Did you understand the explanation above? Check it against your own grammar books and make sure that it is correct by looking up the rules for using articles. After you have read the rules regarding articles, decide if you think this explanation is just right, too difficult, or too easy.

The explanation given is fairly good, but it could use a little fine-tuning. I, for example, would say:

"Firstly, we’re talking about something that already happened, so we have to use the past tense. The past tense of watch is watched. Also, because movie is a singular noun we need to qualify it with an article. There are two possible articles you could use in this sentence. We could use the definite article ‘the’, but if we did that you’d have to be sure that I knew exactly which movie you were talking about. In this case it would probably be more appropriate to use the indefinite article. We know that we cannot use ‘an’ because the word movie begins with a consonant. That leaves us with the most appropriate article for this sentence, ‘a’. Therefore the sentence should read: Last night I watched a movie."

Nice point on the Article, would you actually give such a detailed explanation to the students? In particular is the "Metalanguage" (like Past Tense, Singular Noun, Definite Article etc.) really necessary for learners or is it just something teachers need to be aware of?

Good.

"Irony has two common uses in English, firstly it’s used to describe when something is said that is the opposite of what is meant. For example, if I asked you if you enjoyed your English lessons and you said no, it would be ironic because, as we all know, you love English classes!

Hmm, some subtle double Irony here perhaps?

Secondly, irony is used to describe a situation where an event occurs at the wrong moment. The event is often a strange twist of fate that seems like a deliberate cosmic joke. For example, it would be ironic if you’ve just finished washing your car and it begins to rain."

Phrases such as "strange twist of fate" and "deliberate cosmic joke" may bewilder one or two students.

"Great is an adjective used to describe something big, interesting, or wonderful. For example, I might say "Life is great." or "He has a great number of cats."

Very direct and simple- great.

"There are many different definitions of set. However the one used most often is when we talk about a group of things that belong together, they are called a set. For example, you (now I indicate the students) are a set of English students. Or I might have a set of china. Another common use of the word set, is when we refer to the scenery, either real or constructed, that stands around the actors on a stage or in a film."

Will you always need to tell the students when a word has several meanings - consider the meaning you yourself have overlooked for the words above and below (eg. An Iron = a metal golf club, Irony = an Adjective describing something that is iron-like, Poppy = a girl's name, music that sounds very trendy etc.)

Give the two explanations for poppy you would give the Beginners class and the Advanced class. Are they the same? If not, why not? Now go back to your answers to Points to Consider #2 and make sure your explanations are as simple as possible so even students with just a couple of years of English will be able to understand them. Remember that you can use any method you want to explain a word: a picture, perhaps, or by using opposites (antonyms) or similar words (synonyms) and so on.

For the beginner class:

"A poppy is a small, common, usually red flower."

What is wrong with simply "A poppy is a red flower." ? Are words like "common" and "usually" any more necessary than "wild" or "attractive" - and isn't a poppy actually quite large?

Following this explanation I might draw, or find a picture of a poppy to show the class.

For the advanced class:

"A poppy is a small, common, usually red flower. For some Western cultures, the poppy has come to be a widely accepted symbol of remembrance. The reason for this significance dates back to 1916 when John McRae wrote his famous poem "In Flander’s Field". McRae was a Canadian medic during the First World War. After a bloody battle in the North of France, McRae wrote the poem while surveying the carnage before him. The first couplet of the poem, reads "In Flander’s field where poppies grow between the crosses row on row." This refers to the newly budding springtime poppies McRae observed. Since then poppies have come to be associated with reverence for the dead, especially for those men and women that died in battle.

On another note, poppies have been widely used historically for their medicinal quality. In fact, the drug opium is directly derived from female poppies. This has led to the poppy’s widespread cultivation especially throughout regions of Southeast Asia."

Obviously these two answers are different. An advanced class should not have their learning restricted to simple definitions. They should learn both the meaning of words and the cultural relevance that these words might have to different people. A language student at an advanced level should understand not just the speech of another culture, but at least to some extent the attitudes and experiences of the cultures that use the language.

I agree to an extent but if this were done with every word wouldn't we as teachers risk departing far from the meaning of words and often away from the task in question? Certainly more background information makes a word memorable but doesn't that mean we would have to devote a lot of time to talking about banana republics, Shakespeare, Alanis Morrisette, football, golf and tennis when dealing with the words in the list above. Some less-motivated students are adept getting the teacher to depart on a little storytelling (it is called "playing the teacher") and moving away from the work they themselves should be engaged in.

To come back to the point however, I think it is important to ensure that the vocabulary you use when explaining exercises, words or grammar is much simpler than the actual language being studied - this ensures that the Target Language is the learning point.

A Japanese person might say:

• I see car.
• Do you have apple?
• I used to have dog.
• I am boy.

Another activity I might give my students would be a list of short, simple sentences in which they could fill in the blank article. It might look something like this:

I like the exploration of "real English" here, headline English does often contain puns and confusing use of Tenses but simple headlines would give good grounds for basic work and much discussion (as in the case of your gapped sentences above - where imagining a context would change the Article or other grammar needed).

