![you may use it on the whiteboard
during your classes.
Parentheses/brackets
These are parentheses (), and are
often known as simply being
‘brackets’. However, the
term bracket actually refers to the
angular kind [], and has a different
use.
Parentheses are used in a number of
types of writing, can be replaced by
commas in most cases, and add
additional or surplus information to a
sentence. In contrast, brackets are
usually used in technical writing or to
add extra information that clarifies
the situation.
The party (which was usually held every
year) was cancelled because of the
storm.
It was the last time their parents saw
them [the missing girls].
For most students, learning to use
parenthesis to add extra information
to a sentence will be useful enough.
However, if you have a more
advanced class, you could practice the
different uses of brackets and
parenthesis by giving the students
sentences, and having them add
certain pieces of information with the
appropriate punctuation. With this,
they’ll need to assess if the
information was essential to
understand the context of the
sentence or not.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/m2wordsandpunctuation-250126143227-58a74340/85/MODULE-2-WORDS-AND-PUNCTUATION-LECTURE-docx-23-320.jpg)
MODULE 2:WORDS AND PUNCTUATION LECTURE.docx
- 1. WORDS AND PUNCTUATION – INTRODUCTION In this module, we’re going to explore the topics of words and punctuation. It’s important to learn about these topics because an English teacher needs to have a good understanding of the language itself. You should be familiar with the different kinds of words, how words are constructed, and how punctuation is used in English. Grammar isn’t the most exciting of topics to cover, but it’s essential to cover this at the start of your TESOL course so that we can build on this understanding when it comes to planning lessons and selecting suitable activities for your students. Types of word – Introduction You’ll likely already be aware of some of the topics we’ll cover here – such as verbs and nouns etc. However, when it comes to teaching them to students, there are certain techniques that are useful to learn. For other topics, such as sentence structures and tenses, it may be daunting how much there is to remember. It’s important to note here that early on in your TEFL career, you won’t be expected to have full mastery of every intricate detail about the English language. There are countless grammar patterns, phrase structures, word roots, rule exceptions and more. Your knowledge of these will build as you gain more classroom experience and will add to your value as a seasoned teacher. What is vital, however, is that you’re familiar with the frameworks and foundations of the language, and can use this understanding to prepare lessons for specific topics as you encounter them in your syllabus. Types of word – Nouns, verbs, adjectives Nouns, verbs and adjectives are usually the first types of words that your students will come across when starting to learn English. Below, we’ll cover what they are, and ideas on how to present them to students. Nouns Nouns are naming words and are used for things, places, people or ideas. They are often the very first
- 2. things taught to English learners and are the most basic type of word. Here are some examples of nouns: Pen/pencil Home/street Girl/boy Love/hate One of the great things about nouns is that they can be easily shown to students, and often learned quickly. A great way to begin teaching nouns can be with concrete objects which can be brought into the classroom, or with images on flashcards. This way, students can easily build an association with the new word, and the object or idea which it represents. There is also a subcategory of noun known as ‘proper nouns’. Proper nouns Proper nouns are the names of specific people/places/organizations, and come with a capitalized first letter. Examples of proper nouns: Jack, London, Asia. Proper nouns will usually be taught after regular nouns, as they require additional instruction to capitalize the first letter. When introducing them, it can help to provide plenty of contrast between generic objects such as ‘ball, cat, house’ and specific nouns such as ‘Lucy, China, Nike’. Verbs Verbs describe an action, or the state of a subject. There are several categories of verbs that exist which we’ll cover later in this course. Here are some simple verbs to start with: Eat, sleep, jump, watch. Think, feel, daydream. One thing to note about verbs is that they often change to reflect time or duration – for example: eat/ate/eaten/eating. Because of this, they can be one of the more challenging parts of your students’ learning. When teaching verbs it’s important to give clear examples to ensure that your students understand the action or state that’s being described. Key ways to do this can include acting out the verb, showing video clips, or clear images. It’s also a common practice to first teach the present tense of a verb, to avoid confusing students. Then afterwards introduce the past and future variations. To get beginners started with verbs, it can also help to pair their learning with a simple sentence structure such as ‘I like to…’ Or ‘I can…’. These sentences are immediately useful and give students a chance to practice the
