A Consciousness Raising Approach to the Teaching of Grammar

What is Consciousness Raising (CR)? Consciousness Raising (CR) is an approach to language teaching. Teachers might use CR tasks as their main approach or only occasionally. To raise something to consciousness means to make someone aware of something. CR tasks are thus designed to raise the learners Language Awareness (LA) (Svalberg 2009, 2012). The immediate aim of CR tasks is to help learners notice something about the language that they might not notice on their own. They are typically asked to reflect on it, usually by talking to peers. CR tasks can help build their conscious knowledge and understanding (their LA) of how the language works, grammatically, socially, culturally. Below I will focus on CR to teach grammar. An example of CR tasks is so called discovery activities included in many text books, where the learners are asked to formulate a grammar rule based on some language examples. For example, a set of carefully written examples might lead learners to formulate a rule for when to use present perfect as opposed to simple present. Discovery activities are typically very short and simple tasks. They are highly controlled, there is only one correct answer, and it is unlikely that the learners will get the answer wrong.
A. For each of the underlined verbs, decide if the form is Past Simple or Present Perfect. Write PS or PP under the verb. 1. Amina moved to England with her parents in 2007. 2. She has lived in England for six years now. 3. She has made a lot of friends. 4. I have known Amina since last year. 5. We became friends when I and my family moved to her street. B. The form of the verb depends on whether it refers to a finished time in the past, or a time that is still continuing at the present. Decide what kind of time the expressions in the table refer to. Finished Time In 2007 For six years Since last year When I and my family moved to her street Sentence number 3 above does not mention any time. Do you think it refers to a finished time or a time that continues now? C. Now complete the following rule: Past Simple is used to talk about events at a _________________________________________ Present Perfect is used to talk about events at a ______________________________________ D. Now write some sentences about yourself or about a friend. Time which continues at the present

1. ______________________________________________________________________ in 20 2. ______________________________________________________________________ years ago. 3. ________________________________________________________________since____________ 4. ______________________________________________________when_____________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ 5. _______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________

CR tasks can, however, be much less controlled and more open ended. I will give some examples below. What they all have in common is that they involve learners noticing a target structure or function in a text (written or spoken) and drawing some kind of conclusions not necessarily a rule from what they have noticed. A good way to begin is to use texts which are already part of the syllabus. The students can use highlighters, for example, to pick out particular grammar features (e.g. highlight the comparative adjectives). This begins to train them to notice the relevant grammar in the input. The purpose of CR in the teaching of grammar The ultimate purpose of most language teaching is to help learners acquire the target language to a point where they can use it accurately, spontaneously and fluently. CR tasks cannot do that on their own. Depending on the context, the teacher might opt to combine CR tasks with meaning focused oral tasks or writing activities. Within such settings, CR grammar tasks have several purposes: 1. to direct learners attention to grammar features they might not notice on their own 2. to help learners make form meaning connections 3. thereby, to help learners acquire conscious knowledge which they can use to understand input and monitor their own output 4. to make learners more autonomous by developing their analytical ability (See also Rod Ellis Making an Impact; Teaching Grammar Through Awareness-Raising on this website.) A natural tendency we all have is to focus on meaning before form. Learners will naturally notice content words first, but may not pay much attention to function words such as prepositions and conjunctions, and endings, for example for tense and number. The following task does not lead to a rule of any kind. Its aim is simply to make the learners aware of the fact that only some words ending in ed are past tense verbs. The purpose is to help them notice and process the use of past tense in input as a step in their learning to use it correctly themselves.

For each of the underlined words, decide if it is an adjective, a past tense verb, or an untensed verb. Put each word in the correct column.

