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7/25/2019 Unit5_section1 the Noun Phrase http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/unit5section1-the-noun-phrase 1/23 The Distance DELTA Unit 5 Section 1 1 The Noun Phrase Summary Traditionally course books and teacher training courses have concentrated on the verb phrase and treated the noun phrase as a poor relation, even though “a simple count of errors in the writing produced by intermediate students often reveals a higher proportion of noun-phrase-related errors than errors in the verb system” (Thornbury 1997). In this section we will be looking at various aspects of the noun phrase through an analysis of authentic texts, learners’ written work and published materials. You will also be undertaking some reading. We recommend you work through the different subsections separately rather than trying to cover all the information and tasks in one go. Objectives By the end of the section you will:  Feel more confident about terminology.  Have deepened your analysis of nouns, determiners (including articles), adjectives and compound nouns.  Know where to do further research on the noun phrase.  Have practised exam type tasks in respect of the noun phrase.
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The Distance DELTA

Unit 5 Section 1 1

The Noun Phrase

Summary

Traditionally course books and teacher training courses have concentrated on theverb phrase and treated the noun phrase as a poor relation, even though “a simplecount of errors in the writing produced by intermediate students often reveals ahigher proportion of noun-phrase-related errors than errors in the verb system”(Thornbury 1997).

In this section we will be looking at various aspects of the noun phrase through ananalysis of authentic texts, learners’ written work and published materials. You willalso be undertaking some reading.

We recommend you work through the different subsections separately rather thantrying to cover all the information and tasks in one go.

Objectives

By the end of the section you will:

•  Feel more confident about terminology.

•  Have deepened your analysis of nouns, determiners (including articles),adjectives and compound nouns.

•  Know where to do further research on the noun phrase.

•  Have practised exam type tasks in respect of the noun phrase.

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Unit 5 Section 1 2

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Nouns

2.1. Analysis of Noun Categories

2.2. Countability

3. Determiners

3.1. Analysis of Determiners

3.2. Commentary

3.3. Some and Any

3.4. Further Reading Tasks

4. Articles

4.1. Commentary

4.2. Analysis of Article Use

5. Adjectives

5.1. What is an adjective?

5.2. Analysing adjectives – exam practice

5.3. A More In-Depth Analysis

6. Compound nouns

7. More Complex Noun Phrases: Further Reading

Reading

 Appendices

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1. Introduction

First of all a definition of the noun phrase:

“A group of words with a noun or a pronoun as the main part. Thenoun phrase may consist of only one word (for example ‘Gina’ in ‘Gina

arrived yesterday’) or it may be long and complex (for example, all thewords before ‘must’ in: ‘The students who enrolled late and who havenot yet filled in their cards must do so by Friday’)".

Longman Dictionary of Teaching and Applied Linguistics(Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992)

In terms of form, we can add that a noun phrase can be made up of the followingelements. Note that these are all noun phrases, not full independent sentences.Each is followed by a verb and complement. For example, the first one couldcontinue “were the best I’ve ever seen”.

Determiner Pre-modifier Head (noun / pronoun) Post-modifier

Your

More than 10

The

holiday

cute

photos

people

one

of Australia

who spoke to me

with the black tail

Before continuing, we strongly advise you to do some basic revision of word classes /phrases and simple sentence structure by working through the tasks in Unit 11 (Wordclasses and phrases) and Unit 12 (Sentence Structure: the simple sentence) inAbout Language (Thornbury, 1997), which were part of your pre-course reading.

 Alternatively, look at Rules, Patterns and Words  (Willis, 2003, CUP), Sections 2.1and 2.4

2. Nouns

In this section we will be beginning with a classification task. This is similar to howyou will be required to analyse language in Paper 1 of the Exam. We will then befocussing in more detail on one aspect of nouns that often causes learners difficulty -countability.

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2.1. Analysis of Noun Categories

Task 1: Noun Categories (20mins) 

In this extract from the Social Programme of a language school, comment on thenouns, noun phrases and pronouns in bold in as much detail as you can. The firstone is done for you.

