Teaching Sentence Structure ? Any Suggestions?

[BruceMangosteen]

I'm going to search the internet, but does anyone have a clue how to teach structure?

Specific levels are M.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Basically what I call high school.

The teacher(s) are foreigners and don't have a basic grasp of Thai, English, or textbooks on English.

The "problem" comes up with questions like "unscramble" a group of words.

how / do / leave / day / many / times / home / you / every ?

The students grasp each word but they remain unable to put them in correct order.

There has to be more to it than memory.

What is the "grammar" or key words to search for explanations ? Cheers mates.

[Scott]

Hopefully, some of our experts will be along, but I think they have to be taught by repetition first and then tested by unscrambling the sentences. I don't know that there is a formula, although the specific pattern of noun + verb + object might be a starting place.

[BruceMangosteen]

Hopefully, some of our experts will be along, but I think they have to be taught by repetition first and then tested by unscrambling the sentences. I don't know that there is a formula, although the specific pattern of noun + verb + object might be a starting place.

Thanks. That doesn't hold when questions come in to the mix.

Example: How often do you go home ?

I'm also confused as to this "verb 1" and "verb 2" lingo so popular with Thai English instructors. It's a shame me, a teacher wanting to do what's best, is being showered with the questions from students while the admin and department are more concerned with teaching discipline and obedience and respect.

[bundoi]

To teach English one needs to understand English grammar, and there is only one way of understanding English grammar and that is by studying it (and reinforcing that study with use, or vice versa). This is only one of the reasons why so many NES teachers face difficulties here.

There is no simple formula for different types of sentence structure in English.

Many languages simply invert the affirmative svo to derive the interrogative.

In English we rarely do, we usually invert an auxiliary, as per your example in post 3..

[BruceMangosteen]

To teach English one needs to understand English grammar, and there is only one way of understanding English grammar and that is by studying it (and reinforcing that study with use, or vice versa). This is only one of the reasons why so many NES teachers face difficulties here.

There is no simple formula for different types of sentence structure in English.

Many languages simply invert the affirmative svo to derive the interrogative.

In English we rarely do, we usually invert an auxiliary, as per your example in post 3..

So how do you answer a students question "why is this wrong?" or of course, "why do you put that word first" etc.? You won't find grammar experts for the most part with the foreigners being hired in Thai schools. The difficult part is formulating an answer beyond "it just takes time" to said questions from students wanting to learn from you.

[Loaded]

To teach English one needs to understand English grammar, and there is only one way of understanding English grammar and that is by studying it (and reinforcing that study with use, or vice versa). This is only one of the reasons why so many NES teachers face difficulties here.

There is no simple formula for different types of sentence structure in English.

Many languages simply invert the affirmative svo to derive the interrogative.

In English we rarely do, we usually invert an auxiliary, as per your example in post 3..

So how do you answer a students question "why is this wrong?" or of course, "why do you put that word first" etc.? You won't find grammar experts for the most part with the foreigners being hired in Thai schools. The difficult part is formulating an answer beyond "it just takes time" to said questions from students wanting to learn from you.

My opinion is that you cannot teach language without presenting structure within a context students can relate to and that engages them. This means the teacher must be aware of grammar.

"how / do / leave / day / many / times / home / you / every ?"

You will only be able to help your students if you can identify and present the verb tense and context.

It's a Present Simple question. The context is Routines.

Grammar cannot be explained to a teacher in a couple of sentences. It needs to be learned before they start teaching.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Loaded

[bundoi]

To teach English one needs to understand English grammar, and there is only one way of understanding English grammar and that is by studying it (and reinforcing that study with use, or vice versa). This is only one of the reasons why so many NES teachers face difficulties here.

There is no simple formula for different types of sentence structure in English.

Many languages simply invert the affirmative svo to derive the interrogative.

In English we rarely do, we usually invert an auxiliary, as per your example in post 3..

So how do you answer a students question "why is this wrong?" or of course, "why do you put that word first" etc.? You won't find grammar experts for the most part with the foreigners being hired in Thai schools. The difficult part is formulating an answer beyond "it just takes time" to said questions from students wanting to learn from you.

