GRAMMAR PROJECT

Misplaced Modifiers










Ingrid Jimena Cajamarca Fonseca










Francisco Prez Gmez

English Grammar 1-2

Universidad nacional de Colombia

May 15
th
, 2014
1

INDEX


Introduction..2
Objectives.........3
Research Question....3
Methodology4
Theoretical and/or Concept Framework..4
Analysis and Findings...7
Conclusion/Further Suggestions16
Appendix.17
References.....18


















2

INTRODUCTION.


Basic English Grammar teachers explain some topics such as adjectives and
adverbs very vaguely and superficially; that is why many students write and say
ungrammatical sentences which sometimes lead to ambiguities. It is necessary for
us to know what modifiers are and where we can place them to a completely
effective communicative act.

Based on my own experience I can say that mostly at schools only some modifiers
such adverbs are taught, but rarely do teachers provide students with a detailed
description or explanation about the different kinds of adverbs and their respective
uses. Adverbs are always taught as one whole group where there are only three
ways to place them within a sentence: after a verb, before an adjective or before
another adverb.

In fact, when students have to face more advanced tests (oral or written) and find
sentences such as: We rowed the boat vigorously, We vigorously rowed the
boat and Vigorously we rowed the boat; it is a complete nightmare because we
do not know which of these sentences is correct, what is the difference between
them.
As languages students and future language teachers, it is vital our thoroughly
understanding of this topic and then, our excellent future performance as language
professors so that, our students English level improves significantly in a short
period of time.





3

OBJECTIVES.

General Objective: To contrast the teaching and use of modifiers in real life with
the rules given by traditional grammar.

Specific Objectives:
To explain what a modifier is
To classify modifiers according to traditional grammar
To explore rules given by traditional grammar about the place of modifiers
within a sentence
To describe the way students use modifiers in real life
To describe the way some English teachers in the Universidad Nacional
teach modifiers

RESEARCH QUESTION.

Problem Question
Rarely teachers provide students with a
detailed description or explanation
about the different kinds of modifiers
and their respective uses
1
. When
teaching this topic, a lot of vital
information is omitted.
How do teachers improve oral and
written skills in English Language
Students by teaching modifiers in
their sessions?



1
Based on my personal experience
4

METHODOLOGY.

As the knowledge English Language Students have about Modifiers can be
clearly evidenced in the way they employ those structures in written and oral
processes, and taking into account the words of G. Brown and G. Yule (2000):
"In contrast, the analysis of discourse... is typically based on
the linguistic output of someone other than the analyst... More
typically, the discourse analyst's 'data' is taken from written texts or
tape recordings. It is rarely in the form of a single sentence. The type
of linguistic material is sometimes described as 'performance data'.
The methodology that will be applied in this project is discourse analysis. On
the other hand, analysis of excerpts of books of traditional grammar and some web
pages articles will be also necessary. That is why it is vital to pay special attention
to the employment of the language.
The research question will be answered by the use of some resources such as
Traditional Grammar books and web pages articles, analysis of interviews with
some teachers from Universidad Nacional and personal experience
2
; and finally by
the design of a survey through the software SurveyMonkey
3
, this survey will target
English Language Students
4
.

2
The design of a survey, which target group will be some school partners who had the same teaching
process that I had, will make my personal experience objective.
3
SurveyMonkey is a United States company which provides internet users with tools to create and design
virtual surveys. Recovered: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/SurveyMonkey; accessed December 14
th
2013,
12:49 am
4
This survey will target all English Language students from Universidad Nacional, except students who were
taking English grammar 1 course in the second semester of 2013 (see annex 3 slides 2 to 14).
5

As this research was divided into two parts, the concept framework was the
same in both of them; however, the first part which was developed during the
second semester of 2013 can be taken as a more general study. In the second
part, developed during the first four months of 2014, the same resources were
used; moreover, there were some new interviews of teachers from Universidad
Nacional, and the survey mentioned above targeted English Language Students
from the fourth level of English Oral Communication Class with professor Luis
Orlando Hernandez. There were analyzed modifiers use patterns not only in
written papers but also in oral production.
THEORETICAL AND/OR CONCEPT FRAMEWORK.
To understand better the analysis I will make about all the resources I already
mentioned, it is necessary to have a general context and some concepts clear
5
:
Adjective: A form-class word that functions as a noun modifier. Adjectives can be
made comparative and superlative (tall, taller, tallest) and can be qualified or
intensified (very tall).
Adverb: A form-class word that generally modifies a verb, as in I will be going
soon. Adverbs can also modify the sentence as a whole, as in Unfortunately, I was
out when you phoned. Some adverbs can be compared (more quickly) or
intensified (very quickly), their position in the sentence is often flexible (I will soon
be going; Soon I will be going).
Adverbial: Any structure (word, phrase, or clause) that functions as a modifier of a
verb-that is, that fills the role of an adverb. In We drove to the airport to pick up
Uncle Louie, to the airport is an adverbial prepositional phrase and to pick up Uncle
Louie is an adverbial infinitive phrase, both modifying the verb drove.