- 3. new verbs without having to worry about tenses. Adjectives Adjectives are used to describe nouns. They are useful for adding accuracy, interest, deeper information and imagination to communication. Here are some examples of different types of adjectives: Red, blue, yellow. Hot, cold, windy. Pretty, ugly, expensive. New English learners will often start by learning colors as it’s simple to create a context for this kind of lesson, and it gives students a way to describe most objects and people. Types of word – Pronouns, adverbs, prepositions The following three types of words are often introduced after students have an initial grasp of the language, and when they can already form basic sentences. Pronouns Pronouns are words that are used in place of nouns. These words act like nouns and refer to something that was already identified during the conversation. Some of the most useful types of pronoun are personal pronouns, which are used in place of people or things. Examples include: I/we/you/she/he/it/they These words allow us to speak more freely, without needing to keep repeating a noun that has already been identified. For example, instead of saying: “Jack was hungry, so Jack opened Jack’s backpack and took out a sandwich” We can say: “Jack was hungry, so he opened his backpack and took out a sandwich”. Depending on their native language, gender pronouns may be difficult for some students to learn, as many languages do not have gender- specific ways to refer to others. An example of this can be seen with Mandarin, where the words ‘he’, ‘she’, and ‘it’ all use the same word ‘tā’. The written forms use different characters (‘他’, ‘她’, ‘它’) but the pronunciation and structure of the words stay the same. To counter this, it can help to use plenty of context when introducing how these words change in English. You can first introduce the concept of ‘he’ and ‘she’ with visual aids showing boys and girls doing different activities. As they grasp this concept, you can add additional people to the diagrams to introduce ‘they’, and build on from here with a range of
- 4. different scenarios to show personal possession such as with ‘his’, ‘her’, and ‘their’. Prepositions Prepositions express relationships between other words. They can exist as single words, or as prepositional phrases which contain several words together. Here are some examples: In, on, under, behind, in front of. Prepositions are a great stepping stone to take students from simple sentences, to more complex and useful ones. One way to demonstrate and teach them can be through using classroom objects and asking where certain objects are located in relation to others. You can also add an active element by having students move around the classroom and describe where they are standing by using these prepositions. 🎬 See how a teacher practices prepositions in a classroom In the video below you’ll be able to see an example of a real ESL teacher helping beginners to get to grips with prepositions. Can’t see the video? Click to open on YouTube. Adverbs An adverb is a more advanced part of speech that changes a verb or adjective with reference to place, time, manner or degree. Examples of adverbs: Very, thoroughly (degree) Here, there (place) Badly, wonderfully (manner) Later, earlier, yesterday, tomorrow (time) Adverbs are often introduced after students have an understanding of basic grammar, and a good amount of vocabulary to work with. One approach to start introducing adverbs can be to discuss activities, using how, when and where to get your students to describe the actions in further detail. By doing this, you can lead the students into using sentences that need adverbs, and can prompt them with the correct words when they get stuck. Types of word – Conjunctions, interjections, & determiners These final types of words are often small in form, but can be useful in very different ways once mastered by students. They’re a little bit more complicated than the previous words we’ve covered, but if you read through their descriptions and examples carefully, you’ll soon build familiarity with them. Conjunctions Conjunctions are words that are used to join together sentences, ideas, phrases, or clauses. They are usually fairly small words and many of them
- 5. are taught early to new English learners. Examples include: And, if, but, or, for. Conjunctions fall into two groups – coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions link items that have equal status/importance grammatically. The commonest coordinating conjunctions are “and”, “or”, and “but”. Examples of coordinating conjunctions: Uncomfortable but happy Apple pie or jelly Their parents arrived, and they called room service. I thought it would snow, but it didn’t. You’ll be able to notice how in these examples, the joined halves are equal in value/importance. One way to teach coordinating conjunctions can be to give students a simple sentence such as “I want to eat…” and then having students add to this sentence with ‘and’, or give alternative options using ‘or’. If the two items being linked do not have equal status/importance grammatically, then a subordinating conjunction is used. Common subordinating conjunctions include before, since, till, unless, whereas, whether. Examples of subordinating conjunctions: Businesses fail because they can’t pay their bills. I passed the test although I didn’t study. In these examples, the first halves “Businesses fail” and “I passed the test” are more dominant, and the resulting halves “they can’t pay their bills” and “I didn’t study” are weaker and rely upon information from the first half. A technique for teaching subordinating conjunctions can be to ask students why something happens and then help them to form a reply. An example here can be seen by asking “Why do you drink water?”, to which a student would reply “I drink water because I get thirsty”. Interjections Interjections are small comments that have specific meanings often caused by strong emotions. Interjections may not be essential to your students’ learning in terms of examinations, but are still important to help them better understand native speakers. Here are several common interjections: Oh dear, uh oh, huh.
