1993) and Lock (1996) pp. 27–42.

Level Beginner

Preparation Find, adapt or write a suitable text or texts containing back-pointing reference involving participants that can be represented graphically (see sample texts below). Prepare a worksheet by blanking out some of the noun groups containing back-pointing reference (including pronouns). In each blank, add a picture to represent the referent (see sample worksheet below).

Lesson plan: Stupid criminals Noticing 1. Read the texts to the students. 2. Check the students’ understanding of the story.


3. Distribute the worksheet and have the students decide which pictures should be replaced by a pronoun (e.g. he, it), which by the + noun (e.g. the man), which by a possessive (e.g. my, his) and which by nothing at all (ellipsis). 4. Distribute the original text. Exploring 5 Have students compare the original text with their own answers. 6. Where their answers differ from the original text, they should either justify their original answers or explain why they should change them to those in the original text. 7. Check students’ answers and give them feedback. 8. Ask the students what generalisations they can make about the use of the different forms for second and subsequent mentions. Practising 9. Collect the texts and have students orally reconstruct as much of the story as they can. 10. Have students produce similar anecdotes about people making mistakes.

Sample texts: Stupid criminals 1. A car stopped in front of a shop. A man got out of the car and ran into the shop. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper gave him all the money in the till and the man ran out of the shop. But when he got back to his car he couldn’t open it. He had locked it with the keys inside. 2. A man stopped an armoured car, knocked out the driver and grabbed some bags of money. They were full of coins. As he was trying to run away with the heavy bags, he fell over, and the coins spilled out. He was still trying to pick them up when the police arrived.

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Sample worksheet Two stupid or unlucky criminals Locked Out A car stopped in front of a shop. A man got out of

He pulled out a gun and pointed

money in the till and

,

car

at the shopkeeper.

ran out of the shop. But when

couldn’t open

.

man

and

had locked

shop

ran into

gave him all the

got back to

with the keys inside.

gun

shopkeeper

Too Heavy A man stopped an armoured car, knocked out the driver and grabbed some bags of

money.

were full of coins. As

fell over, and

spilled out.

was trying to run away with [heavy]

was still trying to pick

up when the

police arrived.

man

bags of money

coins

Suggested answers to exploration questions and worksheet Sample text one a. A car stopped in front of a shop. A man got out of the car It would also be possible to use it to refer to the car, as there is no possibility of confusion. It would not be possible, however, to use it for both the car and the shop (below), as it would be difficult to determine the referent. Some students might use his car.


This, however, is not acceptable because it makes it sound like there might be two different cars, one that stopped and another which belongs to the man. b. and ran into the shop. Here ellipsis is possible because the omitted reference is the subject of the second clause in a compound sentence. c. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at the shopkeeper. This is a good example where a pronoun is used as the normal way of referring to something a second time when there is no possibility of confusion. It is also possible to use the gun or his gun, though this second mention of the noun is not necessary. d. The shopkeeper gave him all the money in the till Using he instead of the shopkeeper would create confusion, since there are two male characters in the previous sentence. e. and the man ran out of the shop. Using he instead of the man would create confusion since there are two male characters mentioned in the previous clause. f. But when he got back He is the best choice here because it can only refer to the man. Using the man would be possible though mentioning the noun is not necessary. g. to his car Both his car and the car are possible, however, his car is more natural because it links the car directly to he in the beginning of the clause. h. he couldn’t He is the best choice here because it can only refer to the man. Using the man is not necessary and might even be slightly confusing. i. open it. It is the best choice here because it can only refer to the car. Using the car is not necessary and might even be slightly confusing.

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j. he had locked it with the keys inside. He and it are the natural choices here because they can only refer to the man and the car respectively. However, in this case, using the + noun might be preferred by some speakers who wish to emphasise the ‘punch line’ of the anecdote. Sample text two a. They were full of coins. They is the best choice here because it can only refer to the bags. Using the bags would be possible though mentioning the noun is not necessary. b. As he was trying to run away He is the best choice here because it can only refer to the man. Using the man would be possible though mentioning the noun is not necessary. c. with the heavy bags, The … bags is necessary here because an adjective (heavy) is added. Normally, adjectives cannot modify pronouns. d. he fell over, He is the best choice here because it can only refer to the man. Using the man would be possible though mentioning the noun is not necessary. e. and the coins spilled out. The coins should be mentioned here because they might be confused with the bags. f. He was still trying He is the best choice here because it can only refer to the man. Using the man would be possible though mentioning the noun is not necessary. g. to pick them up when the police arrived. Them is the unmarked choice here because it can only refer to the coins (the last plural noun mentioned). Using the coins would be possible and might have the effect of emphasising the ‘punch line’ of the anecdote.


Step 8 The generalisation is that using pronouns is the usual or default way of mentioning something for the second or subsequent time. However, there are times when the the ⫹ noun should be used, for example, when it would be confusing to use a pronoun or when the writer wants to add something to the noun.

Adaptations The difficulty level of this teaching idea of course depends on the text chosen. The texts used in this example are comparatively simple texts. More complex texts may include not only a greater range of pronouns but also the demonstratives this, that, these, those. They may also involve cases in which the ‘back pointing’ is to a the with a different noun, involving exploration of meaning relationships between words (e.g. a dog … the stupid animal).

5 Reconstructing

General procedure In reconstructing learners listen to a text several times and the teacher works with them to gradually build it up on the board, usually starting with the target grammatical features and then the rest of the text. The teacher then progressively removes the text bit by bit. At each stage, students are asked to orally reconstruct the text, until all the text has been removed and they are repeating it entirely from memory, perhaps with some pictures or diagrams as prompts. When removing the text, the teacher can either remove the target features first or remove them last. In the former case, the learners’ attention is focused on the use of the target features by having to remember them every time they are asked to recite the text. In the latter case, the target features serve as the skeleton around which the rest of the text is reconstructed until the very end. The former variant seems to work better where the learners are familiar with the forms of the target features. The latter seems to work better where the forms themselves may present some problems for the learners. With this procedure, there is no clear distinction between noticing and practising. The learners’ attention is drawn to the use of the target features through both the building-up and removal stages. In the removal stage, the learners also get lots of very controlled but meaningful practice. 59


Exploring is probably best done at the completion of the buildingup stage, when the complete text is on the board, but it can also be done at the end of the procedure. The general procedure is as follows:

1. Find or create a short text containing the target features. 2. Have the students listen to the text several times and slowly build it up on the board, noticing the target features and exploring how they are used. 3. Have the students orally practise the text. 4. As a way of getting students to notice again the target features, gradually remove parts of the text with the target features being the first parts OR the last parts to be removed. 5. At each stage of removal have one or more students recite the text, filling in from memory what has been erased (pictures or diagrams may be used as prompts) in order to practise using the target features. 6. Finally, remove the entire text and have students recite it entirely from memory.

Reconstructing: Sample teaching idea one My favourite place Grammar focus: Process types and present tenses Learners are often given a ‘rule’ for the use of the simple present tense along the lines of ‘we use simple present tense to talk about habitual actions and general truths’. Later they may also be taught that the present continuous (or present progressive) tense is used to talk about what is going on at the moment of speaking. Sometimes this may be followed by information that there are ‘exceptions’ to these ‘rules’, for example the verbs ‘be’ and ‘have’, and ‘verbs of perception’ are rarely used with the present continuous tense. This can be confusing and is somewhat misleading. In order to make it clearer how selecting simple present or present continuous contributes to the meaning of a clause, it is necessary to take into

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account the kind of activity or process type represented by the clause. Simply stated, clauses that represent various kinds of ‘doing’ and ‘happening’ (action clauses) in present time normally use present continuous, for example: Dad’s cooking a curry in the kitchen. (That is what he is doing.) The curry is simmering. (That is what is happening.) However, in clauses representing other process types in present time, simple present is normally used, for example: I smell curry. (A ‘sensing’ process: this is what I perceive or sense.) The curry looks wonderful. (A ‘being’ process: this is what the curry is like.) I love this curry. (A ‘feeling’ process: this is how I feel about the curry.) The following teaching idea is designed to get students to become aware of different process types and to notice, explore and practise the relationship between tense and process type.

Further reading For an overview of process types, see Thompson (1996) pp. 76–102 or Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) pp. 170–5. For some discussion of the relationships between process types and tense, see Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) pp. 206–7 and Lock (1996) pp. 152–4. Note that in these readings the term used for ‘sensing’ processes is perception processes. The term used for ‘being’ processes is relational processes, and the terms used for ‘feeling’ processes are affection processes (in both Thompson and Lock) and emotive processes (in Halliday and Matthiessen).

Level Beginner

Preparation Find, adapt or write a simple text describing a place, using a range of process types and both simple present and present continuous tenses (see sample text below). Write each verb on a separate strip of paper.


Then write what follows each verb and what precedes each verb on separate strips, for example:

I

am standing

on a beach

Optional: prepare a photo or picture of the place you are going to describe.

Lesson plan: My favourite place Noticing/Practising 1. Tell the students that when you feel stressed you often close your eyes for a few minutes and imagine you are in one of your favourite places. 2. Close your eyes and describe your favourite place including: i. what you can see, hear and smell ii. what things are like iii. what people are doing iv. how you feel about the place. Use only present simple and present continuous tenses. (See sample text below.) 3. Show the students a picture of the place you are describing (optional). 4. Stick strips of paper with the verbs from the text written on them in random order on the board. 5. Ask the students to again listen to your description of what you see with your eyes closed and nominate one or more students to stick the verb strips in a column in the middle of the board in the order in which you say them. 6. Stick the other strips of paper on the board in random order. 7. Repeat your description until the students are able to reconstruct the whole text on the board by putting the rest of the strips in the correct places. 8. Nominate students to read out the complete description. 9. Ask students to identify the two tenses used in the text.

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Exploring 10. Ask students to discuss the following. i. Find the clauses in present continuous (progressive) tense. ii. Which of the following best describes their general meaning? • being (what people and things are like) • doing (what people and things do) • sensing (what we sense with our eyes, noses, ears etc.) • feeling (how we feel about things) iii. What tense is used in all the other clauses? iv. What is the general meaning of the clauses in which ‘can’ is used? Practising 11. Progressively remove all the strips except those with the verbs on them. As you do this, regularly nominate students to recite the whole text, filling in what is missing from their memory. If you have a picture, you may prompt them by pointing to objects in the picture. 12. Finally, remove the strips with the verbs on and have students try to recite the whole text from memory.

Sample text [each cell of the table should be written on a strip of paper]

My favourite place I

am standing

on a beach.

The sand

feels

soft

the sun

is

warm

the sea

looks

so blue.

and


I

can hear

the sound of the waves

I

can see

some children.

They

are splashing

in the water.

A group of young men

are playing

football.

Three old ladies

are chatting.

at the edge of the beach.

I

really love

this place.

and

Suggested answers to exploration questions and tasks Step 10 i. I am standing on a beach. They are splashing in the water. A group of young men are playing football. Three old ladies are chatting at the edge of the beach. ii. doing iii. simple present iv. sensing

Adaptations This could be made more challenging by using a wider range of process types and tenses. As a follow-up activity, students can write their own descriptions of places they like, similarly describing what they can see, hear, etc., what things/people are like, what people are doing and how they feel about the place, and having them brainstorm different verbs that can be used to express different process types.

Reconstructing: Sample teaching idea two Going on vacation Grammar focus: Non-finite verbs (Verb ⫹ ing vs. infinitive) The forms that non-finite verbs take when used after particular finite verbs is an issue that is often addressed in grammar teaching,

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65

but one which students continue to find problematic. Typically, students are given a list of verbs that are followed by ‘gerunds’ and a list of verbs that are followed by ‘infinitives’ and asked to simply memorise them. Not only is this approach difficult for learners but it also gives the impression that the choice of non-finite verb form is arbitrary and denies learners the opportunity to discover the underlying generalisations that govern this choice. One useful generalisation is that in clauses that represent how we feel about events and situations (‘feeling’ processes – see previous sample lesson in this chapter), the verb following the ‘feeling’ verb usually takes the Verb ⫹ ing form. For example: I like/love/adore/enjoy/hate/detest/loathe living in New York. It is true that after some verbs expressing ‘feeling’ the infinitive form can sometimes be used with only a very subtle difference in meaning, for example: I like eating outdoors/I like to eat outdoors. However, a learner can be reasonably confident that he or she will always be correct when using the Verb + ing form in a ‘feeling’ clause. On the other hand, in clauses expressing ‘hoping’, ‘wanting’ and ‘needing’ (‘wanting’ processes), the non-finite verb is normally in the infinitive form. For example: I want/hope/would like/would love/desire/wish/need/plan to live in New York. Another context in which these two non-finite verb forms are used is following what are known as phase verbs. One common category of phase verbs is verbs that add information about the starting, continuing and finishing of a process. Another useful generalisation is that such verbs can always be followed by the Verb ⫹ ing form. He started/began/continued/went on/finished/stopped doing it.


Some phase verbs (start, begin and continue) can also be followed by an infinitive. However, again, it is worth learners knowing that they will always be correct if they use the Verb ⫹ ing form after such verbs. It is important also to help students make the distinction between phased processes (e.g. stop doing something) and structures like stop to do something which represent not one phased process but two processes, that is, stop [doing one thing] in order to do something else. The following activity seeks to raise learners’ awareness of the tendency for the Verb ⫹ ing form to be used in ‘feeling’ process clauses, and after verbs of starting and stopping, and for the infinitive to be used in ‘wanting’ process clauses.