What about practice in the cases of "I play the piano."(British English), "I play piano." (American English) or The Sun, The moon, The river Mersey but Mount Everest. Which, if any of these cases need attention? Are there any other "exceptions" that need consideration?

Perhaps a better classroom activity might be to give the students some examples of using articles, and why we use the definite versus the indefinite article. For example what do the students think the difference between wanting an orange and wanting the orange is? The answer here of course deals with specification and context. Perhaps we want a specific orange of many, or the particular orange that was mentioned previously, or the ripe one of the group, etcetera. Then we would use the definite article. Perhaps we don’t care which orange we want of the available group, or maybe we’re talking about oranges in a philosophical way. Then we would use the indefinite article.

So far this is a very general talk (albeit about a specific example) such an explanation is going to need to be quite formal and simple or an activity which involves the students - so far this is more of a speech, an unscripted on at that.

There are obviously a lot of different ways and means by which we could want an orange, and it might be good to ask around the class for an example of how we might want one, then discuss what article would fit better into the sentence "I want ______ orange." If the student couldn’t think up any I would give them examples:

• "What if we we’re having a conversation about Florida but there are no oranges around us. You might say I want _an__ orange."
• "What if I physically held up a single orange in front of you and offered to give it to you. You might say Yes, I would like _the_ orange."
• "What if there was a whole bowlful of juicy oranges in front of you, they all look good and you want one. You might say I want _an_ orange."

We could then continue the game with other examples: "I see _____ car.", "I have ____ ball."

I get it but you may need to be even more heavily structured than this. These learners may well be at quite a low level in which case they need a simple explanation, simple rules and a game they can be involved in even though their own responses will be in imperfect English.

After this I would explain to the students how we need to use the definite article when something is specifically defined. For example, in the cases of "I love _the_ stars at night" or I like _the_ cat." The students should know that if there isn’t any particular object implied in the sentence or known beforehand, then you can use the indefinite article.

Sentences in Question:

Now let’s have another look at the second sentence.

In this sentence what word does fast affect? What is fast in this sentence? The driving is fast. Now, what kind of word is drives? Driving is an action; it’s something we can do. That means it is a verb. So if we know that drives is a verb, what kind of word does that make fast? Is it an adjective, or an adverb? In this sentence, fast is an adverb.

In these two sentences fast is used very differently; it can be either an adjective or an adverb. Fast can add to the meaning of both nouns and verbs. This is pretty unusual, so when we come across a word like fast we call it irregular."

Sentences in Question:

He has a fast car.

He drives fast.

The word fast is used in two different ways in these sentences. In the first sentence it is being used as an adjective because it affects the noun, car. In the second sentence, it is being used as an adverb because it affects the verb, drives. As a general rule of thumb, an adjective is a descriptive word that affects a noun, while an adverb is a descriptive word that affects a verb. The word fast is an irregular example of this, because it can be used as both an adjective and an adverb.

You're just telling again - there is no doing! This won't help students learn - the best thing to do is involve the class in your explanation, ask a few limited questions, get students up to the board to circle what fast is "talking about" and so on. You do do this later on though I'm pleased to see.

An exercise I might recommend to the class after my adjective and adverb explanation above might be giving them a list of short sentences with the adverb or adjective underlined. Then they could decide whether it was an adjective or an adverb. It might look something like this:

Circle the correct answer to the right:

(Good point David; my examples here are very complicated)

Good, I'd also be tempted to get them to mark which word is being described by the underlined word and note if it is a Noun or a Verb - this should quickly lead the students to the correct conclusions. When working in stages like this it is useful to concentrate on similar structures before introducing sentences like 2 or 3. You might as a next stage do a very similar exercise, including slightly more variation where the students have to find the Verb or Adverb themselves.

If this seemed too difficult for the students to do alone I might allow them to complete the exercise in small groups or we could all do it together, discussing the answers in an open forum.

Another activity I might recommend would be to ask the students collectively to give me some adjectives that describe their fellow students. I might begin the exercise by saying that, for example, "Kim has brown eyes."

(I suggested this in my next paragraph)

Some support might help here, maybe provide some sentences with gaps on the board which the students could use to make true sentences about their neighbors and then with the neighbor spot the Adjective and the Noun.

I would then ask for at least one adjective that describes each of the students. Then I would ask the students for an adverb that helps describe something they did that day, or the past weekend. I might start them off by saying something like, "last night I slept soundly," or "this morning I hungrily ate my breakfast." If a student has trouble thinking of something the other students might have ideas, or suggestions.

Fine but again more "support" and structure will help (consider how the word order in your examples keeps changing and the "frequency" of the Adverb soundly).

Another activity I might give my students would be to give my students a few sentences involving words that can be used as both the an adjective or an adverb. Then I split them into small groups and allow them to decide which one it was and why. It might look something like this:

• We arrived at the theater late.
• Our late arrival disturbed the audience.
• I read the newspaper weekly.
• I read the weekly newspaper.

we could discuss their answers together. Failing that we might have to concentrate on simpler activities until the class is comfortable with identifying adjectives and adverbs.

