LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I [310887]
[anonimizat] I
COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
LECTOR UNIV. DR. ANA-MARIA TRANTESCU
CANDIDAT: [anonimizat]. DOVLEAC (SOARE) GEORGETA
ȘCOALA GIMNAZIALĂ ,,NICOLAE BĂLCESCU”, MUN. DRĂGĂȘANI, JUD. VÂLCEA
CRAIOVA, 2014-2016
[anonimizat]-Maria Trantescu
Candidat: [anonimizat]. Dovleac (Soare) Georgeta
Școala Gimnazială ,,Nicolae Bălcescu”, Mun. Drăgășani, Jud. Vâlcea
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………………4
CHAPTER ONE:
I.1. Motivation……………………………………………………………………………………………………….6
I.2. Working hypothesis………………………………………………………………………………………….8
I.3. Research methods…………………………………………………………………………………………….9
CHAPTER TWO: THE GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF THE VERB
II.1. Definition……………………………………………………………………………………………………..15
II.2. Classification of verbs……………………………………………………………………………………16
II.3. The grammatical categories of the verb……………………………………………………………19
II.3.1. The Category of Mood……………………………………………………………………………19
II.3.2. The Category of Voice……………………………………………………………………………20
II.3.3. The Categories of Person and Number……………………………………………………..20
II.3.4. The Category of Tense……………………………………………………………………………21
II.3.4.1.[anonimizat]……………………………………………………….21
II.3.4.2. A brief Description of English Tenses…………………………………………23
II.3.5. The Category of Aspect………………………………………………………………………….29
II.3.5.1. The Perfective vs. Non-Perfective/ Imperfective…………………………..29
II.3.5.2. The Progressive (Continuous) vs. Simple aspect…………………………..29
II.3.5.3. Classification of full/ lexical verbs………………………………………………30
CHAPTER THREE: THE CATEGORY OF VOICE
III.1.Definiton……………………………………………………………………………………………………..37
III.1.1. The morphological level: the form of the verb……………………………………….38
III.1.2. The syntactic level (the clause level)…………………………………………………….40
III.1.3. The semantic level………………………………………………………………………………41
III.2. Be passive vs. Get-passives……………………………………………………………………………42
III.3. Types of verbs used in passive constructions……………………………………………………44
III.3.1. Transitive verbs………………………………………………..……………44
III.3.2. Intransitive verbs……………………………………………………………47
III.4. Passivals (Pseudo-Passives) and Passive Causatives………………………………48
III.4.1. Passivals (Pseudo-Passives)…………………………………………………..48
III.4.2. Passive Causatives…………………………………………………………..50
III.5. Classes of verbs that resist passivization……………………………………………52
III.6. Special passive constructions……………………………………………………….53
III.6.1. Semi-passives………………………………………………………………..54
III.6.2. Existential passives…………………………………………………………..54
III.6.3. Raising passives………………………………………………………….….56
III.7. The agentive by-phrase……………………………………………………………..56
III.8. How is the passive voice used…………………………………………………………………………57
CHAPTER FOUR: TEACHING GRAMMAR
IV.1. Some issues and implications of teaching grammar…………………………………………..60
IV.1.1.What is grammar?………………………………………………………………………………..60
IV.1.2. Teaching grammar………………………………………………………………………………61
IV.1.3. Control factors in teaching grammar……………………………………………………..64
IV.1.4. Learning different types of grammar……………………………………………………..65
IV.1.5. Grammatical morphemes……………………………………………………………………..69
IV.1.6. Learning grammar and L2 teaching……………………………………………………….71
IV.1.7. Making grammar conscious………………………………………………………………….73
IV.1.8. Teaching methods……………………………………………………………………………….74
CHAPTER FIVE: METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH
V.1. Aspects of Teaching the Passive Voice……………………………………………………………..87
V.2.Methodological experiment on Teaching the Passive Voice……………………………………88
V.2.1. Instruments and design………………………………………………………………………………89
V.2.2. The stage………………………………………………………………………………………………….89
V.2.3. The diagnosis test………………………………………………………………………………………89
V.2.4. Performance and errors analysis according to the objectives of assessment………98
V.3.Traditional vs. Communicative Approach. Types of activities…………………………………..99
V.3.1. The Grammar-Translation Method……………………………………………………99
V.3.1.1. Introducing the Passive Voice…………………………………………..101
V.3.2. The Communicative Method……………………………………………………………………..106
V.3.2.1. Introducing the Passive Voice………………………………………….109
V.4. The analysis of the experiment……………………………………………………………………………123
V.4.1. The value of the Communicative Method…………………………………………………..123
V.4.2. The analysis of errors………………………………………………………………………………124
V.4.3. The analysis of textbooks…………………………………………………………………………128
CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………………………………………………….132
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………….135
ANNEXES………………………………………………………………………………………………………….140
INTRODUCTION
The present work contains the study undertaken at Nicolae Bălcescu Gymnasium School from Drăgășani, between 2014-2015. In the introduction I am going to underline the general aims and the contents of this work.
The purpose of the work is to present an analysis of the English passive voice from a theoretical and a methodological point of view, focusing more on the latter aspect, the methodological approach to teaching the passive voice to Romanian secondary school pupils, using a variety of activities, both traditional and modern methods and strategies, including the methodological experiment applied to analyze the effectiveness of the methods used.
The study is about the Passive Voice, regarding the students’ interests and creative abilities, and on giving the Romanian learners an opportunity to gain realistic experience in actually using this language knowledge acquired.
There are five chapters in the work. The first three chapters focus on the theoretical aspects regarding the various means of using the passive voice in English as follows:
Chapter One presents the motivation for which this research was started, the working hypothesis and the research methods.
Chapter Two offers basic information on the verb. It contains a description of the grammatical categories of the English verb: the categories of tense and aspect, voice, mood, person and number.
Chapter Three deals with the particularities of the auxiliaries and verbs employed in passive voice constructions in English. We will also consider special constructions in which the passive can appear and the agentive by- phrase. The last part of the chapter will focus on the classes of verbs that allow or resist to the process of passivization.
Chapter Four is also a theoretical one because it deals with the methodological aspects of teaching passive voice in English, focusing on some issues and implications of teaching grammar. We will also try to answer the question ”What is grammar? and present the control factors in teaching grammar, different types of grammar learning and teaching methods.
Chapter Four is the body of the paper. It investigates the most appropriate strategies and techniques that allow teaching passive voice, the development of grammatical skills and that engage pupils in communicative activities in the classroom context. The fifth chapter also presents activities which call on using passive voice and discuss their effectiveness in developing grammatical skills, focusing on cooperative learning, communication and group dynamics.
The last part of the work consists of the conclusions and includes final comments, in a synthesis of the whole material about the passive voice in English. It outlines the main findings and key issues as well as what the participants have learnt from the investigation. It points out the implications of the study.
CHAPTER ONE
I.1. Motivation
Grammar is important because it is the language that makes it possible for us to talk about language. Grammar names the types of words and word groups that make up sentences not only in English but in any language. As human beings, we can put sentences together even as children, we can all do grammar. But to be able to talk about how sentences are built, about the types of words and word groups that make up sentences, that is knowing about grammar. And knowing about grammar offers a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity.
People associate grammar with errors and correctness, but knowing about grammar also helps us understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and precise. Grammar can be part of literature discussions when we and our students closely read the sentences in poetry and stories. And knowing about grammar means finding out that all languages and all dialects follow grammatical patterns.
Grammar means ”being able to talk about what it is we are able to do when we construct sentences, to describe what the rules are and what happens when they fail to apply” ( David Crystal- ” The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language”).
Language is involved with almost everything we do as human beings. We cannot live without language and grammar is the fundamental organizing principle of language.
Our grammatical ability is extraordinary. It is probably the most creative ability we have. There is no limit to what we can say or write, yet all of this potential is controlled by a finite number of rules.
Learning about English grammar provides a bases for learning other languages. Much of the apparatus we need to study English turns out to be of general usefulness. Other languages have clauses, tenses and adjectives too, but the differences they display will be all the clearer if we have first grasped what is unique to our mother tongue.
After studying grammar we should be more alert to the strength, flexibility and variety of English language, and thus be in a better position to use it and to evaluate others ” use of it. Whether our own usage in fact improves, as a result, is less predictable. Our awareness must improve but turning that awareness into better practice, by speaking and writing more effectively, requires an additional set of skills.
As Jeremy Harmer mentioned, grammar of a language is “the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language” (Harmer, 2001). If grammar rules are not paid a close look by the teachers and are not properly understood and used by the students, communication may suffer. It can be seen in this definition that the key words in the attempts to define grammar are rules, words and meaning. If the teachers stress on long drills to impose rules upon students, this produces a lot of dissatisfaction for both parts. Students will make mistakes, but they focus on meaning.
When we speak about grammar, it doesn’t matter whether you have always spoken English, or if you grew up speaking another language, English grammar often poses many difficulties for many people. It is known that passive voice is a perennial difficulty for many language learners, and the similarities and differences between English passive voice and Romanian passive voice pose great difficulties for those who are learning English and another language at the same time. The important thing to remember is that grammar isn’t something to learn just for its own sake. Rather, grammar is necessary because it allows us to communicate more clearly. If Romanian learners can master just a little bit of English grammar, the people they are speaking to, or the people who are reading what they have written, will be able to understand them better.
In our country English is studied at school as a foreign language, either as the first foreign language (being studied starting with the first class) or as the second foreign language (beginning with the fifth grade). The Romanian syllabus focuses on communicative functions, vocabulary topics and grammatical items, in the attempt of providing students with: language functions, e.g. inviting, offering, requesting, relevant and engaging topics, e.g. the weather, sport, music and gradual acquires of grammatical structures.
