Quick Question

Is English grammar difficult for non-native speakers to learn?

The short answer to this question is “It depends on your first language.” Some languages have grammar systems similar to English, while others have quite a different way of approaching grammar. One difficult aspect of English grammar is not the grammar rules themselves but the exceptions to those rules which learners have to memorise. (e.g. irregular past tenses ) English grammar does include some seemingly confusing and unusual sentence patterns and these can be challenging for lower level learners.

The Bigger Picture

There are many possible ways to describe grammar : how words interact with one another in a sentence ; the way native speakers use language correctly according to a system of rules ; the process by which language is organised and patterned ; and the description of rules that oversee these processes .

The term grammar usually refers to morphology (the study of word forms) and syntax (the study of sentence structure). There is quite a lot of debate on the value of teaching grammar and the results achieved by spending time on grammar.

Teachers are often unsure how much grammar teaching to do, what grammar to teach, and how to teach it. “To teach or not to teach grammar” has been the topic of much debate among teachers over the years.

If you look at popular language teaching approaches over the past five or six decades, you'll notice that grammar teaching swings from being very important and at the core of the syllabus to something in the background, to hardly mentioned at all.

Today the trend in most contemporary teaching approaches is for grammar to be given a back seat but not to be ignored.

When it comes to grammar teaching, it is important to identify a word's part of speech according to its context. Learners need to be aware of parts of speech and the names of these parts if they are to develop a solid understanding of English grammar.

Nouns —the most common part of speech in English. The number of nouns is constantly growing because when we invent a new thing, we usually need to invent a name for it, and that name will be a noun. Nouns are words which usually refer to people, animals, places, things and abstract ideas. (e.g. an idea )

Verbs —words used to describe an action, a process, a state or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear , become , happen etc. Some common English verbs are be , have , do , go , say and get . Selecting the correct verb tense and conjugating verbs can be tricky for learners of English.

Adjectives —We use adjectives to describe nouns. Adjectives can be placed before nouns or after a linking verb. (e.g. a large coffee ; This coffee is large .)

Adverbs —words that modify verbs, which means that they tell you how, when, where or why something is being done.

Consider the following sentence: I looked at the computer screen .

If you add an adverb, it gives you more information about the action in the sentence. For example: I looked excitedly at the computer screen .

Determiners —words such as the , my , this , some , twenty , each , any , which are used before nouns. There are many different determiners in the English language. Articles ( a , an , the ) are among the most common type of determiners.

Prepositions —words (often short words) that express the relationship between two other nearby words. In the examples below, each preposition shows us the relationship between the word “book”and the word “teacher”.

Ø the book about the teacher

Ø the book by the teacher

Ø the book near the teacher

Ø the book behind the teacher

Choosing the right preposition can be difficult for English learners and teaching prepositions can be problematic as in the following examples:

Ø He arrived at school.

Ø He returned to school.

Ø I'm afraid of taking flights.

Ø I'm worried about taking flights.

Pronouns —words that can replace nouns (or noun phrases) in a sentence. (e.g. he , she , it , they , someone , who ) Pronouns can do all of the things that nouns can do. They can be subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, object of the prepositions and more.

Conjunctions —words whose function is to join together words, phrases, clauses and sentences.(e.g. and , that , but , or , as , if )

Key Vocabulary

active/passive voice 主动/ 被动语态

adjective 形容词

adverb 副词

clause 从句

conjunction 连词

contraction 缩略词

determiner 限定词

modal verb 情态动词

noun 名词

part of speech 词性

phrase 短语

prefix 前缀

preposition 介词

pronoun 代词

question tag 反意疑问成分

suffix 后缀

tense 时态

verb 动词

Tricky Terms and Concepts

Antecedent is the grammatical term used to refer to the noun that a pronoun replaces. An antecedent comes before a pronoun. For example:

Ø Jane is a good student. She always does her homework.

(antecedent) (pronoun)

Contractions are sometimes called short forms. A short or contracted form of “he is” is “he's”. Note that we usually insert an apostrophe (’) in place of the missing letter or letters when we write contractions.

Predicate —In English grammar, a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence. (The other main part is the subject.) The predicate is the part of a sentence (or clause) that tells us what the subject does or is. In most sentences, the predicate is everything that is not the subject. A predicate may be one word or many words. For example:

Ø The girl in the shop steals .

(subject) (predicate)

Ø The girl in the shop is a thief.

(subject) (predicate)

Ø She stole a bar of chocolate yesterday.

(subject) (predicate)

finite verb VS non-finite verb

There are two types of English verbs: finite verbs and non-finite verbs. When a verb has a subject and a tense, it is usually a finite verb :

Ø e.g. We went to the park today.

Non-finite verbs are verbs that do not have tenses or subjects. They are usually infinitives, gerunds, or participles.

Ø I like to get up late on Sundays.

Ø She really dislikes cleaning her bedroom.

Ø He gave up smoking recently.

common noun VS proper noun

Common nouns refer to non-specific things and do not need to be capitalised. (e.g. a book , a pen , a man ) Proper nouns refer to a specific or particular thing, place or person and need to be capitalised. ( e . g . the Oxford Dictionary , John Smith , Beijing )

gradable adjective VS non-gradable adjective

Adjectives can be either gradable or non-gradable. Gradable adjectives can have different degrees. They can be graded or made stronger or weaker (e.g. hot , slightly hot , quite hot , very hot ). Non-gradable adjectives cannot have different degrees. They cannot be graded (e.g. electronic—something cannot be slightly or very electronic , impossible—something cannot be slightly or very impossible ).

adverbial VS adverb

An adverbial is a word or phrase that is used like an adverb to modify a verb or clause. Of course, adverbs can be used as adverbials. Adverbs and adverbials are similar but not the same. An adverbial is a sentence part that performs a certain function. An adverb is a type of word or part of speech. An adverb may act as an adverbial, but an adverbial is not always an adverb. An adverbial can be an adverb, adverbial phrase or adverbial clause which gives extra information about the time, place or manner of an action described in a sentence. For example:

Ø We have been studying English in this school for two months .

Ø We were reading quietly at our desks .

In Your Class

As a teacher of English, you are probably teaching many features of English grammar. Teachers need to be aware of all the common terms and labels for different parts of speech and grammar structures, but it is possible to teach grammar without giving all these terms to your learners (especially low level learners).

Try It Out

Before you teach your next grammar class: Think about how much grammar you are attempting to teach (or how much new grammar you expect your learners to actually learn). Remember, not every lesson needs to include grammar teaching.

While you're teaching your next grammar class: Try asking your students to explain grammar concepts (maybe in L1) before you explain them.

After your next grammar class: Reflect on whether your students actually learned any new grammar. How did you measure if they really learned a grammar item?

What You Might Be Tested On

TKT questions usually divide grammar into nine parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, determiners, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions and exclamations.

TKT questions might ask you to:

» Match highlighted words in a sentence with a part of speech (from a list).

» Match a definition of a part of speech with a term for a part of speech.

Find Out What You Know

Match the example sentences with the grammatical terms listed A～H. There is one extra option which you do not need to use.

Grammatical terms:

A. reflexive pronoun

B. present continuous

C. conjunction

D. preposition of time

E. exclamation

F. passive voice

G. phrasal verb

H. adverbs of degree

Sentences:

1. This book was written by a British author.

2. Ow! You hurt me!

3. Her car broke down 8 miles out of town.

4. It is terribly hot and dry.

5. We built the house ourselves.

6. The children are playing outside.

7. The holiday is during August this year.

Key: 1. F 2. E 3. G 4. H 5. A 6. B 7. D

Inspiration

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