Further reading For more information on ‘feeling’ and ‘wanting’ processes, see the further reading section of the previous lesson in this chapter. For phase, see Sinclair et al. (ed.) (1990) pp. 184–93 (note that their definition of phase verbs is wider than that used here) and Lock (1996) pp. 96–102.

Level Intermediate

Preparation Find, adapt or write a dialogue containing some ‘feeling’ clauses with Verb + ing forms, ‘wanting’ clauses with infinitives and at least one phase (‘starting and stopping’) verb followed by Verb + ing (see sample text). Either record the dialogue or be prepared to read it in class. Prepare a set of cards with the ‘feeling’ verbs, the ‘wanting’ verbs and the a ‘starting and stopping’ verbs from the dialogue on them, each of the three different kinds of verbs written on a different coloured card. Prepare another set of cards with the non-finite verbs in the dialogue written on them. On one side write the Verb + ing form and on the other side write the to-infinitive form, for example, to scuba dive/scuba diving; to lie/lying. Prepare a worksheet like the sample worksheet below. Find or make a set of travel posters, each advertising a certain leisure activity, for example ‘Scuba-dive in Thailand’, ‘Hike in Nepal’, ‘Windsurf in Hawaii’, ‘Sky

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Dive in Australia’, ‘Bungee Jump in Bolivia’, ‘Gamble in Macao’. Hang the posters around the classroom.

Lesson plan: Going on vacation Noticing 1. Before the lesson, write a version of the dialogue on the board with all the ‘feeling, ‘wanting’ and ‘starting and stopping’ verbs missing, as well as the verbs that follow them. Cover up the whole dialogue except for the first line by sticking strips of plain paper over the lines. 2. Play the recording or perform the dialogue. 3. Check students’ general understanding. 4. Play the recording or perform the dialogue again. Ask students if they can remember roughly what B says in the second line. If they can, remove the strip of paper over the second line. If not, play or read the dialogue again until they can. 5. Repeat the same procedure for subsequent lines until all the lines are uncovered. 6. Give the cards with the ‘feeling’, ‘wanting’ and ‘starting and stopping’ verbs written on them to a pair of students. 7. Have the students stick the verbs in the proper places in the dialogue. 8. Play the recording or perform the dialogue again and have the class check that all the verbs are in the proper places. 9. Distribute the cards with the non-finite (Verb + ing and infinitive) forms on them and have students come up and stick them next to the verbs with the correct sides displayed. Draw their attention to the fact that in some cases either side would be correct. 10. Play or read the dialogue again and have the class check that the non-finite verb cards are in the correct places and the correct sides are displayed. Exploring 11. Have the students look back at the non-finite verb forms in the dialogue and see if they can find any places where a Verb ⫹ ing could be changed to a to ⫹ Verb form or vice versa.


12. Distribute the worksheet. Have them list the verbs in the dialogue in the correct columns. Remind them that some verbs may appear in both columns. 13. Ask students what the difference in meaning is among the verbs written on different coloured cards. Then ask them to work out what they can say about any relationship between the meanings of the verbs and whether they can be followed by Verb ⫹ ing forms or to ⫹ Verb forms. Practising 14. Have students work in pairs to read the dialogue on the board repeatedly, alternating roles. As they practise it, first take away the non-finite verb cards, then the finite verb cards, and then gradually erase the rest of the dialogue on the board at the rate you think your students can commit it to memory. 15. Ask students to circulate around the room and have similar dialogues in succession about the various posters that they see. Tell them to try to use different verbs in each conversation.

Sample dialogue Note: All the parts in italics should be omitted in the version written on the board. A: I’m so excited about this vacation. I haven’t had a vacation in ages. I just long to get away from the noise and the air pollution. B: Yeah. Let’s do something really different this time. A: Hey, this looks good. I’d like to go scuba diving, maybe in Thailand or somewhere. B: I don’t know. I don’t really like scuba diving. A: Really? I adore scuba diving. B: It sounds dangerous. I don’t mind swimming at the swimming pool, but actually I have never even enjoyed swimming in the sea. I prefer lying on the beach with a cold drink. I hope to get a good tan this year.

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A: Stop being so lazy. Don’t you want to try something new and exciting? Believe me, once you start scuba diving, you won’t be able to stop.

Sample worksheet Verb ⴙ ing

to ⴙ Verb

Suggested answers to exploration questions and worksheet Step 9 long to get away would (’d) love to scuba dive like scuba diving or to scuba dive adore scuba diving don’t mind swimming enjoyed swimming prefer lying or to lie


hope to get stop being want to try start scuba diving or to scuba dive Step 12 Worksheet Verb ⴙ ing like adore don’t mind enjoy prefer stop start

to ⴙ Verb ’d like want hope long like prefer start

Step 13 a. Some verbs (e.g. ‘like’ and ‘adore’) are about feelings. They can always take Verb + ing. Some can take either Verb + ing or to + Verb. b. Some verbs (e.g. ‘would love’ and ‘want’) are about wanting things. They can only take to + Verb. c. Some verbs (e.g. ‘stop’, ‘start’) are about beginning and finishing things. They can always take Verb ⫹ ing. Some can take either Verb ⫹ ing or to ⫹ Verb.

Notes 1. For the preparation of the cards, note that ‘like’, ‘adore’, ‘don’t mind’, ‘enjoy’ and ‘prefer’ are ‘feeling verbs’, ‘long’, ‘would love’, ‘hope’ and ‘want’ are ‘wanting verbs’, and ‘stop’ and ‘start’ are phase verbs.

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2. You may need to go over with students the difference between ‘I’d like to scuba dive’ (wanting verb) and ‘I like scuba diving’ (feeling verb), as well as ‘I’d prefer to lie on the beach’ (wanting verb) and ‘I prefer lying on the beach’ (feeling verb).

Adaptations As a follow-up activity, write a list of verbs on the board (such as wish, hate, continue, appreciate, finish, commence, loathe, keep on) and ask students to add them to the verbs in the appropriate columns in the worksheet table. Have students prepare a short speech about what they would like to do and would not like to do on their next holiday.


6 Elaborating

General procedure In elaborating students focus on particular grammatical features while adding information to simple texts to make them fuller or more complete. As students progress as language learners, they are naturally expected to produce more sophisticated texts and to master more sophisticated grammatical features. Sometimes, however, the link between the more difficult grammatical constructions they are learning and how these constructions can actually be used to make the texts they are writing more effective is not always made clear to them. Elaborating activities can help to dramatise for them the fact that learning grammar is not just about ‘correctness’ but that it is first and foremost about gaining control over resources for making communication more effective. These activities often focus precisely on those areas where less skilful language users need to learn how to improve their texts (e.g. adding descriptive background to events in a narrative, providing supporting reasons or evidence in an argument or giving historical background in a description). In this procedure, calling learners’ attention to both the value of elaboration and the grammatical features associated with it is done through questioning strategies in which certain questions are asked about a less elaborate text that is presented to students at the beginning of the activity. One way these questioning strategies can be introduced is through simulating activities in which people naturally 73


ask other people questions to get them to elaborate on something they have just said or written (e.g. the interrogation of witnesses or suspects in legal contexts, a doctor’s consultation, friends asking each other for more information in the context of gossip). Later, however, it is hoped that learners will begin to internalise these strategies and apply them when they are producing texts, considering how they might improve texts they have already produced or critiquing texts produced by others. The general procedure is as follows: 1. Present the students with a simple text. 2. Create a situation in which certain questions are asked about the text in a way that students notice both that additional information would make the text better and that this new information is typically associated with certain grammatical features. 3. Explore with students why certain kinds of additions in the text require certain grammatical features and others require different ones. 4. Have students practise by continuing to elaborate on the same text or elaborating on a similar text.

Elaborating: Sample teaching idea one The witness Grammar focus: Verb tenses and background information in narratives ESL grammar books often explain the use of past perfect tense along the lines of ‘we use past perfect to talk about an event that occurred before another event in the past’ or ‘we use past perfect to say that something had already happened before a time in the past’. They also explain the use of past continuous tense along the lines of ‘we use past continuous to say that someone hadn’t finished doing something when something else occurred’ or ‘we use past continuous to talk about something going on at a certain time in the past’. Such attempted explanations are unlikely to be of much help to learners in actually using these tenses appropriately. Learners need to observe how such tenses are actually used in various kinds of texts. One use of these two tenses is to ‘background’ events in narratives, that is, events that are not part of the main

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storyline. Past continuous tense is typically used in clauses that tell the reader what events are in progress either as the story is about to begin (as part of the ‘scene setting’) or as later events in the storyline occur. Past perfect tense is typically used in clauses that represent events or states that occur before events in the storyline. These sometimes constitute a series of events that took place at a time before the story begins (a flashback). One quite common use is where an event in the storyline is evaluated through comparison with some previous event (or lack of event), for example: I had never seen anything like it. Past perfect continuous tense is used with actions which began at a point in the past relative to an event being related and continue up until the time of that event. It is possible to write a simple narrative using just action process clauses and simple past tense, and this is where most learners are likely to start. However, as they attempt to write more sophisticated texts, they will need to develop control over the grammatical resources that enable them to elaborate such narratives. Students need to understand that different verb tenses are associated with different ways of elaborating on a narrative for different rhetorical purposes. For example, one way to provide descriptive background in a story is to talk about what was occurring contemporaneous with events in a story, in which case we typically use past continuous tense with action processes (e.g. I was taking a bath when the phone rang). Another way to elaborate a story is to talk about how characters felt, what they thought, what they perceived, or some state of affairs associated with an event in the story. In such cases, simple past tense used with process types other than action processes is more likely to be used than past continuous tense (e.g. I was in the bath when the phone rang rather than I was being in the bath, and She looked at me, and I thought she was crazy rather than I was thinking that she was crazy). Similarly, when we elaborate on a story by talking about what characters felt, what they thought, what they perceived, or some state of affairs before an event being related, we use past perfect tense, not past perfect continuous tense (e.g. I had never seen her before rather than I had never been seeing her before). In this activity, students practise elaborating on a narrative in a way which draws their attention to the relationship between verb tense and process type.


Further reading See Coffin et al. (2009) pp. 123–58 for examples and discussion of the use of past tenses in texts. Lock (1996) pp. 154–7 also has some examples and discussion of tense use in narratives.

Level Intermediate

Preparation Find, adapt or write a short narrative as well as a conversation in which one person asks another to elaborate on the story by telling what happened before or what happened during certain events in the narrative (possible situations include friends gossiping, police questioning a witness or suspect). The conversation should just be about events in the first part of the story. Prepare a worksheet containing the original narrative and the conversation as well as an elaborated narrative and two tables like those in the sample worksheet below.

Lesson plan Noticing 1. Read or play a recording of the original narrative (the first dialogue on the sample worksheet) and ask students to brainstorm what kinds of questions a listener might ask if he or she wanted to know more about what happened. 2. Read or perform the rest of the conversation on the worksheet and ask students what new information they have about the story. 3. Distribute the worksheet and direct students’ attention to Table 1. Ask them to fill in the new information from the conversation. Tell them to put events that happened before the events in the table in the left column and events that happened at the same time as or after the events in the table in the right column. Tell them to use the same verb tenses that appear in the conversation.

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Exploring 4. Have students discuss the following questions. i. What verb tense/s appear in the left column? ii. What verb tense/s appear in the right column? iii. Find the clause in the right column that talks about doing actions, the clause that talks about the thoughts or feelings of the characters and the clause that talks about what someone or something is like or appears to be like. What verbs tenses are used in each of these clauses? iv. Why is the verb tense in the left column of the first row different from those in the rows below? v. Can you come to any conclusion about how verb tenses are used when elaborating information in a story? 5. Give feedback to students on their answers. Practising 6. Direct students’ attention to the elaborated narrative and ask them to underline where the new information has been inserted. 7. Direct students’ attention to Table 2. Tell them that additional information has been added in the right and left columns, but that they will have to change the sentences to the appropriate verb tense. 8. Ask students to write an elaborated narrative of the second part of the story based on the information in the table. 9. Check students’ answers and give them feedback.

Sample worksheet The witness (1) Computer Billionaire Albert Wu was found shot in his Long Island home on Sunday May 25 at 9:45 p.m. by his housekeeper, Miss Angela Butterfield. Chief Inspector Tommy Thompson of the Great Neck Police Department is questioning the witnesses. Inspector: Miss Butterfield. Can you please relate the events of Sunday night.


Butterfield: Certainly. Mr. Wu arrived home at about 7:45. He told me he didn’t want to be disturbed, went into his study and closed the door. At around 8:45 I heard a car pull up in the driveway and a visitor knocked on the door. He was a tall man with a moustache. He said he had an appointment with Mr. Wu. I told him Mr. Wu had asked not to be disturbed, but he said Mr. Wu was expecting him, so I let him in and went to inform Mr. Wu. When I told him about the visitor, Mr. Wu looked very nervous and asked me to send him into the study. About twenty minutes later the door to the study opened and the stranger came out. He looked very angry. He got into his car and drove away. About half an hour later I heard a gunshot from the study. I rushed to see what had happened, but the door was locked. I remembered that there was a spare key to the study in the kitchen drawer. I got the key and opened the door and I saw Mr. Wu lying on the carpet. The window of the study was open, and the curtains were blowing around in the breeze. I looked outside, but I couldn’t see anyone. That’s when I called the police. Inspector: You said Mr. Wu got home at 7:45. What had he been doing all day? Butterfield: He’d been out playing golf. He always plays golf on Sunday. Inspector: I see. And how did he appear to you when he came back home. Butterfield: He looked a bit upset. In don’t know why. Inspector: He looked upset. Anything else. Butterfield: Well, as he closed the door, I thought it was a bit unusual. Inspector: Why? Butterfield: Because he hadn’t had his dinner. He usually asks me to cook dinner for him when he comes back from his golf game on Sundays. Inspector: I see. And then at 8:45 you heard a car drive up. What were you doing at that time? Butterfield: I was cleaning the kitchen. I looked out of the window and a saw a black sedan with tinted windows drive up.

