TKT Tutoring Class

1. TKT Tutoring Class Week 1: Part 1 Describing language and language skills (Unit 1 & 2) April 1, 2009

2. Unit 1 Grammar I. What is grammar? -definition II. Key concepts -parts of speech -word combinations -word formation (morphology) -grammatical structures (verb tenses, elements of a sentence) III. Classroom implications- inductive vs. deductive approaches; controlled/free practice

3. I. What is grammar? • Grammar is a description of the language system-how we combine, organize, and change words and parts of words to make meaning. (p.5) • Grammar rules describe the way that language works, but they are not fixed. They change over time. (p.7)

4. II. Key concepts:a. Parts of speech 詞類變化(p.5)

5. b. Word combinations 字的組合(collocations as meaning units) • Collocations 配置詞are words which co-occur with each other very often. (Harmer,2007, p.37); they are also called lexical phrases or language chunks, just like pre-fabricated預先構建 units/compound words/idiomatic or fixed expressions • E.g. in July, not on July; traffic lights; on the other hand; in love • The lexical approach by Michael Lewis

6. c. Word formation (morphology構詞學) • English uses prefixes 字首(a group of letters added at the beginning of a word) and suffixes字尾(a group of letters added at the end of a word) to create new words.(p.7) • Prefixes and suffixes are added to base words (e.g. stop) to make new grammatical units such as tenses時態, parts of verbs, the plural 複數 of nouns, possessives 所有格 e.g. talked, goes, going, books • Many prefixes and suffixes are used to make new words, e.g. disappear, careful

7. d. Grammatical structures • Words are arranged or ordered into patterns which have meaning. (p.6) e.g. Hehasa long holidayin July. (S+V + O +adverbial phrase) • Subject 主詞(doer of the action); Verb 動詞(action); object 受詞(person or thing the action is done to); complement 補語(to tell us something about the subject) e.g. Iamhappy. (S+V+S.C.)

8. “Form” is the specific grammatical parts that make up the structure and the order they occur in such as tenses, voices, comparatives (p.6) • “Use” (meaning) is the meaning that the structure is used to express. e.g. Form: He was running.-> Use: a temporary action in the past.

9. III. Classroom implications • The inductive approach歸納法(Harmer, p.82) -Students see examples of language and try to work out the rules. (ESL contexts) -Engage參與->activate 活躍-> study 研讀 -after Ss have read a text, we might ask them to find examples of different past tenses and say how and why the are used. -Discovery activities (more cognitive 認知 effort) suit Ss to have them enjoy working things out; for advanced進階 Ss particularly

10. The deductive approach 演繹法: Explain and practice -Ss are given grammar rules or explanations and then they make phrases and sentences using the new language. (Harmer, p.81) -e.g. T shows pictures of people doing actions, models a sentence about one picture (e.g. painting a house); Ss repeats the sentence; T isolates parts of the sentence to get them to know the construction of the present continuous tense -engage->study->activate; for adults

11. Controlled/free practice 1. Controlled practice 控制練習: choral or individual repetition by getting Ss to say the new word or phrase together or separately. In this way, Ss see words again and again, and hopefully the items will be part of their long-term memory, not just in short-term memory. (e.g. substitution drills)

12. 2. Free practice 自由練習: for more advanced learners especially, personalization個人化is concerned; Ss can use language more freely in addition to “correctly”. (e.g. group discussions)

13. Summary (p.7) • Language changes over time. • Grammar rules traditionally describe written language, not spoken language. E.g. repetition, exclamations感嘆詞, contractions 縮寫 are common in spoken language. • Speakers of a language can speak and write it well without consciously knowing any grammatical rules or terms 術語. • Learning some grammatical rules and terms makes language learning easier for some, not all, learners. • Knowing grammatical rules and structures doesn’t mean know how to communicate. Functions, language skills, and fluency are important too.

14. Unit 2 Lexis • What is lexis/vocabulary? • Key concepts: -word meanings -word formations -lexical sets字組 and word fields 字群 - register and appropiracy • Classroom implications

15. I. What is lexis/vocabulary? • Lexis 字彙 is the technical name for the vocabulary of a language. • We have more to talk about lexis because of large banks of language data stored on computers, so-called corpus/corpora. 語料庫We can find out what words are commonly used with one certain word. • We can get a concordance, a selection of lines from various texts in the corpus showing the search word in use. (自語料庫截取合於檢索條件的詞彙及其前後文，並令這些詞彙編排在每行中間 )

16. II. Key conceptsa. Word meaning - Words have different kinds of meanings 1. denotation本義: to describe the thing or idea behind the word (p.10) e.g. A tree is a large plant with a wooden trunk, branches, and leaves. 2. figurative meaning比喻寓意: e.g. a family tree 3. contextual meaning情境中的意義: the meaning a word has in the situation (p.10)

17. -Words may have many different meanings. polysemy一詞多義 e.g. table) (Harmer, 2007, p.35) -What a word means is often defined by its relationship to other words. 1.antonyms反義字 e.g. cheap/expensive, 2. synonyms同義字 e.g. bad/evil, 3. hyponyms下義字 e.g. fruit as a hyponym of items like banana, apple, orange, etc.) (Harmer, 2007, p.36), 4. lexical sets 字組(groups of words that belong to the same topic area, e.g. members of the family) (p.10), 5. idioms 諺語(a group of words which has a meaning different from the meaning of the individual words e.g. It’s a piece of cake.)

18. Example on Page 10

19. b. Word formations • New words can be created by adding prefixes or suffixes, or by making compound words 複合字or by collocation配置詞. • New meanings then may be created too. (p.11)

21. c. Lexical sets and word fields • A lexical set (字組) is a group of the same category of words e.g. furniture for table, chair, sofa, and bed. • A word field (字群) is wider than a lexical set and contains words and phrases loosely connected to a topic. e.g. relationships for family members, and also friendship, close, distant, marriage, divorce, etc.

22. d. Register and appropiracy • Register 語域is the differences in formality; within lower register language is colloquial language, used in conversation. • Appropriacy 適切性is to have an awareness of which register to use in a situation. E.g. “Best wishes” for a formal ending, not to a close friend.

23. III. Classroom implications • Vocabulary can be presented in dialogues and reading passages to show words in context • Pictures, mime 默劇, realia 實物can be used to introduce and explain word meanings. • Learners have to record 記錄 new words in a notebook or on cards and organize them in lexical sets or word fields. • More frequently used words (常用的字彙) should be introduced earlier. Lexical sets and word fields are easier and more meaningful to learners.

24. Summary • Really knowing a word means knowing different kinds of meanings, and also forms (parts of speech, grammar, spelling, and pronunciation, collocation) • It takes time to fully know a word; we recognize words (receptive vocabulary) first and use words (productive vocabulary).

25. Recycling vocabulary is important to help learners remember them and expand meanings and forms of words. • Vocabulary items can be introduced in reading and listening before learners use them.