My dad is very interested in old coins. He started collecting them when he was ten. When he got the detector, Dad believed he would find a huge treasure, but he detected mostly old, used nails. I have borrowed his metal detector to see if I can find some coins. Adjective Past Tense Verb Untensed Verb

Interested and used are adjectives, and borrowed is an untensed verb (a past participle; the tense is on have). The fact that the same ed forms can have different functions makes it difficult for learners to spot past tense verbs. This CR task provides training in doing just that. Some grammatical structures are discontinuous and complex, which makes them even more difficult for learners to spot on their own. To understand, for example, how relative clauses are used the learner would need to notice at least that the relative clause modifies a preceding noun, that it usually begins with a relative pronoun and that the clause does not include a pronominal copy of the relative pronoun (in other words, the book that changed my life but not *the book that it changed my life). To learn from examples in input, learners need noticing help. The example below is a task which gets learners to identify clauses in authentic text. This involves first finding the verbs, as each clause is built around a verb group. Then, the learners need to decide where each clause begins and ends. The following task was designed as part of a set for a research study in a Lebanese secondary school (Svalberg, 2005). The teachers across the year groups (year 7-9) were concerned about the students poor punctuation. The aim of getting students to recognize clauses was not directly to teach punctuation, but to give teachers and learners a common language to talk about punctuation. By the time the learners (year 7) did the following task they had already been taught what is meant by verb group and they knew that a clause has a verb as its centre. (Only parts of the task is shown. The complete set of tasks and teachers notes are in Appendix A.) TASK

In the text, put a slash (/) between clauses. Discuss your solutions in your group. Try to think of reasons why your solution is the right one.

(To help you, the verbs have been underlined for you. Remember that there is one clause for each verb group!) The Girl and the Little White Ghost /When I was a little girl,/ we lived in a two-storey house./ ... One night I had just gone to sleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and went rigid with fear. In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air. It was not a very big ghost, but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book. It
Now answer this question: How many clauses are there in the text?

____________________________

In the next task, the students were asked to find the linkers (conjunctions) and to insert the clauses into a table with columns for linkers and clauses. The longest sentences was one with four clauses: // She just hugged me/ and said/ that I was a brave little girl/ because I didn't cry.// The students enjoyed trying to solve the tasks in pairs. The teachers reported that they were quite competitive about getting the answers right. The complete text and set of tasks is in the appendix. (For reasons to do with the research design, all the tasks in the series were on the same text, but that is not necessarily to be recommended.) Teacher explanation is sometimes a useful complement to CR Tasks and Communicative Tasks but there are good reasons to believe that teacher explanation on its own is not as effective as CR. CR requires learners to think about grammar, and to draw conclusions by themselves or with the help of their peers (in pair or group work). It involves active and interactive learning. Learners who are active are more likely to find lessons enjoyable and interesting, and the learning is more likely to be memorable. Time spent on CR can mean less time spent on re-teaching or revision later. The best CR tasks in my view are ones that highlight that grammar conveys meaning. That is precisely why grammar matters. Often, language users have two or more grammatically accurate options. Learning a language is not just learning to avoid errors but, perhaps more importantly, learning to make choices that convey what you mean in the way you intended. Learners can be helped to discover what effects their choices have. (For a discussion of grammar as choice see Larsen-Freeman 2009, on this website http://teach-grammar.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/07/The-Grammar-of-Choice+.pdf . ) Below is part of a task for adult advanced learners on aspect. The text used is a short story by Katherine Mansfield. The complete text is just under 400 words. It illustrates how aspect can be used to create a very vivid picture of a situation. The scene described has an almost cinematic quality. Before the task, the students have learnt to distinguish aspect from tense and the following meanings and symbols have been adopted:
Simple Events as plain facts Habits (In the past) completed events Events with current relevance: experiences, results (In the past) events before past Ongoing events Events existing as plans at the reference time

Perfect

Progressive

(Simple is treated as an aspect because, like perfect and progressive, it is a choice.) The task is carried out in small groups.

In the following text, for each of the underlined verb groups decide what aspect it is. Mark the aspect by inserting the appropriate symbol under it. In your group, discuss 1/whether a different aspect would be grammatical, and if so 2/why the author has made this choice; what effect does the writers choice have? And then, after six years, she saw him again. He was seated at one of those