- 6. A fun and effective way to introduce interjections can be to ask your students to notice the emotions on each other’s faces. You can then have the students try to match these emotions with appropriate interjections. Another approach could be to call out interjections and have students try to act out a suitable emotion. This is a sure-fire way to inject a little fun into your class. Determiners Determiners are words that are placed before nouns to help show which noun is being referred to. It might sound quite complicated, but don’t worry, it’s actually quite simple. Look at this sentence: “I want to eat apple” – It’s not really clear what the speaker is referring to. However, if we add different determiners, the situation becomes much more clear. Now look at these sentences: “I want to eat the apple”, “I want to eat an apple”, “I want to eat that apple”, I want to eat this apple”, I want to eat those apples”, I want to eat many apples”, I want to eat ten apples”, I want to eat another apple”. All of these words are determiners: an, that, this, those, many, ten, another. They help us to understand the context surrounding the nouns used in sentences. You can help students to learn about determiners by asking them questions involving “which” and “how many”. Examples of such questions could be “How many apples do you want to eat?” and “Which apple do you want to eat?” Types of word – Grouping different word classes Now that we’re familiar with the different types of words that exist in the English language, it can be useful to understand how they’re often classified into two groups – major words and minor words. Major/content/lexical (or open) word class There are five types of words included in the major (often referred to as “lexical” or “open”) class. Major (open) words types: Verbs Nouns Adjectives Adverbs Interjections They are termed major, content, or lexical because they carry most of the content or meaning of a sentence. They are also called open because
- 7. new words can still be added to these classes. For example, recent new nouns added to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary include: Crowdfunding: obtaining funding (as for a new enterprise) by asking for contributions from a large number of people, especially from the online community. Freegan: an activist who scavenges for free food (as in waste receptacles at stores and restaurants) as a means of reducing consumption of resources. Catfish: a person who sets up a false social networking profile for deceptive purposes. Each year, hundreds of new words like these are added to popular dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam- Webster’s dictionary. Minor or grammatical (or closed) word class There are four types of words included in the minor (often referred to as “closed”) class. Minor (closed) words types: Conjunctions Determiners Prepositions Pronouns They are termed minor or grammatical because they tend to perform grammatical functions such as relating expressions to each other. An example here could be seen with how “of” relates “the back” to “house” in the following: “back of the house” These are also called closed classes as no new words will be added to these groups in the future. They are also sometimes referred to as structure words because their function is to contribute to the structure of phrases, clauses, and sentences, rather than to add to the meaning. When teaching English, you’ll often see words referred to as content/structure words. This might be when certain grammatical patterns are being taught, or when explaining certain aspects of how we use the English language (“sentence stress” is one such topic which we’ll cover later in the course). A full recap of word classes: As a recap of the things we’ve just learned, this table can provide a good reference:
- 8. Word type: Example: Teaching tips: Nouns: Naming words used for things, places, people or ideas. Pen/pencil Home/street Girl/boy Love/hate Use concrete objects – realia, pictures, etc. Pronouns: Used in place of nouns, referring to things previously identified in conversation. I/we/you/she/he/it/they Start with introducing people and possessions. Verbs: Describe an action or state. Eat, sleep, jump, watch. Think, feel, daydream. Use visual demonstrations, and start with the present tense. Adjectives: Used for describing nouns. Red, blue, yellow Hot, cold, windy Pretty, ugly, expensive. Start with learning colors, or giving basic descriptions of previously learned nouns. Prepositions: Used to express relationships between other words. In, on, under, behind, in front of. Use objects and ask where certain objects are in relation to others.
