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five basic sentence patterns that your students will encounter in the English language

1) Subject-verb (S-V): This is the simplest sentence pattern in the English language, only containing the information that needs to be there. Here are a few examples of sentences that follow the subject-verb pattern: Mark ran. Maria slept. The dog plays. Jimmy fell. 2) Subject-verb-object (S-V-O): Sentences that follow this pattern are very similar to S-V sentences except that an object has been added to the sentence. In an English sentence, the object is what is being acted upon by the subject. In other words, the noun (subject) is acting (verb) upon another noun (object). Here are a few examples of sentences that follow the subject-verb-object pattern: Mark ran to the store. Maria slept in bed. The dog plays outside. Jimmy fell to the floor. 3)Subject-verb-adjective (S-V-Adj): This sentence pattern is similar to S-V-O except that the object is not a noun; it is an adjective. Since an object must be a noun or an entity that is being acted upon, when the verb acts as a state of being to set up a description of the subject, you get an S-V-Adj sentence. Here are a few examples of sentences that follow the subject-verb-adjective pattern: Mark is hungry. Maria was tired. The dog looks playful. Jimmy seems clumsy. 4)Subject-verb-adverb (S-V-Adv): To the untrained eye, this sentence pattern is the same as the previous one, S-V-Adj. The difference between that pattern and this pattern, however, is that while that structure saw the object turning into an adjective, this one sees it turning into an adverb. In other words, the verb no longer acts as a state of being to set up a description of the subject, but rather the words following the verb act as modifiers to the verb. Here are a few examples of sentences that follow the subject-verb-adverb pattern: Mark ran quickly. Maria slept peacefully. The dog plays loudly. Jimmy fell disastrously. 5)Subject-verb-noun (S-V-N): As you already know, the object of a pattern has to be a noun. Just because there is a noun following the verb, however, does not mean that it is the object of the sentence. In this sentence structure, the noun is not the object because, as with S-V-Adj, the words following the verb describe the subject. Here are a few examples of sentences that follow the subject-verb-noun pattern: Mark is the store owner. Maria is a doctor. The dog was a corgi. Jimmy became a lawyer.

Intonations

A change in the pitch of a word or syllable that does not change the meaning of the word or syllable but rather indicates any of a number of different situations, including: Revealing the feelings of the speaker. Identifying the phrase as a question or distinguishing between different types of questions. Giving importance to a word or phrase in the statement or question.

Clausal sentence (simple sentence)

A clausal sentence is a simple sentence that contains only one clause or one complete proposition (subject and predicate). For example, the sentence "Gloria is going to the store" contains only one clause, which includes a subject ("Gloria), a verb ("is going"), and an object ("the store").

clauses

A clause is one of the basic units in English grammar and is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. Every sentence has at least one clause in it (because the requirements for a sentence and a clause are the same). A clause, however, does not necessarily complete a thought and therefore works alone as a sentence. There are two types of clauses, and understanding both of them is important for students who are learning to write in English for the first time.

Complex Sentence

A complex sentence includes an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. This means that within the sentence are subject-verb pairs that would not be able to stand alone as a complete thought. Here is an example of a sentence that follows the complex sentence structure: Bobby drove his car to the store because he needed some gum. In this example, we have borrowed the simple sentence and added a dependent clause "because he needed some gum." The subject ("Bobby") is implied by the independent clause, and this dependent clause cannot stand alone and make sense.

compound sentence

A compound sentence is a sentence that consists of more than one clause (known in this case as coordinating clauses because they work together to complete an idea). For example, the sentence "Maryann went to the mall and got a new shirt" is a compound sentence containing the clauses "Maryann went to the mall" and "got a new shirt." In the second clause, the subject (Maryann) is implicit.

Compound sentence

A compound sentence is a sentence that contains two or more independent clauses. These clauses could stand alone if they needed to but have been combined because they are related to each other. Here is an example of a sentence that follows the compound sentence structure: Bobby drove his car, and Mark read the directions.

Compound-complex sentence

A compound-complex sentence includes at least two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses, essentially combining the elements of a compound sentence with the elements of a complex sentence. Here is an example of a sentence that follows the compound-complex sentence structure: Bobby drove his car, and Mark read the directions when they went to the store.

conjunction

A conjunction is a word that links two coordinating clauses together.

Lexeme

A lexeme is a lexicological unit of linguistics, which, for the most part, refers to a root word. The lexeme is the part of a word (even if that is the whole word) that imparts the most meaning, with conjugation or prefixes and suffixes added to adjust the meaning. In other words, the word "snow" is a lexeme, and all iterations of that word, such as "snows," "snowed", or "snowing," all share this same lexeme. By breaking down words to their roots, students can better break down new words, connect to a word's etymology, or even find a cognate they can relate to.

Phone

A phone is the smallest unit of sound and refers to the way in which an individual pronounces a sound. It can therefore exist in more than one language. This is different from a phoneme, which refers specifically to the sound that is assigned to a letter or group of letters in a given language. For this reason, phones can be universal to all languages, while phonemes are specific to individual languages.

Phonemes

A phoneme is a unit of sound that when replaced changes the sound of a word in a particular language. English is a complicated language for people to learn because even though there are twenty-six letters, there are forty-four phonemes. These phonemes represent all iterations of sounds that a letter can make. For example, a "c" can sound like a "k" or an "s," depending on its position in a word. If an individual understands phonemes, he or she will understand all the different sounds in the English language. Phonemes are broken down into two categories: vowels and consonants.

Preposition

A preposition is a word that describes the relationship between a verb and its object.

a pronoun

A pronoun is a more general word that takes the place of a specific noun.