5
All the definitions are taken from the glossary of the book Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers
6

Clause: A sequence of words that includes a subject and a predicate: Ellen slept;
Ellen dreamed about her daughter, who was away at school.
Conjunctive adverb: A conjunction with an adverbial emphasis (however, there-
fore, nevertheless, moreover, etc.) that connects two clauses, as in Chocolate is
delicious; however, I try my best to stay away from it.
Dependent clause: A clause that fills a role in a sentence (such as adverbial,
adjectival, or nominal) and that cannot stand independently as a sentence: He
climbed until he was exhausted (adverbial clause); I wonder where I put my keys
(nominal clause functioning as direct object).
Independent clause: The main clause of a sentence, one that can stand on its
own: that used to look run down
Modifier: A word, phrase, or clause that adds information about a noun or verb or
the sentence as a whole: The blue chair that I bought at the auction needs
painting; The tomatoes grow fast when the nights are warm: Unfortunately she lost
her job.
Nonrestrictive modifier: A modifier-a word, phrase, or clause in the noun phrase
that comments on the noun but is not necessary for defining or identifying it. It is
set off with commas: The Finance Committee, which met last week, is still working
all the budget.
Participial phrase: A present or past participle together with its subject or
complements and / or modifiers: Still clutching their pizza in their hands, the kids
left the room.
Phrase: A word or group of words that functions as a unit in the sentence and is
not a clause. The boy is a noun phrase. The boy with the blue shirt is a noun
phrase that includes a prepositional phrase modifying the noun boy. The boy who
is mowing the lawn is a noun phrase that includes an adjectival clause modifying
the noun boy.
7

Relative clause: A clause introduced by a relative pronoun (who, which, that) or a
relative adverb (when, where, why) that generally functions as an adjectival, as in
the book that you wanted has arrived; the area where I live is densely populated.
The broad reference which clause functions as a sentence modifier: John bought a
gas-guzzler, which surprised me.
Restrictive modifier: A modifier-a word, phrase, or clause-in the noun phrase that
restricts and identifies the meaning of the noun. It is not set off by commas:
Homer's epic poem The Odyssey is a great book to teach; The chair that you just
sat on is broken.
Verb: A form-class word that names an action, process, event, or state; that can
always take both -s and -ing endings; and that can be signaled by auxiliary verbs: It
goes; she is going; we should go.
Verb phrase: A verb together with its auxiliaries, modifiers, and complements. The
predicate of the sentence is a verb phrase, as in He left all his belong- ings,
including his guitar, in the house. The term is sometimes used more narrowly to
refer to just the main verb and its auxiliaries.

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
In this section the objectives that were previously proposed were achieved
through some resources that have been already mentioned; this, in order to do a
complete analysis and to come up with an answer to the main question of this
project in the next section. First of all, based on some web page resources and
some books, it is explained what a modifier is.
According to a post and a presentation (see annex 1, slide 4) made by Purdue
University
6
on its web page Owl
7
, a modifier is a word or group of words (phrase)