- 9. Word type: Example: Teaching tips: Conjunctions: Used to join together sentences, ideas, phrases or clauses. These can be split into coordinating or subordinating conjunctions. And, if, but, or, for. Have students compile lists of objects using ‘and’ or alternatives to someone else’s suggested objects using ‘or’ or ‘but’. Adverbs: Describe the manner, time, degree or place in which a verb is done. Very, thoroughly (degree) Here, there (place) Badly, wonderfully (manner) Later, earlier, tomorrow (time) Introduce activities and then use ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘where’ to get your students to describe the actions further. Interjections: Small comments that have specific meanings usually caused by strong emotions. Oh dear, uh oh, huh. Pair facial expressions, emotions, or actions with suitable interjections. Determiners: Placed before nouns to help show which noun is being referred to. The, an, that, this, those, many, ten, another. Use questions involving “which” and “how many”, then have students reply. Highlight the different determiners that could be used in their replies. 📝 Exercise: Compare this table with the notes that you made at the start, and consider how well you did. For further practice, try again without using the table above. If you’re unsure about any words, you can use a 📖 free online dictionary. It’s a great habit for teachers to get comfortable researching words in this way.
- 10. By being aware of these different types of words yourself, you’ll be able to teach your students about their uses, and how to form sentences with them. Next, we’ll look at the different types of verbs which exist. Types of verb – Action and stative To begin with, we’ll look at action and stative verbs. These are two of the more straightforward types of verb, and can be relatively simple to explain to students. Action verbs Action verbs are used to describe actions and movements. They’re also known as ‘dynamic verbs’, and are often the first ones people think of. Examples include: Speak, play, work, eat, go. When introducing action verbs to beginners it can help to start off simply, beginning with teaching a few basic actions. Such lessons can be livened up with dances or games such as Simon says. As students get comfortable with using basic action verbs, there are some key points that you can start to introduce to them. Teaching notes: Negative sentences which use action verbs are usually constructed with “don’t” or “do not” followed by the action verb. For example – “Don’t go”, “Do not speak to him”. When using the third person (‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘it’) an ‘s’ sound is added to the end of the word, so “I play” but “He plays”. For words with a consonant sound, the written form takes a simple ‘s‘ at the end. However, verbs with a vowel sound can become more difficult – for example “go” becomes “goes”. Once students are confident with using action verbs in the present tense, for example “eat”, you can then show how to use these verbs with other tenses – such as “ate, eaten”. If you’re not familiar with all of the tenses yet, don’t worry – we’ll cover them in the next module. Stative verbs These verbs describe a state instead of an action – they’re often associated with verbs covering thinking, feeling, sensing or owning. Examples include: Like, hate, want, see, hear, believe, ima gine, remember and appreciate. Many verbs can be action or stative depending on how they’re used; “He looks sick” and “She smells nice” are stative while “He looks at the clock
- 11. frequently” and “She smells the flowers” are action verbs. One thing to ensure students know, is that stative verbs are rarely used in continuous tenses. For example, “I am hating”, “He is wanting”, or “They are believing”, are common mistakes among students. When it comes to teaching stative verbs, it can be useful to choose activities based around students’ likes, dislikes, or opinions. For example, asking students about their hobbies, and how they feel about them. Types of verb – Transitive, intransitive, auxiliary, modal Transitive/Intransitive, Auxiliary, and Modal verbs can be more challenging for students to grasp. Identifying these types of verbs will require students to look deeper at the context of the sentence and the intended meaning. As such, it’s recommended to make sure students have a good understanding of basic verbs before explicitly teaching these. Transitive and intransitive verbs Transitive verbs are those which need to be accompanied by a direct object when used in a sentence. For example: The phrase “I love…” has to be followed by something; “I love puppies/ice- cream/my mother“. Just the phrase “I love” on its own doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t form a complete thought. Intransitive verbs don’t need to be accompanied by an object to make sense, for example: “She laughed.” or “We talked.” are full sentences that don’t need any extra information. Click for more examples It’s important to note that not all verbs are strictly transitive or intransitive. Some verbs can be used either way depending on the context of the sentence. For example, “She walked for hours in the rain.” “walked” is intransitive because it does not require an object. However, in the sentence “She walked her dog”, the verb “walked” is transitive because it requires the object “dog” after it. 🙋 How to check if a verb is transitive or intransitive: All you need to do is check if the verb is followed by a direct object. For example, in the sentence “She bought a new car“, the word “car” is the object, and “bought” is the transitive verb. You can also try to remove the object and see if the sentence still makes sense – “She bought” wouldn’t make a