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Inspector: And had you ever seen the car before? Butterfield: Yes I’d seen it parked across the street from the house about a week before. Based on the information in the conversation, complete Table 1 below. Make sure to use the same verb tenses used in the conversation. Table 1 Before the event Mr. Wu had been playing golf.

Event 7:45: Mr. Wu arrived home.

During the event He looked upset,

Mr. Wu went into his study and closed the door. 8:45: A car drove up.

(2) Look at the written statement prepared by Miss Butterfield and underline the information that was added based on the inspector’s questions. Witness statement Name: Amanda Butterfield Last Sunday night, May 25, my employer Mr. Wu arrived home at about 7:45. He had been out playing golf all day. He looked upset. He told me he didn’t want to be disturbed, went into his study and closed the door. I thought this was a bit unusual because he hadn’t had his dinner yet. Later, at 8:45, while I was cleaning the kitchen, I heard a car drive up. I looked out the window and saw a black sedan with tinted windows. I had seen the same car parked across the street from the house about a week before. (3) Continue writing Miss Butterfield’s statement using the information in Table 2.


Table 2 Before the event

Event

Miss Butterfield (not see) the stranger before

A visitor knocked at the door and said he had an appointment with Mr. Wu

Mr. Wu (not tell) Miss Butterfield he had an appointment that evening.

Miss Butterfield told the stranger that Mr. Wu had asked not to be disturbed, but he said Mr. Wu was expecting him, so Miss Butterfield let him in and went to inform Mr. Wu.

Miss Butterfield never (see) Mr. Wu react in this way before.

When Miss Butterfield told him about the visitor, Mr. Wu looked very nervous and asked me to send him into the study.

During the event Miss Butterfield (feel) scared

About twenty minutes later the door to the study opened and the stranger came out. He looked very angry. Miss Butterfield (not remember) to write down the licence plate number.

The stranger got into he car and drove away.

Miss Butterfield (feel) happy he was leaving

Miss Butterfield never (see) a gun in the house before.

About half an hour later Miss Butterfield heard a gunshot from the study.

Miss Butterfield (read) a magazine.

Miss Butterfield opened the door and saw Mr. Wu lying on the carpet.

Miss Butterfield (feel) shocked

Elaborating

Miss Butterfield not (see) the window open before.

The window of the study was open. Miss Butterfield looked outside, but couldn’t see anyone.

It (is) quiet outside.

Miss Butterfield called the police.

Miss Butterfield (cry)

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Suggested answers to exploration questions and worksheet Step 3 Before the event

Event

During the event

Mr. Wu had been playing golf.

7:45: Mr. Wu arrived home.

He looked upset.

Mr. Wu hadn’t had his dinner.

Mr. Wu went into his study and closed the door.

Miss Butterfield thought it was a bit unusual.

Miss Butterfield had seen the car parked across the street from the house about a week before.

8:45: A car drove up.

Miss Butterfield was cleaning the kitchen.

Step 4 i. past perfect tense and past perfect continuous tense. ii. past tense and past continuous tense. iii. In the right column, the clause about doing is Miss Butterfield was cleaning the kitchen. This clause uses past continuous tense. The clause about thoughts or feelings is Miss Butterfield thought it was a bit unusual. This clause uses the simple past tense. The clause


about what someone or something is like is He (Mr. Wu) looked upset. This clause also uses the simple past tense. iv. The action of playing golf took place over a period of time up until (or almost up until) Mr. Wu returned home The actions of (not) eating dinner (at the expected time) and of seeing the car parked across the street occurred at distinct points in time in the past. v. When talking about events in the past that occurred before events already included in the story, past perfect tense and past perfect continuous tense can be used. Past perfect tense is used for events that occurred at a single point in time, and past perfect continuous tense is used for events that began before the original event and continued up until that event. When talking about events that happened at the same time as events in the original story, past continuous tense or simple past tense may be used. Past continuous tense is used in clauses about doing, and simple past tense is more likely to be used in clauses about character’s thoughts or feelings or about the way things or people were or appeared to be.

Step 6 Last Sunday night, May 25, my employer Mr. Wu arrived home at about 7:45. He had been out playing golf all day. He looked upset. He told me he didn’t want to be disturbed, went into his study and closed the door. I thought this was a bit unusual because he hadn’t had his dinner yet. Later, at 8:45, while I was cleaning the kitchen, I heard a car drive up. I looked out the window and saw a black sedan with tinted windows. I had seen the same car parked across the street from the house about a week before. Step 8 A man got out of the car and knocked at the door. He said he had an appointment with Mr. Wu. I had never seen this man before, and I felt scared. I told him that Mr. Wu had asked not to be disturbed. He said Mr. Wu was expecting him, so I let him in and went to inform Mr. Wu, even though Mr. Wu had not told me he had an appointment that evening. When I told Mr. about the

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visitor he looked very nervous and asked me to send him into the study. About twenty minutes later the door to the study opened and the stranger came out. He looked very angry. He got into his car and drove away. I felt happy he was leaving. Unfortunately, I hadn’t remembered to write down the licence plate number. About half an hour later, while I was reading a magazine, I heard a gunshot from the study. I had never seen a gun in the house before. I opened the door and saw Mr. Wu lying on the carpet. I was shocked. The window of the study was open. I looked outside. It was quiet outside and I couldn’t see anyone. Then I called the police. While I dialled the number, I was crying. Note: This is only a suggested answer. The new information can be integrated into the original text in a number of ways. The most important thing to focus on with students is the appropriate use of verb tenses.

Note 1. Sometimes it is possible to use past continuous tense with linking verbs in being process clauses (e.g. she was looking good, I was feeling good but not they were seeming good). However, in most contexts the simple past tense would be the more natural option.

Adaptations The original narrative in this activity already contains examples of the past perfect tense (I told him Mr Wu had asked not to be disturbed and I rushed to see what had happened) to talk about two processes occurring in relation to each other in the past, and both the past continuous tense (the curtains were blowing around in the breeze) and the simple past tense (Mr. Wu looked very nervous) to talk about processes occurring contemporaneous with other processes. These occurrences in the original narrative can be used to draw students’ attention to these forms and their functions before they begin the elaboration stage of the activity. Another area that can be focused on in an activity such as this is different ways of integrating new information into a narrative in order to either foreground it or background it (e.g. coordination, subordination).


Elaborating: Sample teaching idea two Dick’s dream Grammar focus: ‘sensing’ and ‘being’ clauses Perception involving the five senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste can be represented as sensing or as a kind of action (doing) or as a kind of relationship (being), for example: I saw Andrew just now. I was watching Andrew just now. Andrew looked tired.

sensing doing being

In the above examples three different verbs are used (see, watch and look). This is also the case with audible perception, using the verbs hear (sensing), listen to (doing) and sound (being). However, for the other three senses, the same verbs can be used for all three process types, for example: I can smell the flowers. I’m smelling the flowers. The flowers smell lovely.

sensing doing being

This is also the case with feel and taste. Clauses using different process types have different grammatical properties that learners need to be familiar with. For example, both in sensing clauses and doing clauses (that relate to the five senses), the main verb can be followed by a second verb in either the so-called bare infinitive form, representing a complete event (e.g. I saw/watched Andrew leave) or in the V-ing form, representing an incomplete event (e.g. I saw/watched Andrew leaving). This is not, of course, possible with ‘ordinary’ action clauses. The two types differ, however, in that doing clauses of the perception type, like other action clauses, can be freely used with continuous tenses, while sensing clauses rarely use them. With ‘being’ clauses continuous tenses are rarely used (look is a partial exception to this, see sample activity one in this chapter). Perhaps not surprisingly, some learners confuse these types of clauses, for example: *Last night I went home and saw television all night. *I cannot listen what they are saying.

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Some learners also tend to play safe with the ‘being’ type, hardly ever using any linking verb but ‘be’ and ignoring linking verbs like look, appear, seem, sound, feel and taste. In this lesson, the students begin with a text consisting mainly of non-perception doing clauses and sensing clauses, with very few of the perception type doing clauses, and very few being clauses. They are guided to elaborate the text by adding more such clauses in appropriate places.

Further reading For an SFL account of process types, see ‘Further reading’ in Chapter 5, sample teaching idea one. For more on what are here called ‘sensing’, ‘doing’ and ‘being’ clauses, see Lock (1996) pp. 106–7, 116, 128–9.

Level Lower intermediate

Preparation Adapt or write a text of someone talking about a dream they had using mostly non-perception doing verbs (see grammatical explanation above). Prepare a number of dialogues in which another person asks the dreamer to elaborate on the dream by asking questions with ‘doing’, ‘sensing’ and ‘being’ verbs. Prepare a worksheet with exploration questions like the sample worksheet below.

Lesson plan Noticing/Exploring 1. Distribute the worksheet and have the students perform lines 7 to 15 of the dialogue on the worksheet with a partner. Then have them perform the first elaboration sequence. 2. Have students discuss exploration questions 1. 3. Have students perform the second elaboration sequence. 4. Have them discuss exploration questions 2.


Practising/Exploring 5. Ask students to write two more elaboration sequences following the instructions on the worksheet. 6. Ask students to discuss what they write in the same way they discussed the previous sentences. 7. Ask students to formulate a generalisation about the difference between the ways verbs about the sense of sight and the sense of hearing are used in doing, sensing and being clauses, and the ways verbs about the sense of smell and the sense of taste are used in doing, sensing and being clauses.

Sample worksheet Dick’s dream (1) Dreams can tell us a lot about the inner workings of the mind. Dick is very depressed. He is telling his psychologist Dr. Dribble about a dream he had. Dr. Dribble: So, how are you today? Dick: Well, Doctor, I had the strangest dream last night. Dr. Dribble: Tell me about it. Dick: I was walking through a forest and I saw a monkey. The monkey was making pancakes in a frying pan. He took one of the pancakes out of the pan and handed it to me. Suddenly he started screaming and came running towards me waving his frying pan. He started chasing me through the forest. I ran and ran. Then I woke up. (2) Dr. Dribble thinks the dream may hold the key to Dick’s depression, and so he asks him to describe the dream in more detail. Dr. Dribble: Very interesting. So you saw a monkey. Dick: Yes. Dr. Dribble: Tell me, what did this monkey look like. Dick: Now that you ask, it looked rather like my boss.

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Dr. Dribble: I see. And what did you do when you saw this monkey? Dick: Well, I just stood there and watched him cooking the pancakes Exploration questions 1 Discuss the following questions with your classmates/teacher. i. What verb is used for talking about Dick sensing something using his eyes? ii. What verb is used for what Dick did using his eyes? iii. What verb is used for what the monkey was like? iv. Are these verbs the same or different? v. What do the three verbs have in common? Dr. Dribble: And could you smell the pancakes? Dick: Yes, I walked closer to the frying pan and smelt them. Dr. Dribble: And what did they smell like. Dick: They smelt wonderful. Just like my mother used to make. Exploration questions 2 Discuss the following questions with your classmates/teacher. i. What verb is used for talking about Dick sensing something using his nose? ii. What verb is used for what Dick did using his nose? iii. What verb is used for what the pancakes were like? iv. Are these verbs the same or different? v. What is different about these three verbs? (3) Dr. Dribble needs to know more. Write two more conversations in which Dick elaborates further on his dream to the doctor, one in which they talk about a sound, and the other in which they talk about a taste. Try to use one verb about sensing, one verb about doing and one verb about being as in the examples above. Note when the three verbs are the same word and when they are different words.


Answers to exploration questions and sample worksheet Step 2 i. ii. iii. iv. v.

Saw Watched Looked (like) Different They all have to do with the sense of sight

Step 4 i. ii. iii. iv. v.

(could) Smell Smelt Smelt The same One is used for sensing; one is used for doing something; and one is used to talk about what something was like

Step 5 (possible answers) Dr. Dribble: After the monkey gave you the pancake, did you taste it? Dick: Yes I did. Dr. Dribble: Could you taste anything unusual. Dick: Yes, it tasted like broccoli. Dr. Dribble: And when you heard the monkey screaming, what did you do? Dick: I listened carefully to try to understand what it was saying. Dr. Dribble: And what did its voice sound like. Dick: It sounded just like a woman. Step 7 When verbs about the sense of sight and the sense of hearing are used in doing, sensing and being clauses, different verbs must be used for the different process types. When verbs about the sense of smell and the sense of taste are used in doing, sensing and being clauses, the same verb can be used for the three process types.

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Note 1. Of course, other words could be used for tasting and smelling in doing type clauses (e.g. savour, try, sniff), however, the use of these words is far less common and they have a more specialised meaning.