Wednesday 10th January

Visit to Madame Tussaud’s 

Ever fancied rubbing shoulders  (1) with the rich and famous  (2)? Well, getdown to Madame Tussaud’s! (3) Whether you fancy playing super agents with007, measuring up to svelte Naomi Campbell or puckering up to heart throb (4)Brad Pitt, this is the place to be. Anyone who’s (5) anyone (6) from sports to themedia, (7) politics (8) to punishment (in the chilling Chamber of Horrors) is here;you (9) can even travel back in time (10) on the spectacular Spirit of London ride.Madame Tussaud’s offers unique up-close-and-personal access to the hottestcelebrities. And you can gossip about them  (11)  to your heart’s content  (12) –they won’t answer back! It’s (13) important to book early as this is a very populartrip.

Meet: 2.30pm

Place: Reception

Tickets:  £12.00 

E.g. (1) rubbing shoulders: noun phrase, the object of the verb ‘fancied’ andpost-modified by the prepositional phrase ‘with the rich and famous’. rubbing: thegerund form of the verb ‘rub,’ acting as a noun; shoulders: plural countablecommon noun.

See Appendix 1 for answers.

If you want further practice of this kind of classification and on nouns in general, workyour way through Tasks 1, 5, 9 and 10 of Unit 22 of About Language  (The NounPhrase), or Rules, Patterns and Words  (Willis, 2003, CUP), Section 4.2 (The NounPhrase).

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2.2. Countability

Task 2: Countable and Uncountable Nouns (10mins) 

1. List at least five problems your learners have with countable and uncountablenouns.

2. Find some examples of where something is uncountable in English but countablein a language you know, or vice versa.

See Appendix 2 for some suggestions for 1.

Task 3: Reading (15mins) 

1. We can say: “I went to get a coffee” (countable) and “I went to get some coffee?”(uncountable). What are the properties of an item in (1) a countable context and(2) an uncountable context? We have done a few examples for you: 

Countable context

1. Can co-occur with ‘several’.

2. Each ‘coffee’ has a distinct boundary.

3.

Uncountable context

1. Cannot occur with ‘several’.

2. Indistinct boundaries etc.

3.

3. Read the sections on countability and on individuation in Unit 2 of ExplainingEnglish Grammar (Yule, 1998) and add to your list above.

Yule’s description of individuation is a good example of Batstone’s construct ofgrammar at 30,000 feet looking at a core concept in language (reference Unit 1,Section 3). Does it help you understand better? Is it usable with learners?

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3. Determiners

In this section we will be looking at determiners and focusing in particular on theissue of ‘some’ and ‘any.’ In Section 3 we will concentrate on another set ofdeterminers that are difficult for learners: the articles.

3.1. Analysis of Determiners

Task 4: Determiners (5mins) 

1. What is the function of determiners, i.e. what do they do?

2. Can you list ten determiners e.g. a / an, many?

See Appendix 3 for a list.

3.2. CommentaryIn the Appendix the determiners are divided into two groups. Those in Group A helpto identify things, to say which one/s the speaker is talking about, to indicate whetherthey are known to the listener or not, to show whether they are general or specific.

Those in Group B are mostly ‘quantifiers’ and say how much or how many ofsomething we are talking about. Learners sometimes have problems rememberingwhich of these can be used only with countable nouns, which only uncountable andwhich with both. Look at the list again. Could you give your learners a clear answer tothis question?

3.3. Some and Any

In Unit 1 we looked at the difference between descriptive, pedagogic and prescriptivegrammars. (Can you recall the difference?) The treatment of ‘some’ and ‘any’demonstrates perfectly the tension between the descriptive and pedagogic accounts.In the following task you will be looking at different analyses of the ‘rules’ regarding‘some’ and ‘any’ and thinking about how you focus on them with classes.