Simple sentence

A simple sentence contains one independent clause that stands alone as a complete thought. This is the most basic type of sentence and creates the structure for more complex sentences. Here is an example of a sentence that follows the simple sentence structure: Bobby drove his car to the store.

vowels

A vowel is an open sound that is spoken without blockage from the lips or tongue.

body parts that contribute to speech

Alveolar ridge: The gums just behind the upper teeth. Palate: The hard palate, or the roof of the mouth within the sphere of your teeth. Velum: The soft palate, or the roof of your mouth as it extends past the teeth, ending at the uvula. Uvula: The appendage that dangles in the back of your mouth before your mouth turns into your throat. Pharynx: The back of your throat, behind the uvula. Epiglottis: A flap of flesh that rests below your pharynx, at the top of your throat. Trachea: The windpipe, which is covered by the epiglottis.

adjective

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun.

adverb

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

Independent clause

An independent clause is a clause (a group of words containing a subject and a verb) that can exist by itself and be a complete thought and therefore a complete sentence. Every sentence contains an independent clause, and all simple sentences are made up of one independent clause. An example of an independent clause is "They went down to the bomb shelter." The absence of a subordinating word ("because" in the dependent clause) makes this sentence work as a complete thought.

Articulatory phonetics

Articulatory phonetics is the study of how sounds are created, and a working understanding of the ideas outlined in articulatory phonetics can really help your students understand the English language.

Systematic vs. impressionistic transcription

As an expert in phonetic symbols, if you were to listen to speech in another language, you would generally be able to chart it out based on English phonetic symbols. Obviously, this is not the best way to handle this since phonetic symbols are going to be different in every language, but you are going to use the knowledge you have. A phonetics expert would instead use a more universal group of phonetic symbols to transcribe the speech. This is called impressionistic transcription because although this is still not perfect the transcriber is charting out the sounds as best as he or she can without knowing the language. Later, experts can take this impressionistic transcription and revise and modify it to more accurately represent the speech. It would be much more difficult if the speech were charted out using more specific English phonetic symbols. Once experts are able to analyze the speech and get a sense for the sounds of the particular language they are listening to, they are able to revise the transcription into a much more accurate transcription. This is called a systematic transcription or a transcription that more accurately reflects the phonetic structure of the language it is breaking down. As you may have already determined, a systematic transcription is more helpful for your students, although it could be helpful to have them use their native language to analyze the sounds in an English recording. However, you are more typically going to ask them to create phonetic transcriptions that more accurately reflect the phonetic structure of the English language to ensure they are learning.

Nouns

As we discussed in an earlier module, a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. Here are some different types of nouns: Proper nouns: The names of specific places, people, or things. Common nouns: General or colloquial names. Concrete nouns: People, places, or things that are tangible. Abstract nouns: Ideas that are intangible. Nouns can be tricky because the term encompasses many different types of words. When using nouns, one of the grammatical rules you need to look out for most is whether or not you should pluralize a noun and how to do so.

auditory discrimination

Auditory discrimination refers to our brain's ability to organize and categorize sounds, thereby allowing us to make meaning of what we hear. While auditory refers to sounds and reading is typically done silently, the ability to distinguish between different sounds (phonemes) can affect our ability to sound out and identify vocabulary. The inability to effectively access one's auditory discrimination can impair someone's reading tremendously, especially when students are asked to read out loud. If someone has trouble with auditory discrimination, they will have trouble: Understanding phonemes and how they are different. This is especially true with phonemes that are similar, as we can see in the words "forty" and "fourteen." The subtle changes in the structure of these words may be difficult for someone who has poor auditory discrimination to perceive. Learning to read. As we have already discussed, many of the early reading strategies rely heavily on a student's ability to understand and distinguish between different sounds. This can add an extra hurdle for a new English language learner. Sometimes, struggles with auditory discrimination can affect students' ability to focus on what they are reading because they have difficulty blocking out background noise.

possessive nouns

Because nouns represent people, places, things, and ideas, they sometimes need to be possessive to show that the person, place, thing, or idea owns or is in possession of something. Possession is usually marked by an apostrophe (') and follows these rules: You can make most nouns possessive simply by adding an apostrophe and then an "s" at the end of the word. Mark: Mark's Dog: dog's Boy - boy's When you come across a plural noun that ends in "s" or a noun that already ends in "s," you can make it possessive by simply adding an apostrophe. Boys: boys' Class: class' Dogs: dogs' If you have one item, but you would like to express that two different people or things own it, you would add an apostrophe and an "s" after the last person's name. Bill and Frank's new house Boxer and Spot's toy Sally and Ann's car. If the objects owned by two different people are separate things, then you should add an apostrophe and an "s" at the end of each name. Bobby's and Mary's wedding rings are gold. Jill's and Samantha's jobs are difficult. Jean's and Yancy's tables are both oak.

conceptual semantics

Conceptual semantics is a theory that highlights the importance of the internal structure of words. Theorists believe that the best way to understand the meaning of a word in a sentence is to look at the word itself, its internal structure, and how it combines different, smaller elements.

Connotation

Connotation refers to the implied meaning that the word often has because the word is used to describe something beyond what the denotation states. Take a look at two synonyms, such as "skinny" and "thin." If you use these two words to describe a person, their denotations are pretty much the same, but the connotation behind "skinny" is more negative than the connotation behind "thin." Thin implies someone who is at a healthy weight, while skinny implies that the person is frail or weak. It takes true understanding of a language to get such small, but important complexities of meaning.

Consonants

Consonants are sounds that are spoken with obstruction from the lips, teeth, or tongue

speaking tactics

Continue building vocabulary: There will never be a time when any student is done learning words, and the best way to help your students present their own unique ideas is by giving them the vocabulary toolbox they need to express those new ideas. Provide a low-anxiety environment: Your student will be taking a risk by sharing new ideas in a language they are not completely fluent in, so try to take as much of the anxiety out of the situation as you can. Give them the space to work through what they are going to say and then be encouraging when they are ready to go. Give them time to practice: It might be helpful to bring back the reading strategy that we discussed earlier and give them a recorder to record themselves and check their own progress. Once students have progressed and are improving, it is important to give them some control over the process and take responsibility for their performance. Provide honest but encouraging feedback: Even outside of TESOL, simply saying "good job" is no longer enough to encourage a student. Be specific, be honest, but be encouraging. If certain students are struggling with something, let them know, but also tell them how it can be fixed and what needs to be done to get it better. Students appreciate honesty as long as it is presented to them in a way that does not immediately make them shut down and not want to try. Listen to the student: The worst thing you can do is not listen after your student has done all that work to present a new idea to you. Of course, you would never visibly ignore the students as they present, but it can be easy to lose focus on exactly what the students are saying. When the presentation is over, be specific as to what you liked about the student's idea. Show the student that you care and that you are proud of him and her. Even if the student struggled, just getting up and taking the risk was a big leap, so leave the critique until some time has passed.