Adaptations A good follow-up for this activity would be to have students work in pairs taking turns talking about their own dreams and asking each other to elaborate on them. The activity can be adapted for any level by adjusting the difficulty of the text. It can also be extended to cover relational verbs used to discuss meaning and interpretation by asking students to interpret the dream (e.g. ‘The monkey represents his boss’, ‘Running away means he wants to escape from her’) and, later, their own dreams.


7 Transforming

General procedure In transforming students’ attention is drawn to how different grammatical features are used through the process of transforming a text in a way that makes it more effective or more appropriate for a particular communicative context. The process of transforming should be quite familiar to most ESL teachers and students. Traditionally in many ESL classes, students were given one or more examples of how sentences having a certain structure could be transformed into sentences with a different structure, for example how active voice sentences could be transformed into passive voice sentences. They were then given a list of sentences on which they were required to perform the same operations. This kind of presentation and practice may have been of some use in raising learners’ awareness of formal differences between different structures and giving them some limited practice in producing the structures. However, focussing on out-of-context sentence-level forms in this way does little to help learners learn how to use such forms to make appropriate meanings in different contexts. In this procedure, the students transform whole texts rather than isolated sentences. They do not necessarily directly transform the clauses of one text into the clauses of the other text. Rather, the basic experiential content of one text can first be transferred into notes or some kind of a visual representation (e.g. a series of pictures, a diagram, a map, a flow chart or a timeline). The students can then use 91


this as a basis for constructing a second text for the new context. This kind of ‘transfer of information’ technique has long been used in teaching English, especially in ESP contexts and does relate to ways we sometimes need to process and re-present information in ‘reallife’ contexts. In some cases it may be necessary to present students with a partial example of the transformed text so they can notice which features have been changed and explore why. In other cases, students will be able to work out for themselves the necessary transformations, in the process, and notice them and explore the reasons behind them. The general procedure is as follows: 1. Find, adapt or write a text that contains features that might be transformed in different contexts. 2. Have the students listen to or read the text and transfer the information in it into notes or some kind of visual representation. 3. Give the students a context for a different kind of text in which the same information would appear but be expressed differently. Guide students to notice how they would have to transform the information in the original text to make it fit into the new context and to explore the reasons why. Alternately, present students with a partial example of a new text appropriate to the new context and guide them to notice how information from the first text has been transformed and to explore the reasons why. 4. Have students practise transforming the information from the original text into a new text making use of the notes or visual representation they made in step 2.

Transforming: Sample teaching idea one How coins are made Grammar focus: Passive voice Learners are normally taught how to transform active voice clauses into passive voice clauses by changing the verbs in decontextualised

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sentences without any clear reason for doing so. They may also be given some vague advice like ‘we use passive voice when we are more interested in the receiver of the action than in the doer of the action’. This does little to help students understand how to use active and passive voice in context, or to see how selection of voice is related to communicative purpose. A good place to begin exploring this with students is to present them with contexts in which texts tend to have mainly active voice or passive voice. A good example of when active voice predominates is a situation when somebody is talking about what they have done or normally do (e.g. describing their job, talking about how they did or made something). It is natural in such texts for speakers to make themselves the ‘jumping off’ point or topic of clauses, in which case active voice is used. We then pour the molten metal into the mould. An example of a context in which passive voice would be more common is a text in which the general process of how something is done or made is described without particular reference to a specific person who does it or makes it. In such situations, it is natural to make the materials used in the process or the product (in its various stages of development) the ‘jumping off’ point or topic of clauses, in which case passive voice constructions in which the agent is omitted would be more appropriate. The molten metal is then poured into the mould. At the same time, students must be made aware that texts seldom use active or passive voice exclusively in such contexts. Speakers and writers often alternate between passive and active voice for a number of reasons. In the following sentence, for example, the speaker switches to passive voice in the second clause in order to express contrast by putting Graham in the position normally used for new information, the end of the clause. I made the cake, but the frosting was made by Graham.


In this activity students transform a speech in which someone talks about what they do in their job into an encyclopaedia entry about the process. They are also given limited practice in varying voice in such contexts.

Further reading For discussions of the use of passive voice as it relates to topic and comment and as it is used in various contexts, see Carter and McCarthy (2006) pp. 277–8, pp. 784–5, pp. 798–9. For some discussion of voice and topic (theme), see Lock (1996) pp. 233–5.

Level Intermediate

Preparation Find, adapt or write a text in which someone is talking about how they do or make something (see sample transcript). In addition, find, adapt or write the first part of a written text (such as an encyclopaedia entry) in which the same procedure is discussed in a more objective and general way. Prepare a worksheet with a blank flow chart and the second (partial) text (see sample worksheet).

Lesson plan: How coins are made Noticing 1. Read or play a recording of the spoken text (see sample transcript) and ask students if they can remember some of the things workers at the Philadelphia Mint do when they make coins. Go over with them any difficult vocabulary in the speech. 2. Read or play the recording again and have students fill in the steps in the flow chart for making coins (see sample worksheet). You may have to do this several times. 3. Distribute the written text to students and have them find the processes from the flowchart in the written text.

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Exploring 4. Have students discuss the following questions: i. Are the processes you wrote in the chart expressed mostly in passive voice or in active voice? ii. Are the same processes in the written text expressed mostly in passive voice or active voice? iii. Why do you think the use of passive voice predominates in one text and active voice predominates in the other? iv. Are there places in the spoken text where passive voice is used? Why do you think it is used? v. Are there places in the written text where active voice is used? Why do you think it is used? 5. Discuss the students’ answers with them and give them feedback. Practising 6. Ask students to complete the written text using the information from the chart, transforming the verbs in ways they think are appropriate. 7. Check the students’ answers and give them feedback.

Sample transcript How I Make Money: A Talk by Mr. Hamilton Alexander Good evening. First of all, I want to apologize if you are attending this talk in order to find out how to become a successful businessman or a millionaire, because I am neither. It’s true that every day I make a lot of money, but I can’t keep it. You see, I work at the Philadelphia Mint making US coins. We just make coins at our mint. Paper money is produced by the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. We make about 11 billon coins a year at the Philadelphia mint alone. On an average day we make over 30 million. The process of making coins begins when our artists and engravers draw the initial designs. We used to do this all by hand. Now our artist use computers to do it. After that we make a plaster model of the drawing and use that as the basis to make coin sized steel dies. Then we feed strips of metal sheeting into a machine which cuts them into round disks


called blanks. Then conveyor belts carry the blanks into the coining press. Each press stamps out 750 coins a minute. Finally, to make sure that nothing has gone wrong, our inspectors look carefully at a sample of the coins.

Sample worksheet How coins are made 1. Listen to the talk by Mr. Hamilton Alexander of the Philadelphia Mint and fill in the chart below. Artists and engravers ___________ They used to _______________ Now they _______________

They ________________ a plaster mould.

They ___________ metal strips into a machine to ____________________

Conveyor belts ________________________ Each press____________________________

Inspectors __________________________

2. Read the beginning of the encyclopaedia entry below and find the processes from the chart above. Notice how these processes are expressed differently.

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The making of coins The making of coins is an elaborate and painstaking process. In the United States, coins are made at one of three mints: The Philadelphia Mint, the Denver Mint, and the San Francisco Mint. Every year approximately 11 billion coins are produced at the Philadelphia Mint alone. First the initial designs are drawn by artists and engravers. In the past these designs were drawn by hand. Now, most mints use computers. After the drawings are finished, a plaster model is made which will form the basis for the master die. 3. Now complete the encyclopaedia entry using the information from the chart.


Suggested answers to exploration questions and tasks

Artists and engravers draw the initial designs They used to do this by hand. Now they use computers. They make a plaster mould.

They feed metal strips into a machine to make round disks called blanks.

Conveyor belts carry the blanks into the coining press. Each press stamps out 750 coins a minute.

Inspectors look carefully at a sample of the coins.

Step 4 i. Active voice ii. Passive voice iii. The first text is about what a particular group of people (the workers at the Philadelphia Mint) do and is related by a member of this group, while the second text describes the generalised process of how coins are made, and it does not matter who is doing it. iv. Yes. We just make coins at our mint. Paper money is produced by the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. The most plausible reason is that the speaker wants to create contrast (with the Philadelphia Mint)

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by putting the Bureau of Printing and Engraving in the part of the clause normally stressed (and used for new information). v. Yes. In the past these designs were drawn by hand. Now, most mints use computers. There are two reasons why the writer has shifted to active voice, first to create contrast (with by hand) by putting computers in the part of the clause normally stressed (and used for new information), and second because most mints (as opposed to all mints) is a more specific doer, and so cannot be omitted.

Step 7 Suggested answer Then strips of metal sheeting are fed into a machine which cuts them into round disks called blanks. The blanks are then carried into the coining press on conveyor belts. Each press stamps out 750 coins a minute. Finally, to make sure that nothing has gone wrong, a sample of the coins is carefully inspected.

Note 1. In the first (spoken text) the speaker and his colleagues at the mint are usually the topics/subjects of the clauses, but sometimes, the machines or parts of machines (conveyor belts, the coining press). In some situations, inanimate things are typically construed as doers, even though they are actually used by people to do things.

Adaptations One possible follow-up to this activity or stand-alone adaptation would be to present students with a written text about how something is done and have them take on the identity of the person who does it in the context of a speech or an interview. Another possibility is to have students interview each other about something they do or make and then to produce more generalised written texts about these processes.


Transforming: Sample teaching idea two Buying gifts Grammar focus: Indirect objects and given/new information Both of the following clauses have direct objects (DO) and indirect objects (IO). (a) She gave Peter a book. IO DO

(b) She cooked Peter a meal. IO DO

The meanings of the two indirect objects differ slightly. In clauses like (a), the IO represents the person who receives the thing represented by the DO (the recipient). In clauses like (b), the IO represents the person on whose behalf or for whose benefit the action is performed (the beneficiary). Both of the above clauses can have variants in which the recipient/ beneficiary is placed at the end of the clause after a preposition. In these variants, the difference between recipient and beneficiary is clearer. (a) She gave a book to Peter.

(b) She cooked a meal for Peter.

Sometimes textbooks and student grammar books deal with such patterns under the label ‘ditransitive’ verbs. However, there is rarely any guidance as to when to place the recipient/beneficiary in front of the DO and when to place it at the end after a preposition. For this, learners need to develop some feel for information flow in a clause. A clause typically begins with information that has already been mentioned or that links the clause in some way to its context (see Chapter 3, sample teaching ideas 1 and 2) while a clause typically ends with important, new or ‘newsworthy’ information (new information, for short, see sample teaching idea two in Chapter 3). This is because it is natural for speakers to put the heaviest stress at or near the end of a clause. This is not a rule – it can be varied using special intonation – but it is a very strong tendency.

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A recipient/beneficiary is therefore likely to occur at the end after a preposition when it is new information, and to occur before the DO, when the DO is the new information. For example: (a) What are you going to give Peter for Christmas? Well, last year I gave him a book, so this year I’d better give him something else. (b) Who are you going to give these presents to? I’m going to give the book to Peter and the MP3 player to Rebecca. In (a), a book and something else are the new information. In (b), to Peter and to Rebecca are the new information. This is why if the DO is a pronoun referring back to something already mentioned, and therefore by definition NOT new information, it is rarely placed at the end of the clause following an IO (e.g. * She gave Peter it.). This activity focuses on the two patterns used with beneficiaries. A dialogue about getting gifts for various people first draws students’ attention to the IO pattern in a context in which the gifts are new information. They transfer information from the dialogue into a table, which becomes the basis for the creation of for + beneficiary clauses in a context in which the beneficiaries are new information. At the end of the activity, exploration questions encourage the students to reflect on reasons for using the two different structures.

Further reading See Sinclair et al. (eds.) (1990) pp. 159–62 for a useful review of ‘ditransitive’ verbs and indirect objects. For recipient and beneficiary (client), see Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) pp. 190–2 and Lock (1996) pp. 75–6. For the relationship between intonation and information focus, see further reading in Chapter 3, sample teaching activity two.

Level Lower intermediate


Preparation Contextualise clauses with the indirect object structure (e.g. Let’s buy her a book) within a dialogue in which speakers are discussing what gifts to get/buy/make etc. for various people (see sample transcript). Record the dialogue. Prepare a worksheet requiring students to match people with gifts according to the dialogue, as well as to note the verbs that are used (see sample worksheet 1). Prepare a mismatched list of the people and gifts (see sample worksheet 2).

Lesson plan: Choosing gifts Noticing/Practising 1. Perform or play a recording of the dialogue (see sample transcript) and check students’ understanding. 2. Perform or play the dialogue again and have students complete the table (see sample worksheet 1) by matching gifts with names and noting the verb used with each gift. 3. Check students’ answers and give them feedback. 4. Get students to practise the indirect object pattern by looking at the table and saying what the two speakers are going to give/ buy/get etc. for the different people. As they do this, monitor and if necessary correct their intonation, making sure that the main stress is on the name of the gift (e.g. ‘They are going to get Anita a COMpass.’). 5. Explain that it is now a week later. George and Mildred have all the gifts in front of them and are about to wrap them. But they first need to be sure that they know whom each gift is for. 6. Arrange students in pairs. Have one student play the role of George and the other play the role of Mildred. Give the students playing the role of George a list of what George remembers (see sample worksheet 2). George (who has a terrible memory) will say whom he thinks each gift is for, and Mildred (who has a better memory) will correct him. Instruct the students playing the role of Mildred to refer to the table they filled in earlier and

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to use the same verbs as before. If necessary, model the dialogue as below: George: I think the compass is for YUkio. Mildred: No. We got the compass for ANIta. George: Oh yes. 7. When each pair has finished, have them reverse roles and do it again. Monitor their intonation throughout. Exploring 8. Write We got a compass for Anita on the blackboard and have students discuss the following questions: i. Is it also correct to say We got Anita the compass? ii. In which of the two sentences is the name of the gift emphasised? iii. In which sentence is the name of the person emphasised? iv. When they first talked about getting gifts why did George say ‘Let’s get her a small compass’ instead of ‘Let’s get a small compass for her’? v. A week later, why did Mildred say ‘We got the compass for Anita’ instead of ‘We got Anita the compass’? 9. Check students’ answers and give them feedback.