6
Purdue University http://www.purdue.edu/; accessed January 14
th
2014, 12:32 am
8

that describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about other words in a sentence. This
definition coincides with Haussamen et al., (2003)
8
where a modifier is described
as a word, phrase, or clause that adds information about a noun or verb or the
sentence as a whole.
In Owl page and presentation (see annex 1, slide 4), a deeper description about
modifiers is also given; however, this project is focused only on misplaced
modifiers:
Misplaced modifiers occur when the subject of the modifier is
unclear because the modifier is poorly placed. The reader may be
unsure of what word the modifier is describing. The reader may even
think the misplaced modifier is describing a different word than
intended.
A modifier in the wrong place in a sentence makes sentences
awkward, confusing, or (unintentionally) humorous.
In order to contrast the teaching and use of modifiers in real life with the rules given
by traditional grammar, modifiers were explained specifically since the traditional
grammar point of view. Some books classify modifiers in certain ways, these
explanations will be useful to be compared with the way teachers teach modifiers
in their lessons at Universidad Nacional and also to know why, based on my
personal experience (see annex 2 school survey) I say that this topic is not
thoroughly covered at school.
This survey targeted some school partners (see annex 2 slides 2 to 5) who support
through their answers that at school they learned mostly adverbs but only in a
vague way. To make my personal experience objective, a survey, which targeted
some school partners who supported through their answers that at school they
learned mostly adverbs but only in a vague way, was applied. They all studied at
Colegio Sagrados Corazones in Madrid, the same school where I studied so, it

7
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/36/
8
Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers (pp. 102)
9

made possible to say that we all received the same input; they also assure that
they do not remember to have learnt the topic modifiers (see annex 2 slide 8),
however 100% of them are sure to have talked in class the topic adverbs
according to the provided description (see annex 2 slide 9); the next question
shows how those people would probably place a modifier (see annex 2 slide 10),
and they are not completely sure about the two last options: before an adjective
and before another adverb, they all are completely sure only about the first option:
after a verb. In the question number 5 none of them answered correctly due to the
fact that in this case the provided options have a different meaning depending on
the emphasis of the sentence, instead of saying that, 60% of them assure that the
three sentences have the same meaning, the remaining 40% do not know how to
make a distinction.
In question 6, most of the answers were right because to avoid ambiguity, the
modifier "only" should be placed immediately before the words it modifies; 80% of
the people supported the idea, the remaining 20% do not know what the difference
between the two options is (see annex 2 slide 11).
Finally, the surveyed people rated their own learning process as vague or bad
because the acquired knowledge was not enough deep for them to be completely
sure about their answers. They do not know all the possible ways to place a
modifier within a sentence (see annex 2 slides 13 and 14).
Furthermore, to classify modifiers according to traditional grammar, I will mention
and make a contrast between two traditional grammar books, specifically between
the way their authors classify modifiers. It was the best of sentences; it was the
worst of sentences by June Casagrande is the first book where four chapters are
destined to explain modifiers; the second book I will reference in this section is
Grammar Alive! A guide for teachers by Brock Haussamen with Amy Benjamin,
Martha Kolln, Rebecca S. Wheeler, and members of NCTE's Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar.
10

June Casagrande (2010) explains that modifiers can be of different kinds i.e
modifiers are divided into different groups: Adverbs and adverbials, relative
clauses, prepositional phrases, participial phrases or participial clauses; this
coincides with the explanation given by Haussamen et al., (2003), the difference is
in certain way the particular details of each one of those classes of modifiers.
Adverbs, according to June Casagrande, can modify verbs, adjectives, other
adverbs
9
and whole sentences; moreover those adverbs are subdivided into three
groups: Adverbs of manner, the ones that describe the manner in which an action
occurred: walk quickly, eat slowly, dance enthusiastically; sentence adverbs, those
that give commentary on whole sentences: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn;
and conjunctive adverbs, which create a link to the previous sentence:
Consequently, the engine exploded. Nonetheless, adverbs are a kind of adverbial
for Haussamen et al., (2003) (I will go deeper in this issue later).
The eight chapter of It was the best of sentences; it was the worst of sentences, is
focused on relative clauses, is focused on how they can act as modifiers, she also
explains about adjectives as modifiers (the way we all know them); however, in
Grammar Alive! The author writes about relative clauses in a different and indirect
way
10
: In other section of the book
11
, he divides modifiers into restrictive and
nonrestrictive modifiers:
Restrictive modifier: A modifier -a word, phrase, or clause- in the
noun phrase that restricts and identifies the meaning of the noun. It is
not set off by commas: Homer's epic poem The Odyssey is a great
book to teach; The chair that you just sat on is broken.
Nonrestrictive modifier: A modifier-a word, phrase, or clause-in the
noun phrase that comments on the noun but is not necessary for