Denotation

Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word. You can easily find the denotation for a word in the dictionary. With synonyms, the denotation is similar or the same.

Paradigms

Differences in meaning that rely on the substitution of words. In other words, if you look closely at a phrase, such as "Bill ran to his truck," making a paradigmatic change would require a substitution. This would result in a different phrase, for example, "Bill ran to his wife" or "Frank ran to his truck." These changes completely change the meaning of the sentence because different subjects and objects can be substituted.

Phonemic vs. allophonic transcription

Everything we have been discussing so far in this section has referred to phonemic transcription, which refers to any transcription where you break down sounds into phonemes. The other option you have with your transcription is to do an allophonic transcription, which means breaking down the speech into allophones. If you remember from previous modules, allophones are a phonic rather than phonemic way of breaking down words.

formal semantics

Formal semantics is a very mathematical theory that strives to understand the meaning of words by forming exact mathematical principles and ideals that speakers and writers can use. People who subscribe to the formal semantics theory look for the relationship between how language forms and the world in which it forms to try to understand how people create meaningful discourse.

place of articulation

Here are the different terms for where consonant sounds are articulated: Bilabials: When you close or constrict your lips. Labiodentals: When your upper teeth and lower lip meet as you speak. Dentals: When you press the tip of your tongue to your upper teeth as you speak. Alveolars: When you press the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth as you speak. Post-alveolars: postalveolar consonants are produced by touching the tip of your tongue to the back of your alveolar ridge. ? t? ? and d? are postalveolar. Palatals: When the body of your tongue touches your palate as you speak. Velars: When the body of your tongue touches your velum as you speak. Glottals: When you constrict your glottis as you speak.

Sequential and systematic instruction

In many ways, basic skills like these work best with old-school instruction, which means you teach a concept, assess for that concept, teach another concept, assess for both concepts, and continue with this process. Continually build on the skills and knowledge that your students are attaining, and keep returning to the basics to make sure they don't forget them.

why read aloud?

Increased retention: Anytime that you can access more than one sense, you are more likely to retain the information you are consuming. This is why the most memorable lessons from school were the ones where you did an activity that required you to get out of your seat and move around. Adding that extra wrinkle made it more memorable. When we read out loud, we are not only reading, but we are also listening to what we read. Increased focus: When you read to yourself, it is easy for your mind to wander and get distracted by external forces. Reading out loud creates an atmosphere of reading and requires you to focus on every word. That does not mean that your mind cannot wander, so you still need to keep yourself honest, but it definitely cuts down on being distracted. Self-correction: It is much easier to hear yourself pronouncing a word wrong when you say it out loud. When you read a word silently, you don't need to be able to pronounce it to identify it. Reading out loud definitely helps you improve your speaking fluency because it ensures that you know how to pronounce the words you are reading (or that you learn). Self-correction is also important. If you are aware enough of the rules of English pronunciation to realize when you have made a mistake and fix it, you are operating at a high level of understanding. Learn and practice intonation: As you read out loud, you can begin practicing intonation, stressing the right syllables and delivering the lines the way they were meant to be delivered. This is another indication of a deep understanding of the intricacies of the language, since intonation is only implied and not explicitly detailed in a piece of writing.

types of writing

Informative and explanatory writing involves researching or analyzing a topic that is already generally accepted to be true. Unlike persuasive writing, there is no argument but rather an exploration of why or how something is what it is. This is why informative and explanatory is the most common type of writing that your students will find in their careers; more careers are focused on explaining and exploring the nature of things rather than creating an argument. To illustrate this point, here is a brief list of the different applications for informative and explanatory writing: Definition: In this type of writing, your students will have to define a topic and explain it in detail. Potential practical application: Your student works in an office, and the sales team is going to try to land a new client that works with industrial refrigeration parts. The boss asks your student to provide a report on industrial refrigeration parts so that the sales team is prepared when they pitch the client. Breaking something into parts: In this type of writing, your student will have a topic that is generally understood but needs to be understood in more detail. To do this, he or she can break it into parts and/or types to make it more palatable for the reader. Potential practical application: Your student works for a team that is in charge of creating new programs and projects for their company. The project team comes up with an idea they need to pitch to their boss. Your student is tasked with writing a breakdown of the project, e.g., detailing what each department will be responsible for, how much it will cost, and how much revenue it will generate. Describing behavior or function: In this type of writing, your student will have to explore how something behaves and/or functions. Potential practical application: Your student works for a zoo that is going to receive a new animal in three weeks that they have never accommodated before. Your student is asked to write a report on how the animal behaves and what kind of accommodations it will need. Explaining why: In this type of writing, your student will have to explore why a generally held opinion or fact is true. Potential practical application: Your student works for a museum that is about to have an exhibit on dinosaurs. Your student is tasked with writing a report for why dinosaurs became extinct so that the museum can inform its guests.

How is transcribing text helpful?

It helps students work on mastering the sounds of English. Students need to be able to get used to understanding English only from sound, and this is a direct way to give them practice with that. It gives students practice writing the language, and if you ask them to fix any errors in their own transcription and the original text, they have the opportunity to display their knowledge of grammar and practice revising it. Because this activity is meticulous, it forces students to really delve into the text and pay attention to every detail rather than just summarizing what is being said. This directly prepares students for conversational English, although it takes out the part where they respond. This is the first step towards being able to hold a cogent conversation in English. This is a great way to give students the opportunity to work independently. They are able to take the time to struggle with the language without fear of peer ridicule. Completing this activity will also give them a sense of accomplishment that they probably would not get from a more teacher-directed activity.