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Task 5: Reading and Reflection (30 – 40mins) 

1. Look in the nearest elementary course book you can find. Exactly what rulesare taught about ‘some’ and ‘any’?

2. What do you tell your elementary learners about ‘some’ and ‘any?’ Do theyseem to have any problems with the ‘rules’ you give them?

3. Read the section on ‘Some and Any’ in Chapter 4 of The English Verb (Lewis,1986). Do you find Lewis’ argument persuasive enough to make you change theway you teach ‘some’ and ‘any’ to elementary classes?

4. Now read the section on ‘Some’ and ‘Any’ in Unit 5 of Grammar for EnglishLanguage Teachers (Parrott, 2000). Parrott here makes a distinction betweenstressed and unstressed ‘some’ and categorises the uses of ‘some’ and ‘any’differently from Lewis. Do you find this analysis helpful? Will it change yourteaching of this area in any way?

3.4. Further Reading Tasks

Task 9 in Unit 23 of About Language will give you further work on ‘some’ and ‘any.’

If you do not feel confident about other determiners, we suggest you do some extrareading, particularly about quantifiers in Grammar for English Language Teachers or Practical English Usage.

4. Articles

The most problematic types of determiners for many learners to use accurately are

articles. We can see this clearly in much of our learners’ written work, where one ofthe most common areas of difficulty is article use, misuse, or omission. The ability toidentify and comment on learners’ errors will inform your ability to anticipate problemsand identify viable solutions more appropriately in your day-to-day teaching.

Task 6: Speaking from Experience (10 minutes) 

1. List at least four problems your learners have with articles. Use your knowledgeof their L1 to account for these difficulties.

2. How do you approach the teaching of articles? Does your approach differ at

different levels? Make some notes.

3. How serious are problems with articles? Make some notes.

4.1. Commentary

Here are some quotes from teachers about teaching articles which cover some of thebasic problems. Tick the ones you agree with.

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•  “I don’t”.

•  “The thing I think is very difficult about the article is that on the one hand it’sextremely complex and yet on the other it’s all-pervasive. It’s there in every textand utterance – mistakes are constant”.

•  “There are so many rules… I recently gave my advanced students a grammar

lesson on overall uses of the articles but I can’t honestly say it helped”.

•  “I tried to sort it out for a class and afterwards they were so conscious of it theyseemed to make even more mistakes – maybe it’s one of those things that is best just acquired. I reckon they, the rules, are probably un-teachable”.

•  “I wait till the problem arises then tackle it by taking in a couple of exercises anddrawing out the rules by analysing the answers. They seem to understand, andthey can analyse quite well, but it doesn’t seem to help them actually use it”.

•  ”I try not to overload with too many rules – I don’t think it helps at any level – justthe basic general and specific rule, then I try to tag on others as they arise.Learning them in isolation doesn’t help at all”.

•  “It’s not only that other languages use articles very differently, sometimes entirelythe opposite use, like in Italian for abstract nouns, but some don’t have any at all.It’s a real problem for Japanese and Arabic students for example”.

•  “The indefinite article ‘a’ is very hard to hear in spoken English and it’s not thatimportant for getting your message across, so first of all they don’t hear it andthen there’s no great need for them to use it to communicate”.

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4.2. Analysis of Article Use

Task 7: Learners’ Errors (40mins) 

Look at the following examples of learners’ errors in written work. In each case:

a) Comment on the error.

b) Suggest one idea for awareness raising and one for production to help thelearner with this particular aspect or aspects of articles.

c) Write your ideas in sufficient detail for a reader to have a clear idea of theactivity / procedure.

1. Fumiko, elementary, writing in her journal:

•  Sunday: I had very wonderful weekend. On Saturday, I went to Cambridge. It isvery peaceful, so I wanted to stay there. Architecture is very beautiful.

•  Monday: I came to London because I want speak English. But I’m not happy.Weather is very bad. Food is not delicious. I miss Japanese food, boyfriend andmy parents.

2. Roberto, pre-intermediate, writing about his interests:

•  I like very much the music, and go to cinema, Bruce Willis films and the actionfilms.