Sample transcript Choosing gifts George: Let’s get a small gift for everyone coming to the party next week. Nothing expensive, just a few dollars for each one. Mildred: A good idea. Who’re gonna be there? George: Let’s see. Anita, Yussef, Angela, Miko and … Mildred: Yukio? George: Oh yes, Yukio and Peter. Mildred: So altogether six people.


George: Yup. Mildred: Let’s start with Anita. George: Well, she is always getting lost, so let’s get her a small compass. Mildred: A compass? That’s a bit odd, isn’t it? George: But that’s the idea. The gifts don’t have to be serious. We just want some fun things for people to unwrap. Mildred: Oh I see. Okay, a compass for Anita. Then we should buy Yukio an alarm clock – she’s always late for class. George: Yes. Why not? Good idea. I’m sure we can find a small alarm clock for a few dollars. Mildred: What about Yussef? George: Mmm … well do you remember how much he loved the chocolate cake you made last year. He ate nearly all of it himself. So why don’t you bake him a cake? Mildred: Are you serious? George: Yes. Why not? We could put it in a tin and wrap it up. Mildred: Okay. So now Angela. George: Well, she often feels the cold, maybe … I know! I’ll knit her a scarf. Mildred: Good. That leaves just Peter and Miko. George: We could get Peter a travel notebook. You know how he much he likes travelling, and he always takes notes about everything he sees. Mildred: Okay. A notebook. Not very interesting, but it’ll do.

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George: Miko? Mildred: Let’s buy her a bracelet. She loves wearing stuff like that. George: Okay. Done.

Sample worksheet 1 Matching people and gifts Name

Gift

Anita Yukio Yussef Angela Peter Miko

Sample worksheet 2 What George remembers The compass

→

Yukio

The clock

→

Miko

The cake

→

Peter

The scarf

→

Anita

The bracelet

→

Angela

The notebook

→

Yussef

Verb


Suggested answers to worksheet and exploration questions Worksheet 1 Name

Gift

Verb

Anita

a (small) compass

get

Yukio

an alarm clock

buy

Yussef

a (chocolate) cake

bake

Angela

a scarf

knit

Peter

a notebook

get

Miko

a bracelet

buy

Step 8 i. ii. iii. iv.

Yes. We got Anita the compass. We got the compass for Anita. Because they are trying to think of gifts. So George emphasises the gift that he suggests by putting it at the end of the clause/ George makes the name of the gift important by putting it at the end. v. Because she is correcting George about who the gift is for, she emphasises the correct name of the person by putting it at the end of the clause / She makes the name of the person important by putting it at the end.

Adaptations A possible follow-up activity in which students are given the opportunity to practise further would involve dividing the class into groups and having each group discuss what gifts they think it would be suitable to get/buy/make etc. for members of another group, using the IO structure (e.g. we should get Anne a pen), then having the groups exchange their list of gifts but NOT the information about which gift is for whom, and having each group try to guess whom each gift is intended for. The group that selected the gifts should then confirm

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or disconfirm the guesses (e.g. Group A: [We think] you are going to get the pen for Anne. Group B: No. The pen is for Bill.). The activity could be extended and made more challenging by including the verb give in the dialogue, for example, We could give Peter a travel notebook. In the latter part of the activity an additional focus would then be on for ⫹ beneficiary versus to + recipient, for example, We are going to give the travel notebook to Peter and we got the compass for Anita. An additional focus in this sample teaching idea could be on tense, in particular the ‘irregular’ past tense forms bought, got versus the ‘regular’ forms knitted and baked.


8 Combining Procedures

Throughout this book, the various procedures for getting students to notice, explore and practise grammatical features in context have been presented separately. Often, however, teachers will want to combine these procedures in the same lesson, allowing students to notice, explore and practise in different ways. For example, sequencing can be used to call students’ attention to the appropriate order of elements in a text and elaborating can be used to practise putting new elements in the appropriate place in the sequence, or gap filling can be used to draw students’ attention to features in a text, reconstructing can be used for practising using this feature in context, and transforming can be used to get them to explore how the features might change in different contexts. As explained in the introduction, the procedures have been introduced progressively in the book, with those introduced earlier demanding less language production from students and those coming later. It is likely, therefore, though not necessary, that when procedures are combined in lessons, less demanding procedures (e.g. comparing) would be used before more demanding ones (e.g. transforming). The sample teaching ideas in this chapter demonstrate how procedures can be combined. The ideas introduced are rather challenging, but this does not mean that combining procedures always results in more challenging lessons. Procedures can just as easily be combined for use with beginners, and in fact, might actually make a lesson 109


easier for them by, for example, adding an extra step to help them understand something better.

Combining procedures: Sample teaching idea one Bigfoot Grammar focus: Quotes and reports ‘Reported speech’ is often taught as a set of rules for transforming ‘direct speech’ into ‘indirect speech’, such as change the tense of the verb one step back in the past; change pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘you’ to ‘he/ she’; change time expressions like ‘today’ and ‘yesterday’ to ‘that day’ and ‘the day before’ and so on. These ‘rules’ do capture some of the common characteristics of reporting and they may sometimes be useful for practise, but the problem with this is that the choices of tenses, pronouns, adverbials etc. in the report are affected by the context of the report (who is reporting to whom, when, where etc.). Mechanically following the transformation ‘rules’ with no attention to context can sometimes lead to absurdities. A: I’m going to leave now. B: Ok, see you later. C: What did A say? B: He said he was going to leave then. In this example it seems very strange indeed for B to transform now into then when reporting A’s speech. In fact, it would be likely for B to report the meaning of A’s speech rather than the words, saying something like He’s leaving or He’s going home. This approach, therefore, misrepresents the purpose and nature of reporting speech as opposed to quoting it. If we present speech as a quote, we are claiming that we are repeating the actual words used. However, a report makes no such claim and is normally a (re)presentation (or ‘paraphrase’) of the meaning of what was said. A report in fact need not contain a single word of what was actually originally spoken or written. To produce appropriate accounts of speech students must gain a sense of when it is effective to use reporting (paraphrase), quoting (reproducing the speech word for word) or a combination of the

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two. Writers’ reasons for making such choices are many and complex, including the need to summarise lengthy spoken text into a more concise report, the inability to recall exactly what was said, the desire to capture an interesting or important utterance or phrase with a direct quotation or the desire to show scepticism about what was said. Strategies for reporting speech cannot be taught as a set of rules to be mechanically applied. Rather, students must be given a chance to consider the alternatives for reporting speech in different ways in the context of specific communicative situations. In this lesson, students first compare a transcript of a spoken text with a written text, which is an account of the spoken text, and consider the different reasons reporting, quoting and a combination of the two were used. Then they transform another transcript into a written account, attempting to combine reports and quotes in strategic ways. This is quite a challenging lesson, not just because the task itself involves difficult vocabulary but also because the lesson deals more with the effectiveness of different rhetorical choices rather than correctness or incorrectness. It is partly for this reason, however, that the activity is so valuable for advanced learners.

Further reading See Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) pp. 462–4 on quoting versus reporting. For a teaching-oriented introduction to verbal processes (including quotes and reports), see Lock (1996) pp. 116–22. Probably the best overview of reporting for both teachers and advanced students is Thompson (1994).

Level Advanced

Preparation Find, adapt or write two transcripts of spoken texts and a written account of one of those spoken texts. Prepare two worksheets, one with the transcript and the accompanying account, and the other with the other transcript without an accompanying account.


Lesson plan Noticing and Exploring 1. Distribute Worksheet 1 and ask students to read the newspaper article and underline all of the verbs for reporting or quoting speech they can find. 2. Ask students to identify where these verbs are accompanied by direct quotations, where they are accompanied by reports of speech that are not direct quotations and where they are accompanied by a combination of the two. 3. Ask students to read the accompanying transcript and then to find the source of each instance of both quoted and reported speech in the transcript. 4. Have students discuss the following questions: i. What is the most common way in the article of representing what the people said at the press conference (report, quote or combination)? ii. Do you think the author of the article believes the men’s claim? iii. Why did the reporter quote the phrases ‘undisclosed location’, ‘attract undue publicity’ and ‘reality show’? iv. Why did the reporter use the words refused and admitted when reporting what the men said rather than a neutral word like said? v. Why did the reporter quote the phrase ‘This is by far the most important scientific discovery of the decade’? vi. Why did the reporter quote the lines ‘At first I thought it was a bear and when it began to move towards us I opened fire as a matter of self-defence’? vii. Why didn’t the reporter quote Elderman when writing about the fact that a Sasquatch is sometimes called a Bigfoot and the fact that many people have claimed to have seen one? 5. Have students discuss how speech that has not been directly quoted has been changed. 6. Ask students to formulate a list of guidelines to help a newspaper reporter determine whether or not to use quotes or reports or a combination of the two.


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Practising 7. Distribute worksheet 2 and direct students’ attention to the transcript of the second press conference. 8. Ask them to apply the guidelines they came up with to determine which of the information in the transcript they will report, which they will quote. 9. Ask students to transform the transcript into a newspaper article either in pairs or individually.

Sample worksheet 1 1. Newspaper article Pair claims to have shot Bigfoot A pair of hunters claimed yesterday that they had shot and killed a Sasquatch and were holding the carcass in an ‘undisclosed location’ pending scientific tests. Orson Elderman and Cory Haines of Elk Ridge, Oregon told a packed room of reporters that they had come across the creature while hunting for deer on Sunday afternoon in a wooded area near Ontago Lake. ‘At first I thought it was a bear’, Haines explained, ‘and when it began to move towards us I opened fire as a matter of selfdefence’. Elderman and Haines said that they had been storing the creature in a freezer since Sunday and were awaiting the results of DNA tests on samples they had sent to scientists at the university. They refused, however, to reveal where the carcass was hidden or which university they had sent the tissue samples to. The only evidence they produced was a blurred photograph of a large hairy creature, the authenticity of which could not be verified. When asked why they would not allow reporters to actually see the creature, the pair replied that they did not want to ‘attract undue publicity’. At the same time, they said they were in negotiations with a local television producer to produce a ‘reality show’ about their experiences. Sometimes called a Bigfoot, the Sasquatch is supposedly a large, hairy, ape-like creature that lives in the forests of the northern United


States. Although there have been a number of alleged sightings of such creatures over the years, there is no scientific evidence that they really exist. ‘This is by far the most important scientific discovery of the decade’, Elderman claimed. When reporters responded with scepticism, the pair admitted that their story was hard to believe and promised to produce further evidence within the next couple of days. ‘This creature is a bigfoot for sure’, Hains insisted, ‘and soon the whole world will know about it’. 2. Press conference Elderman: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is Orson Elderman and this is my friend Cory Haines. We have an announcement to make first, and then we will answer your questions. The announcement is that we have shot a Sasquatch and we’re holding the body in an undisclosed location. This is the first time anybody has ever had the actual body of a Sasquatch. It proves they actually exist. Without a doubt this is the most important scientific discovery of the decade. Reporter 1: Excuse me, do you mean you have killed a Bigfoot? Elderman: That’s right. Sometimes a Sasquatch is called a ‘Bigfoot’. Lots of people have claimed to have seen them, but we are the first ones who actually have the body. Reporter 2: So where is it? Haines: I’m afraid we can’t tell you that now. We don’t want to attract undue publicity. Let’s just say we’ve been keeping the body in a freezer and have sent some samples of its skin and hair to a university for DNA testing. Reporter 3: Can I ask which university? Elderman: I’m afraid we can’t tell you that either. Reporter 1: Can you tell us exactly how you found this creature? Haines: Well, we were out hunting on Sunday afternoon near that big lake just south of here, Lake Ontago. We were hunting for deer. We’d been out for about an hour when Orson said to me, ‘hey look at that’! I looked up and there was this big hairy thing about twenty feet away


115

from us. At first I thought it was a bear, and when it started to move towards us I opened fire as a matter of self-defence. Reporter 3: Can you describe the creature please? Elderman: I can do better than that. We have a photo, which we will project on the screen now. Reporter 1: What’s that? It’s so blurry I can’t make anything out. Reporter 2: That could be anything. Elderman: Yeah, I guess I’m not a very good photographer. Reporter 3: You have to admit your story is a little hard to believe. Haines: We know that. But don’t worry, after the scientific tests come back we’ll produce more evidence. Reporter 1: Can you tell us when that will be. Elderman: Well, we’re talking with a television producer about maybe making a reality show out of this. Haines: This creature is a Bigfoot for sure, and soon the whole world will know about it.