Relating background knowledge:

It is always helpful when working with students who are trying to learn a new language that you relate what they are learning to their background knowledge. There are a couple of different ways that you can do this. As we mentioned earlier, you can use cognates and your students' native phonemes to help them understand English root words and sounds. Another way is to help your students connect thematically to the text, asking them to try to relate what is going on in the text to personal experiences they have had. While this won't necessarily directly help them learn the language, it will help them make a stronger connection with it and therefore make it more accessible.

lexical semantics

Lexical semantics is a theory that the meaning of a word is understood by looking at its context. In this way, sentences can be broken down into semantic constituents or words and phrases that carry meaning and context. This theory promotes the analysis of how words and phrases play off each other to build meaning.

Lexical structure

Lexical structure refers to the internal structure of lexemes as well as the structure of the lexicon of a language. The "lexicon" is just a fancy term for all of the words in a group.

literal language

Literal language is when a speaker or writer directly describes what they mean.

making inferences

Making inferences means reading between the lines and accessing meaning that is not explicitly stated. For example, if a man were to walk into the room, closing an umbrella, you would infer that it was raining outside. No one specifically told you that it was raining, but you were able to use context clues to draw that conclusion. Once students are more comfortable understanding what they read, working on their inferential thinking will help them learn how to see the meaning in a text that is not explicitly stated.

3 morphemes in marketers

Morpheme 1: Market. The root of the word that carries the major meaning of the word. This word could stand alone and make sense if it needed to. This morpheme is called the free lexical morpheme. Morpheme 2: -er. This is the suffix that is added to the word, carrying with it the inherent meaning of "one who does something." Understanding the suffix allows a student to understand that a marketer is one who markets. This morpheme is called the bound lexical morpheme. Morpheme 3: -s. This letter is added so that the amount is clear and that the word fits in the sentence grammatically with the intended meaning. The sentence would still make sense without this morpheme, but it would change the meaning. This morpheme is called the bound grammatical morpheme.

Morphemes

Morphemes are sometimes referred to as the smallest linguistic unit that carries meaning. While phonemes are smaller, they essentially build towards pronunciation rather than meaning. Breaking a word into its morphemes allows an individual to separate and (better understand) the root words, prefixes, and suffixes.

rules of plural nouns

Most nouns are made plural simply by adding an "s."Cup: CupsEgg: EggsJoke: JokesMask: Masks Nouns ending in "ch," "x," "s," require the addition of "es" at the end.Bench: BenchesBox: BoxesClass: Classes Nouns ending in "f" or "fe" require you to change the "f" or "fe" to a "v," and add an "es."Calf: CalvesHalf: HalvesKnife: Knives Some nouns do not follow any rules for pluralizing, and your students will simply have to learn them.Child: ChildrenMouse: MiceWoman: Women Some count nouns are the same whether they are singular or plural.Moose: MooseDeer: DeerSpecies: Species

pluralized nouns

Not every noun has a plural form because it does not always make sense for there to be more than one of something. Count nouns refer to nouns that can be counted, such as "cup," "table," and "monkey." These nouns represent a specific object that there can be more than one of. Non-count nouns are nouns that cannot be counted because they already represent a group of objects or a type of object. For example, "water" is a non-count noun because you cannot look at the ocean and count the water.

decoding

Once your students have built up their phonemic awareness, their knowledge of the alphabet, and their letter/sound correlation, decoding helps them put everything together to pronounce new words.

Paraphrase what you hear

People tend to think that paraphrasing someone is easier than quoting them directly, but that just isn't true. To effectively paraphrase, you need to understand what the person has said enough to put their words into your own words. That is why this is a great skill for your students to practice; it will test their ability to listen to someone speak, process the words, and then rewrite them in their own words. In many ways, this task is much more difficult than transcription. Since paraphrasing is such a difficult skill for your students to master, let's take a closer look at how you can help them develop their skills.

types of pronouns (9)

Personal: A personal pronoun is a pronoun that refers to a person. This is the most common type of pronoun, and for it to work in a sentence, it needs to have a clear antecedent that it agrees with (male nouns need male pronouns). Examples: "I," "he," "she," "me." Possessive: Possessive pronouns are personal pronouns that convey ownership. These pronouns not only need an antecedent but also need to be followed by a noun (the thing that is possessed by the pronoun). Examples: "my carrots," "his book," "their time." Indefinite: Indefinite pronouns can be a little complicated because they take the place of nouns that are not exactly clear. In other words, these pronouns will not have a clear antecedent. It is important to note, however, that if these types of pronouns are used to show possession, they are actually adjectives. Examples: "Everybody wants to go to the mall," "Somebody took my juice." Reflexive: Reflexive pronouns usually occur at the end of a sentence or clause and reflect back to the subject of the sentence. Examples: "I am going to get a soda for myself," "What do you have to say for yourselves?" Reciprocal: A reciprocal is exactly like a reflexive pronoun except that they refer to two subjects doing something to or for each other. The only two reciprocal pronouns in the English language are "each other" and "one another." Examples: "John and Tim are in the library quizzing each other," "Maria and Jenny are helping one another with laundry." Intensive: Intensive pronouns are exactly the same as reflexive pronouns except they can be removed from a sentence without changing the meaning or rendering the sentence incomplete. Examples: "He is going to do the work himself." Interrogative: Interrogative pronouns are pronouns that are used in a question. Examples: "Who took the candy?," "Which door is it?" Relative: A relative pronoun is a pronoun that connects a phrase or a clause to a pronoun or a noun. Examples: "I am going to get whoever stole my bag," "I am going to take whichever door leads to the bathroom." Demonstrative: Demonstrative pronouns take the place of specific nouns and are typically used when the speaker or narrator is talking about a specific object. Examples: "This is the Captain's wine," "That candy belongs to her."

