Teacher Discussion Forums

I have developed a system for grammatically color-coding text, which I am hoping will someday be published. It's posted at http://www.colorcodedenglish.com/. I would be interested in reading whatever comments or suggestions people at this site may have about it.

I have never formally studied grammar or linguistics, but I am fairly confident that I have performed many more hours of grammatical analysis than most people who have. I have a background in web development and eLearning, and I convinced myself several years ago that CSS (cascading style sheets) provided a great way to present grammatical relationships. However, color-coding requires a comprehensive view of all the grammatical relationships in sentences, and most grammars are more limited in their scope.

My grammar is presented as part of a system for teaching English. However, I have only used color-coding in the classroom for sentence games, and I'm not teaching now. Other than the color-coded grammar, I haven't completed most of the materials for the activities which are described in the learning system.

Hey Ouyang (or should that be Ted!), your grammar certainly helps one to see what you were on about with sentences like 'The eggs are painted green' (and now, 'The room was painted red' (red(-painted)?), and 'She is considered pretty'), and provides a fair bit of food for thought (e.g. 'predicate verbals', 'expletive pronouns'), but the colour (and alphanumeric etc) codes (CSS span tags) seem like a lot of work for the teacher at least (that is not to say that they are of no use to a teacher determined to study and fully learn your as-printed grammar i.e. the codings seem internally consistent and reinforcing enough), and might not be needed by students (at least not in the intermediate stage, between total beginner and rabidly advanced) - I for one find my eyes crossing a bit with the visual overload (I'd probably need to print out your grammar and study the various forms of colour underlining in detail to really appreciate it, beyond the general function of the multiple underlining; that is, it is hard to get a quick functional overview of things from any single table or page; a lot of scrolling back and forth is required in the pdf format). I guess I depend on more subconscious, natural, intuitive and "empiricial" processes (mounting perceived regularities and repetitiousness/repetitions in input and successful output) in gaining some understanding of, say, Chinese (and not necessarily always in relation to English, but sometimes - indeed as time progress, often - in its own terms), and have read/browsed your grammar more for its terminology than the colour-coding itself (I'll leave real sticklers to pick you up if they so desire on e.g. your use of 'purely limiting adjective' in the same breath as 'determiner' to label e.g. 'the'). Anyway, it will be interesting to see what e.g. "SFGers" like Sally Olsen make of this specific use of colour (to underline in various ways, rather than just as single solid font options for the words themselves).

Just a few more points:

-Why can't we say 'What should we put the flowers on?' (pg 7)? Granted, 'in' makes more sense generally, but it wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility to put flowers on a table for whatever reason now, would it?

-It's good that you point out that be and have can be main verbs, but aren't there clearer/easier ways to convey "inversion"* ('placement' of aux, pg 11, "versus" 'movement' of MV, pg 12) in questions, and do- support generally (covered on pp 38-39 i.e. at quite a remove from pp 11-12)? This is an aspect (and what is or should be a relatively easy one at that) of grammar that a more inexperienced teacher might struggle with and fail to really grasp from your presentation (or is it aimed at more experienced teachers only?). Basicially, a lot gets sort of taken for granted in the pursuit of some quite rarefied (though as I say, often interesting!) points.

Sorry that I'm not going into much depth...I might post more when I've had a further look at the grammar (the other stuff is like you said a work in progress, incomplete, though there is enough to confirm that sentence structure and analysis has been your primary concern LOL. You know, I initially thought that your 'Word Matrix' handpix topical dictionary thingy was something akin to Prendergast's 'Labyrinth' diagram in his 'Mastery' system! Not that P's diagram was to do with vocab specifically, or that either method of organization seems that essential to me, is what I'm saying I mean, here I felt a bit like, do I really want a "Roget-style" rationale and work, or just a more plain A-Z one - ah, the "tyranny" of the alphabet! - onto which I will sooner or later impose my own organizing criteria (that is, I skipped the preamble and just went straight on to the vocab sheets themselves). Oh, and are the Chinese translations in the dialogues that you've so far completed sometimes just a little bit too "full", for the sake of structural equivalence? Maybe, maybe not - just a passing thought on my part. My Chinese is if anything perhaps a bit too rough n ready and stunted still!).