little bamboo tables decorated with a Japanese vase of paper daffodils. There was a tall plate of fruit in front of him, and very carefully, in a way she recognized immediately as his 'special' way, he was peeling an orange. He must have felt that shock of recognition in her for he looked up and met her eyes. Incredible! He didn't know her! She smiled; he frowned. She came towards him. He closed his eyes an instant, but opening them his face lit up as though he had struck a match in a dark room. Extract from A DILL PICKLE by Katherine Mansfield A key to the task is provided in Appendix B. There is plenty to discuss in this task. The students can go back to the meanings of the aspectual forms to explain why she was seeing him again would have a different meaning, and how he peeled an orange, he was looking up, and she was coming towards him would paint quite a different picture of the encounter. The students become aware of the aspectual choices available to them, and what effect they might have. Also interesting is he must have felt, where a perfect form is used without perfect meaning, to indicate a past event after an epistemic modal verb (i.e. a modal denoting probability). CR tasks have the potential to make learners more autonomous by developing their analytical ability. They can train learners to notice how language is used, even when they are not doing a CR task. Ideally, teachers hope that learners will pick up language from the internet, television, music, films and other incidental target language input they may encounter. Such autonomous learning is more likely if CR tasks stimulate their interest in language and give them the tools to explore it. At the same time, the autonomous learner will come across use of language that does not conform to what they have been taught, e.g. verb-less sentences and sentences starting with and or but, or common non-standard constructions such as we were sat. In a CR approach, discussion of such observations should be encouraged. It can help learners become aware of how language use varies depending on its purpose and context. There are of course limits to what CR tasks can do. During a CR task, the learners typically talk about the target language. If they do it in the target language, the task doubles as a communicative activity but it does not necessarily provide the right opportunities to use the target grammar. To be effective, form-focused CR tasks need to be used in combination with communicative tasks where the main aim is to understand and convey meaning. The CR tasks help the learners build conscious knowledge about the language, which they can use to interpret input and monitor their own output. The communicative tasks provide meaningful opportunities to use the language so that what they have learnt consciously eventually becomes automatically available to them, in fluent, spontaneous use. The following task gives the learners opportunity to use either past or present tense to talk about past events.

Morg was cross. She was more than cross, she was furious. She had been chosen to mind her little brother, again. Normally she quite liked him, as he stumbled after her
5

on his short legs, babbling in a way that made her laugh, but today there was something much more exciting happening. The men were preparing to go on a hunt. There hadn't been a hunt for months. First there was too much rain and then there was too much work with the harvest. But now the wheat was in and the grain was all stored in pits. The Druid was here, bringing blessings from the gods and medicines for the villagers. So the chief had decided that it was time. Outside the men were gathering and the Druid was chanting. Morg longed to be there. But Morg was not allowed to go. She wasn't even allowed to watch.
From Morg by Clare Reddaway www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Morg911.shtml (Accessed 19.04.13) After a comprehension check, the students work in groups. First they read and discuss the story which is told in past tense. Then they experiment with telling it in present tense. Finally they practise telling their own stories. Here are the instructions: a/ This is a story set in the past. That is why the verbs are in the past tense. But sometimes you can make a story feel more immediate and dramatic by telling it in the present tense, as if it was happening now. Try it. Put the story into the present tense. b/ In your group, have one person read the story out loud in the past tense, and then have another person read the present tense version. The reader should try to bring the story alive for the listeners. Vote on which you preferred. c/ Now underline the verb groups in the original text. (A verb group is a string of verbs that belong together. For example: Morg was cross..She had been chosen to mind her little brother) d/ Circle the verbs that show past tense. (Hint: The tensed verbs are the ones you changed to present in the a/ task.) How many sentences are there without a tensed verb? e/ Have you ever been angry or disappointed that you were not allowed to do something, or go somewhere? Or perhaps you have been surprised and delighted that you were allowed to do something you did not expect? Tell the group about it. Remember to explain why you were or were not allowed to do this or why it was unexpected. Before you start telling the story, decide if you are going to use past tense, or present tense. You can also decide to tell an especially dramatic part of your story in present tense but use past tense for the rest. The tasks above try to illustrate some of the ways in which CR tasks can be used to teach grammar. Whether a particular task is appropriate and useful will, naturally, depend on the students, their level and needs, and on the context. Teachers may prefer to design their own CR tasks, based on their understanding of the purposes and principles discussed above. It is an advantage if the learners can see that the texts in the tasks are authentic and related to their interests or context. In my own experience, CR is an enjoyable and motivating approach for both the students and the teacher.