Simple vs. comparative transcription

Phonetic symbols, though explicitly stated, can be left up to some interpretation. Experts will sometimes do what is called a simple transcription, which makes the phonetic translation as easy to read as possible without worrying too much about everything being perfect. This kind of shorthand is sometimes appreciated by experts since they often have to go through massive amounts of text. While this may not be the best type to start your students with because they may not be ready for such shorthand, it can be helpful once they become good at transcribing. You should only allow them to take shortcuts once they are doing it to save time, not to make the text easier to transcribe. Comparative transcription is relevant when the sounds for different languages match, and you are able to use a more vague phoneme to refer to the different versions of the phoneme in different languages. This type of transcription is not very helpful for your students.

What does phonetic transcription look like?

Phonetic transcription can be a great way for your students to learn to decode sounds from speech, but it is not a practical activity for them once they have mastered the language. It is extremely helpful but can take time. Take a look at the following excerpt and what it would look like in phonetic transcription: Original text: Sometimes, phonetic transcription can be complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it is actually quite easy. It will also help students get the hang of recognizing sounds, which will make conversational English much easier.

Phonetic transcription

Phonetic transcription is a technique whereby an individual breaks down speech into sounds and phonemes, and transcribes the speech in phonetic symbols, using the symbols that we discussed in the previous module. We will not repeat the symbols, so feel free to go back and review them. Instead, we will focus on what phonetic transcription looks like and how it will benefit your students.

Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sound and structure of a language. Essentially, phonology concerns itself with the mental representation of a sound, so understanding phonology means that you understand how to break down a word into its smaller sounds and pronounce it. This can help students tremendously in learning English for the first time because it gives them a great tool for breaking down new words and pronouncing words that they have not necessarily seen before. Let's take a look at some of the basic concepts within phonology. phonology is more relevant for people who are learning a new language, not learning spoken language for the first time. If students understand the common sound units in the English language, they will be able to sound out most words, making language acquisition much more comfortable.

Pronouns and Antecedents

Pronouns are important in writing because they take the place of a noun to make the writing less repetitive and choppy. To illustrate this idea, take a look at an example of a written excerpt that does not use pronouns: Mike grabbed Mike's shirt and went to go find Mike's mom to tell Mike's mom that Mike's mom needed to leave right away because Mike and Mike's mom were in danger. Now, let's use pronouns: Mike grabbed his shirt and went to go find his mom to tell her that they needed to leave right away because they were in danger. Clearly, the second example sounds much better and gets the point across without reusing the original nouns. The major point that your students need to understand about pronouns besides the different types that exist (which we will discuss in this section) is that every pronoun needs an antecedent or a noun that it is taking the place of. The only exception is indefinite pronouns, which replace vague nouns, such as "all" or "some." Look again at the second example above, which contains pronouns. Each of those pronouns has an antecedent, which you can see in the first example. Let's rewrite the second example, but this time we will include the antecedent to each pronoun in parentheses: Mike grabbed his (Mike's) shirt and went to go find his (Mike's) mom to tell her (Mike's mom) that they (Mike and Mike's mom) needed to leave right away because they (Mike and Mike's mom) were in danger. When a pronoun does not have a clear antecedent, the writing becomes very confusing, and it should distinguish who is doing what. Here is an example of a sentence with unclear antecedents. Note how difficult it is to understand who the sentence is truly talking about: Mark, John, and Billy went to the mall because he needed a new shirt. When they arrived, he ran to the clothing store, and he ran after him, trying to keep up, while he hung back and headed to the food court. Because the antecedents are unclear, you could not tell me which boy went to the store, which boy chased after him, and which boy went to the food court.

question and response

Read a question and write a response: This is one of the more typical ways that teachers assess a student's reading because it is easy to assess after the fact and requires each student to do his or her own work. This strategy helps your students work on reading and writing skills but does very little to build their speaking skills. Listen to a question and write a response: This strategy is rarer because it requires every student to work at the same pace, which is not always feasible in a classroom. We will talk about such strategies in the next module when we discuss listening in much more detail. Just like the previous strategy, this strategy does not do much to help students learn to speak English more fluently. Read a question and answer verbally: This strategy helps students improve both their reading and speaking ability. It is an excellent strategy to use when students are just starting off trying to speak English on their own because the question is written in front of them and always available for reference. This is a great first step towards speaking English without any visual cues. Listen to a question and answer verbally: This is the ultimate test of a student's fluency. Not only do they have to comprehend the question as they hear it (something we will discuss in the next module on listening), but they also have to be able to formulate a cogent response in English. If your students are able to accomplish this task, then they are well on their way to English fluency. HOME

strategies for reading in the classroom

Round robin reading: With this strategy, you make a game out of reading out loud, and students take turns reading a certain amount of text. This is a great way to get your students comfortable with reading out loud, but it can be difficult to motivate struggling students to read because of the stigma of reading in front of a group. This is also a great strategy for getting everyone involved in reading together, but it can hinder students who are stronger readers and have to wait for struggling readers to catch up. Popcorn reading: Each student reads a certain amount of text out loud and then yells "popcorn" and picks a new student to read. This can be a good way to make sure everyone reads because the students are going to be better at keeping track of who has read and who hasn't than you would be, and it frees you up to monitor and/or provide individual attention to struggling students. Combat reading: This is similar to popcorn reading except the goal of the students is to catch someone who is not paying attention. This can add a layer of fun to the activity, but be careful presenting reading as a punishment. That is not the best way to nurture lifelong readers. Pick a name reading: This is the same as popcorn except instead of giving the students the power to select the next reader you leave it to chance by using some variation of a hat filled with everyone's name. Touch and go reading: The teacher is in control and touches a student on the shoulder when they want the student to read. Choral reading: The entire class, along with the teacher, read out loud together. This strategy serves a number of different purposes. First, it helps take the stigma away from struggling readers. Second, it gives you the opportunity to model correct pronunciations for the students that are not combative or anxiety-inducing. Third, all students are engaged at the same time, which is a lofty goal for any teacher. Partner up: Have your students pair up and share the reading, each taking turns reading a certain amount of text out loud. This is a little more difficult for you to manage and monitor than the whole class reading, but it can help students get a chance to read out loud in a less stressful situation. Heterogeneous pairing: This is the same as the previous strategy except that you intentionally partner struggling readers with readers who are excelling. The idea is that the excelling student can help the struggling reader bridge the gap. Critics note that this strategy does not really help the strong student very much, as slowing down to adjust for their partners might work against them. Teacher modeling: The teacher reads aloud to the class to model pronunciation and fluency. This can be an effective strategy because it helps the students see how the piece should be read as they follow along, but make sure you are closely monitoring for engagement, as it is a type of lesson where it is easy for students to be inattentive. Echoing: This is similar to the previous strategy except the students echo back whatever the teacher reads, trying to match the pronunciation, inflection, and emotion. This can be a great way to model for students while still holding them accountable in the classroom. Reading buddy: Students prepare individually, each with a unique text, and then read their piece to a buddy, trying their best to read it with no mistakes. Peers can offer critiques and suggestions, and you can monitor many students at once. Tape recorder: Students read into a tape recorder and play it back to themselves as they follow along with the text. There are many different things you can do with this, such as having the students try to get the perfect recording and then turn it in or have the students swap recordings with a partner. This is an excellent way for your students to get an idea of what they sound like, where they are struggling, and where they are excelling. This is also a great way to help students get used to self-correcting.