Sample worksheet 2 The following day, a group of scientists held a press conference of their own to discuss the men’s claims. Below is the transcript of the press conference. Dr Mary Robinson, Department of Biology, University of Oregon Dr Henry Flax, Department of Zoology, Pacific University Professor Henrietta Paulson, Department of Environmental Science, Oregon State University Reporter 1: Yesterday we heard the claims from Mr Orson Elderman and Mr Cory Haines that they had shot a Sasquatch and were holding the body in a freezer in an undisclosed location. Dr Robinson, I wonder what you think of this claim. Dr Robinson: I’m willing to give the men the benefit of the doubt. If they have really found a Sasquatch, it would be a historical discovery indeed.


Reporter 2: Dr Flax. I understand you have studied the Bigfoot phenomenon for many years. Dr Flax: That’s correct. I’ve made it my life’s work to determine whether or not this creature really exists, but I still have not found any hard and fast evidence. Reporter 2: And you’re not excited by this finding? Dr Flax: Not particularly. I’ve seen hoaxes like this for years. These people have just produced a very questionable photograph, and that’s it. They should have produced a physical piece of the body, if not the body itself. Without the body, there is no reason for us to believe them. Professor Paulson: I absolutely agree. They should’ve also contacted some reputable scientists at a respected university. As it is, they won’t even give the names of the scientists they’ve sent their samples to. This is not the proper way to conduct scientific research. Reporter 3: Professor Paulson, do you think its possible that these creatures really exist? Professor Paulson: I think it’s very unlikely, primarily for environmental reasons. This area does not really have the climate and the food supply you would expect to support creatures of this kind. Dr Flax: I agree. Over the years there’ve been so many false sightings. Back in 1967 people were finding large footprints all over the place and thought they had found evidence for the existence of the Bigfoot. But later it was revealed that a local man was using a pair of large wooden feet to make the tracks. Professor Paulson: Exactly, and there was also a similar case just a few years ago. Two men claimed to have had made a film of a Sasquatch. It turned out that one of the men had simply taken a movie of his friend wearing an ape costume. Dr Robinson: It’s true that there have been a number of such cases in the past, but I feel that as scientists we need to be objective and wait for the results of the DNA tests. We can’t really make a judgement until all of the evidence is in.


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Write a newspaper article of about 200 words reporting on the scientists’ views. Possible answers to exploration questions Step 4 i. Report (there are 6 instances of reporting, 3 instances of quoting and 3 instances where reporting and quoting are used in combination). ii. No. iii. Because by quoting these phrases the reporter hints that s/he does not really believe what the men are claiming. iv. Because these verbs make the men seem less believable (refuse makes it seem like they are hiding something and admit makes it seem like they did something wrong). v. Because this is the men’s most important claim. vi. Because this is the climax of the story/the most interesting/ important/relevant event in the story. vii. Because these are facts (common knowledge). Anyone could have said these things. There is no reason to attribute them to a particular person. Step 5 Below are explanations for selected instances of reporting. Students should be encouraged to notice patterns in the changes in verb tenses and pronouns as well as ways in which information is reordered and summarised. ORIGINAL QUOTE: ‘we have shot a Sasquatch and we’re holding the body in an undisclosed location’. REPORT: A pair of hunters claimed yesterday that they had shot and killed a Sasquatch and were holding the carcass in ‘an undisclosed location’ pending scientific tests. The first person personal pronoun (‘we’) is changed to ‘A pair of hunters’ and ‘they’. The tenses of the verbs ‘shot’ (past tense) and ‘are’ (present tense) are changed to ‘had shot’ (past perfect tense) and were (past tense).


ORIGINAL QUOTE: ‘We were out hunting on Sunday afternoon near that big lake just south of here, Lake Ontago. We were hunting for deer… I looked and saw a big hairy thing.’ REPORT: Orson Elderman and Cory Haines of Elk Ridge, Oregon told a packed room of reporters that they had come across the creature while hunting for deer on Sunday afternoon in a wooded area near Ontago Lake. The first person personal pronoun (‘we’) is changed to ‘Orson Elderman and Cory Haines of Elk Ridge, Oregon’. The verbs ‘looked and saw’ (past tense) are changed to the single verb ‘had come across’ (past perfect tense). The finite independent clause ‘We were hunting’ is changed to a non-finite dependent clause ‘while hunting’. The information is reordered and combined to make the sentence more coherent. ORIGINAL QUOTE: ‘Let’s just say we’ve been keeping the body in a freezer and have sent some samples of its skin and hair to a university for DNA testing’. ‘after the scientific tests come back we’ll produce more evidence’. REPORT: Elderman and Haines said that they had been storing the creature in the freezer since Sunday and were awaiting the results on the DNA tests on samples they had sent to scientists at the university. The verb ‘say’ (present tense) is changed to ‘said’ (past tense). The verb ‘have been keeping’ (present perfect continuous tense) is changed to ‘had been storing’ (past perfect continuous tense’, replacing the less formal ‘keeping’ with the more formal ‘storing’. The fact that the men were ‘awaiting the results’ is implied in the quote. ORIGINAL QUOTE: ‘I’m afraid we can’t tell you that now.’ (to the question ‘Where is it?’)/’I’m afraid we can’t tell you that either’ (to the question ‘Which university [did you send it to]?’). REPORT: They refused, however, to reveal where the carcass was hidden or which university they had sent the tissue samples to. The two utterances are summarized by the verb ‘refuse’. The verb ‘is’ (present tense) and the ellipted verb ‘did send’ (past tense) are transformed to ‘was’ (past tense) and ‘had sent’ (past perfect tense).


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Step 6 There are many possible answers to this question, however, based on the previous discussion, students should be able to make the following points: 1. Reporting is used more frequently than quoting. 2. Quoting can be used for a number a reasons including a. Showing that you don’t necessarily believe someone. b. Giving the most important pieces of information said by people in their exact words. 3. We usually do NOT quote things people have said that are facts or common knowledge unless there is a good reason to do so (e.g. they are ‘experts’ or the fact has been disputed). Below is a more complete analysis of each instance of reporting and quoting in the text. Teachers may wish to draw on it for their discussions with students.

Newspaper article

Report/Quote/Combination and possible explanation

Pair claims to have shot Bigfoot

Report Newspaper headlines normally summarise things rather than quoting newsmakers (but may quote if the phrasing of what was said was particularly newsworthy).

A pair of hunters claimed yesterday that they had shot and killed a Sasquatch and were holding the carcass in an ‘undisclosed location’ pending scientific tests.

Combination The first paragraphs of newspaper articles normally give a summary of the most important points. Here, however, the phrase ‘undisclosed location’ is seen as special or unusual and so is directly quoted.


Orson Elderman and Cory Haines of Elk Ridge, Oregon told a packed room of reporters that they had come across the creature while hunting for deer on Sunday afternoon in a wooded area near Ontago Lake.

Report This is a more concise summary of the narrative in the transcript, shortening it and leaving out unnecessary information.

‘At first I thought it was a bear’, Haines explained, ‘and when it began to move towards us I opened fire as a matter of self defence’.

Quote This is the most important part (climax) of the narrative and so quoting it makes the article more dramatic.

Elderman and Haines said that they had been storing the creature in a freezer since Sunday and were awaiting the results of DNA tests on samples they had sent to scientists at the university.

Report This is a summary of information that appears in the transcript with some more information (since Sunday) added for clarification and some information (hair and skin) left out.

They refused, however, to reveal where the carcass was hidden or which university they had sent the tissue samples to.

Report This is a consolidation of two separate refusals into one account. Using the word for the speech act (refuse) highlights the refusal, making it seem like the men have something to hide.

The only evidence they produced was a blurred photograph of a large hairy creature, the authenticity of which could not be verified.

This is neither a report nor a quote. This is a summary of something that happened at the press conference rather than what people said.

When asked why they would not allow reporters to actually see the creature, the pair replied

Combination The first part of this sentence summarised the reporter’s they


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did not want to ‘attract undue publicity’.

question, and the second part quotes the most important part of the answer. The effect of the quote is to show the reporter’s scepticism about the answer.

At the same time, they said they were in negotiations with a local television producer to produce a ‘reality show’ about their experiences.

Combination This is a summary of what was said with ‘reality show’ put in quotation marks to highlight the writer’s scepticism regarding the ‘reality’ of the hunters’ account.

Sometimes called a ‘Bigfoot’, the Sasquatch is supposedly a large, hairy, ape-like creature that lives in the forests of the northern United States. Although there have been a number of alleged sightings of such creatures over the years, there is no scientific evidence that they really exist

Report Although this is a summary of information discussed at the press conference, it is background information (common knowledge) about the phenomenon rather than information about the event being reported, and so there is no reason to quote it.

‘This is by far the most important scientific discovery of the decade’, Elderman claimed.

Quote This is the major claim of the hunters and so has been quoted.

When reporters responded with scepticism, the pair admitted that their story was hard to believe and promised to produce further evidence within the next couple of days.

Report This is a summary of an exchange between reporters and the hunters. Using the word for the speech act (admit) highlights the admission and suggests that they hunters had done something wrong.

‘This creature is a bigfoot for sure’, Haines insisted, ‘and soon the whole world will know about it’.

Quote This quotation exemplifies the hunters’ rebuttal to the reporters’ scepticism.


Step 9 Sample Answer Scientists sceptical about Bigfoot claims A number of prominent scientists yesterday cast doubt on the claims by two Oregon men that they had shot a Sasquatch and were holding the body in a freezer. Dr Henry Flax, a zoologist from Pacific University who has studied the Bigfoot phenomena for many years, questioned the evidence the men had presented. ‘They should have produced a physical piece of the body, if not the body itself’, he said. ‘Without the body, there is no reason for us to believe them.’ Prominent environmental scientist Professor Henrietta Paulson agreed, noting that the men had refused to disclose the names of the scientists that they had supposedly sent samples of the creature’s hair and skin to. ‘This is not the proper way to conduct scientific research’, she said. She added that environmental conditions could probably not support a creature of this kind. Over they years there have been many cases of people making false claims about Sasquatches. In 1967 a local man tried to deceive people by using a pair of large wooden feet to make tracks, and later, another man shot a movie of his friend wearing an ape costume and told people it was a Sasquatch. Not all of the scientists contacted, however, were so dismissive. Dr Mary Robinson of the University of Oregon was more willing to ‘give the men the benefit of the doubt’, insisting that as a ‘scientist’ she had to wait until ‘all of the evidence’ was in. (There are many possible ways students may construct this text based on which of the scientists they believe and which of their statements they consider most newsworthy.)

Notes 1. In traditional terms, what are we call quoting is often called ‘direct speech’ and what we call reporting is called ‘reported speech’ or ‘indirect speech’. 2. It is more likely to use reporting when we believe what someone is saying and so have no hesitation about repeating the meaning of what they said.


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When we are sceptical about what someone has said, however, we often either quote their exact words (to emphasise that this is what the other person said, not what we think) or we report using words like ‘claim’ which distance us from what was said. 3. When we use quotations to show scepticism, we often quote people partially rather than fully (combining a quote with a report). Quoting what others have said in full, on the other hand, might have the opposite effect, demonstrating that the writer thinks what the other person has said is particularly important. 4. The phenomenon of quoting someone to show scepticism also occurs in speech when we preface an account of what someone has said with the phrase quote unquote to show that we are repeating the words or phrase of the other ironically. 5. This activity is a good example of how, at least with advanced students, increasing students’ awareness of grammar also increases what has been called ‘critical language awareness’ (Fairclough 1992). In this activity, for example, by noticing how reporters use quoting and reporting to show how much they believe other people, students come to an understanding that news reporting is not always ‘objective’, and that reporters’ biases are often expressed in very subtle ways.

Combining procedures: Sample teaching idea two Global warming Grammar focus: Nominalisation In the narrow sense, nominalisation refers to the derivation of nouns from verbs and adjectives, such as derivation and consumption from the verbs derive and consume, and probability and importance from the adjectives probable and important. Most learners are likely at some time to be introduced to this, and perhaps to become familiar with some common nominalising suffixes, such as -e/ance, ity and -ness. However, taking a broader perspective, nominalisation can refer to any case in which meanings that in everyday language would typically be expressed by verbs, adjectives or conjunctions are instead expressed as nouns. Very often, this results in a lot of information being packed into one noun group that in everyday speech might be ‘spread’ throughout a clause or even a longer stretch of text. For example, the following sentence contains just one clause, and the ‘content’ of the clause is packed into two noun groups linked by is.


The main cause of global warming is the production of ‘greenhouse’ gases through human activity. To ‘unpack’ the content of this clause and re-express it in everyday language, we need more than one clause, for example: The Earth has been getting warmer mainly because we humans keep doing things that produce ‘greenhouse’ gases. As this example shows, nominalising requires more than just the ability to change verbs into nouns. In the nominalised version, not only are processes expressed as nouns (has been getting warmer > warming; keep doing things > activity; produce > production) but also the logical relationship (because) is expressed as a noun (cause) and the subjects in the ‘unpacked’ version (The Earth and humans) are transformed into modifiers of the nominalised processes ( global warming and human activity). Nominalisation is very widely used in more formal writing, especially in scientific and technical registers, and most advanced learners will need to develop some control over it. However, it is not just a case of being able to produce nominalised text. Nominalisation often makes texts very dense and difficult for students (and indeed many readers) to understand. To help them deal with such texts, it is useful for students to also practise ‘unpacking’, that is, rephrasing the content of highly nominalised text in more everyday language with much of the nominalisation removed. It is important for students to see that using nominalisation is not just a way of making their writing seem more formal or sophisticated. They need to start to become aware of some of the functions of nominalisation in organising texts, for example in facilitating the naming, classifying and describing of phenomena and in building up explanations and arguments. This activity uses a comparing procedure to get students to notice and explore the difference between nominalised text and de-nominalised or ‘unpacked’ text. Then it uses reconstruction to get students to practise nominalisation in context. Finally, it then uses a transforming procedure to have the students practise unpacking nominalisations.