APPENDIX A

The Girl and the Little White Ghost Exercises and Teachers Notes
For research purposes, these five tasks were all based on the same text. That is not necessarily the best way to do it, but the task types may inspire you to make up your own on texts relevant and interesting to your students.

Exercises: The Girl and the Little White Ghost

1.

i. Pre-reading Before you read the text below, discuss these questions with your friends: Do you believe in ghosts? If you were asked to draw a ghost, what would it look like? Write down the answer to the first question, and make a drawing of a ghost. Now read the text. The Girl and the Little White Ghost When I was a little girl, we lived in a two-storey house. My bedroom was on the top floor. It was quite small and in it there was a bed, a wardrobe and a small desk. The wardrobe, where my mother kept my clothes, was at the foot of the bed and the desk was on the other side of the room, by the window. The door was next to the wardrobe. Outside the door, there was a landing and the stairs which went down into the living-room. The stair case seemed very, very steep because I was only five years old. One night I had just gone to sleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and went rigid with fear. In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air. It was not a very big ghost, but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book. It was white and its eye was one big black hole. I wanted to run to my mother, but first I had to walk past the ghost. I controlled my fear and very quietly I slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb the ghost. As soon as I was on the stairs, I called out to my mother. She came running immediately and I told her about the ghost. She picked me up and turned on the light in my room. There, in front of the bed, inside the open wardrobe, was a little white dress on a hanger. From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost and the eye was the sleeve hole. I was so relieved! My mother didn't laugh at me. She just hugged me and said that I was a brave little girl because I didn't cry. That made me feel much better, and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on. 2.

Spotting the verbs. Underline all the verbs in the text.

Compare your underlinings with your group. Discuss any differences and try to agree what the right answer is. Try to think of reasons why. The Girl and the Little White Ghost When I was a little girl, ... One night I had just gone to sleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and went rigid with fear. In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air. It was not a very big ghost, but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book. It was white and its eye was one big black hole. I wanted to run to my mother, but first I had to walk past the ghost. I controlled my fear and very quietly I slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb the ghost. As soon as I was on the stairs, I called out to my mother. She came running immediately and I told her about the ghost. She picked me up and turned on the light in my room. There, in front of the bed, inside the wardrobe which was open, was a little white dress on a hanger. From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost and the eye was the sleeve hole. I was so relieved! My mother didn't laugh at me. She just hugged me and said that I was a brave little girl because I didn't cry. That made me feel much better, and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on.

Now answer these questions 3. In this exercise, you will practice how to recognize verbs which show past or present tense and those that do not. You will start using the expression a tensed verb. We call verbs which show past or present tense tensed verbs. For example: - Did you hear the owl? - No, I was listening to some music. Did and was are tensed verbs. They show past tense. Hear and listening are not tensed. You can check if this is true by putting the examples into the present tense: - Do you hear the owl? - No, I am listening to some music. As you can see, only the tensed verbs change. 'Hear' and 'listening' stay the same because they are not tensed. How many verbs did you underline in the text?_________________________ Which is the most common verb in this text?___________________________ Why is this particular verb used so often? (Discuss this with your friends.)

In the text, circle the verbs which are not tensed. (If you are not quite sure, change the sentence to present tense. If the verb does not change, it is probably because it is not tensed!)

The Girl and the Little White Ghost When I was a little girl, ... One night I had just gone to sleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and went rigid with fear. In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air. It was not a very big ghost, but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book. It was white and its eye was one big black hole. I wanted to run to my mother, but first I had to walk past the ghost. I controlled my fear and very quietly I slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb the ghost. As soon as I was on the stairs, I called out to my mother. She came running immediately and I told her about the ghost. She picked me up and turned on the light in my room. There, in front of the bed, inside the open wardrobe, was a little white dress on a hanger. From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost and the eye was the sleeve hole. I was so relieved! My mother didn't laugh at me. She just hugged me and said that I was a brave little girl because I didn't cry. That made me feel much better, and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on.

