CENTRO DE ESTUDIO DE IDIOMAS

01/03/2012

BA IN ELT 2012 ISAAC SENEZ

Unit 1 Lesson 2, 3 and 4 SENTENCE STRUCTURE

SENTENCE STRUCTURE
A sentence is a group of words, usually containing a verb, which expresses a thought in the form of a statement, question, instruction or exclamation. In short, a sentence is the basic unit of language. We are going to keep the same strategies. Look at the conference questions, read these materials, reflect on your experience and knowledge, go back and do the tasks from lesson two. As you work on the materials take some time off and post your comments to the forums. Remember that during the forums you should be ready to read, analyze and comment back to other participants' opinions, trying always to help each other. So, the comments for you are: Is it true that a sentence is a unit which begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (period), a question mark, or an exclamation mark ? How do we classify sentences? What do clauses have to do in sentences? Do we worry about sentence structure while we speak? How do you teach your students sentence structure? What would you recommend English teachers to do to improve their students understanding about sentence structure?

Go to Forum Conference 3 Lesson 3 . You should post your ideas and reply to at least three other people in order to get the points required for your conference. (4 contributions: 4 points) Deadline: March 8th, 2012.

In this lesson we will look at sentences in detail to analyse how they are formed. To identify a sentence we should take into account a given definition from Collins COBUILD Grammar :

A sentence is a group of words which express a statement, question or command. A sentence usually has a verb and a subject. It can be classified as a simple sentence, consisting of one clause, or a complex sentence, consisting of two or more clauses.

To analyse and expand your ideas about the structure of a simple sentence we will perform some tasks on Scott Thornburys book About Language, on pages 57-60. Do the 8 Tasks and post your responses to Forum About Language 57-60. Deadline: March 14th, 2012.

You have probably noticed the key elements of a sentence. Look at the ones below and write them in the corresponding spaces to form some sentences and post your responses to in a word documents in the Assignments tool. Deadline, March 18th, 2012.
The window Somebody Last night Broke
Verb phrase Object (noun phrase) Adverbial

Subject (noun phrase)

We can always change the order of these elements:

Adverbial Subject (noun phrase) Verb phrase Object (noun phrase)

Do we still have the same meaning? Does the sentence still make sense?
We have to consider the elements of a sentence from two perspectives: What they are in terms of the words that make them up. The function they perform in sentences. Some elements that have the same form can appear in different parts of the sentence with different functions a People b love c people

In the written language we recognise sentences because they begin with a capital letter and have a full stop at the end. However, in speaking it often is not clear when a sentence starts and another one finishes, and even in writing we can often choose whether to have a long stretch of language as one sentence or to divide it into two or more short sentences. In grammar, a complex sentence is the one which contains a main part and one or more other parts. We also mentioned before that complex sentences are the ones that include two or more clauses; therefore they also include two or more verbs. But, how are they combined in sentences? Could you find it out?
We know that complex sentences have two or more clauses. Ok? One of these is the main clause, which is finite and can stand on its own. The other one or ones are subordinate to this or in some way dependent on it. Non-finite clause Having taken his son to school, Main clause (finite clause) my sister began preparing the meal for the party.

Complex sentences generally cause particular problems for learners whose first language is not closely related to English, and these problems relate to comprehension as well as production. Often learners do not recognise and understand the structure of the sentence. Or they might recognise the structure but have difficulty in locating, for example, what the non-finite clause refers to or describes

MORE EXPERIENCE ON COMPLEX SENTENCES? GO TO SCOTT THORNBURYS BOOK ABOUT LANGUAGE AND WORK ON THE TASKS ON PAGES 61-65 WHICH CORRESPOND TO THE COMPLEX SENTENCE. GO TO FORUM ABOUT LANGUAGE 61-65 AND POST YOUR ANSWERS TO THE TASKS. DEADLINE: MARCH 21ST, 2011

This week we are going to work on the fourth forum with the topic from lesson four (the last one from the first unit) keeping the same strategies from the previous forums. Forum: 4th conference lesson 4 Unit 1

Look at the questions below and based on the tasks from lesson four and information from your own post your answers to three of them. Remember to read, analyze and comment back to other participants' opinions, trying always to help each other. You know that it is important AND A MUST to post your ideas and reply to at two other people in order to get the points required for your conference. Lets start! You have read some information about negation and interrogation patterns. X X X X X X What are negation and interrogation patterns? How are they structured? How do they behave within the English sentence? What is their impact in meaning and function? What are the most common problems you have faced while teaching them? How can we best teach these patterns to our students?

Keep up the hard work!

Deadline: March 26th, 2012