Since I became a teacher, I have noticed that the Romanian students’ encountered difficulties which were related to the understanding of the grammatical categories of the verb: tense, aspect and voice and to the uses and values of the English tenses.
Therefore, this paper draws attention to the importance and complexity of teaching the passive voice in English in order to help learners gain fluency, accuracy and a sense of language. The aim of the present study was to gather information about how effective and motivationally challenging are the courses to pupils that have been designed according to various learning theories. Collecting useful data and making written records of student language production, I have involved in this research to find the best ways of making them easily understood by Romanian learners.
I.2. Working hypothesis
According to dictionaries a hypothesis (pl. hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base their hypotheses on previous observations.
A working hypothesis is a provisionally accepted hypothesis proposed for further research. It has in its structure both the question and the possible answer. Thus, the goal of any research is to prove that possible answer was right or wrong and to transform it into a thesis. A working hypothesis is a hypothesis that is provisionally accepted as a basis for further research in the hope that a tenable theory will be produced, even if the hypothesis ultimately fails. Like all hypotheses, a working hypothesis is constructed as a statement of expectations, which can be linked to the exploratory research purpose in empirical investigation and is often used as a conceptual framework in qualitative research.
The working hypothesis of this paper may be formulated as follows:
– If we use the communicative approach in teaching the Romanian students the passive voice will they make fewer mistakes in using it?
– If we create contexts for the passive voice use in the classroom, by means such as listening and reading activities, discussion, communication tasks and role-playing, will the Romanian learners be able to better understand and to properly use it?
The aim of the present study is to investigate the way the grammatical structures influence the process of learning, to find out the best techniques, activities through which learners can achieve competence in using the grammatical structures to the point where they can use them to freely communicate in real situations.
Primarily the paper focuses on exploring passive voice and the way grammar-based communicative activities enhance motivation and facilitate learning and performance.
I.3. Research methods
Every day, teachers engage in research. Working with students to facilitate learning, teachers develop lesson plans, evaluate student work, and share outcomes with students, parents. Teachers then begin again with new units and lessons to clarify and review concepts as well as develop new understanding. That may not sound much like research, most of us call it teaching! But if we describe those activities in slightly different language, we would say that on a daily basis teachers design and implement a plan of action, observe and analyse outcomes and modify plans to better meet the need of students.
All that distinguishes teacher research from the everyday work of teaching is that teacher research consists of intentional and systematic inquiry in order to improve classroom practice.
The teacher’s role is a very important part of teaching activity. It is clear that the way the teacher behaves in the class will change according to the nature of the activity. Taking into account the latest developments in the educational field, it is easily understandable a teacher’s desire of being not only an organiser, controller and assessor, but an “involver”, as Jum Scrivener (1994) calls him. Besides knowing the subject matter that is being dealt with, namely the English language and how it works, the “involver” is able to use appropriate teaching and organizational procedures and techniques to help his students learn about the subject matter. In order to do that, a teacher needs to read and investigate more the educational phenomena, to come up with his own ideas and experience, to always be interested in the most recent discoveries made in the teaching language process, to select an appropriate research strategy and involve as many methods as possible. Only by doing this he/ she could finally get a complete and correct image of his/ her work and draw interesting generalizations from the data collected during his/ her research.
In order to verify the working hypothesis, I used the following methods of research: discussions, questionnaires, class observation, the statistic method, data collection and data analysis and interpretation.
I.3.1. Discussions
The discussion method refers to on an open dialogue between the researcher and the subjects of the investigations. The main purpose of the method is for the researcher to find out useful data and the students’ opinions concerning their every-day activities.
Taking into account the fact that conversation is a process in which two people have discussions in order to solve problems, I needed a good plan, with clear and concrete questions, which could be asked in a pleasant atmosphere, so that many students could be involved in the dialogue. All the questions were in close relation with the main aims of the research: the importance of structures, the best ways to teach grammar, the most pleasant activities.
Firstly, I started from reviewing the students’ previous experience and knowledge and from identifying any problems that might have been encountered in the study.
However, the discussion/communication method has several short-comings: some students were willing to answer some questions and did not allow others to come up with their own ideas and feelings, while others simply refused to have a conversation, seeming not to be interested in the learning process. So I tried to make them conscious of their behaviour, of their expectations and I explored and chose the most appropriate procedures, techniques, materials and approaches for them to learn efficiently.
I.3.2. Questionnaires
Research questionnaires are designed to get to the heart of what goes on in the classroom, in relation to behaviours or strategies. It’s worth spending significant time thinking about this central component of teacher research. There are some questions that can be used in order to focus attention in the research process: What are you curious about in the classroom?; What puzzles you in your classroom?; What activities do you like best? and so on.
Questionnaires are easy to administer and quick to fill in. It is important, however to be relatively unsophisticated in structuring of the questions.
The questionnaires administered to my students provided feedback on their attitudes, and on the adequacy of techniques, activities, resources. As well as this, they offered me the possibility of making direct comparison of groups and individuals and proved to be useful in the preparation for the next session. However, I cannot help marking that it was quite difficult to get questions that explore in depth as pupils were sometimes fearful of answering honestly and tried to produce “right” answers.
I.3.3. Class observation
Observation method is useful to teachers in a variety of ways. They provide the teacher with ways to check for nonverbal expression or feelings, determine who interacts with whom, grasp how students communicate with each other and check for how much time is spent on various activities. Student observation can be used to help answer descriptive research questions, to build theory, or to generate or test hypotheses. Class observation was also considered an appropriate technique to getting at real life (Robson, 1933) in the real world of classrooms.
The pedagogical observation is often used as the researched problem is observed in ordinary conditions. As scientific method, it is systematized and consists in a close observation of the activities, starting from a well-structured plan and using the right instruments. It is used together with other research methods and during the whole research, offering supplementary data about different aspects of the investigated phenomena.
Using this method it was noticed the same students were able to communicate to complete a task, while the others were rather passive and not able to finish alone a given task. The observation papers used at the end of the lessons helped me to analyse and interpret all the data, and draw the necessary conclusions to improve my methods.
Direct Observation was used to explore what was going on in the classroom and to discover why children acted the way they did. It was also a supportive technique to verify the data collected via questionnaires and discussions. Classroom observation offered opportunities to explore behaviour and classroom events in the natural setting. It did not require direct interaction with the children. It offered the opportunity of seeing children in action and yielded insights into classroom realities and new ways of looking at these old realities.
I.3.4. The statistic method
The statistic method is an excellent method which helps teachers have a general picture and a quantitative evaluation of the students’ results. Data collection frequently involves more than one method. The more methods we use, the more reliable our analysis is likely to be.
After collecting the data, I analyzed the results, classified, made comparisons and processed them statistically. By weighing up our observations, the students’ oral and written responses, we were in a good position to decide on future action and to help the students to face the challenge of thinking about language and progressing in order to be increasingly self-reliant.
I.3.5. The docimologic test
The docimologic test implies a theme, or a group of themes gathered on the basis of a unitary criterion. Used together with other methods, it is a useful instrument for an objective evaluation. It is very important the way the researcher uses it, interprets the results and makes the future decisions.
During each semester we needed to know what the problems were so that we could do something about them. That is why, the docimologic test was designed both to expose learners’ difficulties, gaps in their knowledge, and skill deficiencies during a course and to measure learners’ language and skill progress in relation to the syllabus they had been following. We also determined the item types, starting from what was familiar and known to the students.
I.3.6. Data collection
Classrooms are full of data, although what happens there is not often thought of as research. Teachers can collect data whenever they grade students’ papers or listen carefully as a student struggles to talk through a problem. The research process implied making inferences about, discovering and constructing the children’s knowledge from what they communicated in the questionnaires and discussions.
There are some data collection strategies, such as: collect student work such as portofolios, written work; record class discussions, group work, and interactions through photographs or audio or video recordings; use questionnaires, checklists and surveys to explore students’ attitudes, preferences, behaviours.
In this case, data were collected mainly by means of questionnaires, conversation, observation and field notes. I considered them productive means allowing the pupils to speak for themselves, to provide their perspectives and account for their actions in the classroom. The choice of the methods of collecting data was not at random. They were considered to be consistent with the aims of the current work, which implied the following strategic decisions:
The most important interest was to understand the children’s world, preoccupations, interests and their perspectives regarding learning;
I wanted to find out pupils’ ways of learning and the processes involved in it;
Being already immersed in the context I could count on children’s cooperation;
As teachers are subjective insiders involve in classroom interaction the research implied balancing adaptability and flexibility with rigour and trustworthiness.
I.3.7. Data analysis and interpretation
Data collection can quickly yield tremendous amounts of data for analysis. Data analysis is the process of organizing and reorganizing data in a variety of ways in an effort to understand what the data reveal. Each phase of data collection was followed by analysis which directed further stages of the enquiry and helped to focus on specific issues related to teaching passive voice and effective learning with children.
I collected data in the natural learning context over a sustained period. Emphasis was laid on the meanings children placed on events and processes involved in learning. They were encouraged to express their thoughts and beliefs and to account for their actions in the classroom. I used some strategies which helped me navigate and analyse data: categorize and sort; order; identify and acknowledge assumptions; pay attention to unexpected results; talk to students. Due to interactive and iterative nature of data collection and analysis I constantly elaborated and reviewed the interpretations. Data analysis helped me change and improve my own teaching style and improved teacher-student relationships.
CHAPTER TWO
THE GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF THE VERB
II.1. Definition
The verb is defined as a principal part of speech in English morphological system that expresses actions, processes and states. Still this definition is not very useful, because other words, especially nouns and adjectives can also express these meanings.