Now answer these questions: a) Are most of the verbs in the text tensed or untensed? b) Can you find a sentence without a tensed verb? c) Do you think it is possible to have a sentence without past or present tense in English? If you think it is, try to give an example. d) Find examples of a tensed verb plus an untensed verb in the text.

4. In this exercise, you will discover what a clause is. You will also start using the word verb group. Sometimes two or more verbs 'belong together', so instead of 'verb' we can say 'verb group', e.g. 'live', 'do live' and 'have lived' are all verb groups. Sometimes there is another word in the middle of a verb group, for example 'do not live' or 'have always lived'. In the previous exercise, you find some two-verb verb groups in the text, e.g. 'came running' and 'didn't laugh'. A verb group is the centre of a clause: a. /The cat will eat the mouse./ (One clause.) b. /When I came home,/ I saw/ that the cat had been eating a mouse outside the kitchen door./ (How many clauses?) Each clause must have a verb group at its center. In example a. there is only one verb group, so the sentence consists of only one clause. In example b. there are three verb groups, so we have three clauses.

Now, do the exercise to see if you have understood what a clause is: In the text, put a slash (/) between clauses. Discuss your solutions in your group.

Try to think of reasons why your solution is the right one.

(To help you, the verbs have been underlined for you. Remember that there is one clause for each verb group!)

The Girl and the Little White Ghost /When I was a little girl,/ we lived in a two-storey house./ ... One night I had just gone to sleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and went rigid with fear. In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air. It was not a very big ghost, but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book. It was white and its eye was one big black hole. I wanted to run to my mother, but first I had to walk past the ghost. I controlled my fear and very quietly I slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb the ghost. As soon as I was on the stairs, I called out to my mother. She came running immediately and I told her about the ghost. She picked me up and turned on the light in my room. There, in front of the bed, inside the open wardrobe , was a little white dress on a hanger. From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost and the eye was the sleeve hole. I was so relieved! My mother didn't laugh at me. She just hugged me and said that I was a brave little girl because I didn't cry. That made me feel much better, and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on.

Now answer this question: How many clauses are there in the text?____________________________ 5. In this exercise, you will see how clauses are combined to make sentences. When there is more than one clause in a sentences, there is sometimes a special word to connect the clauses. We will use the term linker for such a word. Here are some examples: My friend fell over because she forgot to tie her shoe laces! I try to make sure that my laces are tied but sometimes they come undone when I am playing. The words in italics are 'linkers' between clauses. Can you spot the verb group in each clause?

In the text, put a squiggly line under words that connect one clause to another clause. Then complete the table below and answer the questions that follow. The Girl and the Little White Ghost

/When I was a little girl... /One night I had just gone to sleep/ when something woke me.// I opened my eyes/ and went rigid with fear.// In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air.//It was not a very big ghost,/ but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book.// It was white/ and its eye was one big black hole.// I wanted to run to my mother,/ but first I had to walk past the ghost.// I controlled my

10

fear/ and very quietly I slipped out of bed,/ careful not to disturb the ghost.// As soon as I was on the stairs,/ I called out to my mother./ /She came running immediately/ and I told her about the ghost.// She picked me up/ and turned on the light in my room.// There, in front of the bed, inside the open wardrobe was a little white dress on a hanger.// From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost/ and the eye was the sleeve hole.// I was so relieved! / /My mother didn't laugh at me.// She just hugged me/ and said/ that I was a brave little girl/ because I didn't cry.//That made me feel much better,/ and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on./

Now complete the table below.

Complete the sentences that have been started below. They are all from the text you have just read. Put any linkers in the narrow columns and one clause in each of the fat columns.