Semantics

Semantics is a branch of linguistics that involves the study of words and their meanings the concept of semantics is divided into three theories of semantics: formal semantics, lexical semantics, and conceptual semantics

Sequencing

Sequencing asks students to take a step beyond summarizing the text. Whereas summarizing the text concerns itself with simply understanding what happened, sequencing requires students to label, categorize, and compartmentalize what happens in the text. Students look at textual features to try to identify the important aspects of the text, for example, the setting, the sequence of events, and the larger context of the text, identifying how all of the parts of the text fit within the whole.

types of vowels

Single vowels Short vowels Schwa Long vowels Diphthongs

Summarizing

Summarizing is an extremely important skill because it helps your students bridge the gap between understanding the words they are reading and understanding the meaning that those words are trying to convey. The skill of summarizing requires students to understand enough of what they have read to explain what the text is about in their own words. To help your students learn how to do this, you may want to layer your summary instruction, having them read text in English but allowing them to summarize it in their native language. Eventually, though, you should move on to having the students summarize in English. Scaffolding your instruction like this will definitely help your students ease into true understanding of English texts.

Constants

SymbolExamples p-pen, copy, happen b-back, baby, job t-tea, tight, button d-day, ladder, odd k-key, clock, school g-get, giggle, ghost tʃ-church, match, nature dʒ-judge, age, soldier f-fat, coffee, rough, photo v-view, heavy, move θ-thing, author, path s-soon, cease, sister z-zero, music, roses, buzz ʃ-ship, sure, national ʒ-pleasure, vision h-hot, whole, ahead m-more, hammer, sum n-nice, now, funny, sun ŋ-ring, anger, thanks, sung L-light, valley, feel R-right, wrong, sorry, arrange j-yet, use, beauty, few w-wet, one, when, queen ʔ-department, football

syntax

Syntax is the set of rules that govern the grammatical construction of sentences in a language.

co-text

The co-text of a word is the linguistic context, which means that it is the linguistic meaning of a word or the meaning that a word inherently carries with it.

Phonics

The concept behind phonics is that students can begin to see and understand patterns in how phonemes relate to each other. Once they recognize these patterns, students can more easily sound out words that are foreign to them. This can also help them understand meaning when they begin to see patterns in root words, prefixes, and suffixes. English is notorious for straying away from patterns, however, so while phonics can be a helpful tool, it certainly has its shortcomings.

context

The context of a word is the words and sentences around it that give it meaning. Whereas co-text covers the various meanings that can be attributed to a word, the context refers to the specific meaning of the word that is intended based on the surrounding words and sentences.

constant pronunciation

The difference between consonants and vowels is that consonants are made when there is much more obstruction to the air as it is passing through your mouth, whereas your mouth generally remains open when pronouncing vowels. Consonant pronunciation can generally be broken down into the following categories: Stops: This is when you completely block the flow of air from your throat by closing your mouth at some point during the pronunciation of the sound (p, t, k, b, d, and g). Nasals: In a nasal sound, you close your mouth just as you would with a stop, but the back of your velum lowers, which allows air to flow up through your nose and out of your nostrils (m, n, ŋ). Fricatives: In this sound, you only close your mouth part way so air is forced through a narrow passage and makes a hissing sound (F, θ, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h). Affricates: A combination of stop and fricative sounds that are made in a similar way (tS, dZ). Approximants: This sound is like a fricative except that it involves less obstruction. Sometimes, you will make these sounds by touching the tip of your tongue to the alveolar ridge, lowering it as you release the air (l, r, j, w) There are also voiced consonants, which refer to consonant sounds that are accompanied by vibrations in your throat as the air passes through.

Word forms

The term "word forms" encompasses all the iterations of a similar lexeme. In other words, some word forms of the lexeme "go" are "goes," "went," and "will go." This term is used to describe the different conjugations of a verb, the different tenses of a word, or the different forms of a word based on amount.

Basic sentence patterns

There are five basic patterns for sentence structure in English, and they differ in the elements that are present within the sentence. Any two sentences, however, no matter how different they are, contain two things: a subject and a verb. For a sentence to work, there needs to be a person or thing that is doing or being something (subject) and an action or state of being that they are committing or portraying (verb).

Syntagms

These are differences that result from the positioning of words in a phrase. In other words, to make a syntagmatic change in a sentence, you would change the order of the words to adjust the meaning of the sentence. For example, if the sentence "Johnny threw the ball to Mary" is changed to "Mary threw the ball to Johnny," then the difference is syntagmatic.

Homonyms

This is a term that refers to when two words sound the same even though they have different meanings. These can be especially confusing to new language learners because they require a strong idea of context to identify. A good example of a group of homonyms is "there," "their," and "they're."