That is why, modern grammarians prefer to define word classes (or parts of speech) not only on the basis of their meaning, but also on the basis of their form and on the basis of their function in sentences. Therefore, a complete definition of the verb should take into account three criteria: morphological, syntactic and semantic.
The verb tense shows the time of the action or state. Aspect shows whether the action or state is completed or not. Voice is used to show relationships between the action and the people affected by it. Mood shows the attitude of the speaker about the verb, whether it is a declaration or an order. Verbs can be affected by person and number to show agreement with the subject. As a word class, verbs are used for three main purposes:
to express an action: The cat caught three mice.
to express a state: The cat slept in its basket..
to link the subject with its complement: The mice were frightened.
Verbs can be regular or irregular and have the following forms:
II.2. Classification of verbs
Verbs may be classified in accordance with several criteria: their form, lexical meaning, complementation.
II.2.1. There are three ways of classifying verbs on the basis of their forms: in accordance with their morphological structure, derivation, their base forms.
a. According to their morphological structure, verbs may be classified into:
One-word verbs represented by:
– simple verbs: to drink, to lie, to run, to say;
– compound verbs: to broadcast, to underline, to underestimate;
– derivative verbs: to discover, to misunderstand, to criticize, to symbolize, to discourage;
Multi-word verbs represented by:
– phrasal verbs: to make up, to put on, to bring up, to come across;
– prepositional verbs: to look at, to look after, to look for, to take after;
– phrasal-prepositional verbs: to run out of, to put up with, to cut down on, to look up to, to face up to, to stand up for;
– idiomatic expressions: to get rid of, to give way, to make haste, to make yourself at home, to do your best.
b. According to derivation, verbs can be derived through:
Affixation:
– prefixes: -en: to endanger, to endure, to enjoy, to engrave, to enrich;
– suffixes : -ify : to clarify, to simplify, to magnify;
-ize: to analyse, to specialize, to standardize, to socialize;
-en: to broaden, to deafen, to deepen, to frighten, to shorten;
Conversion:
– nouns converted to verbs: to park ( a car), to milk (a cow), to process (leather, cheese, data), to water (a flower);
– adjectives converted to verbs: to dirty, to clean, to empty, to tidy.
c. In accordance with their base forms:
1. The base form ( uninflected form) which can be used as: the infinitive (often preceded by the infinitive marker to), the imperative (2nd person singular/ plural), the subjunctive (present synthetic), simple present tense ( all persons except 3rd person singular).
e.g. start, choose, snow, see;
2. The past tense form (v-ed): started, chose, snowed, saw;
3. The past participle form (v-en): started, chosen, snowed, seen;
4. The –e(s) form, added to the base for the 3rd person singular, simple present tense: starts, chooses, snows, sees;
5. The –ing form or the form for the present participle to the base: starting, choosing, snowing, seeing.
d. The conjugation of the English verb is based on the first three forms of the English verbs: take- took- taken. Depending on how they form the past tense and the past participle, the English verbs are either Regular (to start, to snow) or Irregular (to take, to cut, to tell).
II.2.2.In point of their lexical meaning, verbs are usually classified as follows:
Full/ main/ lexical/ ordinary verbs (The verb has a meaning of its own and can form the predicate by itself. It is used as the main verb in a verb phrase: He speaks loudly; He has spoken loudly )
e.g.: to tell, to rain, to play
Auxiliary verbs ( These verbs have no independent meaning of their own, but must be accompanied by a following main verb to help them express particular grammatical functions or meanings.)
-primary auxiliary verbs: to be, to have, to do. They can be used as auxiliary as well as main verbs and are the most common verbs in English. As auxiliary verbs, combined with the infinitive, the present or the past participle of the main verbs, they help to form the grammatical categories of these main verbs: tense, aspect, voice, interrogation, negation.
-modal-auxiliary verbs: can, could, may, might, must, ought, shall, should, will, would: The modal auxiliaries are called so because they express a variety of moods and attitudes towards an action or state to which the main verb refers.
II.2.3. According to their complementation, verbs may be classified into:
Intransitive verbs (a verb that is not followed by an object or by a complement; it is a verb of complete predication): The snow is falling. / They run fast./ We waited for them in the airport.
Transitive verbs (a verb that requires a Noun Phrase Object to complete its meaning):She always sends letters to her best friend. / He borrowed my coat.
Linking verbs or copulas (a verb that links the subject of a sentence to the subject complement). There are two types of linking verbs:
State verbs (verbs of being): to be, to feel, to look, to seem, to taste, to appear, to smell, to taste, to sound: The ice cream tastes delicious./ He looked happy/ The feels confused.
Resulting verbs (verbs of becoming): to get, to grow, to become, to turn, to go, to come: His dreams have never come true./ Her hair has turned grey. / His behaviour becomes unbearable.
II.3. The grammatical categories of the verb
The English verb has grammatical forms determined by its categories of person, number, tense, aspect, mood, voice.
Depending on the presence or absence of the first three categories (person, number, tense), the verbal forms are divided into finite and non-finite.
A finite form of the verb displays contrasts in person, number, tense, mood; it can occur on its own in a sentence forming its predicate. A finite verb Phrase is a Verb Phrase which contains a finite verb form: She speaks French..
In a more complex finite Verb Phrase (made up of several verbs) the first verb is the only one that is finite, the others are non-finite: She is speaking French.. (is= finite verb form; speaking= non-finite verb form).
The non-finite forms of the verb are represented by the Infinitive, the –ing forms (Present Participle, Gerund) and –ed forms (Past Participle). The non-finite form lacks person, number, tense contrasts. It cannot form the predicate in a sentence by itself; it occurs on its own only in subordinate/ dependent clauses (termed Non-finite clauses, i.e. clauses without a finite verb):
Feeling exhausted, he left from work earlier. (=As he felt exhausted, he left from work earlier) (Feeling = non-finite verb; left= finite verb).
II.3.1. The category of Mood
Mood is the grammatical category by means of which modality is expressed, the speaker’s attitude towards the action denoted by the verb . For practical reasons, moods are defined as:
The Indicative Mood is the mood of assertion, it presents the action as real or as factual. E.g.: They play tennis every day./ They learned the irregular verbs last year.
The Conditional Mood which shows that the speaker regards the action as something he/ she desires to happen/ achieve, as a conditional fact. E.g.: If you studied harder, you would pass the exam./ I would like a cup of tea.
The Subjunctive Mood which shows that the speaker regards the action as something uncertain, possible, probable, as a fact contrary to reality. In point of form the past and perfect subjunctive are identical with the past tense and the past perfect of the Indicative mood. E.g.: I wish I were taller./ If he had studied harder, he would have passed the exam.
The Imperative Mood which shows an order, a request, a demand, a piece of action. E.g.: Stop jumping on the sofa!/ Go left!/ Don’t put so much salt in the soup!
The Indicative, Conditional, Subjunctive and Imperative Moods are also called finite forms of the verb.
Most traditional grammars distinguish these four finite moods. Modern grammars limit the number of moods to only two: the Indicative and the Subjunctive as they consider the Conditional as a type or subtype of the subjunctive mood on account of its form and its meaning.
From the point of view of its form, the Conditional is identical with some forms of the analytical subjunctive (it uses the auxiliaries “should” and “would”). In point of meaning, just like the Subjunctive, the Conditional expresses hypothetical values.
The Imperative is not only a verbal form, but also a form of the sentence type whose function is to express orders, commands, requests. Therefore, from this point of view, the Imperative is to be analysed within “Sentence Types”.
The Non-finite Forms include:
The Infinitive (long or base infinitive): (to) get, (to) arrive, (to) play
The Present Participle (ING form): getting, arriving, playing
The Gerund (ING form): getting, arriving, playing
The Past Participle: got , arrived, played, surprised.
II.3.2. The Category of Voice – will be discussed in the next chapter
II.3.3. The Categories of Person and Number
The English verb has only one formal indicator (inflection/ ending) to mark these categories, namely the –s for the 3rd person singular Present Tense, Indicative Mood.
Because of the scarcity of specific endings in the verb, these two categories (of person, number) are usually identified by means of the subject (unlike Romanian where the category of person can be identified by means of specific endings: citim, citiți, citesc, citești).
e.g. I/ you run: the category of person, namely 1st person vs. 2nd person is identified by means of the subjects I vs. you.
I/ we run: the category of number, 1st person singular vs. 1st person plural is identified by means of the subjects I/ we.
II.3.4.The category of Tense
The category of tense defines the verb and it does not characterize any other part of speech. The tense is a grammatical category that refers to the order of events in time, as it is perceived by the user.
II.3.4.1. The Tense – Time relationship
Tense and time are two distinct concepts which should not be confused.
Time is a universal, non-linguistic ( extralinguistic) concept which exists independently of the grammar of any particular language; time is not a grammatical concept, but a common concept in the physical world. The non-linguistic (extralinguistic) concept of time has three divisions: PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE.
The concept of time can be represented by means of an axis (a horizontal line, theoretically of infinite length) on which the PRESENT moment (the point of reference – NOW) is located. Anything ahead of the Present moment is in the FUTURE, anything behind the Present moment is in the PAST.
THEN NOW
PAST PRESENT MOMENT FUTURE
X X X
The extralinguistic concept of time (with its subdivisions into PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE ) can be expressed linguistically by means of the grammatical category of Tense. By Tense we understand the verb forms for expressing events in PAST time, PRESENT time or FUTURE time. So, by Tense we understand the correspondence between the form of the verb and our concept of time (the form of the verb whose function is to mark the time at which an event takes place).
Unlike other languages, where there is only one term for both concepts (extralinguistic and linguistic), viz. R. timp, Fr. temps English grammatical terminology has two terms: time for the extralinguistic concept and tense for the linguistic concept, i.e. for the forms of the verb.