3. Shisuka, First Certificate, writing an invitation:

•  How are you? How are you spending your summer holiday?

I am going to spend two weeks at the countryside with two friends and bookthe house which has four bedrooms. The cost of house is £160 per week. It isquite cheap, isn’t it? Moreover, each room is big and comfortable.

4. Stefan, intermediate, writing about his last holiday:

•  We went to United States. We took children with us and we stayed in Los Angeles and then we went to Florida.

See Appendix 4.

Many linguists have attempted to pinpoint the core meanings of articles, anddescriptions have included such oppositions as general/particular, singular/plural,definite/indefinite. We suggest you read what two books have to say on the subject,taking notes as relevant. We will also suggest references for further research.

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Task 8: Reading (30mins) 

Grammar For Language Teachers (Parrott, 2000) (20 mins)

Before you read, write the answers to these questions:

1. What are articles and what do they do?

2. What do we need to know about articles and singular, plural and uncountablenouns?

3. What would you say is the most basic rule about when to use ‘a/an’, ‘the’ or thezero article?

4. How do most course books divide up articles?

5. How do fixed expressions fit in?

•  Now read Unit 4.1–4.3 on Articles and compare your answers with the author’s.

•  Read 4.4 and compare his analysis of problems and their seriousness with yourown in the initial task you did.

Explaining English Grammar  (Yule, 1998) (10mins)

Read the section in Unit 2 on classifying and identifying, which follows on from thework on individuation. Do you find this a helpful distinction?

Further suggested reading:

Articles of Faith:  The Acquisition, Learning and Teaching of ‘a’ and ‘the’  in Grammar and the Language Teacher (Bygate, Tonkyn & Williams, Prentice Hall)

Exploring Grammar in Context (Carter, Hughes & McCarthy, 2000): Units 16 and17. 

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5. Adjectives

In this section we are going to start by defining adjectives and asking you to reviewhow you deal with them in class. You will then be working through a series of taskswhich include: analysing course book materials, attempting to answer questions froma new teacher, and doing some reading. As a result, by the end of the section you

should feel more knowledgeable about adjectives and more confident aboutfocussing on them in class. You should also feel more ready to tackle any part of theExam where you are required to display this kind of linguistic knowledge.

5.1. What is an adjective?

 At school we might have learnt that an adjective is ‘a word that describes a person,place or thing.’ That seems fine for ‘a great guy, the local shops, state-of-the-artgraphics,’ but doesn’t seem to cover ‘extraordinary creativity’ or ‘general run-downness,’ or ‘unacceptable behaviour,’ unless we describe these nouns as ‘things’. Hereare two workable definitions:

•  ‘A word that describes the thing, quality, state or action which a noun refers to’(Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992)

•  ‘Adjectives provide more information about the qualities of something describedin a noun, a noun phrase, or clause’ (Parrott, 2000)

Task 9: Reflecting on Your Teaching  / Learning Experience (10mins) 

Thinking back over your teaching and learning experience, when and where have youincluded / encountered adjectives? a) List some lessons that have had an adjectivalfocus,’ b) how useful have adjectives been to you in learning another language? E.g:

a) I often teach adjectives to describe personality at intermediate and higher levels.

b) I don’t think I ever really concentrated on adjectives, I kind of learnt them in fixedphrases, you know, like…

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5.2. Analysing adjectives – exam practice

TASK 10 : Analysing adjectives (30 mins)

Look at these three examples of adjective use.

I’ve had a really tiring day. In fact, I’m exhausted.

The plot was absolutely atrocious and the acting very, very bad.

 A dark blue denim jacket

In each case:

•  identify the features of adjectives that are being focussed on

•  identify at least 3 problems that learners are likely to experience with thesefeatures (in general for all learners and specifically for those in your context).Think about meaning, form and phonology.

See Appendix 5

5.3. A more In-depth Analysis

We are now going on to analyse adjectives in more depth, using a test-teach-testapproach. You will start by seeing how well you can answer a series of questions,then do some reading, and then return to the questions to see how far your readinghas contributed to your knowledge of adjectives.