Bruce, I agree with what you said 100%, NES English "teachers" here for the most part do not understand grammar well enough to be able to explain it, and quite a few have difficulty using it. Yet they want to be paid higher than Asian teachers! Surely a school has a right to expect an NES teacher to have enough understanding of their 1st language to explain it to someone who is learning it as a 2nd or 3rd language?

By the way I'm not having a go at you personally, you seem like a decent guy that's just hit a difficult situation (or 2 judging from your other thread). And I'm not having a go at the truly excellent teachers here either. For what it's worth I really do think that to do well in a government school requires a very broad range of personal and interpersonal skills, and anyone who can succeed in that environment can succeed anywhere - an international school is a walk in the park by comparison. But I really do believe that a teacher of any subject has to understand it well enough to be able to teach it, not just use it.

Edited January 8, 2014 by bundoi

[SlyAnimal]

I think students learn one step at a time, and unscrambling that sentence wouldn't be the first step.

Getting a sound grasp on the language takes time and practice.

Unscrambling a sentence like that should be accompanied by lessons in which students learn/practice sentences of a similar nature.

I assume that the teachers are asking you to help them because the question is part of the students ONET preparation? Or in their text book? Both of which are often set at a level far beyond the level of most government school students (and often teachers as well).

As for the verb1 verb2 etc, here are 2x examples:

Verb1 - go - do

Verb2 - went - did

Verb3 - gone - done

They call them that as opposed to the past/present/future simple etc (I think, I'm not good with the English grammar jargon)

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[pastafarian]

Sometimes it is better to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) here and it often has the best results too. NES teachers are often asked to teach conversational English only and leave the grammar to Thai teachers who are usually excellent at grammar but speak very poorly. With fluency comes accuracy and therefore the more practice/exposure they have with a NES the more it will benefit them.

I have taught conversational English for many years and when my students move on to high school I have always received very positive feedback from their new teachers as their speaking confidence and ability is always the highest of all new students. Conversation should be just that, not sat listening to someone over complicate things by explaining how/why each word is where it is. Get them speaking as much as possible by way of role plays or learning songs and it will sokn come.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[BruceMangosteen]

I think students learn one step at a time, and unscrambling that sentence wouldn't be the first step. Getting a sound grasp on the language takes time and practice. Unscrambling a sentence like that should be accompanied by lessons in which students learn/practice sentences of a similar nature. I assume that the teachers are asking you to help them because the question is part of the students ONET preparation? Or in their text book? Both of which are often set at a level far beyond the level of most government school students (and often teachers as well). As for the verb1 verb2 etc, here are 2x examples: Verb1 - go - do Verb2 - went - did Verb3 - gone - done They call them that as opposed to the past/present/future simple etc (I think, I'm not good with the English grammar jargon) Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Hello. Thank you for your reply. To answer your follow up questions and ideas, in order....(will try)

Unscrambling sentences seems to be a common exercise in all textbooks(m.1 to M.6). Sure, they may have been in the unit preceding same, but there they are in workbooks and end of unit reviews. The students are asking me because I've developed a rapore with them and when they don't understand something, from myself or other English teachers, they ask me. I can usually help but got stumped here which leads me to investigate and call it "learn" if you must. The books come from England but have some Thai script in the front/covers which means I guess approved by the M.of Ed.. Present to Past to Past Particle are also in books. I didn't know those were defined as Verb 1,2, and 3. I myself get confused more on the helping vs. main verb aspects. I hear phrases like "you go home?" more than most and always stop to correct to "are you going home?" which it seems is appreciated more than laughed at.

[BruceMangosteen]

Bruce, I agree with what you said 100%, NES English "teachers" here for the most part do not understand grammar well enough to be able to explain it, and quite a few have difficulty using it. Yet they want to be paid higher than Asian teachers! Surely a school has a right to expect an NES teacher to have enough understanding of their 1st language to explain it to someone who is learning it as a 2nd or 3rd language?

