I have another difficulty which I ask for some help with.
I have just got a job with a Mexican oil company exec, one hour a day. He has very advanced English and the course book we are using “American Inside Out” is designed for this kind of learner.
We start with a look at adverbials – some very confusing explanations about longer adverbials coming at the end of the sentence (what about ‘on the whole’ for example), and I only got three out of five on one of the exercises on adverbials and I’m British born.
How could I teach the position of adverbials in a more student and teacher friendly way? Are there any communicative activities that you could think of? Thanks in advance for your suggestions,
Mark
Advanced English- Adverbial position
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
Adverbials
Wha'z up?
It might be helpful if you gave more examples of your situation, examples of the exercises perhaps.
Chow for Now,
Examples Would Be Helpful In Motown Gary B.
It might be helpful if you gave more examples of your situation, examples of the exercises perhaps.
Chow for Now,
Examples Would Be Helpful In Motown Gary B.
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LarryLatham
- Posts: 1195
- Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 6:33 pm
- Location: Aguanga, California (near San Diego)
Adverbials
Mark,
Actually, I just wanted to remind you that a good many adverbials are "sentence adverbials" which comment on the entire sentence in which they appear. Frankly, they often come at the beginning of the sentence, although they can alternatively come at the end--as if you didn't think of using it until you'd already uttered the sentence, as it were. They even can be placed in the middle of certain sentences, interestingly, especially if those are compound sentences. Adverb placement is extremely flexible, it seems. As a suggestion, one of the ways you might work with your student is to ask him to look at a list of adverbs (or adverbial expressions) and decide which of them can be used as "sentence adverbials". Examples of these are, as I'm sure you've noticed, sprinkled above.
Larry Latham
Actually, I just wanted to remind you that a good many adverbials are "sentence adverbials" which comment on the entire sentence in which they appear. Frankly, they often come at the beginning of the sentence, although they can alternatively come at the end--as if you didn't think of using it until you'd already uttered the sentence, as it were. They even can be placed in the middle of certain sentences, interestingly, especially if those are compound sentences. Adverb placement is extremely flexible, it seems. As a suggestion, one of the ways you might work with your student is to ask him to look at a list of adverbs (or adverbial expressions) and decide which of them can be used as "sentence adverbials". Examples of these are, as I'm sure you've noticed, sprinkled above.
Larry Latham
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Norm Ryder
- Posts: 118
- Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2003 9:10 pm
- Location: Canberra, Australia
Mark
Maybe you could get your man to collect a few English reports - especially speeches, interviews or journal articles - from his company. They're usually full of qualifying adverbials. Get him to highlight them first; and then you can let him explain to you what part of each statement he thinks each one is qualifying, to what extent and why. I assume he's learning English because his company has branches in English-speaking countries, so he should have access to this sort of material.
.... Then you can go back to your study, and see which category in your grammar book matches his examples!
Norm.
Maybe you could get your man to collect a few English reports - especially speeches, interviews or journal articles - from his company. They're usually full of qualifying adverbials. Get him to highlight them first; and then you can let him explain to you what part of each statement he thinks each one is qualifying, to what extent and why. I assume he's learning English because his company has branches in English-speaking countries, so he should have access to this sort of material.
.... Then you can go back to your study, and see which category in your grammar book matches his examples!
Norm.
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LarryLatham
- Posts: 1195
- Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 6:33 pm
- Location: Aguanga, California (near San Diego)
Mark,
I'd just like to heartily endorse Norm's suggestion. It has several wonderful features:
1. Your student will work with materials and language he himself collects and deems appropriate to his English study.
2. He will study the language and identify those particular parts which are relevant to your lesson. What's important here is that he will have to think. It brings him cognitively into the process.
3. He explains it to you rather than the reverse, again bringing his brain into play. If he errs, you can ask him questions designed to guide him into seeing his own mistakes.
4. Although it's certainly likely to be challanging to your student, and it's certainly not "games and light-hearted fun", his deep involvment in the learning process surely will make it interesting to him.
This is a great one-on-one suggestion. You can build on it for ideas on how to proceed with other lessons on other parts of the language. The main thing is to get your student personally involved.
Larry Latham
I'd just like to heartily endorse Norm's suggestion. It has several wonderful features:
1. Your student will work with materials and language he himself collects and deems appropriate to his English study.
2. He will study the language and identify those particular parts which are relevant to your lesson. What's important here is that he will have to think. It brings him cognitively into the process.
3. He explains it to you rather than the reverse, again bringing his brain into play. If he errs, you can ask him questions designed to guide him into seeing his own mistakes.
4. Although it's certainly likely to be challanging to your student, and it's certainly not "games and light-hearted fun", his deep involvment in the learning process surely will make it interesting to him.
This is a great one-on-one suggestion. You can build on it for ideas on how to proceed with other lessons on other parts of the language. The main thing is to get your student personally involved.
Larry Latham