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Task 12: Reading (1 hour) 

1. Work through About Language (Thornbury, 1997) Unit 24: Adjectives and

 Adverbs, Tasks 1–5.

2. Read and work through Grammar for English Language Teachers (Parrott,2000), Unit 2 on Adjectives and the section on Adverbs of degree in Unit 3.

3. Research remaining points in Practical English Usage (Swann, 1995) or otheravailable reference books.

4. Check your amended answers against the notes in Appendix 6.

6. Compound nouns

Note: We also recommend you do some revision of compound nouns as these comeup fairly frequently in the exam.. For example, what is the difference between‘passer-by’, ‘shoe shop’, ‘furniture polish’ and ‘athletics track’? Which part of thecompound is the modifier? How are they formed? Noun-noun? Noun-preposition?When do we hyphenate?

See the following for ideas.

•  Swan, M, 2005 Practical English Usage (3rd edition) Oxford University Press

•  Parrott, M. 2000 Grammar for English Language Teachers (CambridgeUniversity Press)

Refresh your memory on the different ways they can be made and on the rules ofword stress

7. More Complex Noun Phrases: Further Reading

We suggest you continue to research this on your own. Look particularly into relative(adjectival) clauses (the topic of this month’s send-in question) and prepositionalphrases. This can form part of your preparation for the Exam.

The following are highly recommended:

•  About Language: Unit 22 Task 7 is on pre- and post-modification and Task 8 is

on relative clauses.

•  Exploring Grammar in Context: Unit 18: On Complex Noun Phrases: on pre-modification, post-modification, prepositional phrases, relative clauses. Excellentcommentaries on how this relates to different genres.

•  Explaining English Grammar : Unit 9: on relative clauses.

•  Dave Willis (2003) Rules, patterns and Words (CUP) Chapters 2 and 4

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 Also practise simply looking at any piece of authentic material and analysing thenoun phrases in it. Make yourself ‘comment on their use and form’ to give yourselftraining for the Exam.

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Reading

Essential Reading

Lewis, M. 1986 The English Verb LTP

Parrott, M. 2000 Grammar for English Language Teachers Cambridge UniversityPress

Thornbury, S. 1997 About Language Cambridge University Press

Willis, D. 2003 Rules, Patterns and Words Cambridge University Press 

Yule, G. 1998 Explaining English Grammar  Oxford University Press

Recommended Additional Reading

Beaumont, M. & Gallaway, C. 1994 Articles of Faith: The Acquisition, Learningand Teaching of ‘a’ and ‘the’, in Grammar and the Language Teacher   (edBygate, M., Tonkyn, A. & Williams, E.) Prentice Hall

Carter, R., Hughes, R. & McCarthy, M. 2000 Exploring Grammar in Context Cambridge University Press

Richards, J., Platt, J. & Platt, H., 1992 Longman Dictionary of Language Teachingand Applied Linguistics Longman

Swan, M. 1995 Practical English Usage (2nd edition) Oxford University Press

Ur, P. 1988 Grammar Practice Activities Cambridge University

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Noun Categories

2. The rich and famous: adjectives functioning as nouns prefaced by ‘the’ and beingused as generalisations instead of ‘rich / famous people.’ Part of a prepositionalphrase (‘with the rich and famous’) post-modifying ‘rubbing shoulders’.

3. Madame Tussaud’s: proper noun with the possessive ‘s, presumably a shortenedversion of Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks Museum; part of a prepositional phrase(‘to Madame Tussaud’s’).

4. Heart throb: a compound noun made up of a noun (heart) pre-modifying anothernoun (throb), and, therefore, acting like an adjective. The pre-modifying nouncannot, however, be used as a typical adjective, e.g. we cannot say ‘the throb isheart’ (cf the red car / the car is red). Object of ‘puckering up to’.

5. Who: relative pronoun referring to a person (in this case ‘Anyone’) and

introducing a relative / adjectival defining clause.