9
Haussamen et al., also say in Grammar Alive! modifiers can themselves have modifiers: the absolutely
(adv.) perfect (adj.) birthday present.
10
I will explain it based on the comparison with some information from the Students book Total English
Upper Intermediate p.p 125
11
See pages 102 and 105 in the book Grammar Alive! A guide for teachers
11

defining or identifying it. It is set off with commas: The Finance
Committee, which met last week, is still working all the budget.
The author makes a distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers;
their definitions coincide with the definitions of defining and non-defining relative
clauses
12
respectively so, when talking about restrictive and nonrestrictive
modifiers, the author is saying that relative clauses (defining and non-defining) are
also modifiers.
Both authors mention in their books prepositional phrases and participial phrases
(or clauses) as modifiers as well; June Casagrande says: Prepositional phrases,
like relative clauses, are modifiers.
13
, for instance. However I will not write a lot
about them because they have been mentioned along the previous paragraphs.
Finally, the last category: an adverbial for June Casagrande is whatever that is
doing adverbs job; it may or not be an adverb, for instance prepositional phrases.
For Brock Haussamen et al., an adverbial can be found in a sentence in five
different ways modifying the verb
14
: As an adverb, as a noun phrase, as a
prepositional phrase, as a verb phrase and as a clause. He also introduces the
idea of modifiers placement through the following sentence: It is not only their
variety of form that makes the adverbials such useful tools for the writer; it is also
their movability.
Modifiers are flexible to be moved in a sentence yet, they cannot be just moved
lightly; the way we can play with them in a sentence is carefully specified through
some rules given by traditional grammar; related to the modifiers position,
Haussamen et al., (2003) say
15
:
The structure of the NP provides a good example of the system- atic
nature of our grammar. When we add modifers, we do so in an es-

12
See Total English Upper Intermediate Students book pp. 125 Defining and non-defining relative clauses.
13
See It was the best of sentences; it was the worst of sentences pp. 96
14
As mentioned before in page 9, paragraph 3 (about adverbs)
15
See pages 86 and 87 in the book Grammar Alive! A guide for teachers
12

tablished way. In preheadword position, we can add both adjectives
and nouns as modifiers, but only in that order:

In postheadword position, we can add prepositional phrases,
participial phrases, and relative clauses (also called adjectival, or
adjective, clauses) -always in that order:

When this author is talking about adverbials, he also explains how they can be
placed in different places within a sentence:
Adverbials can open or close the sentence, depending on the writer's
focus (Last night, we went to the movies; We went to the movies last
night). They can also appear in the middle of the sentence, between
the subject and the predicate, or between the verb and the
complement, positions in which they are of- ten set off by commas-
and call attention to themselves (All three ofus, because we studied
hard, got A's for the course). Adverbials are versatile in purpose as
well, adding, as they do, information of time and place and manner,
reason, and the like.
For this first part of the analysis, it was also described the way students use
modifiers in real life through the analysis of a survey which targeted English
Language Students from Universidad Nacional (see annex 3). In the three first
questions, surveyed people had to choose the sentence that placed the modifier
correctly; in the first question (see annex 3 slide 15) 53,85% answered the first
13

option and 46,15% answered second option, it means that majority of people
answered in a wrong way; this because the phrase the next day needs to be
closer to the infinitive "to visit" that it modifies. It shows that students have some
difficulties when identifying what modifies what.
In the next question (see annex 3 slide 16), majority of students answered wrongly
(69,23%), and just the remaining 30,77% of them answered correctly, it was
because to avoid ambiguity, the modifier "only" should be placed immediately
before the words it modifies. In the third question (see annex 3 slide 17), exactly
the same as in second one, happened; majority of students (79,62%) placed the
modifier only in other position leading to ambiguity, the 23,68% (3 students)
chose the correct answer.
This part of the survey shows that for students is still difficult to apply the golden
rule: modifiers have to always be as close as possible to the word or group of
words they modify
Based on the last part of the survey it was developed an analysis on how students
use modifiers when they produce texts (see annex 3 slides 18 to 24). Using a
constituent structure in each paragraph (see annex 4) it was possible to notice that
students frequently use restrictive modifiers more than nonrestrictive modifiers, it
was evident, besides, that they sometimes tend to set off nonrestrictive modifiers
(relative clauses) with a dot (.) before and a comma (,) after them in spite of setting
them off with commas only.
It is also clear that students use plenty of adjectives, which are also modifiers, and
they place them, in most of the cases, before nouns, for example: a huge lake
(art, adj, noun) (see annex 4 answer #6). Adverbs are placed mostly before an
adjective, for example a really kind manner (Art, adv, adj, noun) (see annex 4
answer #2); in some cases adverbs are placed before and after a verb, for
example: he really likes here (Pron, adv, verb, adv) (see annex 4 answer #4) or I
really love it! (noun, adv, verb, noun) (see annex 4 answer #6); or only after a
14

