Does anybody have a good idea on how to teach this stuff? I can't figure out a good explanation on why we need to use these. My students like to say: why? a lot.
Please help!!!
Any ideas on how to teach relative clauses
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
One thing I used was to draw a picture. (If you knew how badly I draw, you'd understand why it was a talking point, *grin*) Anyway, it was a park scene. One man had a hat, was smoking a cigarette, and was walking a dog. One man had a cap, was sitting on a bench, and was reading a newspaper, etc. etc. I made sure there were no duplicates. Then I went over the vocabulary and they made sentences. The man who is wearing a hat is walking his dog. Then they asked each other. "Is the man in the long coat reading the newspaper?" etc. So...it's contrived, yeah, and we don't ask questions like that very often, but I had the same trouble you did, and it helped for those kinds of relative clauses.
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fluffyhamster
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Do a search using the keywords 'relative AND pronouns', simultaneously with my username (in the author search field below the keyword one), and you'll get 7 threads as a result (some of which Lori also appears on!). Hopefully these will give you some solid ideas for activities, and help show the major functions of (=reasons why we need and use) this grammar. Note that the discussion is primarily if not wholly concerned with 'defining', rather than 'non-defining' relative clauses (the former type seem the more essential).