6. Anyone: pronoun complement of ‘s (is) and part of fixed expression ‘Anyonewho’s anyone,’ meaning anyone important. The whole phrase is in subjectposition.

7. The media: collective noun with ‘the’ can take either a singular or a plural verb;part of a prepositional phrase (‘to the media’).

8. Politics: abstract uncountable noun plural in form but taking a singular verb part ofellipted prepositional phrase (from politics).

9. You: pronoun, subject of the modal verb ‘can’. Here it refers not to the secondperson singular or plural but means ‘anyone / people’.

10. Time: uncountable noun, part of the prepositional phrase ‘in time’.

11. Them: object pronoun, 3rd person plural; refers anaphorically to ‘celebrities’; partof a prepositional phrase (‘about them’).

12. Heart’s content: a compound noun made up of a possessive noun (heart’s) pre-modifying another noun (content) and part of a semi-fixed phrase ‘to (+possessive adjective or noun, e.g. John’s) heart’s content’.

13. It’s: an ‘empty’ or ‘dummy’ pronoun, which does not replace a noun or refer toanother noun in the text and has no intrinsic meaning.

Appendix 2: Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Some examples of problems:

1. Learners use uncountable nouns as if they were countable, e.g. someinformations, a furniture.

2. The equivalent in L1 may be countable, e.g. hairs.

3. Some uncountables are illogical, e.g. time, money.

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4. Some things can be viewed as countable in one context and not in another, e.g. abeer, beer.

5. Remembering which determiners can be used where, e.g. many / much, few /little, a /zero article / the, each, etc.

6. Use of ‘some’ and ‘any’ (see following section).

7. Use with ‘there is’ and ‘there are’, e.g. there’s some rice, a singular verb withuncountables etc.

Appendix 3: Determiners

Group A

•  Articles: a/an, the

•  Possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their, one’s, whose

•  Demonstratives: this, that, these, those

Group B

•  One, two, three; other

•  Some, any, no

•  Much, many, more, most; (a) little, less, least; a few, fewer, fewest, enough;several

•  All, both, half, neither

•  Each, every, either

  What, whatever, which, whichever

Question: Can you account for the division of these determiners into two groups?Try to give each group a general description before going back to the commentary.

Appendix 4: Learners’ Errors

Here are the problems, with a few teaching suggestions.

Fumiko

1. ‘A very wonderful weekend’. F is not using the indefinite article before asingular countable noun, probably because she wouldn’t use it in Japanese.

A/R: I would write out two accounts of my weekend, one with no articles in front ofthis type of noun and one correct. E.g. ‘I had good weekend. On Saturday, Iwent to see friend and we went shopping. I bought T-shirt, ‘etc. I would getstudents in pairs to decide which account was in correct English and to tellme why. I would then highlight the rule on the board. In future lessons I wouldalways write singular countable nouns up with their appropriate article, e.g. ‘aclassroom, a student, a lesson, the sun, the world’, to get the class used tothe idea that most of the time nouns have to have an article in front of them.

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P:  I would take away the good version and ask the students to put in all themissing articles in the poor version. I would then get them to correct eachother’s next homework for this error.

2. The architecture is very beautiful. (also the weather, the food). F is not tellingthe reader that she is talking about specific architecture in Cambridge.

A/R:  At this very low level, I would probably write her paragraph on the board (withher permission; after all, it’s a journal) and expand out her sentence, byasking her “All architecture or only in Cambridge?” and write on the board“The architecture (in Cambridge)” and show her we need ‘the’ here. I wouldthen ask the class to decide if we need ‘the’ anywhere else. Hopefully theywill identify ‘the weather (in London)” and “the food (in London)” as being thesame idea.

P:  Get learners to give their opinions about the food, the weather, the transport,the architecture, etc. in London.

Roberto

3. ‘I like music very much… and action films’. R is using ‘the’ in front of abstract

and plural nouns when making generalisations, probably as a directtranslation from L1.

In English we use the zero article here.