BTW I'm not sure I'd supply so much personal information unsolicited (passport details, transcripts, testimonials etc)!

*Or rather, simple "variations" in the linear order of individual, original sequences equating to differences in mood.

The "visual overload" problem is related to the size of the font and the way the pdf renders the underlines. If you increase the percentage of the magnification, the pdf will give a more accurate display of the actual line widths in the html.

If I increase the font size for my example sentences, I don't think it will be as much of a problem. I just won't be able to put as many on a page or place translated sentences side by side. In the classroom, I always use a much larger font size to present color-coded material. I show an example of this in the color-coded Karaoke section.

I have also never had this problem when I've color-coded text on a chalkboard using colored chalk. I usually have a student write what another student has said, and then I only color-code the words and phrases that they are having problems with.

One of the goals of the grammar is to prove that a consistent system is possible for illustrating all of the grammatical relationships that students encounter in their study of English. The other goal is to explain them as clearly as possible. My grammar still contains errors from all of the revisions that I've made to try to achieve these goals.

In an earlier draft, I made a comparison between color-coding and sentence diagramming. I don't understand how anyone who feels that sentence diagramming is useful could not see the benefits of color-coding. Color-coding is more accurate and more practical in the classroom.

@fluffy, I may change some of the example sentences in the future. I have relied on my own style of speaking for a lot of my examples. One of the purposes of asking others to read it, is to identify example sentences that may need to be replaced.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to sound too critical and actually think that what you've produced is very impressive and of great interest and potential value...it's just that I myself am edging towards a more process-oriented grammar (e.g. the "online", linear speech model of David Brazil), and have never been expected to do much sentence diagramming or analysis in the jobs/settings that I've experienced (indeed, would very likely have been asked not to by bosses at least, had I tried to do so for the benefit of some student(s) in especially China or Japan!); personally, I have nothing against it and try my hand at it from time to time, but I wouldn't exactly call it a passion of mine! (I've made my views on parsing clear on the Japan forum thread linked to in the first post of the following 'EXCLUSIVE: Fluffyhamster declared grammar dunce!' AL thread:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... 8855#38855 ).

BTW the examples generally seemed fine (nothing much struck me as strange or whatever); I'll tell you though if I do detect any blips or errors.

Wow!

I am just in the middle of the Anthropology exams but will print out the book in December and study it more closely. Looks amazing so far.

Congratulations Ouyang, it is impressive stuff. I suppose for someone like Fluffy or myself the colours are initially just one more thing to decipher, but I'm sure they could prove a useful system for a learner who got used to them, though obviously the bigger/bolder/clearer visually the better.

It seems to me that the major market for such an approach would be for English speakers learning English grammar - this kind of thing is hard enough in a native language. If it is aimed at Chinese speakers, shouldn't the introduction/explanations be written in Chinese?

Thank you all for the encouraging comments. A Chinese colleague of mine from Fujian has agreed to translate my grammar. She is a co-author of a Chinese grammar book that will come out in early 2009.

She currently teaches Mandarin at a university in Shenzhen. I will ask her to look at this thread. She has made some constructive suggestions. She still thinks there are things that I can improve. I need to target exactly who the book is for and modify it accordingly, etc. She wants me to use fewer colors.

The current .pdf version of the grammar cannot be printed. I think this is a standard setting for online book promotions. I will email any regular posters who pm me their email address a printable copy.

Hi again Ted, thanks for offering to send any regulars a printable copy - I for one wouldn't mind being able to read it at my leisure anywhere and make notes directly onto it etc. I'll send you a PM with my email as soon as I've posted this.

Hi Ouyang,
How interesting - I have my beginner Japanese students colour coding tenses in their essays. Along with this they have been identifying the type of verbs involved. Perhaps similar to what Sally Olsen has been doing.
When I master the "photobucket" I will post some examples and when I have some time I will certainly look at your website.
Jack