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Further reading For an introduction to nominalisation and its function in texts, see Coffin et al. (2009) pp. 420–9. For a more in-depth discussion, see Halliday (in Martin and Veel (eds.) 1998 pp. 185–235).

Level Upper intermediate to advanced

Preparation 1. For part one (comparing), find, adapt or write a short written text or extract from a written text on a scientific subject, containing a substantial amount of nominalisation, such as one might find in a textbook for senior secondary school students, or in a book on popular science, or in an online encyclopaedia entry (see sample text 1). 2. Prepare a transcript of a spoken explanation of the content of the text, removing much of the nominalisation, such as might be given by a teacher or by a senior student to a junior student (see sample text 2). 3. Prepare a worksheet requiring students to match nominalisations (noun groups) in the written extract with unpacked text (clauses) in the spoken extract, followed by questions to guide them to notice and explore the differences between the nominalised and de-nominalised forms (see sample worksheet 1). 4. For part two (transforming), find, adapt or write a text or extract on a similar topic and in a similar (nominalised) style to text 1 in part one (see sample text 3). 5. Prepare a diagrammatic representation of the content of the text 3 with spaces for the students to fill in nominalisations from the text (see sample diagram). This should be in a form that can be displayed on the board. 6. [Optional] Prepare an ‘unpacked’ version of text 3, removing most of the nominalisation. Blank out much of the content of this text leaving a ‘skeleton’ to guide students’ writing (see sample worksheet 2).


Lesson plan: Global warming (Part 1: Comparing) Noticing 1. Distribute sample texts 1 and 2 and have the students read them. 2. Check their understanding of the main content of the texts. 3. Ask the students whether the texts are written texts or spoken texts and where they are likely to have come from. 4. Distribute worksheet 1 and have the students do the matching exercise. 5. Check their answers. 6. Have the students discuss the questions on worksheet 1. 7. Check students’ answers and give feedback. Exploring 8. Have students discuss the following questions: i. Which of the two texts seems more ‘scientific’? ii. Which of the two texts is easier to understand? iii. Which of the texts is more precise? iv. Which of the texts is more concise? v. Why is so much content packed into noun groups (noun phrases) in text 1 but spread out through clauses in text 2?

Sample texts (for Part one) Text 1: Global warming Global warming refers to the increase in the average surface air temperature of the Earth, which began in the mid 20th century. Although there is some uncertainty about the details, there is general agreement among scientists that most of the warming is due to an increase in greenhouse gases caused by human activities, such as fossil fuel burning and the destruction of forests. Text 2: Global warming So what does ‘global warming’ mean? Well, ‘global’ comes from ‘globe’ – the Earth. So global warming means that the Earth is getting


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warmer, or more accurately the air around the Earth is warming up. In fact, it has been getting warmer since somewhere around the middle of the last century, so in other words for about sixty years now. Now it’s true that scientists are not absolutely certain about all the details, but almost all scientists agree that the Earth has been getting warmer because we humans keep doing things that produce what are called ‘greenhouse gases’, for example when we burn stuff like coal and oil, and when we cut down forests.

Sample worksheet 1 Global warming Match extracts from text 1 with the extracts from text 2 that have more or less the same meanings. Text 1

Text 2

1. the increase in the average surface air temperature of the Earth 2. some uncertainty about the details 3. general agreement among scientists 4. human activities 5. fossil fuel burning 6. the destruction of forests

a) when we cut down forests b) almost all scientists agree c) scientists are not absolutely certain about all the details d) the air around the Earth is warming up e) when we burn stuff like coal and oil f) we humans keep doing things

Now discuss the following questions. 1. What grammatical form are all of extracts in column 1 (from text 1)? 2. What grammatical form are all of the extracts in column 2 (from text 2)? 3. Underline all the head nouns in column 1. 4. Which nouns in column 1 are derived from verbs in column 2? 5. Which head noun in column 1 is related in form to (derived from) an adjective in column 2?


6. Which head nouns in column 1 are related in meaning but not in form to verbs in column 2? 7. How is the information expressed by each of the subjects in the above extracts from text 2 expressed in text 1. [The subjects are almost all scientists; scientists; the air around the Earth; we humans; we.]

Suggested answers to exploration questions and tasks Step 3 Text 1 is written and text 2 is spoken. Text 1 is likely to have come from an online encyclopaedia or from a popular science book. Text 2 is likely to be the speech of a teacher talking to students. Step 5 In the table, 1 should be matched with d, 2 with c, 3 with b, 4 with f, 5 with e, 6 with a. Step 7 (answers to worksheet 1) i. They are all nouns/noun phrases/noun groups/nominal groups. ii. They are all (finite) clauses. iii. increase, uncertainty, agreement, activities, burning, destruction. iv. agreement – agree; burning – burn. v. uncertainty – uncertain. vi. increase [in temperature] – is warming up; destruction – cut down. vii. almost all scientists – general [agreement] among scientists; scientists – not expressed; the air around the Earth – surface air [temperature] of the Earth; we humans – human; we – not expressed. Step 8 i. Text 1 ii. Text 2 iii. Text 1 (e.g. ‘average surface air temperature’ vs. ‘the air’; ‘fossil fuels’ vs. ‘stuff like coal and oil’). iv. Text 1 v. Answers to this will depend on the sophistication of the students. Possible answers: ‘it makes the writing more concise’; ‘the readers


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of scientific texts don’t need long explanations, so you can condense the information more’; ‘putting so much information in the noun groups lets you say more in a shorter space’; ‘Science is about relationships among phenomena. If we can talk about complex phenomena as “things”/if we nominalise complex processes, we can talk about the relationships among them more easily’.

Notes 1. If the students are not familiar with ‘head noun’, change this to ‘main noun’. 2. If students do not understand ‘derived from’ change this to ‘are similar in form to’.

Lesson plan: Global warming 2 (Part 2: Reconstructing and transforming) Noticing/Practising 1. Distribute text 3. 2. Have students read the text and check their understanding. 3. Display the diagram and have students complete the labels in the diagram, referring to text 3. 4. Have students orally reconstruct text 3 by looking only at the diagram. 5. Slowly erase the nominalisations in the diagram, having students recite the whole text at each stage, filling in what is missing from memory. 6. Display the complete diagram again and tell the students that they are now going to explain the content of the diagram in everyday language as if they were talking to a younger student, removing as much of the nominalisations as they can. 7. For weaker students, distribute worksheet 2 and have them do the text completion activity before presenting their explanations. For stronger students, have them present their explanations without the help of worksheet 2.


Sample text 3 (for Part two) Global warming and sea levels Fossil fuel burning has led to an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The absorption by these gases of heat radiated by the Earth results in an increase in the temperature of the atmosphere. This will lead to a rise in sea levels, which will cause more frequent flooding of coastal areas and the likely complete disappearance of some low-lying islands. In the long term, it may even lead to the submergence of cities like London, New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Sample diagram

Sample worksheet 2 Use the following framework to prepare an explanation in everyday language of global warming and the rise in sea levels.


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Explaining about global warming and rise in sea levels When we ___________________________, we produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, so the amount of such gases in the air ___________________. Because _________________________________, _____________________________. As a result, ______________________ and coastal areas __________________. Also, _________________________________. Later, __________________________________________________________.

Suggested answer to task Step 6 This answer is based upon the text completion activity in worksheet 2. When we burn fossils fuels/oil, gas and coal we produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, so the amount of such gases in the air has increased/increases/is increased. Because these gases absorb heat radiated by the Earth, the air around the Earth gets/is getting warmer/ warms up/is warming up OR the temperature of the atmosphere increases/ is increasing. As a result, sea levels will rise and coastal areas will flood more frequently. Also, some low-lying islands will probably/may/are likely to completely disappear. Later, even cities like London, New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong may be submerged/may disappear/may be drowned/may be under water.

Adaptations To practise forming nominalisations rather than ‘unpacking’ them, the sequence of part two could be reversed, that is, the students first given the informal explanation and are then guided to produce a (nominalised) ‘encyclopaedia entry’. Alternatively, a final stage could be added to the lesson by having students rewrite their completed texts from the final activity as an ‘encyclopaedia entry’ and comparing the results with the original text 3.


Appendix

List of general procedures 1. Comparing 1. Have the students read or listen to two similar texts which differ systematically in at least one area of grammar. 2. Have the students notice the grammatical differences between the two texts. 3. Ask the students to explore the differences with reference to differences in the topics, contexts or purposes of the texts. 4. Have students practise producing texts similar to the models they have compared.

2. Sequencing 1. Choose a text or series of texts and change the sequence of some of the paragraphs or sentences within paragraphs or of certain elements within sentences. 2. Have students work out what the original sequence might have been in one text or a portion of one text through noticing a particular grammatical feature or set of grammatical features. 3. Work with the students to explore further the kinds of grammatical features that can be used as clues to help to determine the original sequence and why the original sequence is better. 4. Have the students practise this procedure on their own with the rest of the text or another similar text.

3. Gap filling 1. Find, adapt or write a text containing occurrences of a particular feature you would like your students to work on. 2. Prepare a version of the text with some or all the occurrences of this feature blanked out. They may be single words or longer stretches of text like phrases or clauses. 3. Have the students fill in as many blanks as they can either based on some limited exposure to the original text (listening to it or reading through it once) or based on their own contextual or grammatical knowledge. 133

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Appendix

4. Present the original text to the students (either in spoken or written form) and have them compare the ways they filled in the gaps with the occurrences of the feature in the original text and notice the kinds of forms that are used and where their answers are different from the original. 5. Have students explore the reasons why certain forms are appropriate or inappropriate by trying to either justify what they wrote or explain why it should be changed. 6. Have students practise producing the feature in an appropriate way in similar conversations or texts.

4. Reconstructing 1. Find or create a short text containing the target features. 2. Have the students listen to the text several times and slowly build it up on the board, noticing the target features and exploring how they are used. 3. Have the students orally practise the text. 4. As a way of getting students to notice again the target features, gradually remove parts of the text with the target features being the first parts OR the last parts to be removed. 5. At each stage of removal have one or more students recite the text, filling in from memory what has been erased (pictures or diagrams may be used as prompts) in order to practise using the target features. 6. Finally, remove the entire text and have students recite it entirely from memory.

5. Elaborating 1. Present the students with a simple text. 2. Create a situation in which certain questions are asked about the text in a way that students notice both that additional information would make the text better and that this new information is typically associated with certain grammatical features. 3. Explore with students why certain kinds of additions in the text require certain grammatical features and others require different ones. 4. Have students practise by continuing to elaborate on the same text or elaborating on a similar text.

Appendix

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6. Transforming 1. Find, adapt or write a text that contains features that might be transformed in different contexts. 2. Have the students listen to or read the text and transfer the information in it into notes or some kind of visual representation. 3. Give the students a context for a different kind of text in which the same information would appear but be expressed differently. Guide students to notice how they would have to transform the information in the original text to make it fit into the new context and to explore the reasons why. Alternately, present students with a partial example of a new text appropriate to the new context and guide them to notice how information from the first text has been transformed and to explore the reasons why. 4. Have students practise transforming the information from the original text into a new text making use of the notes or visual representation they made in step 2.


Glossary

action (process) clauses: clauses that represent processes of ‘doing’ and ‘happening’, e.g. he’s sweeping the floor; the window broke. They are also referred to as ‘doing and happening’ clauses. In functional grammar these are called ‘material processes’. active voice: the voice of clauses with verb forms such as eats, was eating and has eaten. In active voice action process clauses, the subject is the ‘doer’ of the action. Compare ‘passive voice’ and ‘middle voice’. adjunct: a word, group of words or phrase added to a clause that expresses circumstantial meanings, such as place, time or manner, interpersonal meanings, such as fortunately and in my opinion, or textual meanings, such as on the other hand and in addition. In traditional grammar, these are sometimes referred to as ‘adverbials’. agent: the noun group that occurs after by in a passive voice clause, for example, it was broken by my brother. In an action clause, the agent is typically the ‘doer’ or ‘causer’ of the action. ‘being’ (process) clauses: clauses that link one person or thing to another person, thing or quality that identifies it, classifies it or describes it. For example, Mary is the woman over there; Mary is a teacher; Mary is very kind. The technical term in functional grammar for such clauses is ‘relational process clauses’. beneficiary: a participant that benefits from the action represented by the verb. Beneficiaries can occur in the indirect object position, e.g. she baked me a cake or later in the clause following the preposition for, for example, she baked a cake for my sister. comment: the part of a clause that normally follows and comments on the topic of the clause. The technical term for this in functional grammar is ‘rheme’. complement: the adjective group or noun group that follows the linking verb in a ‘being’ clause. In functional grammar, objects are also regarded as kinds of complements. compound sentence: a sentence that consists of two or more main or independent clauses. The clauses are typically linked by coordinating conjunctions such as and, or and but. 137

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Glossary

comprehensible input: language that students can understand, although not necessarily every word. The comprehensible input hypothesis (associated with Stephen Krashen) is that learners can learn a language only when they are exposed to comprehensible input. context: features that surround a piece of text. These can include features of accompanying text (‘cotext’), features of the situation in which the text is produced or used (‘situational context’) and features of the wider culture in which the text is produced or used (‘cultural context’). cotext: the linguistic context of a piece of text, that is, the words, phrases, clauses or sentences that come before and after it. direct object: the noun group that normally follows the verb in a transitive clause or follows the indirect object in a ditranstive clause, for example, George wrote a letter; George sent me a letter. In action process clauses, the direct object typically represents the participant directly affected by the action. doing and happening (process) clauses: Another way of referring to ‘action (process) clauses’. definite article: the word ‘the’. ellipsis: leaving out some element of structure that can be recovered or understood from the context, for example, That’s my book. No, it isn’t [your book]. ergative verb: A verb that can be used in middle voice (i.e. an intransitive clause) and in passive voice with the same subject and basically the same meaning, for example, The chicken was cooking / The chicken was being cooked. feeling (process) clauses: clauses that express how a person feels about something, for example, I hate grammar; her manner really irritates me. In functional grammar, these are called ‘emotive’ processes. finite (verb): the part of a verb group that is marked for primary tense (present v. past), for example, they are going / they were going, for agreement (with the subject), for example, they are going / I am going, and sometimes for modality, for example, you should be going. It is also the part of the verb group that interacts with the subject to express mood, for example, Did you / I did. Some times the finite is fused with the lexical verb, for example, He went. finite verb group: a verb group that contains a finite. given (information): information that is presented as ‘to be taken for granted’. The topic of a clause typically, but not always, consists of given information. Compare ‘new information’.