- 12. complete sentence so the verb must be transitive. Auxiliary verbs These verbs are used to support the ‘main’ or most dominant verb in a sentence. Read these sentences below and try to identify which are the main, and which are the auxiliary verbs (hover your mouse over for the answers): He is reading a book. I have never seen Star Wars. The three most common auxiliary verbs in English are “be”, “do” and “have”, and they are often used for grammatical reasons, rather than introducing a direct change to a sentence’s meaning. When teaching auxiliary verbs to students, it can help to ask students to underline all the verbs in a series of sentences, then pick out which verb gives the sentence its meaning and which are the ‘extra’ verbs. Modal verbs Modals are a type of auxiliary verb which express ability, permission, or possibility. Examples of common modal verbs are: Can, could, might, must, should, will a nd would. When introducing these to new learners, it can help to group them by certain themes. Grouping modal verbs by theme: 💪 Ability – teach can and its past tense, could, as in “I couldn’t play the piano but now I can.” 👮 Permission – teach can and may, as in “Can I/ May I open a window?” 🔮 Possibility – introduce could, may, might and will as a way to talk about possibilities or certainties in the future. 🧭 Obligation – discuss the difference between could, should and must and compare how strongly the speaker feels. “You could ask the doctor about your rash”, “You should ask the doctor about your rash” and “You must ask the doctor about your rash” all have a different sense of urgency. By adding some context that the students can relate to, it can help to clarify the subtle differences between these verbs, while also providing them with phrases that they can put into use in their daily lives. Types of verb – Phrasal, regular and irregular The final types of verbs which we’ll cover are Phrasal, Regular and Irregular. Students can often find these difficult, as there are no overall
- 13. rules which they can use to identify these verbs or construct them for themselves. Teaching these will be more of an on-going process, requiring lots of exposure to them, in a variety of contexts. Phrasal verbs Verbs which are made up of several words together are known as phrasal verbs. They are usually formed with a verb combined with an adverb or preposition. Examples include: Take off, look into, get away with, or put up with. Phrasal verbs are often tough for students to understand because it can be difficult to guess their meaning from the separate parts, and one phrasal verb can have lots of different meanings. For example, a student who knows the word “drag” isn’t always going to be able to guess what “The meeting dragged on.” means. Similarly, a student familiar with “take off” to mean removing clothes, would likely be confused by the sentence “The aeroplane took off at 6.30″. When teaching these, it can be helpful to use lots of different example sentences to show how these phrasal verbs work in different contexts. And remember that learning these phrases is an ongoing process as students improve their English – don’t try to pile them all on at once! Regular and irregular verbs All verbs have three different versions; the present, the past and the past participle. This is something we’ll cover in more detail in the next module. Regular verbs are those which simply need the addition of “ed” at the end of the word, to be used in the past, or past participle tenses. For example: Present Past Past participle want wanted wanted play played played talk talked talked Irregular verbs don’t follow this rule – instead the past forms are all different. Present Past Past participle eat ate eaten see saw seen
- 14. Present Past Past participle know knew known Unfortunately, there are no all- encompassing rules for irregular verbs and students mostly just need to memorize them. When teaching students about such verbs, it can help to lay out the different forms as seen in the tables above. Verb type: Description: Examples: Action verbs Verbs that express physical or mental actions. Speak, play, work, eat, go. Stative verbs Verbs that describe a state of being. Like, hate, want, see, hear, believe, imagine, an d appreciate. Transiti ve verbs Verbs that require an object to make sense. I love puppies / love ice cream / I love my mother. Intransi tive verbs Verbs that do not need direct objects to complete their meaning. She laughed / we talked. Auxiliar y verbs Verbs used in forming He is reading a book. I have never seen Star Wars.