The grammatical category of tense relates the time of an event to the time when the utterance (communication) is produced about the respective event. Since the category of tense is obviously dependent upon the speaker (i.e. the person who produces the utterance) and upon the time of the utterance, tense is a deictic* category.
(*Deictic (deixis)= a term which subsumes those items of the language which refer to the personal, temporal or locational characteristics of the situation within which an utterance takes place, whose meaning is thus relative to that situation: I/ you, now/ then, here/ there, this/ that etc.)
Three concepts are necessary for the temporal characterization of an event/action):
The speech time: it is the time when the utterance is produced, i.e. when the communication takes place (the NOW of the deictic system).
The event time: it is the time at which the event occurs.
The reference time: it is the time represented on the temporal axis ( Present, Past, Future) specified in the sentence. A sentence specifies the reference time by the combination of tense inflections and temporal adverbials.
Taking the three divisions of time on the temporal axis as reference points, events may be viewed in two ways: as being either simultaneous with the reference points (i.e. they are performed at these reference points) or perfected/ completed before these reference points.
If the reference point of time is PRESENT (symbolized by the deictic adverb NOW), events can be expressed by means of two forms:
Events simultaneous with the present moment (i.e. performed at the present moment) are expressed by the Present Tense;
Events perfected before the present moment are expressed by the Present Perfect Tense.
If the reference point of time is PAST (symbolized by the deictic adverb THEN) events can be expressed by means of two forms:
Events simultaneous with the past moment (i.e. performed at the past moment) are expressed by the Past Tense;
Events perfected before the past moment are expressed by the Past Perfect.
If the reference point of time is FUTURE, events can be expressed by means of two forms:
Events simultaneous with the future moment (performed at the future moment) are expressed by the Future tense;
Events perfected before the future moment are expressed by the Future Perfect.
It is mistaken to believe that tense forms alone mirror time and its subdivisions into past, present and future. As we shall see, besides tense forms, adverbials of time also contribute to the temporal specification of a sentence.
English tenses are verbal constructions expressing points of time combined with aspect.
II.3.4.2. A brief description of English Tenses
The categories of tense and aspect are closely interrelated in English. The most frequent meaning of the term “tense” is that associated with the verb forms of the Indicative Mood.
Present Tense Simple
Form: it has the same form in all persons except the 3rd person singular which adds an –s/ -es. It has the same form as the Short/ Bare Infinitive.
e.g.: I dance/ you dance/ he dances
I dress/ you dress/ he dresses
The main uses of the present tense simple are to express: facts and permanent states, general truths and laws of nature, habits and routines, timetables and programmes (in the future).
e.g. My mother works as a nurse/ Water boils at 100 C./ She usually goes shopping on Fridays. The play starts at six o’clock next Sunday.
The time expressions used with the present simple are: usually, often, always, every day/ week/ month/ year, in the morning/ afternoon, evening, at night/ the weekend, on Fridays, in the morning/ afternoon/ evening, at Christmas, at Easter.
Present Tense Continuous / Progressive
Form: it is formed of the Present Tense of the auxiliary BE and the present participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To laugh: He is laughing.
The present tense continuous is used: for actions taking place at or around the moment of speaking, for temporary situations, for fixed arrangements in the near future.
e.g.: Tom is repairing the bike./ They are staying at their parents this week./ I’m seeing my dentist tonight.
The time expressions used with the present continuous are: now, at the moment, at present, these days, nowadays, still, today, tonight.
Past Tense Simple
Form:
Regular verbs form their Past Tense Simple by adding –ed to the short infinitive.
e.g.: to play: I/you/ he played
Irregular verbs form their Past Tense in various ways:
-internal vowel change: dig-dag
-change in the last consonant: spend-spent
-invariable forms: put-put
-different roots: go-went
The past tense of such verbs is the second form listed in dictionaries or grammars.
The basic use of the past tense simple is to describe actions/ events completed in the past (before the moment of speaking) at a definite time.
e.g.: He took the plane to Paris last week.
The definite past moment is expressed explicitly by time markers ( adverbials of definite time): yesterday, then, when, how long ago…?/ last night/ week/ month/ year/ Monday/ September/ 1998, in 1879.
Past Tense Continuous / Progressive
Form: it is formed of the past tense of the auxiliary verb ”Be” and the present participle of the main verb.
e.g.: to cook: I/ he was cooking; you were cooking
The past tense continuous is used to express: an action in progress at some time in the past or a single event or activity happening at a given past moment.
e.g.: We were walking in the park when the storm started./ This time last week he was flying to Paris.
The particular past moment is rendered explicitly by an adverbial of time or by a clause: while, when, as, all morning/ evening/ day/ week, at that time, this time last month, week, year.
Present Perfect Simple
Form: It is formed of the present tense of the auxiliary verb ” have” and the past participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I have written
The present perfect simple describes an action that happened at an unstated time in the past, an action which started in the past and continues up to the present, a recently completed action.
e.g.: I have met my old friends./ They have known each other for ten years./ I have just answered the phone.
The present perfect is often accompanied by an adverbial of time: for, since, already, just, ever, never, so far, today, this week/ month/, how long, lately, recently, still (in negations), always, never.
Present Perfect Continuous / Progressive
Form: It consists of the present perfect of the auxiliary verb ” BE” and the present participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I have been writing
The present perfect continuous is used: to put emphasis on the duration of an action which started in the past and continues up to the present, for an action which started in the past and lasted for some time.
e.g. We have been living in Prague for ten years./ She’s bored because she has been watching the same cartoons since 10 o’clock in the morning.
The present perfect continuous is used with time adverbials such as: for, since, how long, all day/ morning/ month, lately, recently.
Past Perfect Simple
Form: It consists of the past tense of the auxiliary verb ” HAVE” and the past participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I had written.
The past perfect simple indicates an action which happened before another past action or before a stated time in the past.
e.g.: Tom had read the whole novel when his teacher asked him to.
The time expressions used with the past perfect are: never, already, aftr, just, for, since, till/ until, when, by the time, before.
Past Perfect Continuous / Progressive
Form: It is formed of the past perfect of the auxiliary verb ” BE” and the present participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I had been writing
The past perfect continuous emphasizes the duration of an action which started and finished in the past, before another action or stated time in the past, usually with “for” or “since”.
e.g. Mother had been cooking for three hours before the guests arrived .
An expression of time introduced by for or since usually accompanies the past perfect progressive to emphasize the duration of the action.
Future Tense Simple
Form: It is formed of the auxiliary verbs” Shall/ Will” followed by the short infinitive of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I shall/ will write
The future tense simple is used to denote actions to be performed in the future, predictions about the future, announcements of future plans, sudden decisions.
e.g. : Somebody is knocking at the door. I will answer it./ It will probably rain later./ He will turn forty next month.
The time adverbials used with future simple are: next week/ month/ year/ spring/ Thursday/ Christmas, in the future, in two years, in ten days” time, two weeks/ days/ months/ years from now, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, tonight, soon.
Be going to
Form: The ”BE GOING TO ” construction is formed of the progressive form of the verb ”GO” and the long infinitive of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I am going to write.
“Be going” expresses: plans, intentions or ambitions for the future, actions the speaker has already decided to do in the near future.
e.g.: He’s going to travel around the world when he is eighteen./ Mike is going to buy a new motorbike next year.
The time expressions used with “be going to” are the same as those used with the future simple: tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, tonight, soon, next week/ month/ year/ summer, in a week/ month.
Future Tense Continuous / Progressive
Form: It is formed of the future simple of the auxiliary verb ” BE” and the present participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I shall/ will be writing
The future tense continuous denotes actions which will be in progress at a given time in the future .
e.g. This time next year, we will be travelling to New York.
Future Perfect Simple
Form: It is formed of the future tense of the auxiliary have and the past participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I shall/ will have written.
The future perfect simple is used for actions that will have finished before a stated time in the future.
e.g.: We will have finished our project by the end of the week.
The future perfect is use with time expressions such as: before, by, by then, by the time, until/ till (only in negative sentences).
Future Perfect Continuous
Form: It consists of the future perfect of the auxiliary verb ”BE” and the present participle of the main verb.
e.g.: To write: I shall/ will have been writing.
The future perfect continuous expresses an action begun before a given future moment and still going on at that future moment. The future perfect continuous is used with a time marker introduced by the preposition for to indicate the length of time of the activity or a time marker which expresses the reference point, introduced by next, by.
e.g. : By the time he retires, grandpa will have been working as a doctor for ten years.
II.3.5. The category of aspect
Aspect refers to the speaker’s perspective on the time of an event. In English, aspect is concerned mainly with how the speaker perceives the duration of events, and how different events relate to one another in time. English has two aspects:
II.3.5.1. The PERFECTIVE vs. NON-PERFECTIVE/ IMPERFECTIVE
The Perfective indicates that an event was accomplished (completed or perfected) at/ before a given point in time: before present (NOW), before past (THEN), before future.
The perfective aspect is formed of auxiliary have+ Past Participle of the main/ lexical verb.
II.3.5.2. The PROGRESSIVE (CONTINUOUS) vs. SIMPLE aspect:
The Progressive (Continuous) aspect describes an action in progress at a given time (past, present, future). The action is temporary, i.e. it does not last long, it happens during a limited period of time.
The Progressive (Continuous) aspect is formed of the auxiliary verb be + the Present Participle of the main verb.
The Simple aspect refers to an action which is complete or is used when the duration of the action is irrelevant (the action is thought of as a bare statement).