Not sure I agree completely. The NES for the most part, if we assume a "Western" country like the U.S.A. or England or Australia, is only asking to be paid (in Government schools) what is called the minimum wage(in the U.S.A. $7.50 an hour) or less as that's apx 37,000baht per month....The bigger question is why compare the western wage with those here in Thailand? If you are going to compare the training you must allow the comparison as well? Second point/question, I've seem some of the payroll reciepts of the Thai teachers, you'd be amazed how many make more than this sum. It's also proven true by observations of the types of cars they drive.You must know what a new Cambry or Honda SUV costs? Yes, I know new teachers right out of the University don't get these sums, nor support staff personal, but those who have been around, especially when benefits counted, are in fact earning more than NES's. at Government schools. Private another matter. But again, your point is valid except for the old addage, "pay peanuts, get monkeys". We can discuss this here in brief or start another conversation.

[bikerlou47]

Check out "The Blue Book of Grammer"

Sent from my iPod touch using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Slip]

This 'unscramble the sentence' type exercise causes real problems to students, along with 'find and correct the error' ones. I think that it's a weak technique for teaching or testing. It's entirely unauthentic- how often do we as native speakers have to do this? Realistically, I think it requires nearly absolute mastery of the language which few students have of course. For a native speaker it's an easy thing to do as we can juggle all those words in the air, whilst our complete and automatic understanding allows us to slot them into place. None but the very best students will find this easy.

Anyway as long as the OP has been dumped with this, I'm just trying to think of how to approach it. These ideas are off the top of my head, and I'm no expert, so please don't feel it necessary to flame me everyone.

To the OP:

The example you gave is actually a pretty complex sentence.

how / do / leave / day / many / times / home / you / every ?

• Do you leave home?

• How many (times)?

• every day?

In no particular order-

So first you have the structure of auxiliaries to worry about. The basic use of auxiliaries such as 'do' and 'are' (and the others) are entirely foreign to Thai students afaik. Anyway to scaffold I would be inclined to start teaching using 'to be' as it inverts. 'He is tall'/ 'Is he tall'? 'Be' goes with feelings and states and nouns, unlike the Thai verb 'bpen' which only goes with nouns I think. ('He is tired'/ 'He is tall'- basically adjectives). 'Do' goes with verbs, and once the students have had some practice with 'to be', they should at least have a model structure to use for do/does- 'Do you eat Som-tam?' (FWIW I would teach the short answers whilst I was at it).

Next teach the relevant language of frequency- 'I come to school/eat som-tam/ go on holiday every day/week/year'. (Not adverbs on this occasion). I would follow this with questions- Do you eat som-tam every year/day/ minute'? (I would say that 'every day' in the statements is an adverbial phrase, but 1. I don't want to overcomplicate the issue and 2. No doubt someone will come along in a minute or two and explain I\m talking rubbish) .

Your students will need to understand the open ended question 'how many'? - That shouldn't be too hard in itself, and you should be able to get there through drilling. You can reinforce your 'do/be' structures here too. E.g. 'How many dogs are black?'/ How many dogs do you see?' The added problem of 'How many/much' might also need to be considered here which does make it a bit more complicated.

General tips:

• Try to use concept checking questions. Once you have presented the language structure, ask them questions as I suggested earlier- once they can answer the questions then they at least understand what you are going on about.

• Once they are happy answering questions, ask them to try and formulate them, and give them time by allowing them to think and write them down. Go round the class asking them to ask another student their question, or get them to work in pairs to ask/ answer.

• Give them reading and listening tasks where they need to identify the structures they are learning.

• Give them examples and ask them to identify one wrong structure in many correct ones (or vice-versa)

.

• Give them reading/ listening tasks where they have to answer the questions given.

• If you students are shy use modelling and choralling with short answers. You: Do Thais eat som-tam?' Class: 'Yes, they do'. When they are confident with the answers they will have better skills to deal with the questions. Get the more talented students to ask a question afterwards, then choral the question/ response.

OK, I'm done for now. Sorry if I'm drivelling on, but I just sat down and started to answer your queries- I didn't plan the response. lol.

Good luck with your classes.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Slip

[smileplur]

This 'unscramble the sentence' type exercise causes real problems to students, along with 'find and correct the error' ones. I think that it's a weak technique for teaching or testing. It's entirely unauthentic- how often do we as native speakers have to do this? Realistically, I think it requires nearly absolute mastery of the language which few students have of course. For a native speaker it's an easy thing to do as we can juggle all those words in the air, whilst our complete and automatic understanding allows us to slot them into place. None but the very best students will find this easy.