- 15. Verb type: Description: Examples: the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. The primary auxi liary verbs are “be”, “do”, and “have”. Modal verbs A kind of auxiliary verb used to express necessity or possibility. Can, could, might, may, must, should, shall, will , and would. Phrasal verbs Verbs made up of several words used together, usually a verb combined with an adverb or preposition. Take off, look into, get away with, or put up with. Regular verbs Verbs that follow standard patterns of inflection. Want/wanted Play/played Talk/talked
- 16. Verb type: Description: Examples: Irregula r verbs Verbs that do not follow standard patterns of inflection – changing with tense. Eat/ate/eaten See/saw/seen Know/knew/known Affixes – Introduction In the next few lessons, we will cover Affixes, which are another aspect of the English language often used without conscious thought. However, it’s important for students to learn about affixes as it can help to greatly increase their understanding of how many English words are constructed. Learning about affixes will also help students to work out the meaning of certain new words without relying on a dictionary, which can serve as a great driver of motivation. What are affixes? Affixes are essentially just parts that are added to words to alter their meaning or create new words altogether. The most common types of affixes are prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are attached to the front of a word, with the most common being ‘un’. You can see the use of this prefix with a variety of verbs, where it alters the original word to give the opposite meaning: Undo Unable Unafraid Suffixes are additions at the end of a word that alter the meaning, create a new word or change its grammatical function. A common suffix is ‘er’, which can be attached to verbs to create a noun, or adjective: Trainer Walker Happier Affix examples There are many types of prefix and suffix in the English language, each with different meanings and rules of use. Check out these examples below:
- 17. Prefi x Meaning Example mis wrongly, incorrect ly misunderstan d, misheard. mul ti many multitool, multicultural. pre before predetermin ed, precede, preview. re again relive, revisit, realign. Suffi x Meaning Example able ability likeable, doable. dom a state freedom, boredom. less lacking, without voiceless, meaningless. en change state, become broaden, harden. Affixes – Rules of use When it comes to teaching students about affixes, there are certain rules and notes which can be useful to learn. These rules can enable students not only to decipher the meaning of certain words, but also to create their own words without help. This might not seem like such a big step, but it’s a huge moment in a student’s journey when they first piece together a new word for themselves, and can give them a great sense of achievement. Prefix rules Students will often struggle to match prefixes with compatible base words. For example, it’s easy for a native speaker to see that “unlegal/imlegal” is incorrect, however, new learners won’t be aware of this. Luckily, when it comes to negative prefixes (ones that change a word to hold an opposite meaning) there are a number of rules which can be applied in most situations for matching suitable prefixes with base words: Rough negative prefix rules: Words starting with ‘l’ have the prefix ‘il’ – illegal, illegible Words starting with ‘r’ use the prefix ‘ir’ – irrelevant, irresponsible Words starting with ‘m’, ‘b’ or ‘p’ use ‘im’ – impatient, immature, imbalance
- 18. This won’t help students to match all base words with a correct prefix, but it’ll help when dealing with many negative prefixes – which are one of the most common uses. Suffix rules Suffixes can be tricky, as there aren’t many rules that can be widely applied, however there are a few points that students should be made aware of. First, students should know that unlike prefixes, suffixes can change the spelling of the original word. This can often make it difficult for students to pick out the base word from the suffix itself. For example: Beauty + ‘ful’ = beautiful Second, similar to prefixes, not all suffixes can be applied to all base words. However, with suffixes there’s less of a structure to which words can take which suffixes, and your students will have to learn and memorize these on a word-by-word basis. Third, each suffix can have a different meaning depending on what type of word it is attached to, and these will also have to be memorized. For example: ‘er’ + big = bigger (more big) But ‘er’ + train = trainer (someone who trains) As these can be a little complicated for new teachers, in the next page we’ll look at some further tips for introducing affixes to your students. Affixes – Teaching affixes It can help to start by first introducing common ones such as the prefix ‘un’ or suffix ‘ly’. This will ensure that your students encounter them regularly, and can build their knowledge of how these specific affixes are used with a number of different words. It can also be overwhelming for students to learn about prefixes and suffixes at the same time. As such, it can be easier for them to start with prefixes, and then move on to suffixes at a later point. Techniques for teaching affixes Once your students understand what affixes are, you can use some of the following techniques to help your class practice using them. 💡 Useful techniques: • Draw attention to affixes when they come up naturally in your lessons. By breaking words down into their different parts, students will start to analyze words for themselves and build a greater understanding of how specific affixes are used.