Dependent clause (subordinating clause):

This is exactly what it sounds like: a clause (or group of words containing a subject and a verb) that is dependent on other clauses. In other words, a dependent clause would not work alone as a sentence because it needs another clause for it to make sense. An example of a dependent clause is "because the world is ending." The only thing that makes this clause dependent is the word "because," which adds the implication of cause and effect to the sentence. We see the cause, but we need the effect to complete the sentence.

Bound grammatical morpheme

This term is used to describe a morpheme that is bound to another morpheme and serves the purpose of helping its word fit into a sentence grammatically. In the following example, notice the importance of the bound grammatical morpheme (we will use "s" in the same way we used it in the previous example). In the phrase, "John threw two balls to Mike," the "s" in the word "balls" is the bound grammatical morpheme. The sentence would not make grammatical sense without it, as it would read "John threw two ball at Mike."

Bound lexical morpheme

This term is used to describe a morpheme that is bound to another morpheme lexically and cannot make sense without it. This term often refers to prefixes and suffixes that are added to words to adjust their meaning. These morphemes cannot function alone and serve to simply modify the meaning of the free lexical morpheme to which they are attached.

Hyponymy

This term literally translates to "inclusion of meaning" and essentially refers to words that belong in groups. A fork is a hyponym of silverware because it is a member of the silverware group.

incompatibility

This term literally translates to "mutual exclusiveness within the same subordinate category," which means that it refers to two members of a group that are different entities. For example, cats and dogs are both animals, so they would fit under the purview of this term.

antonym

This term literally translates to "oppositeness of meaning," which means that antonyms are meant to be opposites. It is very difficult to find an exact antonym for most words, however, so words are often paired up because they're close to being antonyms, much like how synonyms have similar but not exact meanings.

ploysemy

This term refers to when a word has more than one meaning. This is different from a homonym because the spelling of the word does not change depending on the meaning. For example, the word "close" can refer to two items that are in near proximity to each other, or it can refer to something being shut.

Morphology

To truly understand morphology, one must fully understand morphemes, which are the basis of the area of study. While phonemes refer to the sounds that make up the structure of words, morphemes are the physical structural units in a word.

types of verbs (3)

Transitive verbs: A transitive verb is a verb that exists in a sentence with an object. The subject of the sentence is doing something to something else. Brian hit the ball and ran to first. Both "hit" and "ran" are transitive in this sentence because they have objects. In the first clause, it is clear that the ball (object) has been hit (transitive verb). In the second clause, it is clear that first base (object) is being run to (transitive verb). Intransitive verbs: An intransitive verb is a verb that does not take an object and rather describes an action or state of being that is not acting upon something else. Because the food was not free, she left. While she is leaving whatever place she is in, the object does not need to be expressed because the intransitive verb "left" is enough to describe the action. Linking verbs: These verbs link the subject to the rest of the sentence when the verb is not describing something being acted upon. These avocados seem like they have not ripened yet. The subject of the sentence (these avocados) is not acting upon anything else, so "seem" is a linking verb, describing their relationship to the rest of the sentence.

Minimal pair

Two words that differ in meaning because they contain one phoneme that is different are called minimal pairs. Minimal pairs are often words that rhyme or at least form a near rhyme.

types of questions

Understanding: The answer to the question being asked is right there in the text for the student to find. These types of questions represent a lower level of thinking but are great for getting practice in answering orally in English. The question requires the student to look at the text for an answer, but the answer is fairly easy, and the student can focus on how he or she is going to provide an answer in English. Think, search, and find: These types of questions require a higher level of thinking because they require students to make inferences and understand the subtext of the piece they are reading. This is a great next step for the student who is starting to get the hang of understanding questions and is ready for a greater challenge. With these types of questions, the student needs to balance the higher-level comprehension skills he or she has been developing with his or her ability to verbalize a response in English. Connection: These types of questions require the student to think beyond what is in the text and make a connection with the piece. This can be more difficult for English language learners because they cannot rely on repeating what they see in the text. Rather, they have to synthesize what they read and create an answer that is relevant to the piece but use their own words. Students are not only showing high comprehension skills but also high critical thinking skills, all while making sure to verbalize their response in a language with which they are not yet comfortable. Creating new knowledge: These types of questions require the student to go completely beyond the text and synthesize something else. These questions are related to the text, but you can answer them without having to read it. This is a great way to get your students creating new meaning and making use of everything they have learned so far.

Persausive writing components

Unlike informative and explanatory writing, persuasive writing explores a topic or an idea that is not already widely accepted and creates an argument for why it should be. Rather than discuss the different types of persuasive writing, we will focus this section on how to craft an argument by focusing on the most important aspects of an argument. Thesis: While experts will argue on where a thesis is most effective in a persuasive argument, they will all agree that a thesis is important. A thesis statement is a short (one or two sentences) summary of the writer's position and serves as the main idea for the piece of writing. A strong thesis statement provides the writing with a focus and gives the writer a frame of reference for the rest of his or her argument. Organization: An argument needs to be carefully organized to be as effective as possible. This means that the writer needs to constantly think about the thesis and how the argument is connecting back to it. Proper organization helps the argument flow and eases the reader through the writer's ideas. Support: An argument is not complete without strong support. Whether the support comes in the form of direct textual evidence, facts, or the opinions of respected professionals, it gives the reader a reason to believe your claims. The support serves as an assurance to your reader that you are not coming up with this argument off the top of your head, but rather that there is evidence to support what you are trying to convince the audience to believe. Elaboration and Analysis: Your argument needs to explore the topic and why the support you have provided is worthwhile and relates back to the thesis. Without proper elaboration and analysis, your support will simply hang there limply and not be effective in convincing your audience. Conclusion: Your conclusion should come with a summation of the rest of the argument to solidify your ideas in the readers' heads as well as a call to action or a last attempt to convince the audience to understand and/or believe your argument.

visual discrimination

Visual discrimination refers to an individual's ability to distinguish between letters, shapes, numbers, and objects. While both are important, visual discrimination is much more impactful on an individual's ability to read than auditory discrimination. Auditory discrimination affects an individual's ability to sound out words, but visual discrimination affects an individual's ability to recognize which letters he or she is seeing. While it can be difficult to identify when a student has a visual discrimination deficiency because it can mask itself as just typical difficulties that students might have reading a new language, here are some signs that you can look for: The student has trouble identifying letters and learning the alphabet. The difficulty will be in recognizing the letters rather than being unable to remember what they are called. Difficulty telling the difference between similar letters (e.g., b and d), similar numbers (e.g., 6 and 9), and/or similar shapes (e.g., circles and ovals).