A/R: I would write on the board:

•  I like very much the music

•  I like the music very much

•  I like music very much

•  I like very much music

 And ask learners in pairs to say which one/s are correct. From this we would highlightthe rule of no article before an abstract noun when we are talking about things ingeneral. (We could also simultaneously correct the word order problem). I could offerfurther practice by getting them to listen to me talking about what I like and dislikeand get them to make notes and then reconstruct what I said. Here I would alsoinclude plural nouns ‘I like cats’ and gerunds for naturalness.

P:  Students talk to each other about their likes, dislikes, interests, with a partner. A third student is the grammar expert and stops them if they make a mistakewith articles.

4. ‘Going to the cinema.’ R doesn’t know that there’s a set of entertainmentwords where we tend to use ‘the’ as a fixed lexical phrase.

A/R:  Whilst I was telling them about my likes (see above) I would include fixedexpressions like ‘the cinema/ theatre / ballet’ and highlight these afterwards.

P:  Get them to ask each other in a drill. Do you like the opera? etc.

Shisuka

5. ‘A house / the house.’ She is getting muddled with articles and needs toremember the rule about singular countable noun ‘a,’ changes to ‘the’ whenthe reader knows which house she is talking about (anaphoric reference).

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A/R:  Take any text, either a story or a good model of this text and underline all theanaphoric uses of ‘the’. Get the learners to draw arrows to show what theyare referring back to.

P:  A text reconstruction activity where students have to reconstruct a correctversion. E.g. students have:

•  I / like / book / house / with / four / bedrooms. / house / be / near / Oxford.

This could also be done as a dictogloss (grammar dictation). Learners in groups workon reconstructing it and have to pay close attention to article use.

NB This student is also having trouble with the determiner ‘each’. What does she notknow?

Stefan

6. ‘The United States.’ S doesn’t know the rule that before countries which aregroups of islands or states, we use ‘the’.

A/R:  For the more general problems with place names: Use some cut-up authentic

or semi-authentic travel information about a city / cities and get students tounderline examples of countries, parks, stations, bridges, shopping streets,etc. and note whether we use an article with them or not.

P:  There is a nice idea in Cutting Edge Upper Intermediate where learners haveto correct quiz questions, putting articles in if necessary, and then have to askthe other team. Points are given for correct questions and answers.

E.g: Macys’, most famous department store in New York, is:

a) Opposite Statue of Liberty

b) Opposite Central Park

c) Opposite Brooklyn Bridge

d) None of these

7. ‘The children.’ This is a tricky use, because Stefan wants to refer not to allchildren but to children he and the reader know about, i.e. his children.

A/R: Use a text with lots of this type of reference. Something about one’s home isgood, because you can include ‘the children, the garden, the bathroom,’ etcand ask students in pairs to underline all the ’the’s’ and say why they arebeing used.

P: Do one of the FCE type exercises where you have to cross out any extrawords in each line. This can be used to practise lots of different rules ofarticles at the same time.

e.g: We took the children to the park the yesterday afternoon and we had a fun. Weleft the house at about 3 o’clock.

Appendix 5: Analysis and evaluation of published materials. 

I’ve had a really tiring day. In fact, I’m exhausted.

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a) participles being used as adjectives / the contrast between the –ed and –ing formsof the adjective

b) Problems include:

•  the difficulty of distinguishing which one to use when, particularly the –ed formcauses problems

•  there may be no such distinction in L1

•  the actual lexical meaning of each word may be unknown and the distinctionsbetween words may be unclear, e.g. excited, nervous

•  the pronunciation is likely to be difficult, particularly the word stress (e.g.interested, fascinated) and the pronunciation of the –ed ending, e.g. bor ed,interested 

The plot was absolutely atrocious and the acting very, very bad.

a) Ungradable ‘extreme’ adjectives and three intensifiers which can/cannot be usedwith gradable and/or ungradable adjectives (very, really, absolutely)

b) Problems include

•  the meaning of the new words, especially the meaning of ‘terrific’ as a positiveword