In order to be able to analyse the contrast between the Simple and the Continuous Aspect, as a grammatical feature of verbs, we should analyse their lexical aspect (i.e. their meaning) and their grammatical aspect. This relationship refers to the fact that the lexical aspect of a verb may determine its grammatical aspect, may determine whether the verb can be used in the progressive aspect or not..
Thus, on account of their meaning, some verbs do not normally occur in the Continuous Aspect.
II.3.5.3. Classification of full/ lexical verbs from the point of view of their lexical aspect.
There are two classes of verbs: Dynamic (Activity/ Action) verbs and State (Stative) verbs.
1.Dynamic (Activity/ Action) verbs describe actions that happen in a limited time, having a definite beginning and end. Dynamic verbs are normally used in the Continuous aspect. These verbs can be subdivided into:
Durative verbs, i.e. verbs denoting actions that last in time: speak, play, draw. This is a class of verbs typically used in the Continuous Aspect:
The Continuous forms show that the action is in progress at a certain time (past, present, future; the Simple forms are used when the duration of the action is irrelevant:
They are playing football. (The Continuous form is used to express an action in progress at the present moment; the action has duration; it started before the present moment and has not been completed yet)
They usually play football. (The Simple form is used because the duration of the action is irrelevant)
The Continuous forms of durative verbs denote an action of limited, temporary duration (something that doesn’t last long) taking place around a point in time (past, present or future).
Durative verbs cannot be used in the Continuous aspect when their action is no longer temporary, i.e. when they express unlimited or more permanent duration → state. In other words with these verbs the Continuous aspect denotes limited or temporary duration, while the Simple aspect denotes unlimited, permanent duration.
I’m working in this school for the summer: The Continuous aspect implies an action of limited duration.
I work in this school: The Simple aspect implies more permanent duration.
Water boils at 100 C. (not * is boiling).
The Continuous aspect refers to activity in progress and therefore suggests not only that the activity is temporary but that it need not be complete. The Continuous forms are often used to suggest an incomplete action, while the Simple forms are used to express a complete action. This element of meaning is most evident in the Past Tense or in the Present Perfect:
He worked as a waiter four years ago. (i.e. he stopped doing that)
He was working as a waiter four years ago. (But I don’t know whether he finished it)
I have riden my bike this morning (the activity is finished: complete).
I have been riding my bike this morning (but the job may not be finished: incomplete).
Non-durative (Momentary) verbs are verbs denoting momentary events, actions that occur in a fraction of time, i.e. actions that are completed almost at the same time they are performed: catch, find, hit, jump, kick, knock, nod, slam, slap, open, etc. Since these verbs refer to actions so momentary that it is difficult to think of them as having duration, they cannot normally be used in the Continuous aspect:
He kicked the ball. (one single action )
He was kicking the ball. (repeated actions in a certain span of time).
2. State (stative) verbs describe a state or situation which continues over a period of time. State verbs denote an unlimited, permanent duration of an action. State verbs are not normally used in the Continuous forms because their meaning is incompatible with the characteristic ”meaning” of the Continuous aspect, i.e. an action in progress of limited duration, (viewed at some point between its beginning and end), an incomplete action.
Verbs that do not have a Continuous form because they describe a state.
Verbs not normally used in the Continuous forms – can be subdivided into the following classes:
Relational verbs are the verbs which express the idea of being or possessing: be, belong, comprise, consist, contain, deserve, have, include, lack, need, owe, own, possess, require, etc. Since these verbs indicate permanent duration of an action, they do not normally occur in the Continuous forms:
We have/ own/ possess cars.
Don’t lose that book: it contains important information.
That hotel belongs to a rich man.
Verbs of inert* (involuntary) perception are verbs which refer to actions of the senses. Verbs which express an involuntary use of the senses, such as see, feel, hear, look, notice, smell, taste are not normally used in the Continuous aspect:
He feel incomplete .
Listen! Do you hear that melody?
She looks happy.
I see many flowers in the park.
The flowers still smell beautifully.
These candies taste delicious.
These verbs commonly occur with can/ could to express a sense experience that is going on at a given moment:
I can see someone through the window but I can’t hear what they are saying.
Can you hear a noise outside?
When I got off the train I could smell the sea.
Verbs of inert * (involuntary) cognition (verbs of thinking, referring to the activity of the mind): believe, consider, doubt, forget, expect, guess, imagine, know, mean, realize, remember, suppose, think, understand:
Do you know any foreign language?
I think he is a nice person.
They understand Spanish, but they can’t speak well.
I believe in God.
I remember the special moments of my childhood.
*Inert or Involuntary indicates an action happening without conscious control or intention, an action which is independent of the speaker’s intention: the speaker has no control over it.
Verbs referring to feelings, emotions (likes and dislikes): adore, desire, detest, like, loathe, love, hate, prefer, want, wish: these verbs are not normally used in the Continuous forms:
I dislike being lied.
Do you like drama films?
I want to visit my grandparents more often.
However, some of the verbs above may be used in the Continuous aspect in some special cases, such as:
When the speaker wishes to emphasize a temporary action, situation, not a permanent one: to express a temporary quality or state.
Be may be used in the Continuous Aspect to express a temporary state, quality or behaviour. Be occurs in the Progressive Aspect with certain adjectives such as kind, obstinate, rude, absurd, silly, stupid etc. to indicate temporary behaviour. Compare:
Bob is a good student. (The Simple Aspect is used to express a permanent state or quality. = Bob is by nature an intelligent boy.)
Bob is being a good student. ( the Continuous aspect expresses a temporary quality or state = Bob is answering correctly well today, but as a rule he does not).
They are being rude today. ( temporary behaviour)
Verbs denoting feelings can be used in the Continuous aspect if they express temporary actions:
(at a concert) : Are you enjoying the music, Mark?
Are you still loving Tom?.
The verbs smell, taste, sound may be used in the Continuous aspect when they express a voluntary action on the part of the subject, a deliberate use of the senses. Compare:
Grandma’s soup tastes delicious. (involuntary use: the Simple Aspect refers to a state which is regarded as a permanent quality of the soup.)
Grandma is tasting the soup to see if it is sour. (voluntary, deliberate action: the Continuous Aspect refers to a state taking place at the moment of speaking and limited in duration.)
Syntactically, the verbs smell, taste, sound occur in the Continuous forms when they are used transitively. Feel is used in the Continuous forms if we are talking about a person’s health:
“How are you feeling today?” “I’m feeling bad.”
“How is your mother feeling now?” “She is feeling much better.”
When the verbs are recategorized, i.e. when they express other meanings, e.g. an activity not a state:
Verbs of possession (have, hold, possess). Compare:
HAVE: He has a big black. (have=”possess” [state verb]).
He is having a bath. (have= “wash” [activity verb]).
She is having a great time. (have= “experience” [activity verb])
HOLD: The jar holds one litre. (hold= “contain” [state verb]).
He is holding his mother’s purse (hold= “keep” [activity verb]
Some verb of thinking (think, expect, consider, imagine):
What do you think about horror films? (think= “what is your opinion” verb of inert, involuntary cognition, expressing a passive state of mind).
Stop speaking! I’m thinking! (think= “ponder, reflect” [ activity verb])
We are thinking of travelling to China (to plan, to intend).
I don’t consider it is the right place to act like this. (it’s my opinion).
I’m considering getting married again. (consider= think of, reflect).
I expect you’ll make the right choice. (expect= “think, believe”)
I’m expecting many guests at my son’s wedding. (expect= “wait to come”)
Perception verbs (see, hear) may be used in the progressive forms when they change their basic meaning and are used with other meanings: they cease to be verbs of inert perception, expressing deliberate action (voluntary, deliberate use of the senses). Compare:
Do you see that old man across the street? (see: basic meaning “sense with one’s eyes”)
She is seeing her doctor at 5 o’ clock. (see = meet by appointment)
The manager is seeing the new applicants. (see = interview ).
I shall be seeing my classmates at the end of the week. (see= meet)
The doctor is here; he is seeing the pacient. (see to= taking care of)
I hear what they say. (hear= basic meaning “perceive sounds with the ears”)
She is a talented painter. You’ ll hear of her. (hear= “get news from him”)
Since the verbs of perception see, hear cannot express the idea of deliberate, voluntary action (we cannot start or stop seeing, hearing at will), this idea is rendered by its synonyms look at, watch, listen to which can be used in the Continuous forms. Compare:
I (can) see the waves. / I’ m looking at them.
I can hear her playing the piano./ I’m listening to her playing the piano.
Part of a conversation might run as follows:
“Did you hear what she said?”
“Well, I heard she said something but I wasn’t listening.”
When the sentence has some emotional connotation (praise, indignation):
Are you forgetting people’s names?
Are you hearing what I’m saying?
In conclusion, the Simple forms express:
1. Mere information about a fact, when the duration of the action is irrelevant;
2. Unlimited, permanent duration;
3. Momentary action.
The Continuous forms express:
1. An action in progress of limited, temporary duration;
2. An incomplete action
CHAPTER THREE: THE CATEGORY OF VOICE IN ENGLISH
III.1. Definition
Voice is the grammatical category that concerns not only the verb phrase but also other constituents in the sentence. Voice expresses the relationship between the verb (the predicate) on the one hand and the subject and object of the verb, on the other. There are two voices in English: the Active and the Passive.
The Active Voice, as we can see in the following sentences :Father sold his old car; The cat caught a mouse.– shows that the grammatical subject (Father, the cat) performs the action (the grammatical subject is the Agent, Doer of the action); the grammatical subject is also the logical subject of the sentence.
The Passive Voice, as we can see in the following sentences: The old car was sold by father; The mouse was caught by the cat – indicates that the grammatical subject (The car, the mouse) is the Goal/ Recipient of the action; the grammatical subject is no longer the logical subject of the sentence.