verb, for example That was really sad (Det, verb, adv, adj) (see annex 4 answer
#6).
Students often put into practice the formulas mentioned by Haussamen et al.,
(2003)
16
. Firstly, the formula (Det, adj, n, noun) sometimes with an adverb between
the determiner and the adjective, for example: the most peaceful places (Det,
adv, adj, noun) (see annex 4 answer #1); secondly, the formula (Det, noun, prep
phr, part phr, rel clause) using only a prepositional phrase or a relative clause, for
example: the lake where we went together (Det, noun, relative clause (restrictive
modifier) adv) (see annex 4 answer #1) or with an adjective between de determiner
and the noun (pronoun in this case), for example: The huge one before crossing
the river (Det, adj, pron, prepositional phrase) (see annex 4 answer #5). In these
two previous rules determiners are very often replaced by the article a for
example: a bear, which was enormous! (Art, noun, relative clause - restrictive
modifier) (see annex 4 answer #6).
Having described the way students use modifiers in real life; through some
interviews, I was described the way Paul Gerard Priolet and Leonardo Varela
Santamara, as English teachers in the Universidad Nacional, teach modifiers.
Paul Priolet is an official translator, and teacher at Universidad Nacional Sede
Bogot, he is a native speaker from New York, his nationality is French-US, he has
been teaching during seven years; Paul deems that the most important aspects
that an English language student should learn are grammar, syntax, vocabulary
and more than topics, structuring language (see annex 5 min 48) for them to feel
comfortable speaking English. If a student asks him what the difference is between
the sentences: We rowed the boat vigorously, We vigorously rowed the boat
and Vigorously we rowed the boat, first of all he would talk to him/her about the
placement of adverbs (because the meaning could change). When I asked him if
modifiers is an important topic for him to teach he said of course and referenced
our English 4 classes, where he spent a lot of time talking about misplaced
modifiers, dangling modifiers, and other related topics; to answer the 5th question

16
See page 11, rules about the position of modifiers.
15

he mentioned the golden rule: to understand what the modifier is modifying (see
annex 5 min 2:06); finally, to structure the topic or to choose the aspects to be
taught to his students, he takes into account aspects such as the program or
curriculum that should be followed, certain goals that each course would have, a
diagnosis of the students at the beginning of the semester; however, he thinks in a
course there should be a flexibility between students and teacher to agree those
topics and the structure of the course.
As he said, modifiers is also an important topic; in the practice he actually spent
class time in order to make us as students understand how important is to place
modifiers properly, that is why his ideas are supported at some extent in this
project.
Leonardo Varela is a teacher at Universidad Nacional Sede Bogot, his nationality
is Colombian, he has been teaching during ten years; he considers as the most
important topics for the students to communicate properly in English as a second
language, lexis because students can develop better their competences in English
as second language, phonetics and phonology because of the intention of
language, language identity because students need to understand how important is
to build their own personality around the learning of the second language, self-
learning because it is key specially in this time when technology plays the vital role,
metacognitive review because teachers should encourage students to give
feedback to each other in second language learning. If a student asks him what is
the difference between the sentences: We rowed the boat vigorously,
We vigorously rowed the boat and Vigorously we rowed the boat, he would
ask the student to go beyond the sentence level; it should not be analyzed only
from a grammatical point of view but also from a pragmatical point of view (he
explains the difference of intention between the three sentences). For teacher
Leonardo, modifiers are definitely important due to the fact that they carry the
intention of the speaker and the way the speakers want to be understood (see
annex 6 min 4:45), he remarks that modifiers are not only a grammatical element
but that they go beyond in language. He would structure the topic according to
16