Anyway as long as the OP has been dumped with this, I'm just trying to think of how to approach it. These ideas are off the top of my head, and I'm no expert, so please don't feel it necessary to flame me everyone.

To the OP:

The example you gave is actually a pretty complex sentence.

how / do / leave / day / many / times / home / you / every ?

• Do you leave home?

• How many (times)?

• every day?

In no particular order-

So first you have the structure of auxiliaries to worry about. The basic use of auxiliaries such as 'do' and 'are' (and the others) are entirely foreign to Thai students afaik. Anyway to scaffold I would be inclined to start teaching using 'to be' as it inverts. 'He is tall'/ 'Is he tall'? 'Be' goes with feelings and states and nouns, unlike the Thai verb 'bpen' which only goes with nouns I think. ('He is tired'/ 'He is tall'- basically adjectives). 'Do' goes with verbs, and once the students have had some practice with 'to be', they should at least have a model structure to use for do/does- 'Do you eat Som-tam?' (FWIW I would teach the short answers whilst I was at it).

Next teach the relevant language of frequency- 'I come to school/eat som-tam/ go on holiday every day/week/year'. (Not adverbs on this occasion). I would follow this with questions- Do you eat som-tam every year/day/ minute'? (I would say that 'every day' in the statements is an adverbial phrase, but 1. I don't want to overcomplicate the issue and 2. No doubt someone will come along in a minute or two and explain I\m talking rubbish) .

Your students will need to understand the open ended question 'how many'? - That shouldn't be too hard in itself, and you should be able to get there through drilling. You can reinforce your 'do/be' structures here too. E.g. 'How many dogs are black?'/ How many dogs do you see?' The added problem of 'How many/much' might also need to be considered here which does make it a bit more complicated.

General tips:

• Try to use concept checking questions. Once you have presented the language structure, ask them questions as I suggested earlier- once they can answer the questions then they at least understand what you are going on about.

• Once they are happy answering questions, ask them to try and formulate them, and give them time by allowing them to think and write them down. Go round the class asking them to ask another student their question, or get them to work in pairs to ask/ answer.

• Give them reading and listening tasks where they need to identify the structures they are learning.

• Give them examples and ask them to identify one wrong structure in many correct ones (or vice-versa)

.

• Give them reading/ listening tasks where they have to answer the questions given.

• If you students are shy use modelling and choralling with short answers. You: Do Thais eat som-tam?' Class: 'Yes, they do'. When they are confident with the answers they will have better skills to deal with the questions. Get the more talented students to ask a question afterwards, then choral the question/ response.

OK, I'm done for now. Sorry if I'm drivelling on, but I just sat down and started to answer your queries- I didn't plan the response. lol.

Good luck with your classes.

That was a nice reply! I don't think I have anything further to add!

However, I am confused about one thing. Why can't you grasp the concept of "verb 1" and "verb 2"? Does it really throw you for a loop when they talk about "verb 3"? It's just a simplified way of talking about something that we never really had to learn as explicitly as these students. There is no point throwing around terms like "past participle" in most Thai classrooms. Even at the university level, I still use V1 and V2 to differentiate their usage.

The example given is somewhat complex, but it shouldn't throw an M3 student off if they have been taught. The foundation needs to be laid before you can even think about things like this. Do they know what "how often" means? That's where you earn your paycheck. Your job is to teach this stuff. You need to know it like the back of your hand. If you don't, the classroom can eat you alive. That's my experience with university students anyway.

[DogNo1]

I think that the descriptive jargon mentioned is confusing. At an AILA convention at U Wisconsin about 8 years ago, some Aussie researchers presented convincing evidence that grammar is best taught through teaching rules rather than by correcting the students' mistakes verbally. In other words, it is more effective to teach students to self-correct. A good primer on transformational grammar sets out the rules that Chomsky discovered. A good basic explanation of the core sentence structures and their transformational sequences is provided in Steve Ross' "A Grammar of Predicates". The most basic part of any sentence is its predication. If you need the names of the Aussies who presented the study about the effectiveness of teaching grammar rules, I can look them up. I'm getting old and forgetful so I don't remember them at the moment.