Although the factual content of the two sentences (Active and Passive) remains the same, there are certain differences in the emphasis of these sentences. In point of meaning, an active sentence places the emphasis on the agent, the doer of the action. In a passive sentence, the emphasis is placed on the recipient of the action, on the thing done, rather on its doer (on what happens to someone not on who does it). A passive construction gives less prominence to the agent.
The Active – Passive relation (also known as the Passive Transformation or Passivization) involves three grammatical levels:
The morphological level, i.e. the form of the verb;
The syntactic level: the changes in the position and status of the Active Subject NP and Object NP;
The semantic level – pragmatic level.
III.1.1. The morphological level: the form of the verb
Considering the morphological level the specialized passive voice markers are attached to the lexical verbs: the auxiliary verb ” Be” or ”Get” and the past participle form of the main verb. The auxiliaries that are used to obtain the verbal form that appears in passive constructions are the auxiliary Be and the auxiliary Get.
The Be passive – The passive form of the Verb Phrase consists of the auxiliary Be (or Get in some cases) + the Past Participle of the main verb. The auxiliary (Be/ Get) marks the categories of person, number, tense aspect, mood. A passive verb has forms for the Finite moods as well as the Non-finite forms. It has forms corresponding to the Active voice for all the tenses of the Indicative Mood, Simple Aspect.
The conjugation of a verb in the Passive Voice, Indicative Mood (to ask).
The Simple aspect:
Present Tense: He is asked;
Past Tense: He was asked;
Present Perfect: He has been asked;
Past Perfect: He had been asked;
Future Simple: He will be asked ;
Future Perfect: He will have been asked.
As far as the progressive aspect is concerned, the English verb has passive forms for only two tenses: The Present and Past.
Present Continuous: He is being asked;
Past Tense Continuous: He was being asked .
We are solving the exercise. → The exercise is being solved.
The doctors were taking care of the patient. → The patient was being taken care of..
2. The Get Passive – Get is another auxiliary which can be used to form a passive construction. Unlike be which expresses a state, get expresses an action. Get is used as a resulting, dynamic auxiliary to emphasize the idea of change, to draw attention to the result, rather than to the action.
With verbs of result such as break, burn, catch, hurt, lose, kill, steal, stick, etc., the auxiliary get expresses a detrimental meaning: actions that happen suddenly, unexpectedly or by accident:
Her purse got stolen.
How many elephants get killed every year?
The boy got burnt when he fried potatoes.
He got caught as he was trying to stole the woman’s purse.
The auxiliary get is usually restricted to constructions without an expressed Object of Agent. Compare:
The boy was injured by an unknown person.
The boy got injured.
A number of sentences look superficially like passives but cannot be derived from active sentences: with verbs like dress, engage, marry, mix, the auxiliary get implies actions that we do to ourselves. The actions are reflexive rather than passive.
They got married last week.
She has to get dressed before the guests arrive.
He doesn’t want to get mixed up with the police again.
With some other verbs, the passive with the auxiliary get indicates involvement of the grammatical subject. Compare:
The little girl was dressed for the party. (< Someone dressed her for the party)
The little girl got dressed for the party. (< She managed to dress herself)
3. Become Passive – Become is occasionally used as an auxiliary for the passive. Become expresses a more gradually achieved result, it stresses the change from one condition to a new condition:
The films he performs in are becoming increasingly appreciated.
This news has already become widely spread in the community.
III.1.2. The syntactic level (the clause level)
At the clause level changing from the active to the passive involves the transformation in the position and status of the Subject NP and the Object NP:
the subject of the active construction becomes an object of agent introduced by the preposition by;
the object of the active construction becomes the subject in the passive sentence.
The active – passive correspondence (passive transformation) can be expressed by the following formula:
NP1 + V active + NP2 → NP2 + V passive (+ By – NP1)
(S) (P) (O) (S) (P) (O Agent)
The prepositional object of agent (the by – phrase) is generally an optional element. The object of agent is only expressed when it is important to mention, when it conveys relevant information:
Dickens wrote ‘Great Expectations’. → ‘Great Expectations’ was written by Dickens.
The prepositional object of agent is not expressed (it is omitted) when:
it is unknown to the speaker: e.g.: That castle was built a century ago.
it is indefinite: the subject of the sentence would be expressed by an indefinite noun or pronoun (people, they, someone, one). In such cases the passive is generally preferred and the resulting object of agent is omitted:
e.g.: They/ people cut down trees every year. → Trees are cut down every year.
e.g.: They announced the lottery winner last week. → The lottery winner was announced last week.
e.g.: Our house was broken into. (the Object of agent, which would be “by someone” is not necessary to be expressed since it does not convey any relevant information).
it is redundant (it can be recovered from the context)
e.g.: The boys played with a toy car last night and it was broken. (the Object of Agent by the boys is understood from the context)
passive-like causatives (pseudo-passive): in causative constructions with have (or get) the doer of the action is often omitted, i.e. the object of agent. Such constructions are not true passives because they do not contain the auxiliary be, but the main verb is in the past participle:
e.g.: Mrs. Smith can’t cook. Her mother cooks the meals for her. → Mrs. Smith has the meals cooked.
e.g.: Paul’s house was painted before he returned from holiday. → Paul had his house painted before he returned from holiday.
III.1.3. The Semantic level
Considering the semantic level we’ll notice that the agent is no longer the main part of the sentence.
Semantic and pragmatic aspects of the passive: The passive is far more common in English than in other languages. The following observations may serve as a general guide when to use the passive:
1. The passive voice is especially useful when the doer, agent of the action is unknown or unimportant (when the active form would involve the use of an indefinite or vague pronoun/ noun as subject (The object of agent is not expressed):
e.g.: The windows have been cleaned. (<Someone has cleaned the windows.)
e.g.: He was made to confess to the robbery. (<They made him confess to the robbery.)
2. The passive voice is usually used in impersonal style (in scientific, technical and official writing), where the question of who performs the action described by the verb is unimportant or irrelevant, when processes are the focus of attention, also when the author does not want to draw attention to himself:
e.g.: The new techniques that are being used..
3. The passive provides a means of avoiding an awkward change of a subject in the middle of a sentence:
e.g.: The band recorded a new song last week and was immediately considered a hit by the fans (instead of: The band recorded a new song last week and the fans immediately considered it a hit).
III.2. Be- passive constructions vs. Get-passive constructions
‘Get’ is sometimes used instead of ‘Be’ in a passive constructions. Using a get-passive instead of a be-passive is considered more informal. However in speech, we use a get-passive to express small details about a particular situation that a be-passive cannot express. There are some instances when be-passive and get-passive constructions are not interchangeable.
Be-passive is used:
In passive sentences the focus is on the person or thing experiencing the action (the recipient). The person or thing doing the action (the agent) is optionally mentioned in a by-phrase. Be-passive occur with verbs that are complemented by direct objects.
A be-passive construction includes an optional by-phrase mentioning the agent of the action.
e.g.: The dog was lost by the two children
The focus is on the children. The agent or cause are optionally mentioned.
A be-passive construction includes intentional or unintentional action.
e.g.: He was hit by a ball on the football pitch. (unintentional)
He was hit by his classmate. (intentional)
The be-passive constructions state what happened. (neutral)
e.g.: The kids were caught by Tom.
– A be-passive states what happened. (neutral)
e.g.: He was married three years ago. (factual statement)
He was dressed by himself/ by his grandma/ by a famous
designer.
He was very dressed. (is the participle, a verb or an adjective?)
A be-passive states what happened (neutral)
e.g.: The chair was repaired. (a factual statement)
Get-passive is used:
In get-passive sentences the focus is on the person or thing receiving/ experiencing the action. Get-passives occur with dynamic verbs (not static verbs)
A get-passive construction rarely includes a by-phrase.
e.g.: The dog got lost.
The focus is on the accidental loss of the dog. There is no one responsible for
this (to blame for this).
A get-passive includes an unintentional or unexpected action.
e.g.: He got hit. (unintentional or unfortunate)
He got hit by his classmate. (intentional – awkward, incorrect usage)
A get-passive construction often indicates a situation with an adverse or beneficial effect on the subject.
e.g.: The kids got caught. (adverse)
He got asked to join the kids in the hide-and-seek game. (possibly beneficial)
A get-passive construction may include an action in which the subject is also the agent (reflexive)
e.g.: He got married. ( He had a role as the agent as well. He was part of the planning; intentional)
He got dressed. He got himself dressed. He dressed himself. (intentional)
A get-passive construction may indicate a casual relationship between the subject and completed action.
e.g.: I got the chair repaired. I did it myself.
I got/had the chair repaired. I asked a carpenter to do the work.
III.3. Types of verbs used in passive constructions
III.3.1.Transitive verbs: Transitive verbs, i.e. verbs that can take an object, represent the largest class of verbs which allow passivization. Within this large class of verbs we can identify several subclasses:
Transitive verbs + one object (monotransitive verbs):
According to the general rule, any transitive verb followed by a direct object can be passivized (the direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive):
e.g.: The teacher will mark the essays. → The essays will be marked by the teacher.
e.g.: Ted has rearranged the furniture. → The furniture has been rearranged by Ted.
Note: In perfective tenses (Present Perfect, Past Perfect, Future Perfect) which contain two auxiliaries – have for the perfective and been for the Passive – adverbs of indefinite time (just, already, never, often) follow the first auxiliary, while adverbs of manner (e.g. skilfully, beautifully) follow the second auxiliary ( they are placed before the Past Participle).
e.g.: The boy has just finished his task. / The task has just been finished by the boy.
The painter has beautifully realized his latest painting. / The latest painting has been beautifully realized by the painter.