Here are some new exercises that I think are a lot better. I hope my sentence structure is more straightforward now. Thanks.

• The ball is red.
• I like the shaggy dog.
• We are good friends.
• The baby is sleeping quietly.
• He ran quickly.
• It is a beautiful day.
• I occasionally eat spaghetti.

In these sentences we only deal with the adverbs modifying verbs. This would be a good way to introduce the concept to them. As you suggested I would have them first point out the word being affected, then we could decide together whether it was a noun or a verb.

Great

As a follow up exercise I would ask them for an example of some adjectives that describe their classroom or classmates. I might start by saying that "Carlos is tall." We could then go around the classroom and each student could contribute a descriptive sentence.

I would explain to them that an adjective can also be used to qualify a pronoun too. I would give them some simple examples to illustrate this:

The students understand that adverbs are used to modify verbs. But now they need to understand that adverbs can also be used to modify adjectives as well and other adverbs.

You are going too far for one lesson, after all you are only supposed to be explaining the issues surrounding the fast sentences.

• She has a blue coat.
• This room is hot.
• She has a good job.
• The crops are ripe.

The students would begin by identifying the adjectives in the sentences. Then we could decide together where to add the following adverbs:

FADED, ALMOST, TOO, VERY

Finally, I would give them some examples of sentences where and adverb modifies another adverb. This is pretty complicated so I just want to start to get them thinking about it Rather than being able to make them up on the spot.

• I speak rather quickly.
• He sings extremely well.
• The painting is breathtakingly beautiful.
• You are incredibly funny.

Fine but your students will have forgotten the earlier points by now!

To bring all of the skills learned in the previous exercises together I would present the students with a number of more complex sentences and we could diagram them together. First picking out the nouns, and verbs, then the adjectives, and adverbs. Here are some sample sentences:

• The wealthy farmer tilled his incredibly fertile field.
• The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
• The fast talking politician spoke with well-guarded charisma.
• Carlos may truly love spaghetti but he unfortunately eats with his mouth open.
• That very night, the sad, little monkey slept on the cold, dark floor and shivered quietly.

This kind of clarification and review work is very valid but probably consolidates ideas from year or smester's worth of grammar. You have really dealt with all of the types of Adverbs mentioned in the ICAL grammar guide (there are, of course, more) which would probably be introduced gradually in different "Communicative Contexts".

Hello again Geoffrey

Here is where you will find a summary of what needs to be done (if anything) when you have to resubmit an assignment:

Your PTC work is fine, take care to make definitions as simple as possible though, this means leaving out Adverbs like usually, generally etc., whenever possible.

In part 2 question 3 you do not really supply any form of correction to your activities or explanation why the particular Articles should be used - in fact you give no "correct" examples at any time but only ask the students for them. More strongly structured activity is required here.

You are getting there - keep the examples simple and relevant and the explanations short (try to avoid "grammar words" too). I often run through a similar thing to your orange example in a classroom with door, desk, window or whiteboard some of which must be the and others a.

In part 3 you have really included too much in your explanation (I've already mentioned some points on this in the covering letter). Try to refine this to what is immediately relevant to the two sentences being studied and go on to produce three controlled exercises.

One of your exercises is fine but the others go miles away from the point in question. You should be building up very slowly around sentences like the ones with fast in. (eg. It was a happy day / He smiled happily - note the spelling). When you make several activities you first give the students a lot of support (by which I mean that they don't have to do a lot - the activity is heavily controlled) like for example circling the nouns or verbs as you did. Then you could move on to something like:

Choose which form is correct:

A step further might have a mixed list of Adjectives and Verbs on the board. Students have to write down in a paired list - remembering to change the Adjective to an Adverb by adding "ly" where needed. Now each student check their list with their neighbour and they agree which makes the best examples (several answers may be possible) before the pair of students write one example sentence for each word pairing. This activity gives you several opportunities to correct individuals or pairs and monitor who is doing well, it gives the students gradually more creative control and keeps everyone actively involved in the learning.

You can work from this draft and leave in my comments, putting your own additions in another colour (green for example), that way the assignment builds up as a form of dialogue and we both have a record of how it has developed.

I look for ward to receiving the revised assignment.

All the best.

David Bish

Hi David,

I’ve layered my corrections throughout the assignment in Green. Thanks for the feedback. Geoff

Geoff

This just about does it although as you can see you still need to bring the focus in tighter, take smaller steps in your explanations and activities and keep your examples simple.

In the next assignment you will need to provide some general explanations of activities - this will be a good opportunity for you to think how learners can be actively involved in a task that helps their learning. The teacher's job is to set things up, provide ongoing support and correction and after activities to provide feedback to consolidate the learning. This way of working is more "student centred" than doing too much "chalk and talk".

Remember, if you have any questions as your working through I'm just an email away.

All the best

David Bish

Grade: 16

[As with all ICAL assignments, a pass mark is 16. If you grade less than this then you are allowed to re-work and re-submit the assignment as many times as you wish to reach a pass mark. If you grade 16 or above then you move automatically onto the next Module.]