three areas: Phonethics and phonology (the intention when speaking), cultural
differences that influence meaning of modifiers, and lexical-syntactical level of
modifiers.
Similar to Paul Priolet, to structure the topic or to choose the aspects to be taught
to his students, Leonardo Varela explains that first, following the curriculum is
important and marry the needs of students with the curriculum (see annex 6 min
8:32) second, to use his professional experience in phonetics and phonology
(because he lived in a native speakers community for more than 6 years) and third
to negotiate talking to some other teachers, according to their experience on
different subjects, about what is important and what is not important for students to
learn; to him it is not only important the national standard but also the international
one.
As they explained, modifiers are important for improving communication goals; that
is why students have to learn modifiers from different points of view as teacher
Leonardo Varela proposed.
For the second part of this project, developed during the four first months of the
current year, the population of study was not so vast; however, there were some
new findings that should definitely be mentioned:
It was discovered that students from fourth level of English Oral Communication
with professor Luis Orlando Hernandez still struggle when using modifiers, in this
case they were provided, at first, with some modifiers so that, they could create a
dialogue using them. Besides some grammar errors, it was possible to notice that
students manage to use basic structures such as adverbs before adjectives in
most of the cases, they tend to use the words before and after only as a
preposition but almost never as an adverb; some of modifiers were forced in
some contexts and that made students change the structures; also the difficulty
they showed got stronger when they had to implement relative clauses i.e
restrictive or nonrestrictive modifiers in their speeches, in that case, intonation
patterns showed that students did not have sufficient security to produce some
17

utterances and that made difficult the identification of pauses that could posteriorly
show the oral distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers (see
annex 7 and videos 1, 2, 3 and 4).
Written evidence was gathered in a slightly different way; the same survey that was
used in the previous part of the study was applied once again but the new element
in this analysis is that students answered to questions 1 to 3 via internet and were
asked to write the text of question 4 in class so that, they did not have time to think
or prepare too much their ideas for the texts.
Only five students participated in the virtual process, in the first question 100% of
them answered correctly (see annex 8, slide 7), in the second question 60% of
them answered incorrectly (see annex 8 slides 1 to 8) and in the third question only
20% of them had the right answer (see annex 8 slide 9). It means that students are
not familiarized with modifiers and its rules at all. However some of the most
remarkable patterns found in the first part of the analysis were also evidenced in
this group of students: they sometimes tend to set off nonrestrictive modifiers
(relative clauses) with a dot (.) before, and a comma (,) after them in spite of
setting them off with commas only (see annex 4, part 2). In some cases it was
difficult to distinguish if the modifier was restrictive or nonrestrictive because of
punctuation marks usage.
It is also clear that students use plenty of adjectives, which are also modifiers, and
they place them, in most of the cases, before nouns, for example: holy Sunday
(Adj, noun) (see annex 4, part 2 answer # 1). Adverbs are placed mostly before an
adjective, for example really impressive animal (Adv, adj, noun) (see annex 4,
part 2, answer # 2).
Moreover, there were some new discoveries, for example that students of fourth
level of English Oral Communication had fewer problems using modifiers in their
oral performance (even though the term had not been explained to them before)
than in the written papers which had the explanation and some examples of the
term modifier. Structure in orally produced sentences is less perceived than in
18

written production i.e in oral production the emphasis is meaning, while in written
production the emphasis is form.
As they were given the choice to choose the modifiers they wanted to use in both
oral and written production, it was also possible to evidence a potential for
avoidance (Saville-Troike, 2006) in which students tended to use short sentences
and avoided using structures that they found difficult or unknown; as for example,
the modifier Thoroughly used only by two students and which was enormous
which was used by four out of eight students (see annex 4, part 2).
For this second part, two professors took part; the first professor is Luis Orlando
Hernandez, his nationality is Colombian and he is an English Teacher at
Universidad Nacional in Bogot, he has been teaching languages for over twenty
five years. He considers self-knowledge, vocabulary, listening skills and
grammatical knowledge as the most important topics to be taught to English as
Second Language students; with regard to the position of the modifier in the
sentences We rowed the boat vigorously, We vigorously rowed the boat and
Vigorously we rowed the boat, he would first, focus on the position of the word if
it is in written text or if it is oral, he would focus primarily on the emphasis the
student has. He expresses that modifiers are very important in English Language
Learning because they aggregate meaning (see annex 9, min 1:52), he prefers
not to structure that much the topic modifiers in a lesson but to make students be
aware of the position of them so as to know the real intention of the speaker; the
way he structures the explanation of the topic depends on students interests, the
progress of their language acquisition and their particular needs which are
reflected in repetitive mistakes.
On the other hand, Professor Ricardo Romero, who is also Colombian, and the
same as Professor Luis Orlando Hernandez, an English Teacher at Universidad
Nacional in Bogot with a vast experience in this field, he has been teaching
languages for over twenty seven years. He conceives that there are not only
important topics to be taught to the students but it is better to talk about
competences (see annex 10, min 01:18): linguistic competence which includes
19