[Loaded]

This 'unscramble the sentence' type exercise causes real problems to students, along with 'find and correct the error' ones. I think that it's a weak technique for teaching or testing. It's entirely unauthentic- how often do we as native speakers have to do this? Realistically, I think it requires nearly absolute mastery of the language which few students have of course. For a native speaker it's an easy thing to do as we can juggle all those words in the air, whilst our complete and automatic understanding allows us to slot them into place. None but the very best students will find this easy.

Anyway as long as the OP has been dumped with this, I'm just trying to think of how to approach it. These ideas are off the top of my head, and I'm no expert, so please don't feel it necessary to flame me everyone.

To the OP:

The example you gave is actually a pretty complex sentence.

how / do / leave / day / many / times / home / you / every ?

• Do you leave home?

• How many (times)?

• every day?

In no particular order-

So first you have the structure of auxiliaries to worry about. The basic use of auxiliaries such as 'do' and 'are' (and the others) are entirely foreign to Thai students afaik. Anyway to scaffold I would be inclined to start teaching using 'to be' as it inverts. 'He is tall'/ 'Is he tall'? 'Be' goes with feelings and states and nouns, unlike the Thai verb 'bpen' which only goes with nouns I think. ('He is tired'/ 'He is tall'- basically adjectives). 'Do' goes with verbs, and once the students have had some practice with 'to be', they should at least have a model structure to use for do/does- 'Do you eat Som-tam?' (FWIW I would teach the short answers whilst I was at it).

Next teach the relevant language of frequency- 'I come to school/eat som-tam/ go on holiday every day/week/year'. (Not adverbs on this occasion). I would follow this with questions- Do you eat som-tam every year/day/ minute'? (I would say that 'every day' in the statements is an adverbial phrase, but 1. I don't want to overcomplicate the issue and 2. No doubt someone will come along in a minute or two and explain I\m talking rubbish) .

Your students will need to understand the open ended question 'how many'? - That shouldn't be too hard in itself, and you should be able to get there through drilling. You can reinforce your 'do/be' structures here too. E.g. 'How many dogs are black?'/ How many dogs do you see?' The added problem of 'How many/much' might also need to be considered here which does make it a bit more complicated.

General tips:

• Try to use concept checking questions. Once you have presented the language structure, ask them questions as I suggested earlier- once they can answer the questions then they at least understand what you are going on about.

• Once they are happy answering questions, ask them to try and formulate them, and give them time by allowing them to think and write them down. Go round the class asking them to ask another student their question, or get them to work in pairs to ask/ answer.

• Give them reading and listening tasks where they need to identify the structures they are learning.

• Give them examples and ask them to identify one wrong structure in many correct ones (or vice-versa)

.

• Give them reading/ listening tasks where they have to answer the questions given.

• If you students are shy use modelling and choralling with short answers. You: Do Thais eat som-tam?' Class: 'Yes, they do'. When they are confident with the answers they will have better skills to deal with the questions. Get the more talented students to ask a question afterwards, then choral the question/ response.

OK, I'm done for now. Sorry if I'm drivelling on, but I just sat down and started to answer your queries- I didn't plan the response. lol.

Good luck with your classes.

That was a nice reply! I don't think I have anything further to add!

However, I am confused about one thing. Why can't you grasp the concept of "verb 1" and "verb 2"? Does it really throw you for a loop when they talk about "verb 3"? It's just a simplified way of talking about something that we never really had to learn as explicitly as these students. There is no point throwing around terms like "past participle" in most Thai classrooms. Even at the university level, I still use V1 and V2 to differentiate their usage.

The example given is somewhat complex, but it shouldn't throw an M3 student off if they have been taught. The foundation needs to be laid before you can even think about things like this. Do they know what "how often" means? That's where you earn your paycheck. Your job is to teach this stuff. You need to know it like the back of your hand. If you don't, the classroom can eat you alive. That's my experience with university students anyway.

Because this terminology is only used in Thailand. Resource books, papers and most foreign teachers will use infinitive, present simple verb, past simple verb, present participle, past participle etc.

V1 and V2 were German weapons of mass destruction thrown at London during the later stages of WWII.

[Scott]

Off-topic posts and replies deleted. The topic is about Teaching Sentence Structure.

[vietdoc]

As a reference guide try Painless Grammar by Rebecca Elliott, Ph.D. and The Enchanted Learning Website.