CLAUSE 1 1. One night I had just gone to sleep 2. I opened my eyes 3. I wanted to run (Linker) 4. As soon as I was on the stairs, 5. She just hugged me

Linker CLAUSE 2

Linker CLAUSE 3

Linker CLAUSE 4

Now answer these questions: How many clauses does the longest sentence have?______________________ How many clauses does the shortest sentence have?_____________________ Make a list of the linkers you have found._____________________________ _______________________________________________________________

11

Teacher's Notes:
2. KEY The Girl and the Little White Ghost When I was a little girl, ... One night I had just gone to sleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and went rigid with fear. In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air. It was not a very big ghost, but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book. It was white and its eye was one big black hole. I wanted to run to my mother, but first I had to walk past the ghost. I controlled my fear and very quietly I slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb the ghost. As soon as I was on the stairs, I called out to my mother. She came running immediately and I told her about the ghost. She picked me up and turned on the light in my room. There, in front of the bed, inside the wardrobe which was open, was a little white dress on a hanger. From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost and the eye was the sleeve hole. I was so relieved! My mother didn't laugh at me. She just hugged me and said that I was a brave little girl because I didn't cry. That made me feel much better, and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on.

How many verbs did you underline in the text?_41____________________ Which is the most common verb in this text?__BE_(was)______________________ Why is this particular verb used so often? (Discuss this with your friends.)

It is quite common for learners not to perceive forms of be (is, was etc.) as verbs. If this seems to be a problem, explain that all English sentences have to have a verb. The reason is that we need a verb to show the tense (past or present) and to attach negation (not) to. Be in itself does not have much meaning but like other more typical verbs, it serves these functions and this is why we call it a verb. BE is used a lot because English sentences cannot do without a verb. A useful rule is "If there is no other verb, use BE". Some contexts where BE is used are: o in the expressions 'there is/are', 'there was/were'; o to connect a subject and adjective (e.g. It was small), o to make verbs progressive (e.g. was hovering), o to mean 'exist in a place' (e.g. My bedroom was on the top floor). o anytime if there is no other verb (e.g. When I was a little girl)!

You may need to clarify that e.g. 'was hovering' consists of two verbs ( an auxiliary - or 'helping' - verb plus a main verb) . In exercise 4, the learners will start using the term 'verb group' to show that more than one verb might be involved. The learners may also underline some words which are not verbs. Words that look like verbs, e.g. 'relieved' and words that denote 'action' like 'sleep' could be misclassified. Substituting 'relieved' for other words is probably the best way to prove that it is not being used as a verb, e.g. 'I was so relieved/happy/angry...'. 'Go to sleep' is trickier but I suggest you explain that this is an expression like 'go to work'; 'go to school'; 'go to bed'.

12

3.
The Girl and the Little White Ghost When I was a little girl, ... One night I had just gone to sleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and went rigid with fear. In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air. It was not a very big ghost, but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book. It was white and its eye was one big black hole. I wanted to run to my mother, but first I had to walk past the ghost. I controlled my fear and very quietly I slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb the ghost. As soon as I was on the stairs, I called out to my mother. She came running immediately and I told her about the ghost. She picked me up and turned on the light in my room. There, in front of the bed, inside the wardrobe which was open, was a little white dress on a hanger. From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost and the eye was the sleeve hole. I was so relieved! My mother didn't laugh at me. She just hugged me and said that I was a brave little girl because I didn't cry. That made me feel much better, and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on.

Most of the verbs are tensed. Each sentence has at least one tensed verb. Regular sentences in English always have at least one tensed verbs.

Commands such as 'Sit down!' or 'Have some more coffee!' and exclamations such as 'How awful!' are neither past or present but from the situation, we understand what is meant. Expressions like this are not like complete sentences (which need at least a subject and a verb) and they are unusual in writing, so the rule above (in italics) is a very good rule of thumb. In the text, had gone, was hovering, wanted to run, had to walk, came running, didn't laugh, didn't cry and made (me) feel are examples of a tensed + an untensed verb.

4.
KEY The Girl and the Little White Ghost /When I was a little girl,/ we lived in a two-storey house./ ... /One night I had just gone to sleep/ when something woke me.// I opened my eyes/ and went rigid with fear.// In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air.//It was not a very big ghost,/ but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book.// It was white/ and its eye was one big black hole.// I wanted to run to my mother,// but first I had to walk past the ghost.// I controlled my fear/ and very quietly I slipped out of bed, /careful not to disturb the ghost.// As soon as I was on the stairs,/ I called out to my mother./ /She came running immediately/ and I told her about the ghost.// She picked me up/ and turned on the light in my room.// There, in front of the bed, inside the open wardrobe , was a little white dress on a hanger.// From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost/ and the eye was the sleeve hole.// I was so relieved! / /My mother didn't laugh at me.// She just hugged me/ and said/ that I was a brave little girl/ because I didn't cry.//That made me feel much better,/ and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on./

