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[esl_prof]

Once again, excellent points, PS. In particular . . .

[peripatetic_soul]

Hello, esl_prof,

Sounds like a plan! Perhaps students could select 3-5 gerunds or infinitives at a time with high semantic load and ask them to use those in their writing and speaking. One idea would be to ask them to choose 3-5 verb phrases with the same preposition (to rely on, to depend on, to insist on) and write meaningful sentences or even short dialogues. Soon they'll encounter and become very cognizant of these VPs in other readings and media to which they are exposed.

We know translation and memorization just don't cut it, based on psychology research and the Human Memory Model (Shiffrin & Atkinson) which includes many types of memories -- sensory (haptic--tactile, echoic--auditory, etc.), procedural (for automaticity of skills and tasks, e.g., driving a car or riding a bicycle), episodic, semantic memory, etc.

I tell my students all the time that they have different memory systems located in different parts of the brain and perform different types of memory functions but in order to retain long-term, it first begins with sensory memory (which lasts about 1 second) and then progresses to STM (which lasts about 1-2 minutes) and eventually, depending on what they did with the new material, shall finally get encoded into LTM under which different memory steps are subsumed. Lots of steps, eh?

Case in point: one of my students' new vocabulary words from the Reading Strategies text with short passages was "skeptical." We discussed the different word forms, created a graphic organizer (spoked word cloud) with synonyms and examples. I also always prepare a power point with visuals, often comical or bizarre, to illustrate meaning (make it memorable, eh). I always ask them to associate the word with one they already know (tap pre-existing knowledge and make a semantic memory connection between the new and the old). As it turns out, they encountered this word several times in the novel we were also reading for the course. Thus, multiple exposure in different contexts enabled them to recall the word all semester. In fact, some commented that they heard this word in the news and encountered it in other media. Yep, keep on reading! Sorry, it is not my intention to be pedantic, as I know you are a seasoned, talented ESL/EFL instructor. Just brainstorming here. Your colleague's ideas are definitely beneficial (visual and memorable).

Hope all fares well. Enjoyed our discussion.
Best regards,
PS

[peripatetic_soul]

Hello again, esl_prof,

I too must cover gerunds and infinitives in the adv. writing class. You're right - there is no easy way to learn the daunting lists.

However, I found these two websites to be useful for activities:

www.eslflow.com/Pastperfectcontinuousmodal.html - scroll down to Gerunds & Infinitives - yes, lots of lists - focuses on writing

For a focus on speaking activities, see this:
http://www.teach-this.com/resources/grammar/gerunds-infinitives

The texts we use in our writing course are Folse's Great Writing: Great Essays and the Azar white Chartbook and blue workbook, as cited previously. However, the activities are not engaging and lack variety (insipid). The Chartbook serves as an efficient resource tool. I like the variety in, e.g., GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT and FOCUS ON GRAMMAR but concede they are both dense.

As Fanselow stated, we must adapt, not adopt. There is no one comprehensive text to address these challenging "lists." Hope this helps.

May I ask the level and the course (writing, speaking, integrated skills) you are teaching?
I appreciate the color coding suggestion. I welcome any other ideas you may recommend. Thx.

Regards,
PS

[esl_prof]

[spanglish]

The most helpful pattern I was able to point out is that verbs of emotion tend to be followed by the ing.

I like reading.
I love reading.
I enjoy reading.
I hate reading.
I despise reading.
I adore reading.

[Sashadroogie]

I hate to tell you this, but....

[spanglish]

[Sashadroogie]

Not sure if this is actually true all the time, but the 'I love to read' seems to imply 'when I can, and that isn't often'. 'I love reading' seems to imply a more general, frequent affair. More... continuous : ))

[spanglish]

My DELTAlessness will only be highlighted if I get any further into this...

[Sashadroogie]

It isn't about the Delta so much. It wouldn't really go over the in's and out's of these lovely grammar points.

[johnslat]

No rule rules.

Same with separable/non-separable phrasal verbs. Well, except for this rule: a phrasal of more than two words (take care of) is non-separable.


Regards,
John

[LongShiKong]