Glossary

139

grammarian: a harmless drudge. head noun: the part of a noun group that is obligatory and that represents the ‘thing’ being referred to. For example, in the large table in the corner, ‘table’ is the head noun. indirect object: the noun group that goes between the verb and the direct object in a ditranstive clause, for example, Let’s give her a compass. In action process clauses, the indirect object typically expresses the recipient or the beneficiary of the action. infinitive: the to + VERB form of a verb, for example, to go. The non-finite VERB (base) form, for example, [I saw him] go is also sometimes referred to as the ‘bare infinitive’. information focus: new information that is made prominent by receiving the main stress or pitch movement. Often this will be information near the end of a clause in the comment. intransitive: an intransitive clause is a clause without an object. Verbs can also be classified as intransitive if they normally do not take objects. Compare ‘transitive’. lexical verb: the part of a verb group that expresses the meaning of a process. It is always the last element of the verb group, for example, He has been seen. middle voice: the voice of clauses such as the glass broke, in which the single participant (the glass) is neither the ‘doer’ of the action nor the person or thing to which the action is done, but simply a participant that undergoes the action. Compare ‘active voice’ and ‘passive voice’. modal verb: the part of a verb group that expresses modality, for example, That may be her now; You may leave now; She can play the violin. Also known as ‘modal auxiliary’. modality: the expression of meanings such as probability, obligation and ability. mood: the grammatical system that expresses the status of a clause in interaction, for example, She left (declarative mood, typically functions as a statement), Did she leave? (interrogative mood, typically functions as a question) and Leave! (imperative mood, typically functions as a command). new (information): information that is presented as new or ‘newsworthy’. New information usually occurs in the comment of a clause. nominalisation: the expression in noun groups of meanings that in everyday language tend to be expressed in clauses, for example, His entry into the race (instead of he entered the race).

140

Glossary

non-finite verb: a verb form that does not carry information about primary tense (present vs. past) and does not agree with subject. The verb forms to + VERB (infinitive) and Verb + ing (gerund or participle) are always non-finite. The other verb forms may be finite or non-finite. noun group: a noun together with words that pre-modify it or post-modify (qualify) it, for example, the beautiful grey cat that we saw at the beach. object: see ‘direct object’ and ‘indirect object’. When the word ‘object’ alone is used it usually refers to the direct object. obligation: the expression of how desirable or necessary the speaker or writer feels it is that something should happen or be the case. passive voice: the voice of clauses with verb groups having a form of BE followed by the VERB-ed/en form (sometimes called the ‘past participle’), such as is eaten, was eaten and will be eaten. In passive voice action process clauses, the subject is typically the person or thing directly affected by the action (the ‘goal’). The ‘doer’ of the action (agent) may be expressed as a noun group following the preposition by (The lizard was attacked by the cats) or may be implied but not expressed (‘agent-less passives’). past perfect tense: the tense form consisting of the past of HAVE and the VERB-ed/en form (past participle) such as had gone, had kicked. phase: the use of two verbs together, the second of which is always non-finite and represents the process, and the first of which gives additional information about the process, such as its beginning, continuing or stopping, for example, The girl started crying; He stopped talking. polarity: negativity or positivity in the verb group, for example, it isn’t (negative); it is (positive). present continuous tense: the tense form consisting of a present tense form of BE followed by the VERB-ing form (‘present participle’), for example, I am going. present progressive tense: another term for present continuous tense. process: the general term for the kinds of meanings typically expressed by verbs, for example, doing, happening, feeling, perceiving, wanting, thinking, being and having. probability: the expression of how likely a speaker or writer thinks it is that something will come about. quote: the representation of the exact words someone has spoken. Often called ‘direct speech’.

Glossary

141

recipient: a participant that receives something. Recipients can occur in the indirect object position, for example, She gave George a book, or later in the clause after the preposition to, for example, she gave a book to George. reference: referring to people and things in the cotext or wider context using items such as the definite article (the), demonstratives (this, that, these, those) and pronouns. report: the reporting of the meaning of what someone has said. Often called ‘indirect speech’. rheme: another term for ‘comment’. routinisation: being able to readily use linguistic features without having to pause and think about them. scaffolding: giving support to learners to help them learn something new. sensing (process) clauses: clauses that represent processes of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling. In functional grammar, these are called ‘perception’ or ‘perceptive’ processes. simple present tense: the tense forms VERB (base) or VERB + s, for example, They go; he goes. Note that the verb BE has the present tense forms am, are and is. simple past tense: the tense form represented by VERB + ed. However, many verbs have irregular past tense forms, for example, went, did, saw. situational context: see context. subject: the ‘pivot’ of the proposition or argument of a clause. It is the clause element that interacts with the finite verb to express mood, for example, Did they; They did. In active voice action process clauses, the subject typically represents the ‘doer’ of the action. tenor: the relationship between writers and readers, or speakers and hearers as expressed or construed in the language they use. text: ‘text’ can refer to any stretch of spoken or written language. ‘A text’, however, is a stretch of text that ‘hangs together’ as a coherent unit. textual meaning: meaning related to the ways language is organised to be coherent in respect to its context. theme: the ‘jumping off point’, or ‘frame’ for the message of a clause. In functional grammar, the theme is analysed as extending from the beginning of a clause up to and including its first experiential constituent, that is, the first representation of a participant, process or circumstance, for example, However, luckily, the house was empty.

142

Glossary

topic: a term often used with the same meaning as ‘theme’ (see above). However, strictly speaking a topic is only the first experiential element of a clause (i.e. the first participant, process or circumstance) and does not include conjunctions like however or comments like luckily that may precede it. transitive: a transitive clause is a clause that contains at least one object. Verbs can also be classified as transitive if they normally take an object. Compare ‘intransitive’. wanting (process) clauses: clauses that represent processes like wanting, wishing desiring and hoping. In functional grammar, these are called ‘desiderative’ processes.

References

Batstone, R. (1994) Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Batstone, R. (1996) ‘Key concepts in ELT: Noticing’, ELT Journal 50 (3): 273. Berry, R. (1993) Collins COBUILD English Guides 3: Articles. London: Harper Collins. Bolitho, R., Carter, R., Hughes, R., Ivanic, R., Masuhara, H. and Tomlinson, B. (2003) ‘Ten Questions about Language Awareness’, ELT Journal 57 (3): 251–9. Carter, R., Godard, A., Keah, D., Sanger, K. and Bowring, M. (1997) Working with Texts: Core Book for Language Analysis. London: Routledge. Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. (2006) Cambridge Grammar of English: A Comprehensive Guide to Spoken and Written Grammar and Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Christie, F. (2005) Language Education in the Primary Years. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Close, R. A. (1992) A Teacher’s Grammar: The Central Problems of English. Hove, UK: Language Teaching Publications. Coffin, C., Donohue, J. and North, S. (2009) Exploring English Grammar: From Formal to Functional. London: Routledge. Eggins, S. (2004) An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (2nd edn). New York: Continuum. Eggins, S. and Slade, D. (1997) Analyzing Casual Conversation. London: Cassell. Fairclough, N. (ed.) (1992) Critical Language Awareness. London: Longman. Feez, S. (1998) Text-Based Syllabus Design. North Ryde: Macquarie University, NCELTR. Fotos, S. (1994) ‘Integrating Grammar Instruction and Communicative Language Use through Grammar-Consciousness Raising Tasks’, TESOL Quarterly 28: 323–51. Frank, C. and Rinvolucri, M. (1987) Grammar in Action Again: Awareness Activities for Language Learning. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall. Gibbons, P. (2002) Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Gibbons, P. (2006) Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom: Students, Teachers and Researchers. New York: Continuum. Halliday, M. A. K. and Hasan, R. (1976) Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Halliday, M. A. K. and Hasan, R. (1990) Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 143

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References

Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd edn). London: Arnold. Johns, A. M. (ed.) (2002) Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003) Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. Boston: Thomson Heinle. Lock, G. (1996) Functional English Grammar: An Introduction for Second Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Martin, J. R. (1992) English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Martin, J. and Veel, R. (eds.) (1998) Reading Science: Critical and Functional Perspectives on Discourses of Science. London: Routledge. Paltridge, B. (2001) Genre and the Language Learning Classroom. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Parrott, M. (2000) Grammar for English Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pennington, M. C. (ed.) (1995) New Ways in Teaching Grammar. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications. Rinvolucri, M. (1984) Grammar Games: Cognitive, Affective and Drama Activities for EFL Students. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schmidt, R. (1990) ‘The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning’, Applied Linguistics 11(2): 129–58. Sinclair, J. et al. (eds.) (1990) The Collins COBUILD English Grammar. London: Collins. Thompson, G. (1994) Collins COBUILD English Guides 5: Reporting. London: Harper Collins. Thompson, G. (1996) Introducing Functional Grammar. London: Arnold. Thornbury, S. (1999) How to Teach Grammar. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education. Thornbury, S. (2001) Uncovering Grammar. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann. Thornbury, S. and D. Slade (2006) Conversation: From Description to Pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ur, P. (1988) Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Index

adjuncts, 39, 41, 42 placement of, 37–38 agency, 12 articles, 5, 29, 52 beneficiary, 100–101, 107 clauses ditransitive, 100 intransitive, 12 coherence, 31 combining procedures, 109–131 comment (see rheme) comparing, 8, 11–27, 133 compound sentences, 53, 56 comprehensible input, 4 context, 1–2 cotext, 2, 3 curriculum development, 8 elaborating, 8, 73–89, 109, 134 ellipsis, 45–46, 49, 53 ergative verbs, 12–13, 14, 17n12 exploring exploration questions, 4 gap filling, 43–58, 109, 133–134 gerunds (see verbs, non-finite), 65 grammar teaching, 9, 64 traditional approaches, 8 infinitives (see verbs, non-finite) bare, 84 information background, 74–75 focus, 38 given and new, 8, 100 organization of (see thematic organisation) prominence, 30 intonation, 3 involvement, 18 meaning textual, 3

modality obligation, 17–18 probability, 17–18 narrative, 74–75, 76 nominalisation, 123–124, 125 noticing, 4, 6 noun groups, 3, 123, 129 objects direct, 100 indirect, 100, 102 obligation strength of, 18 phase (see verbs, phase) polarity (see verbs, polarity) possessives, 54 practicing, 6–7 prepositional phrases, 18, 31, 37 prepositions, 18, 31, 42 probability, 17–18, 27, 45, 123 process types being (relational), 51 doing and happening (action/ material), 61 feeling (emotive), 61 sensing (perceptive), 61, 84, 85 wanting (desiderative), 65, 66 pronouns, 5, 26, 50, 52–53 quoting, 110, 111, 119, 122n1 recipient, 100, 101 reconstructing, 59–71, 109, 124 reference back-pointing, 52, 53 with definite article (the), 52 with pronouns, 52 reporting, 110, 111, 122n1 rheme, 31, 36n1 routinisation, 46 rules problems with, 5, 110 145

146

Index

scaffolding, 4, 10 sequencing, 29–42 situational context (see context) stress (see intonation) subjects, 45 Systemic Functional Linguistics, 7 tenor, 11 tense and process type, 8, 61, 75 past continuous (progressive), 74, 75 past perfect, 74, 75 present continuous (progressive), 60–61 simple past, 75, 82 simple present, 60, 61 text flow, 3, 31 texts adapting, 9, 17, 32, 37, 58, 89, 99 authentic, 9 finding and preparing, 9

textual meaning, 3 thematic organisation, 30–31 theme, 36n1 topic (see theme) transforming, 91–107, 109, 135 verbs (see also process types) ergative (see ergative verbs) finite, 45 intransitive (see clauses, intransitive) lexical, 45 modal (see modality) non-finite, 64, 65 number, 12, 50 person, 45 phase, 65, 66 polarity, 45, 50 tense, 50 (see also tense) vocabulary, 9, 111 voice active, 17, 91, 92–93 middle, 12 passive, 5, 12, 17, 26, 92–93

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