Consonants can be broken down into the following categories

Voiced consonants Unvoiced consonants

Letter/sound correlation

We will discuss this in more detail later in the module, but whether or not your students are familiar with the alphabet, learning the correlation between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) is extremely important because sounds are unique to a language. Many of these sounds and combinations of sounds will be difficult for your students to get used to, so make sure you practice a lot.

Accents

When a syllable or sound within a word is given more attention than the others. This changes the way an individual pronounces a word.

Stress accent, dynamic accent, or stress

When an accented syllable is given a change in pitch and volume, it is referred by any of these three names.

pitch accent

When the accented syllable is differentiated through a change in only the pitch which it is pronounced.

Quantitative accent

When the accented syllable is differentiated through only a lengthening of the syllable.

figrative language

When the writer builds meaning that goes beyond the literal meaning. Here are some examples of figurative language: Metaphors Similes Personification Irony Symbolism

Lexicology

When we study words in lexicology, we look closely at how words are formed, what makes them different from other words, uniform rules that affect usage and/or conjugation, and the different connotations and meanings of synonyms.

Word-for-word transcription

When you would like to have your students practice with words rather than just sounds, you should work with them on word transcriptions, which are exactly what they sound like. Students listen to a person speaking (or a recording) and transcribe the speech as it is spoken. Let's go through the steps you should have your students take to transcribe speech. 1)Select or provide a text that already has a transcription. There is no way to assess your students unless you have an answer key. You can either hold onto the correct transcription yourself to assess them or give it to them so that they can check their work and self-correct. When they are working towards mastery, it is probably better to give them the transcription, and when you are ready to assess their mastery, it is probably better to assess them yourself. 2) Have the students listen to the speech once. If you are delivering the speech, read it through once, instructing them not to write anything yet but only to listen. If the students have a recording, instruct them to listen to it in their own once through before they do anything. 3)Have your students transcribe the speech line by line. It would be more helpful if they have a recording of the speech so that they are able to go back and listen again when they need to. However, you may want to simply speak the text when your students have progressed to the point where they are strong enough to handle it. Here are some tips that might help them: If you have the opportunity, use a digital recording so that it is easier for the students to go back and forth and keep track of their progress. Have the students write their transcriptions by hand to have a closer connection to the words they are writing. Also, handwriting the transcriptions means they will not have access to grammar and spelling software that will help them along the way but ultimately hurt their learning. Allow the students to use a dictionary whenever they need to. Not only will this provide a reference piece to help them, but it will also give the students practice looking up words in a dictionary. Do not limit the number of times your students can rewind or listen to parts of the recording again. Even native English speakers would have trouble transcribing a piece word for word without listening to it more than once. Encourage your students to transcribe the piece word for word, but then look through their transcription to fix errors in grammar and usage even when those errors were made by the original speaker. This will give the students practice transcribing the piece and also give them the opportunity to practice their revision skills and access their knowledge of grammar. Have your students carefully check their answers (as we said before, they may be at the point where you can assess them instead) against the correct transcription. Have your students look at where they struggled and where they excelled, and try to determine their strengths and weaknesses so that they can use the activity as a learning experience. Transcriptions are not something you can do every day since they are pretty exhaustive, but you should try to do them every so often until your students have demonstrated proficiency. Also, make sure that you are using it as a learning experience and have your students continually reflect on their performance to make sure that it is worthwhile.

Lexical items

Whereas a lexeme is the root of a word, a lexical item is the entirety of a word or phrase that imparts meaning. In our previous example, we mentioned that "snows," "snowed," and "snowing" all have the same lexeme, which is "snow." In that example, all of those words are different lexical items. A lexical item can also be a combination of words, such as "class work," or a phrase, such as "in the way." Essentially, lexical items are the units in a sentence that have separate meaning.

Making vowel sounds

While vowel sounds still rely on opening and closing the mouth, we block the airflow from our throat significantly less when pronouncing them. Many people have difficulty explaining the difference between a vowel and a consonant, so learning how each of them differs in pronunciation can be helpful. Generally, different vowel sounds are made by different mouth shapes and positions of the tongue.

Free grammatical morpheme:

free grammatical morpheme is a term used to describe morphemes that are not bound to other morphemes but are there to serve a grammatical purpose. Usually, these words are articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. In the sentence above, "John threw the ball at Mike," "at" is a free grammatical morpheme.

Free lexical morpheme

his term is used to describe a morpheme that can exist on its own and make sense. In the previous example, the free lexical morpheme was "market." Alone, "market" is a word. Conversely, "er" is not a word that can exist on its own and still make sense. While in this case the free lexical morpheme was the root word, it does not have to be. The word "classroom" is composed of two free lexical morphemes—"class" and "room."

every sentence needs?

subject and predicate (verb and object)

what needs to agree in a sentence?

verb tense, verb and subject

Vowels and diphthongs

ɪ-kit, bid, hymn, minute e-dress, bed, head, many æ-trap, bad ɒ-lot, odd, wash ʌ-strut, mud, love, blood ʊ-foot, good, put iː-fleece, sea, machinee ɪ-face, day, break aɪ-price, high, try ɔɪ-choice, boy uː-goose, two, blue, group əʊ-goat, show, no aʊ-mouth, now ɪə-near, here, weary eə-square, fair, various ɑː-start, father ɔː-thought, law, north, war ʊə-poor, jury, cure ɜː-nurse, stir, learn, refer ə-about, common, standard i-happy, radiate, glorious u-you, influence, situation ṇ-suddenly, cotton ḷ-middle, metal ˑ-Stress mark