How many clauses did you find in the text?___32______________________

13

5.
KEY (Italics have been used instead of squiggly lines). The Girl and the Little White Ghost /When I was a little girl,/ we lived in a two-storey house./ ... /One night I had just gone to sleep/ when something woke me.// I opened my eyes/ and went rigid with fear.// In the darkness in front of me, a ghost was hovering in mid-air.//It was not a very big ghost,/ but it looked exactly like a ghost out of a story book.// It was white/ and its eye was one big black hole.// I wanted to run to my mother,// but first I had to walk past the ghost.// I controlled my fear/ and very quietly I slipped out of bed, /careful not to disturb the ghost.// As soon as I was on the stairs,/ I called out to my mother./ /She came running immediately/ and I told her about the ghost.// She picked me up/ and turned on the light in my room.// There, in front of the bed, inside the open wardrobe , was a little white dress on a hanger.// From the side it looked a little bit like a ghost/ and the eye was the sleeve hole.// I was so relieved! / /My mother didn't laugh at me.// She just hugged me/ and said/ that I was a brave little girl/ because I didn't cry.//That made me feel much better,/ and I soon went to sleep again, with the light on./

CLAUSE 1 1. One night I had just gone to sleep 2. I opened my eyes 3. I wanted to run (Linker) 4. As soon as I was on the stairs, 5. She just hugged me

Linker when and but

CLAUSE 2 something woke me. went rigid with fear. first I had to walk past the ghost. I called out to my mother.

Linker

CLAUSE 3

Linker

CLAUSE 4

and

said

that

I was a brave little girl

because

I didnt cry

How many clauses did you find in the text?___32______________________ How many clauses does the longest sentence have?___4__________________ How many clauses does the shortest sentence have?__1__________________ Make a list of the linkers you have found: when, and, but, that, because, as soon as

When they occur at the beginning of a sentence, it can be difficult to spot that 'when' and 'as soon as' link clauses. If this becomes an issue, ask the learners to experiment by putting the time clause last (e.g. We lived in...when I was ....). That makes it more obvious that these words are clause linkers. It is also useful to notice that such clauses can move around.

14

APPENDIX B KEY to ASPECT in A Dill Pickle by Katherine Mansfield

In the following text, for each of the underlined verb groups decide what aspect it is. Mark the aspect by inserting the appropriate symbol under it. In your group, discuss 1/whether a different aspect would be grammatical, and if so 2/why the author has made this choice; what effect does the writers choice have? And then, after six years, she saw him again. He was seated at one of those little bamboo tables decorated with a Japanese vase of paper daffodils. There was a tall plate of fruit in front of him, and very carefully, in a way she recognized immediately as his 'special' way, he was peeling an orange. He must have felt that shock of recognition in her for he looked up and met her eyes. Incredible! He didn't know her! She smiled; he frowned. She came towards him. He closed his eyes an instant, but opening them his face lit up as though he had struck a match in a dark room. Extract from A DILL PICKLE by Katherine Mansfield

References Ellis, R. Making an Impact Teaching Grammar Through Awareness-Raising. American Language Review. Accessed 07.05.13 at http://teach-grammar.com/?page_id=79 Larsen-Freeman, Diane. (2009). Teaching and testing grammar. In M. Long and C. Doughty (Eds.) The Handbook of Language Teaching (pp. 518-542). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Accessed 07.05.13 at http://teach-grammar.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Grammar-of-Choice+.pdf Svalberg, A. M-L.(2005). Consciousness Raising Activities in some Lebanese English Language Classrooms: Teacher Perceptions and Learner Engagement. Language Awareness, 14/2-3: 170-190. Svalberg, A. M-L.(2007) Language Awareness and Language Learning. Language Teaching, 40/4: 287308. Svalberg, A. M-L. (2013). Language Learning and Teaching: Teaching for Language Awareness. In Chapelle, C. A. (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1157/pdf

15