Feel free to E-mail me if additional information is needed

[smileplur]

Because this terminology is only used in Thailand. Resource books, papers and most foreign teachers will use infinitive, present simple verb, past simple verb, present participle, past participle etc.

V1 and V2 were German weapons of mass destruction thrown at London during the later stages of WWII.

It seems odd that you say that. I clearly remember using this terminology when I was teaching in South Korea. Keeping things easier for students is always a good idea. You can resist it and use the terminology you are most comfortable with; however, you will find that you can teach much more effectively if you simply follow the 'jargon' they have used to memorize these streams of verbs for most of their education. Complicating things will only make your job more difficult. It isn't exactly difficult terminology to understand, is it?

[bundoi]

Re v1 v2 v3 we tend to use the traditional names as our M students have already learnt those traditional names in their lessons about tenses.

Re teaching grammar, as others have said, it has to be built up in blocks, and over a long period of time, as 1-5 classroom hours a week is not a lot. In class I often try to make a comparison with the equivalent grammatical construct in Thai where it exists (it doesn't always of course), which the students appreciate and which I think helps them to remember the point.

I recently bought the Cambridge Grammar of English pub 2006 because I wanted clarification on some points of grammar which have changed quite a bit over the years since I first learnt them at school; it also takes more account of spoken grammar than other books ... it's expensive but then I love English grammar!!

Edited January 12, 2014 by bundoi

[zeichen]

There is only one English Grammar book worth getting Michael Swans "Practical English Usage" Any other might be good for paper weights but this really helps native speakers refresh their knowledge and gives them a point of reference to explain to EFL learners.

I think a lot of time is wasted on identifying the parts of speech and grammar structures rather than focusing on the function of grammar. One reason is that it is easier to assess and create simple exercises, but it really doesn't help get to the next level. Students that learn the function of grammar tend to be able to utilize things correctly. There was an interesting debate between two university English professors in Canada on youtube.

I taught in Korea for 4 years at different schools and I never saw the V1,2,3 used there. It wasn't in any of the homegrown langauge books either. Out of all the countries I have taught Thailand is the only one that uses that. Again, I don't think that it really matters as I don't actually use the jargon as a method of teaching. I do agree with those that say that they use it as a point of reference but ultimately it doesn't help them. Every Thai student I ever had could conjugate every verb from v1-v3 but not a single one knew how, when or why to use them. Their grammar is attrocious which is shocking since they study it extensively for 12 years. But since memorizing rules and terms doesn't actually help you use the language it doesn't surprise me.

It is hard though to take students that have been brainwashed into memorizing grammar structures to actually learn how to use words correctly in context.

I have a very long collection of things students have written that make me life. I will probably compile a book. One favorit is "my home a refrigerator in the fruit." I assume that the student meant to say that there is some fruit in his refrigerator at his house, but perhaps he read James and the Giant Peach and was being creative.

All I can say is I am glad that Bundoi is not teaching my children a foreign language. Reminds me of that old linguist who studied every irregular verb in German for months and then went out to communicate and couldn't even make a sentence.

Grammar isn't always learned in progressive steps and what might be considered a difficult grammar structure might come easier than simple things. Articles and even some prepositions tend to be quite hard even though there are certain rules their use is more cultural than grammatical.

Explaining grammar using Thai when Thai doesn't even have certain forms is silly also. Learning things in context tends to allow for longer retention. Children often lear/utilize the continuous tense before they fully comprehend present simple.

So if you are teaching conjugation of verbs in some linear manner it really doesn't help for long term learning.

Thai teachers and Bundoi seem to be teaching about English rather than teaching English. Knowing that the Thai language is a part of the sino tibetan, blah blah blah or how many consonants and vowels it has doesn't actually help you read or speak the language.

[bundoi]

Z, I agree that Swan's "Practical English Usage" is an excellent reference, I have the 1996 edition in front of me now. However, as it says on the back cover, it's a "dictionary of problem points", it's not, and doesn't try to be, a comprehensive and definitive grammar.

Your personal attack is bizarre, but have a nice day anyway.

[zeichen]

Not personal, because it isn't about you but rather about your preference to a certain antiquated methodology to teaching which has been proven over and over as inefective. Perhaps read Nina Spada's How Languages are Learned and look at the countless case studies that she details.

