Analysis of ′two texts′ written by EAL Learners
Michelle_Michy
Week2Metalanguageppt1.pptxETL705 Pedagogical grammar
Week 2
Grammatical metalanguage
Grammatical metalanguage
In order to be able to talk about language we need to be able to describe its various elements
Each of the levels of language has its own metalanguage.
Morphology
Refers to the way words are structured
Morphemes - the smallest possible unit of meaning.
‘Banana’ - three syllables but one morpheme
‘bananas’ - two morphemes. The ‘s’ changes the meaning
Free morphemes, which can stand on their own (walk, doll, pretty)
Bound morphemes which cannot (-ful, -est, -ed).
Bound Morphemes
Derivational Morphemes - prefixes such as un-, mis-, anti-, and suffixes such as –iness, -ful, -ate (remember prefixes will change meaning (happy/unhappy) and suffixes will change the word class (happy/ happiness)
Inflectional Morphemes - additions to words that change words according to tense, number, case, person etc
Some languages (eg Latin, Russian) are very highly inflected. Adding inflectional morphemes is the principal way they change meaning (think amo, amas, amat).
English does not do this very much but does do it in certain circumstances.
the longest (contrived) word in Turkish is...
Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız
"You are said to be one of those that we couldn't manage to convert to a Czechoslovak".
Morphology Word Classes
The Big Four
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Carry most of the meaning in sentences/utterances
Open classes
Functors
Closed Classes
Auxiliary verbs (Primary and Modal)
Pronouns
Prepositions
Determiners
Conjunctions
These classes contain the most common words in the English language
Interjections
Alas!
Oh my God!
OK
Doh!
Crikey!
They have no grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence and are not governed by grammatical rules
Should we teach them?
However, words do not just fit neatly into one class and several words belong to several classes
How many different classes can ‘round’ fit into
She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes
Soccer is played with a round ball
Rafael Nadal got beaten in the first round.
Just round the price off to the nearest dollar.
I’ve got a nice bottle of red. Why don’t you come round tonight?
Multiple words
If we look at meaning rather than form we can see that sometimes two or more words are equivalent to one word
fed up – adjective (unhappy)
bring up – verb (raise)
with regard to - preposition (about)
At the drop of a hat (promptly)
Multiple words - verb forms
Verb forms are often made up of several words
to walk (infinitive)
have seen
were walking
had been working
Nouns
Semantic: Name of person, place, thing or idea
Structural: Derivational morphemes
-ity, -ness, -hood, -dom, -ion
Inflectional morphemes
plural -s
possessive ‘s
Role in sentence:
Subject of a sentence
Object of a sentence
Complement of a copular verb
Indirect object
Come after a preposition
A noun is often the head word of a noun phrase (NP) accompanied by a determiner (det) and one or more adjectives (adj)
A yellow submarine
Kinds of nouns
Proper Nouns
Johnny Depp, Melbourne, Tim Tam
Common Nouns
Countable Nouns
apple(s), guitar(s), photograph(s)
Uncountable Nouns
money, whisky, love (can they sometimes be countable?)
Collective nouns
family, team, government
…….is or are?
Difficulties for students
Irregular plurals
Men, children, sheep, people
Singular forms ending in ‘-s’
Mathematics, news, means
Nouns which are only plural (in English)
Binoculars, trousers, scissors
Collective nouns Singular? Plural?
The couple is/are very happy’. ‘The staff is /are all highly qualified’
Inappropriate possessives and modifying nouns
the table’s leg, a flight of QANTAS, some pencils sharpeners)
Examples of student errors
I bought some furnitures for my room
I ate a lamb last night
Brisbane has a very nice weather.
My mother gave me several advices before I left.
She has a beautiful long hair.
Verbs
Semantic: Describing actions or states of being
Structural: Derivational morphemes: -ise (or –ize), -ate, -ify
Inflectional morphemes:
3rd person singular: –s (He walks)
past simple tense: –ed (He walked)
past participle –ed, -n
(walked, shown)
present participle: -ing
(walking, showing)
Grammatical Function: The verb is the only absolutely essential component of a sentence (at least in written English)
Verb types
Dynamic (action) verbs (doing)
Walk, fantasise, google, sleep
Stative (state) verbs (being)
Be, feel, know, have (meaning possess), understand
Stative verbs are not used in continuous tenses in unmarked (neutral) contexts
We can’t say I am understanding you. I am having three brothers.