Voice constraints: Some transitive verbs do not occur (at least in some senses) in the passive: contain, fit, have, hold, lack, possess, resemble. Most of them are stative / state verbs, i.e. they refer to states not actions and they often have no continuous forms. Thus, the following active sentences have no passive correspondent:
e.g.: This suit fits him..
e.g.: My uncle has two houses.
With some verbs, the passive is not possible when they refer to states, but it is possible when they refer to an activity:
HOLD: This bottle holds two litres. / Two litres are held by this bottle.
The lady holds the purse. / The purse is held by the lady.
POSSESS: Bob possesses great intelligence. / Great intelligence is possessed by Bob.
The burglar possessed a gun. / A gun was possessed by the burglar.
HAVE: His uncle has three expensive cars. / Three expensive cars are had by his uncle.
Children can have breakfast any time they want. /Breakfast can be had by the children any time they want.
Besides the meaning of the verb, co-reference between a subject and a NP Object blocks the passive correspondence. This constraint occurs with:
Reflexive pronouns:
e.g.: Meg could hear Sue singing. / Sue could be heard singing by Meg.
e.g.: Meg could hear herself singing. / Herself could be heard singing.
Reciprocal pronouns:
e.g.: We could hardly hear each other in the wind. / Each other could hardly be heard in the wind.
Possessive pronouns (when they are co-referential to the Subject)
e.g.: The girl combed my hair. / My hair was combed by the girl.
e.g.: The girl combed her hair. / Her hair was combed by the girl.
Transitive verbs with two objects (Ditransitive verbs)
i) A small number of verbs – ask, teach, envy – are followed by two objects: a [+animate] object and a {-animate] one. The [+animate] object usually becomes the subject in the passive:
e.g.: The police asked the thieves some questions. → The thieves were asked some questions.
ii) Verbs like allot, allow, award, deny, grant, hand, lend, offer, pay, present, promise, recommend, refuse, send, show, tell are followed by two objects: a [+animate] indirect object and a [-animate] direct object. These verbs can have two passive forms: either the indirect object or the direct object can become the grammatical subject of the passive verb:
e.g.: The children offered their mother a bunch of flowers.
The Direct Object becomes the subject of the passive construction: in such cases the NP expressing the Indirect Object (the retained Indirect Object) is usually preceded by the preposition to:
e.g.: A bunch of flowers was offered to their mother by the children.
The Indirect Object becomes the Subject of the passive construction:
e.g.: Mother was offered a bunch of flowers by the children.
The passive construction with the Indirect Object as Subject is more frequent than the one with the Direct Object as subject. There is a semantic explanation for this preference, viz. it is preferable to use a person (a being), rather than a thing as the subject of the passive construction. Also:
e.g.: He won’t be shown his marks.
e.g.: Arnie has been taught a new dance step.
Transitive verbs + a THAT – clause: Verbs of physical perception, mental cognition as well as declarative verbs – believe, consider, expect, know, hear, say, suppose, think – are followed in the active voice by a That- clause or by an accusative + infinitive construction:
e.g.: They believe that Elvis Presley is alive. / They believe Elvis Presley to be alive.
e.g.: They expect that Jim will be offered a promotion. / They expect Jim to be offered a promotion.
These sentences normally have two passives constructions:
An impersonal construction: it is only the main clause that undergoes passivization while the rest of the sentence is left unchanged:
e.g.: It is believed that Elvis Presley is alive.
e.g.: It is expected that Jim will be offered a promotion.
A Nominative + Infinitive construction:
e.g.: Elvis Presley is believed to be alive.
e.g.: Jim is expected to be offered a promotion.
III.3.2.Intransitive verbs
Some intransitive verbs such as live, sleep, sit accompanied by a prepositional object (prep. + NP) may be used in the passive. The nominal element (NP) of the prepositional object becomes the subject while the preposition is retained by the verb, even though in the corresponding active voice the preposition is less closely associated with the verb.
e.g.: We have slept in this bedroom. / This bedroom has been slept in.
Prepositional and phrasal verbs:
There are some verbs (account for, agree upon, deal with, laugh at, look after/ for, listen to, refer to, rely on, send for, etc) which in the active voice are followed by an obligatory preposition + NP (syntactically, the Prep. + NP is a prepositional object). Through passivization, the nominal element of the prepositional phrase becomes subject while the preposition is kept together with the verb:
e.g.: She looked for the new word in the dictionary. / The new word was looked for in the dictionary.
e.g.: They will soon agree upon this problem. / This problem will be soon agreed upon.
e.g.: I can’t stand people laughing at me. / I can’t stand being laughed at.
Some prepositional verbs (look into, go into, arrive at) accept the passive only when they have an abstract, figurative use (ii). Compare the following:
The students eventually arrived at the station. → *The station was arrived at.
They eventually arrived at an agreement. →An agreement was arrived at. ( abstract, figurative use
The engineers went carefully into the tunnel. →*The tunnel was gone into.
The engineers went very carefully into the problem. →The problem was very carefully gone into.
Phrasal verbs:
e.g.: They brought the child up. → The child was brought up.
Phrasal Prepositional verbs:
Phrasal Prepositional verbs represent combinations of verb + adverbial particle + preposition: put up with, do away with, etc.). Through passivization, the object of the preposition becomes the subject while the verb retains both the particle and the preposition:
e.g.: We can’t go on with this misunderstanding. →This misunderstanding can’t be gone on with.
Prepositional verbal phrases
Prepositional verbal phrases such as lose sight of, make fun of, make use of, pay attention to, put an end to, take notice of etc. can be used in the passive. Because of the close connection of the verb with the noun within the Verb Phrase the latter is not normally separated from the verb ( and it is not used as the subject of the passive construction). Through Passivization the Object of the preposition becomes Subject while the verb retains the preposition.
e.g.: The children have made fun of him. / He has been made fun of.
e.g.: Their neighbours have put fire to their house. / Their house has been put fire to.
e.g.: The students will pay attention to their teacher. / The teacher will be paid attention to.
Nevertheless, with some Verbal Phrases such as pay attention to, take notice of, take care of an alternative passive construction is possible with the noun within the Verb Phrase as subject:
e.g.: They paid much attention to his explanations.
→His explanations were paid much attention to.. (Object of the prep. As subject)
→Much attention was paid to his explanations. (noun within the VP as subject)
III.4. Passivals (Pseudo – Passives) and Passive Causatives
III.4.1. Passivals (Pseudo – Passives)
There are only a few transitive verbs in English (read, sell, wash, peel, iron, etc.) that can sometimes be used in the active voice with a passive meaning.
e.g.: They sell flowers well. →Flowers sell well.
As passivization is achieved only at the syntactic level without affecting the morphology of the verb (the grammatical object of the transitive verb (active voice) becomes the grammatical subject without a change of the verb into the passive), pseudo-passives are a kind of half or semi-passives.
e.g.: This mountain climbs easily./ Silk dresses iron well.
The sentences usually contain an adverbial of manner which expresses a qualification of the process: well, easily, beautifully.
Pseudo-passive constructions with Have
a. Formation: Pseudo-passives with “have” are formed with have + an object + the past participle of the verb:
e.g.: We had our car serviced at the garage.
have object ed-p
e.g.: I had my hair cut last week.
The pseudo-passive word-order have + object + -ed participle is different from that of active present and past perfect verb phrase:
e.g.: I had my hair cut last week.
(“I had cut my hair cut last week.” would mean I did it myself)
e.g.: Do you have your car serviced regularly?
(“Have you serviced your car regularly?” would suggest they normally do it themselves)
b. Functions of pseudo-passives with Have
Have-pseudo-passive constructions most typically enable a person affected by an action or event to be made the grammatical subject, thereby making that person the starting point for the message:
e.g.: We had our house broken into.
e.g.: He had his ball broken.
Other alternatives make different participants the theme of the sentence:
e.g.: Someone broke into our house.
e.g.: His ball was/ got broken.
The meaning may be causative or non-causative:
e.g.: I have always liked to go to the hairdresser or have my suits made at the tailor’s.
(causative: I make it happen)
e.g.: Her grandfather had his wallet stolen.
(non-causative: it was not his intention or aim)
In the case of some verbs which take an object plus prepositional complement, the have-pseudo-passive compensates for the lack of a be-passive and enables the affected participant to become the theme:
e.g.: She’s had some pieces of advice given to her, but she needs time to think.
(or: Some pieces of advice have been given to her…)
(*She’s been given some ideas)
e.g.: They’ll have that reminded to them all the time till their next meeting.
(or: That will be reminded to them all the time…)
(*They’ll be reminded that all the time…)
The meaning of the have-pseudo-passive is not the same as the perfect aspect form of the verb:
“Oh grandma, you’ve had a new jumper knot. It looks beautiful”.
( someone knot a jumper for her)
“Oh grandma, you’ve knot a new jumper” would mean she did it herself.
Get- and Have- pseudo-passive
Get- pseudo-passives and Have- pseudo-passives can often both be used to express causative and non-causative meanings. The have-passive is more formal than the get-passive:
e.g.: They got their house painted twice last year.
(or: They had their house painted twice last year.)
e.g.: He’ll have had the letter typed by 6 o’clock.
(or: He’ll have got the letter typed by 6 o’clock.)
e.g.: I had my clothes mended here a year ago.
(or: I got my clothes mended here a year ago.)
III.4.2. Passive causatives
a. What are passive causative verbs?
We use this structure to talk about having something done by another person/ thing. For example:
e.g.: Mark had his car repaired after the car accident last year.
e.g.: Our headmaster had the project presented by a very talented group of writers.
In both cases, the person (Mark and the headmaster) arranged for something (repairing a car and presenting a project) to be done by a third person.
b. What is the sentence structure?