[bundoi]

Not personal, because it isn't about you but rather about your preference to a certain antiquated methodology to teaching which has been proven over and over as inefective. Perhaps read Nina Spada's How Languages are Learned and look at the countless case studies that she details.

Z, we are in danger of going seriously off topic again.

I don't have a specific methodology as such: different classes have different objectives and needs. I am very fortunate in having spent time in classes this week with students ranging from 2 to 95 years of age - clearly different approaches are required.

I rate myself solely on the basis of my students' satisfaction and their success in achieving their objectives, not on academic treatises or opinions on TV.

Please have a nice day.

[Scott]

Let's stay on-topic and this one is about Teaching Sentence Structure. It's nice to hear from people who have a comprehensive knowledge of grammar and are enthusiastic about passing on the information.

[gerryBScot]

Bruce Mangosteen....... sounds as if you are using textbooks like English Time and Let's Go, both published by Oxford University Press, ?

[celso]

Your question is way too huge - you don't teach sentence structure, you teach grammar. And in fact you don't teach grammar these days, you teach functions that require certain grammar knowledge (today we're talking about the past - oh, we need to know past simple!).

But, here are a few activities I use that reinforce sentence word order.

1.

Arrange yourselves into a sentence

Come up with a few themed questions (where was your last holiday, who did you go with, etc). Get students to first predict your answers.

Then, have your answers prepared on A4 paper - one word per paper, eg I went to southern Italy = 5 words, 5 a4 sheets.

Choose 5 students, bring them to the front, give each 1 piece of paper, and ask them to get in the correct order. The rest of the class should guide them.

Repeat for each of your questions (5 or 6 maximum).

It has a meaningful context, a reason for students to complete the activity, and gets them moving around.

2.

Post-it race

Get a few stacks of post-it notes, and write sentences on them, 1 word per note.

Before class mix them up, keeping each sentence together.

Give one mixed sentence to each class table, have a race to see who can unscramble their sentence the fastest.

There are lots of variations you can do for this, such as having the post its on the board, asking groups to write their own sentences 1 word at a time, etc. Post-its are brilliant at making boring activities more physical and interesting.

3.

1 word stories/1 word answers

a. Give students a story prompt "One day, Tar came into class, but...". And in groups of 4 they continue the story, 1 word at a time, going round in a circle.

b. Have students brainstorm questions in groups about a particular theme, each advice, or future plans. Get them into groups, one student asks his questions - the other students give a single answer, 1 word at a time per student.

Expect a lot of the stories or answers to have little meaning, but that is not the purpose of the activity. It focuses the students on thinking: what word came before, and what type of word will be appropriate to follow it with.

4.

Sentence poker

This requires a bit of preparation.

Create packs of playing cards, each card having one word. It should be possible to order all the cards to make sentences.

Put students in groups, each gets a pack of cards, which they share equally between themselves.

Students aim to get rid of all their cards, by creating grammatically correct sentences.

Eg. Someone has 'i', they can put their card down. Next person has 'like', they can put theirs down.

The theme with all of these is to try and make sentence structure have a context, be less of an abstract thing and be interesting. Hopefully this will make it easier for them to remember.

Again, all of this is no good if students aren't given the grammar first. Trying to just teach sentence structure I don't think would work, its too complex, and too meaningless for students to remember.

Edited January 14, 2014 by celso

[loraporz]

In regards to making a question such as "How often do you go home?" you could teach your students to remember the 'QUASI' rule.

QUASI = Question word + auxiliary + subject + infinitive

Question word + auxiliary + subject + infinitive

How often do you go home

Lots of drilling would be necessary afterwards, but it's an easy rule to remember.

[fifthcolumn]

Sorry, young Thai males are not interested in grammar. I thought it absolutely mind numbing in high school as well.

I think sentence structure is best understood initially through conversation and basic writing. Reading. Reading a language one simply mimics the sentence structure.

Grammar, lol. Imagine you have them on the edge of their seats, gripped with eager attention, mouths agape in awe at your awesome...

boringness

[Loaded]

Grammar is an 'explanation' of why words are in a certain form and sequence. It's essential to be familiar with grammar if you are learning English and want to express your ideas accurately. It's also essential to be familiar with it if you consider yourself an English-language teacher.