- 19. • Divide students into groups, then give each group a pile of word cards and a chart with three columns. Each group should work together to cut the words apart, into their root, suffix, and prefix, and arrange them in the appropriate columns. • Put a number of cards face down on the table. Each card should have a word that your students know well and can be combined with a suffix or prefix that they also know. Then have students take it in turns to pick a card and say the word on its underside, but with an affix added. If correct, they get to keep the card or gain a point. • Introduce a specific prefix or suffix and help your students to build a ‘word tree‘ by listing all the different words which can use this affix. This can be turned into a competition by splitting the class into groups, and having them compete to create the tree with the most correct words. Learning about affixes will be an important and ongoing part of your lessons. While students are likely to find it difficult at first, with enough time, examples, and patience, they’ll build up an understanding of how to use them. Punctuation – Periods, commas, and colons Periods (full stops) Periods (also referred to as “full stops”) are used at the end of sentences, and are probably the most common form of punctuation that your students will need to use. They can also be placed at the end of abbreviations, which are used to shorten the names of people, places, common objects and scientific terms. I like to ski. Mr. Mrs. Ph.D. M.D. Teaching students to place periods at the end of a sentence can be rather simple – explaining the rule, providing opportunities for them to practice writing basic sentences, and then correcting any mistakes. Another form of this type of punctuation can be seen with ellipses, which are used in place of words that have been left out of the text. One
- 20. thing to note here is that when an ellipsis is used instead of the removed words, the sentence must still retain its original meaning, for example: She knocked on the door and waited for a moment but nobody was home. She knocked on the door… but nobody was home. For teaching ellipses, it can often be helpful to teach them through awareness of how they occur in different situations. By allowing your students to listen to taped speech, you’ll be able to highlight natural pauses for thought, and show your students where they could use this punctuation in their own writing. Commas Commas are generally used as a break within a sentence. They indicate that the reader needs to take a breath or a pause before continuing their reading, and greatly affect the tone and flow of a piece of writing. They are also used to separate lists of items in a sentence. See the examples below: Although he enjoyed the movie, he didn’t want to watch it again. I like rice, eggs, chicken, and ham. When teaching students about commas, it can be helpful to emphasize how their use has an impact on how the sentence is said out loud. As they progress, students will encounter more situations to use commas, such as with different sentence structures. We’ll cover these in the next module. For additional reading on commas, you can take some time to review this resource here: Full range of commas uses. Colons and semicolons Colons are used to add additional information to a sentence, to add lists, or to introduce a quote, for example: She was too late to see the movie: her car had broken down. To renew your passport you’ll need: 2 photographs, your old passport, and a self-addressed envelope. The last thing she said was: “I’ll always remember you.” Semi-colons are used to connect two independent clauses which are closely related to each other, for example: Marsha likes cats; I like dogs. She moved to Los Angeles; the countryside was too quiet for her. Choosing between colons and semicolons It can be easy to remember that when introducing lists and quotes you can use a colon, but when it comes to joining two independent clauses it can be more difficult to decide.