lexical vocabulary, grammar and composition rules; pragmatic competences
referring in that case to the specific functions that are necessary to communicate;
sociolinguistic competence through which people learn the levels of formality and
appropriateness; and finally strategic competence, this lead people to survive a
conversation (see annex 10, min 02:10). He promotes all the competences
together to give a wider perspective of English.
He defines English as a language that has a very strict organization of a sentence
(see annex 10, min 3:11) however, he expresses that the only flexible aspect in
English grammar is modifiers; teacher would explain the difference between the
sentences We rowed the boat vigorously, We vigorously rowed the boat and
Vigorously we rowed the boat, making emphasis on the position of the modifier
so as to see whether or not the meaning is affected, he would also talk about the
use of the verb to be with modifiers so as not to misplace them. He defines
modifiers as the flavor or the intensity of the action that is why they are very
important he explains- He has a deductive approach in classes so, he would
structure the explanation of the topic in three principal stages: first of all students
identify the topic in context, then he makes the topic evident and finally he does
what he calls open work (see annex 10, min 06:07) focusing on the age and the
needs students have; he also organizes his lessons to teach modifiers in PPP
(Presentation Practice Production) with possibilities to change this order.
There is one interesting point in which all teachers agree and it is that modifiers
carry meaning and the necessity in students to learn them would, with no doubt,
lead to contexts than can facilitate their learning process, but we as teachers have
to be careful because it depends on us to make this topic interesting and
meaningful to students, it is vital that the sessions are not only focused in the
programs that should be followed, but also in students needs, ages and interests.

CONCLUSION/FURTHER SUGGESTIONS

20

Based on this study, it is possible to say that most of the students who start an
English philology major at Universidad Nacional, have a lot of difficulties with the
placement of modifiers because of the disinformation, the poor thematic and lack of
interest in high school; however this phenomenon decreases as soon as students
advance their English courses, they practice and acquire more knowledge about
the language.
Students are guilty because they are not interested in the topics their teachers do
not teach, but teachers are also guilty because their experience as teachers
provides them with criteria and pedagogical tools yet, not all of them analyze their
students needs; it influences directly the students skills in a second language due
to the fact that they have neither resources nor enough confidence to communicate
in an oral or written way in English.
However, teachers improve oral and written skills in English Language
Students firstly by paying attention to their doubts and suggestions, by
analyzing carefully their oral production and written tasks, by asking and
understanding what their students need to learn and secondly by teaching
the topic modifiers from different points of view: not only grammar but also
phonetics, phonology and pragmatics and by providing students with
different resources to practice.
Then, a further suggestion should be made: teachers should always encourage
students to wonder what they do not know and let teachers know that. Especially
from third semester on, teachers should pay more attention to some topics such as
relative clauses and punctuation because they influence misplaced modifiers.
The correct placement of modifiers habit in a student could signify a tremendous
improvement or decreasing in his/her learning process.
Finally, teachers should always take into account that there is not only one aspect
to teach about this topic; as teacher Leonardo said: modifiers carry the intention of
the speaker and the way the speakers want to be understood (see annex 6 min
4:45) so, lexical, grammatical, pragmatical, cultural and phonetic aspects are
21

together as a whole and, if a student wants to express what he/she is thinking
about avoiding ambiguities; more interest, self-learning, effort and practice are
necessary.
Appendix:
Annex 1: Modifiers Owl slides-Power Point presentation (Cd Rom)
Annex 2: Survey School Partners Modifiers-Power Point presentation (Cd Rom)
Annex 3: Survey English as Second Language Students Misplaced Modifiers-
Power Point presentation (Cd Rom)
Annex 4: Textual production analysis and Written Production Texts
Annex 5: Paul Priolet Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)
Annex 6: Leonardo Varela Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)
Annex 7: Previous Final Projects Draft
Annex 8: Survey English as Second Language FOURTH SEMESTER-Power Point
presentation (Cd Rom)
Annex 9: Luis Orlando Hernandez Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)
Annex 10: Ricardo Romero Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)
Annex 11: Attendance Grid
Annex 12: Letters and other attachments
References:
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Brown, G; Yule, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Introduction: linguistic forms and
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New York, USA: Cambridge University Press

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