- but what about ‘I’m hearing you…’ ‘I’m loving it…’
Verb types
Verbs can be
Transitive (has an object):
Ian McEwan wrote ‘Atonement’
Intransitive (has no object):
Something terrible happens in the story.
Ditransitive (two object verbs):
Robbie sent a letter to Cecilia.
Verb types
Copular verbs (Linking verbs or complement verbs)
They tell you more about the subject
The complement completes the meaning of the verb
Be, seem , look, smell, become
Ian McEwan is a fantastic writer.
Keira Knightly looks incredible in that green dress.
Verb types
Phrasal verbs
Made up of a ‘normal’ or common verb plus a particle (adverb or preposition)
look after, log on, show off, put up with
Briony made up a story about Robbie (invent)
James McAvoy grew up in Glasgow.(spent his childhood)
My husband is trying to give up smoking. (quit)
Tense and Aspect
In English, verbs are only inflected for two tenses: present simple and past simple.
We can also denote
The Perfect Aspect (whether something has been completed or not)
The Continuous Aspect (whether an action is in progress or not)
English Verb Tenses
The form of the tenses in English is determined by two things: Time Frame and Aspect.
There are three basic Time Frames: Past, Present and Future
There are four different Aspects: Simple, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous.
English Verb Tenses
| TIME FRAME | ASPECT | |||
| Simple | Continuous | Perfect | Perfect Continuous | |
| Present | Simple Present Walk/walks | Present Continuous Is/are walking | Present Perfect Has/have walked | Present Perfect Continuous Has/have been walking |
| Past | Simple Past Walked | Past Continuous Was walking | Past Perfect Had walked | Past Perfect Continuous Had been walking |
| Future | Simple Future Will walk | Future Continuous Will be walking | Future Perfect Will have walked | Future Perfct Continuous Will have been walking |
Future
There is no such thing as a single future tense in English. We talk about the future in several ways:
I will have a party next Saturday
I’m having a party next Saturday
I’m going to have a party next Saturday
There’s a party next Saturday
We’ll be having a party next Saturday
…and possibly…..there’s to be a party next Saturday
Teaching tenses
In what order do we usually teach the tenses?
Which would you teach first?
Which would you never teach?
Why?
On what do you base your choice? (Don’t say “the textbook”!!”
Voice
Verbs can be used in
The Active Voice
Roger Federer beat Andy Murray.
The Passive Voice
Andy Murray was beaten by Rafael Nadal.
Intransitive verbs cannot be used in the passive. We can’t say:
Something awful was happened to me on the way to work.
Participles
The –ing participle (so-called present participle) and the –ed participle (so-called past participle) can also be used in participial phrases
Driving to Lightening Ridge, we saw hundreds of kangaroos.
I collapsed in a heap, exhausted by my day’s hard work.
And as adjectives
‘Atonement’ was a very moving film. I was very moved by the film.
-ing participle
The –ing participle can also be used as noun - called a gerund.
Gerunds behave exactly the same as nouns
They can be the subjects or objects of sentences
Shopping is her favourite hobby.
They can come after prepositions
I’m looking forward to seeing you.
They can be modified by adjectives
Eating biscuits is bad for you
Verb Chains
There are a number of verbs in English that tend to be followed by other verb forms (called non-finite forms), forming verb ‘chains’.
Some are followed by the infinitive
I want to go home and just sit and read a book.
Australia has decided to postpone the cricket tour of Pakistan.
Some are followed by the gerund
I enjoy watching movies.
I’m afraid I keep talking about tennis.
Some can be followed by either
I love to stop and smell the roses.
I love stopping and smelling the roses.
………..is there any meaning difference here?
Learner Difficulties
Irregular past tense forms
Inappropriate verb chains (He made me to do it. I enjoy to go to movies)
Question and negative forms
Stative/dynamic confusion
Participle confusion
Passive voice
TENSES in general
Adjectives
Semantic: describing words
Structural: derivational morphemes: -ful, -ive, -ish, - able, -ent, -ant
inflectional morphemes: SOME adjectives inflect when making comparatives and superlatives –er, -est. faster, stronger. uglier,
Grammatical Function: adjectives come between a determiner and a noun (attributive) a handsome young man
Or after a copular verb (predictive) Tom Hanks is sensational in his new movie.
That curry smells delicious.
Order of adjectives
When we want to use more than one adjective before a noun, what order should we put them in?
Are there rules?
Lists of more than 3 adjectives used together are rare in both spoken and written English but the basic rules are worth teaching.