- 21. One school of thought surrounding this dilemma is to consider commas, semicolons, colons, and periods on a scale. Commas have the least impact on a sentence’s flow, and offer only a momentary pause. Semicolons are generally read with a slightly more noticeable break between the two clauses, colons introduce a larger pause, and periods have the largest of all these punctuation marks. Many native speakers struggle with these, so be sure to teach colons and semicolons using lots of context, and when your students are at a fairly advanced level. Punctuation – Apostrophes, question, exclamation, and quotation marks Apostrophes Apostrophes are used in contracted words where they stand in place of removed letters, or can be added on to the end of words with an ‘s’ to indicate possession. It’s hot today. The dog’s bed. When teaching apostrophes, it can help to teach these two uses separately to avoid confusion. Once students understand how to use apostrophes, gap fill worksheets can be great tools for giving them plenty of practice. In such exercises, students will have set sentences with apostrophes missing, and will need to choose the correct place to add them. Question and exclamation marks Question marks are used at the end of a sentence and indicate that the phrase is a question and requires an answer. It’s a fairly simple punctuation mark and will be one of the first that your students learn. Do you like carrots? Exclamation marks also go at the end of sentences to indicate heightened emotions, typically anger, surprise or other types of emphasis. I hate you! Teaching these can be rather straightforward and can often be combined with speaking or listening exercises. For example, having students write dialogues, or role-plays and then acting them out. Or through listening to recordings and then writing down whether a question mark or exclamation mark could have been used. Quotation marks Quotation marks are used to surround speech in creative writing, or to indicate direct quotes from other materials in academic writing. Typically, two small marks close together, one pair on each side of the quoted material, are used for most types of writing.
- 22. “What are you doing?” he asked. This is a fairly simple punctuation mark to teach. As a basic rule, you can teach students that if they are quoting someone’s actual words, whether from a text or spoken form, they’ll need to use quotation marks. Also be sure to take care with your students’ use of punctuation inside and outside of the quotation marks, ensuring that they use a period if the quote is used at the end of a sentence. Punctuation – Hyphens, dashes, brackets, and slashes Hyphens and dashes Hyphens are used to link words, or parts of words, to give new meanings. The most common example of using hyphens can be seen with combining two or more words that come before a noun that they act to modify, for example: Sugar-free soda In this example, the hyphenated words change the meaning of the noun ‘soda’. 📝 Exercise: Get a pen and paper, or open a document on your computer, and try to make a list of 10 different hyphenated words like the example above. Having a few examples stored in your memory can be good for when the topic might come up during one of your lessons. As for dashes, there are two different types that exist. The en dash is primarily used to indicate a span of time between numbers or dates, while the em dash indicates a break in speech or thought: The material is in chapters 7-9. The day was finally over – or so she thought. The primary differences between hyphens and dashes are their use as well as their appearance. Hyphens do not have spaces around them, whereas em dashes have a space on either side of them. The size of each type of dash is also different, with the hyphen the smallest and the em dash the largest. These punctuation types are not used very often, and are getting less popular with time. For this reason, they should be taught when they naturally come up in your lessons, or when dealing with advanced writing classes. Slashes The forward slash is used primarily to indicate the word ‘or’ without writing it. Someone had left his/her phone in the room. This punctuation type is usually used in informal writing when giving examples or describing alternatives. It can be useful to explain to students as
- 23. you may use it on the whiteboard during your classes. Parentheses/brackets These are parentheses (), and are often known as simply being ‘brackets’. However, the term bracket actually refers to the angular kind [], and has a different use. Parentheses are used in a number of types of writing, can be replaced by commas in most cases, and add additional or surplus information to a sentence. In contrast, brackets are usually used in technical writing or to add extra information that clarifies the situation. The party (which was usually held every year) was cancelled because of the storm. It was the last time their parents saw them [the missing girls]. For most students, learning to use parenthesis to add extra information to a sentence will be useful enough. However, if you have a more advanced class, you could practice the different uses of brackets and parenthesis by giving the students sentences, and having them add certain pieces of information with the appropriate punctuation. With this, they’ll need to assess if the information was essential to understand the context of the sentence or not.