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Securing the Nuts and Bolts of Language –

All those bits and pieces and odds and ends that are
sometimes overlooked

Introduction

By ‘nuts and bolts’, I’m referring to the basic aspects of communication in


English that tend to fall by the wayside for a number of reasons: they are
considered universal and assumed to be understood; they are too abstract or
one-dimensional to constitute a main aim of a lesson; they are difficult to
explain. A brief list would look something like this:

- Punctuation
- Linking words and conjunctions
- The alphabet
- Numbers
- Abbreviations
- Classroom language
- Paralanguage
- Word order
- Metalanguage

In my experience, basic (and not so basic) errors are made in almost all of
these areas at any level of proficiency. It is often the case that such errors are
remedial and should be dealt with only as they arise. However, sometimes a
case can be made for looking at them more closely, and that is exactly what
we’re going to do…

Punctuation

Punctuation is a horrible thing to teach. Sometimes it’s a question of style;


sometimes the learner has an underlying issue with incorrect syntax… and
either way it’s much easier just to correct the error than to explain it.
Sometimes, however, especially with exam classes, I’ve found that you just
have to suck it up and tackle the issue head on. Broadly speaking, I think
there are two main approaches to this:

1. Awareness Raising Activities

Present learners with a text such as this:

Dear Jack I want a man who knows what love is all about you are
generous kind and thoughtful people who are not like you admit to
being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for
you I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart I can be forever
happy will you let me be yours Jill.

Obviously, it can be done a number of ways, and that’s the underlying


point: to raise awareness of the power of punctuation to shape
meaning. This is an extreme example, but I’m sure we’ve all done the
classic ‘My brother who is a doctor lives in Spain’ compared to ‘My
brother, who is a doctor, lives in Spain.’ There are millions of examples
of this and they’re great because you get learners using punctuation
but focussing primarily on meaning

2. Proceduralising/Personalising Activities

Present learners with a text such as:

hi my names john I like cricket bob Dylan and beer this weekend im
going to… etc.

Treat it initially as a spoken text. Get them to say it to a partner as


quickly as they can, then as slowly as they can, and find the natural
pauses. Chunk the paragraph into tone units. Then ask them to treat it
as a written text and to punctuate it. The punctuation marks will often
fall at the same points as the pauses between tone units. This is great
because it highlights the natural connection between spoken, timed
speech and written, punctuated speech. Again, it gets to the bottom of
punctuation without dwelling on the abstract grammar.

Do this with your text as a model, get students to write their own, then
report it to a partner who must write it down and punctuate accordingly.
Usually works very nicely.

Linkers and Conjunctions – coherence and cohesion

Both of the above techniques can be used to look at punctuation at


sentence level and also more abstract aspects of coherence and
cohesion at paragraph and whole text level. Consider for example the
following:

This obviously moves things up a level, but the principles remain the
same. Adding punctuation is one thing, adding a linker or conjunction
‘colours’ the punctuation in a way that roots the linker or conjunction
firmly in context rather than having to deal with it in the abstract.

Letters and Numbers

Both in the classroom and outside it, learners will find themselves in positions
in which they need to communicate not in words or sentences but in letters
and numbers. ‘How do you spell X?’, ‘What’s your email address?’, etc. These
questions often prompt confusing responses in which phonemes and letters
get confused (especially because of L1 slippage). The one catch-all remedy
I’ve found for this is the (only very slightly adapted) activity from English File.
(see appendix)
Numbers are more commonly explicitly addressed by coursebooks. They also
often crop up incidentally in other activities which reveal gaps in student
production, especially if the number in question is over 100. Whenever this is
the case, I find any activity that, again, connects English as it is spoken to the
numerical equivalent will be of benefit. Some obvious solutions:

- ridiculously high number bingo


- quizzes, eg here are ten birthdays, match them to the famous
people (boring, but effective)
- information swaps eg on the phone
o these are essential to business English and it’s amazing the
errors they throw up at higher levels. The key element here
is that they are inherently ‘more natural’ communication,
meaning they require repair strategies and negotiation

The example I have given you is my tube quiz. The main aim of this lesson is
reading skills, but the sub-aim is lexical – numbers. It works nicely because,
again, it focuses on meaning and allows space for learners to self-correct,
discuss and negotiate that meaning before ‘perfecting’ an answer for
feedback. Often with this style of task, no correction is necessary; the other
students do the work for you. This is possible because the focus is firmly on
meaning.

Abbreviations

Classroom Language

This is another of those things that seems to get lost

Paralanguage

Though it’s pedagogic value may be debatable, there are few lessons more
fun that paralanguage lessons. By paralanguage, we mean the ‘words’ that
we say that aren’t really words; eg ‘ouch’, ‘hmmm’, ‘phew’.

Conclusion

We all pay attention to all these things and we all correct them daily. More
often than not, I believe that they are best addressed as they arise and not as
the aim or sub-aim of a lesson. However, I also think that these things do
cause real communicative problems and sometimes should be directly
addressed. Hopefully I’ve given you a few ideas as to how you can go about
this. Even if you think that’s rubbish, you have to agree that it’s amazing what
a difference all these small things can make to a learner’s communicative
competence and what a hindrance they can be if this solid foundation is not
there.

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