Comparison of adjectives
Short adjectives (one syllable)
Add –er and –est
The superlative must have ‘the’
bigger, the brightest
Long adjectives (3 syllables and more)
Use ‘more’ or ‘most’ before the normal form
more excruciating, the most delightful
Two syllable adjectives
Most 2 syllable adjectives use ‘more’
more boring, more careless, more gorgeous
2 syllable adjectives ending in –y add –er and –est
lovelier, easier
A few can use either method
commoner, more common, handsomer, more handsome
Gradeable and non-gradeable adjectives
Most adjectives are gradeable. (hot, wet, interesting, jealous) We can talk about the degree (or grade) of hotness or wetness. We do this by using intensifying adverbs such as very, really, fairly, incredibly, pretty, bloody
Some adjectives express extreme qualities (terrified, boiling, starving)
With these adjectives (ungradeable) we can only use extreme intensifying adverbs such as utterly, absolutely
Thus we say
I’m very hot
But I’m absolutely starving
Learner difficulties
Comparisons
Order of adjectives
Position of adjectives
Confusion between adjectives and adverbs
Gradeable vs non-gradeable
Confusion between participial adjectives (interesting/interested)
Adverbs
Semantic: describing direction, location, time, manner frequency and degree
Structural:derivational: some –ly
Inflectional: a few inflect for comparative and superlative
Grammatical function: adverbs modify verbs She drives carefully.
But they can also intensify adjectives You look absolutely marvellous.
Other adverbs She works incredibly hard
Whole sentences Unfortunately, there’s no coffee left.
They can come initially, medially or finally in a sentence,
Learner difficulties
Confusion with adjectives
She speaks English real good. (There is a lot of slippage with native speakers with this one)
I speak English easier than I write it.
Word order
She beautifully speaks English
I like very much Australian wine
Auxiliaries Primary Auxiliaries
To be
To do
To have
Each of these verbs has a dual role, as a normal verb (to be is also a copular verb) and as an auxiliary helping other verbs to make other forms
To be is used
with the Present Participle to make the continuous tenses
with the Past Participle to make the passive
To do is used
to make questions and negatives in the present simple and Past simple
To have is used
with the Past participle to make the Perfect tenses
Auxiliaries Modals
Nine verbs: can, will, may, shall, would, could, might, should, must (plus semi-modals need and ought to)
Used to express possibility, desirability, doubt etc.
Auxiliaries Modals
They have their own rules
Take infinitive without ‘to’ (bare infinitive)
No special 3rd person singular form
Form negatives by adding ‘not’
Form questions by inverting
Limited in tenses
Cannot be preceded by another modal
Learner Difficulties
confusion between special rules for modals and rules for normal verbs
multiple meanings and functions of modals (It may rain. You may leave the room)
Pronouns
Pronouns stand in place of a noun
There are:
Personal pronouns (my, your etc)
reflexive pronouns (myself etc)
demonstrative pronouns (this, that)
relative pronouns who, which, that)
quantifiers (one, several, much etc) can be used as pronouns (I haven’t got one)
‘’dummy’ subjects ‘it’ and ‘there’
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are the most highly inflected class in the English language
They inflect for
Gender (he/she)
Number (I/we)
Case (I/me/mine)
Learner difficulties
gender, number and case inflections, (especially where the L1 does not have gender differentiation)
confusion between pronouns and determiners
Prepositions
Are followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase
Make connections between words
Can be
One word (by, with, from)
Several words (on account of, in the event of)
Learner difficulties
Minimal intrinsic meaning
Each one can have many different meanings
Illogical
Differences from L1
Difficult to hear in continuous speech
Determiners
Articles a, an, the
This/that/these/those (demonstrative adjectives)
My, your, his etc (possessive adjectives)
Quantifiers much/many/some/any/few/little etc
Numbers
Ordinals (first, last, next, thirty-first)
Determiners always come before a noun
Sometimes one or more adjectives can come between the determiner and the noun
There cannot be two determiners together
Articles
(‘a’ ‘an’ ‘the’ and zero article)
Depend on whether the noun that follows is
Singular or plural
Countable or uncountable
General or specific
Learner difficulties
Everything to do with articles is problematic
Some languages do not have articles at all
Articles can be difficult to hear
Differences in meaning appear slight
Need to know about countability of nouns
Rules of usage very complicated
Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or)
Subordinating conjunctions (because, although, since, if, after)
Learner difficulties
confusion with prepositions
double conjunctions
sentence structure in general
Jabberwocky
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'