•  the collocations of the intensifiers, particularly stopping learners using ‘very’ withan ungradable adjective

•  the pronunciation of the ungradable adjectives, particularly in terms of wordstress, e.g. terrific, astonished

•  the stress and intonation on e.g. really / absolutely boiling

•  at later levels, the collocations, e.g. completely astonished, but not completelycompletely boiling

 A dark blue denim jacket

a) Focus on adjectives to describe clothes. Adjective word order.

b) Problems might include

•  ss becoming over-concerned and conscious about whether they’re getting theword order correct

•  ss actually remembering the order, especially when speaking

•  ss making adjectives plural to agree with nouns, e.g. suedes shoes

•  ss using ‘and’ e.g. purple and scruffy shoes.

•  ss putting adjectives after the noun: trousers blue

•  the pronunciation of some words, e.g. suede, corduroy, mauve

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Appendix 6: Questions from a New Teacher

1. Some 2 syllable adjectives take –er and –est, especially adjectives ending in an

unstressed vowel or /əl/ or /ər/. 

e.g: ‘simple, narrow, clever, quiet.’ With many two syllable adjectives, e.g. ‘common,polite,’ you can either use –er/-est or more/most. Adjectives of 3 or more syllablestake more/most.

2. ‘Wonderful’ is an ungradable adjective, showing an extreme quality (like ‘furious,exhausted, freezing’) and we can only use intensifiers which emphasise theirextreme nature (‘absolutely, utterly, completely, depending on collocation’).

Other ungradable adjectives have absolute qualities (e.g. ‘correct, female, dead,’etc.) and therefore cannot be intensified.

They are sometimes referred to as ‘extreme’ adjectives.

3. With copula verbs, i.e. ‘be, look, taste, smell, sound, feel, seem, appear, become,

get’ we use an adjective not an adverb.

4. You don’t. There are tendencies, which can be taught, but there are exceptions.

The tendencies are:

•  ir + adjectives beginning with r

•  il + adjectives beginning with l

•  im + adjectives beginning with p or m

5. It may have started life as a passive form, but would generally be described as aparticiple being used as an adjective. This type of adjective, formed by the

present or past participle can be used before nouns (a boring lesson), aftercopula verbs (he looked annoyed) and after nouns (the men arrested were mostlyfrom…) where it is a reduced relative clause (‘the men who were arrested’) and ismuch favoured in newspaper articles where compactness and drama are valued.

6. To answer this you need to know the following:

•  We can use most adjectives before nouns e.g. a good meal; a lucky chance(attributively)

•  We can use adjectives after some verbs e.g. The meal looks good; it was alucky chance (predicatively).

Most adjectives can be used in both positions; however, there are a few

adjectives that we can’t use before nouns e.g. ‘The dog’s asleep’ but not ‘Theasleep dog’, ‘Tony felt afraid’, not ‘The afraid boy.’

7. A ‘down toner’ such as ‘quite’ is only used with gradable adjectives, e.g. ‘quitenice, good, interesting.’ When it is used with an ungradable adjective its meaningchanges and it means ‘absolutely’ (‘quite brilliant, exhausted, wonderful’). Thestress and intonation also change.

8. Yes, it’s the same thing. It is an adjective made up of two parts, one of which isoften a participle, e.g:

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a) ‘Badly-behaved, oddly phrased, well-known, smooth-running’ (adverb +participle, usually with a hyphen).

b) ‘Computer-mad, house bound, home-made’ (noun + adjective / participle,usually with a hyphen).

c) ‘Broken-down, torn-up, worn-out’ (coming from a multi-word verb).

9. In the same way that you can’t use ‘very’ for extreme adjectives, there is anotherkind of adjective that is ungradable because it is absolute, e.g. ‘dead, alive,broken, glazed,’ etc.

10. I’d say: “it depends in what context.” Adjectives don’t exist in isolation. Theopposite of ‘dry’ could be ‘rainy’ ‘wet’ or ‘sweet’.


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