Passive causatives use the following structure:
Subject – causative verb- object – past participle.
He – had – his shirt – ironed.
Mary will have – the sink – replaced – by a plumber.
Grandma – will have – her hens – fed.
c. How are causatives used?
Passive causatives almost always use the verb have, and get to a lesser extent. The sentence structure expresses a service you have done, usually by a third person. Shirt ironed, the sink, or the hens are some examples. Here are a few more:
e.g.: He has his teeth checked twice a year.
e.g.: They are having their house redecorated at the moment.
e.g.: We are going to have our new furniture delivered tomorrow.
Need and want may be used in passive causative sentences. In some cases, the passive causative verb (had/ got) may be dropped altogether.
e.g.: I need to have the roof repaired.
e.g.: I need the roof repaired
e.g.: I want to have my clothes ironed.
e.g.: I want my clothes ironed.
Modal auxiliary verbs may be used with the causative sentence structure. Most often, modals express a suggestion by the speaker, such as:
e.g.: They should have their roof repaired.
Unlike need and want, though, the causative verb must always accompany the modal verb. For example: Subject – modal auxiliary verb – causative verb – object – past participle
e.g.: You – should – have – your shoes – mended.
III.5. Classes of verbs that resist passivization
Most transitive verbs can be passivized. However there are a few transitive verbs which cannot be passivized because of their semantic-syntactic properties.
1. One of these categories of the “middle verbs” group includes reciprocal verbs like: to resemble, to marry, to divorce, to meet, to kiss express symmetric relations. This type of verbs cannot be passivized but they allow their subject and direct object to change position in the active voice:
a. Tom married Summer. (active voice)
b. Summer married Tom. (active voice)
c. *Summer was married to Tom.
In example c. Passivization is blocked because there is a relationship of reciprocity between the referents of the subject and the object in the active version.
2. Another category of the “middle verb” group is constituted by some stative verbs like: to cost, to weigh, to stretch, to last and to owe which are intransitive verbs that require obligatory adverbial quantification. The adverbial quantification is realized by non-prepositional NPs, as it appears in the following examples:
a. The oranges weighed three kilos.
*Three kilos were weighed by the oranges.
b. The shopkeeper weighed the oranges.
The oranges were weighed by the shopkeeper.
c. These two dresses cost 100 lei.
*100 lei was cost by the two dresses.
d. It cost her a lot of time.
How much did it/ the holiday cost (her)?
What did it/ the holiday cost (her)?
When the object of the verb to weigh refers to the items weighed, it can be passivized as in example b), but not when it refers to measurement as in example a). The verb to cost behaves differently because it is a dative verb that may take a DO in simple declarative sentences and in interrogative sentences as we can notice in example d).
3. Relational verbs that express possession (to have, to possess and to own) or lack of possession also resist passivization:
Ted has/ owns/ possesses a motorbike.
*A motorbike is had by Ted.
With these verbs the subject always has the role of beneficiary. In a relationship of possession the human participant is more important, that is why it must always appear in subject position. As a result these verbs can only be used in active voice.
4. Stative verbs which denote a mental process or perception may undergo passivization when the direct object is a whole clause as in the following example b), but not when they are in association with manner adverbials as in the example c). Examples of such verbs are: to know, to believe, to consider, to think, to perceive, to see and to hear:
e.g.: Her mother knew the truth.
*The truth was known by her mother.
a. Everybody considered (that Julie was pretty). – active voice
b. That Julie was pretty was considered by everybody. – passive voice.
c. *Everybody knew hardly (that Julie was pretty).
There are certain categories of transitive verbs like reciprocal verbs, relational verbs that denote possession and stative verbs like to cost, to weigh, to owe, which together with other stative verbs that denote a mental process or perception do not undergo the process of passivization.
III.6. Special passive constructions
There are three constructions in which the process of passivization can appear: semi-passives, existential passives and raising passives.
III.6.1.Semi-passives
According to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartick (1985), the constructions in which members have both verbal and adjectival properties are called semi-passives.
We should make distinction between constructions with identical form but different syntactic analysis. Let’s consider the following examples:
His appearance scared us.
We were scared at his appearance.
*His appearance unscared us.
We were unscared at his appearance.
In example b) we observe that the use of the prefix “–un” gives rise to an ungrammatical sentence. This is because this prefix can only be attached to adjectives and not verbs. The verb unscared does not exist. Radford (1988) observes another distinction that can be made between verbal and adjectival passives starting from the following example:
Her brother scared her.
She was (*very) scared by her brother. (verbal passive)
We were very scared by his scream. (adjectival passive)
Example b) is a verbal passive because it has an Agent by-phrase, her brother. In contrast, in sentence c) the prepositional phrase at his appearance indicates the cause of the fear not the Agent that stirs the emotion. In verbal passive scared is the past participle of the verb to scare, while in the adjectival passive scared is an adjective that allows modification with the modifier very.
III.6.2.Existential passives
According to Serban (1982), passive sentences may turn into three constructions owing to the presence of the auxiliary verb be. In addition to the presence of the auxiliary verb be, the NPs occupying the subject position must be indefinite. Consider the following example:
1)a) A wolf has eaten a/ the sheep. (active voice)
b) A/ the sheep has/ *have been eaten by a wolf. (passive voice)
c) There has been a/ *the sheep eaten by a wolf. (existential passive)
We notice that the indefiniteness of the NP-subject a sheep is an obligatory condition for the formation of a grammatical construction and that the auxiliary be is separated from the rest of the verb phrase, as the result of the placement of the NP-subject a sheep in between.
In contexts where there is inserted in a passive sentence whose auxiliary also includes the auxiliary be to mark the continuous aspect, i.e. there are two auxiliaries: one marking aspect and another one voice, the subject moves after the first be, as in:
2)a)A great actor was acting in that film. (active voice)
b)The film was being acted in by a great actor.
c)There was a film being acted by a great actor. (existential actor)
In conclusion, the NP, a sheep, respectively a film, moves after the main verb, as in the examples 1), or after the first be in the auxiliary as in the examples 2). Furthermore, Serban (1982) argues that existential passives in the interrogative can be obtained if we apply several transformations to an active sentence:
3)a) A judge convicted the robber. (active voice)
b) The robber was convicted by a judge. (passive voice)
c)There was a robber convicted by a judge. (existential passive)
d)Was there a robber convicted by a judge? (existential passive in wh-question)
The active sentence in 3a) undergoes passivization and the result is 3b). by inserting the expletive pronoun there in 3b) we obtain example 3c), an existential passive to which we apply question formation. Example 3d) illustrates a passive existential construction in the interrogative. The distribution of adverbials in passive existential constructions: past temporal adverbs may not co-occur with the perfective auxiliary have in the perfect tense or with a verb in the present tense. However these restrictions are not obeyed in passive existential constructions:
4)a)*Doctor Hamilton initiates/ has initiated a debate on cancer cure two weeks ago.
*A debate on cancer cure is/ has been initiated two weeks ago by Doctor Hamilton.
b)There is/ has been a debate on cancer cure (initiated by Doctor Hamilton two weeks ago).
Example 4a) is grammatically incorrect because the past temporal adverb two weeks ago cannot co-occur in the same clause with the perfective auxiliary have or a verb in the present tense. In 4b) the incompatible elements mentioned above appear in different clauses and this is why the sentence is correct.
III.6.3. Raising passives
Raising is a syntactic process that moves the subject of a that-complement clause in the main clause in subject or object position. If we take the active sentence 5 a) in which the direct object is expressed by means of a that-complement clause and apply to it subject to object raising and afterwards passivization to the verb in the main clause, believe, we will obtain a construction called raising passive.
5) a) Sarah believed (that Tom had told the truth). (active voice)
b) Sarah believed Tom (to have told the truth) (SOR)
c) Tom is believed (to have told the truth) (SSR)
From example 5 a) the subject of the that-complement clause, Tom, is moved to direct object position in 5 b). By applying passivization to this sentence the direct object, Tom, becomes the passive subject of the sentence 5 c). We could have also obtained a raising passive if we would have applied subject to subject raising to the initial sentence.
III.7. The agentive by-phrase
Although in present-day English only the preposition by is used as a marker of agency, in older English other agentive prepositions were used with the same purpose. These prepositions were characteristic of the highly literary style and used to indicate different things. (Serban, 1982)
“Of” is employed rarely on in the highly literary style with some classes of stative experience verbs (e.g.: to be admired, loved, hated, honoured; to be seen, observed by somebody). In current English it is used after the verb born to indicate the source of origin:
6) I heard that she was born of wealthy aristocratic parents.
“With“ gives an instrumental meaning in passive sentences such as:
7) a) The salad is made with tomatoes and onions.
b) The doctor was met with opposition from sides of the Hospital.
c) The house was built with stone and bricks.
“In” has a semi-agentive meaning in:
8) a) They were caught in the traffic jam.
b) The sofa was covered in black leather.
c) The clothes for poor children were raised in voluntary subscriptions.
“From” could indicate just like the preposition of the source of origin:
9) The students listened to a speech by/ of/ from the headmaster.
“To” occurs with the verb to know:
10) You are known to him.
The agent in a passive construction denotes the doer of the action and it is usually expressed by means of a by-phrase. Although in the past there were several prepositions that were used in passive constructions, in present-day grammar the only one used is “by”.
III.8. When is the passive voice used
In the active voice, the doers (people/ things) are important. But in the passive voice, more attention is on the people/ things who receive the action, so these appear at the start of the sentence. We most often use the passive voice for one of three reasons:
When the agent isn’t known. For example: Our house was broken into (by someone).
When the agent is unimportant. For example: The hospital was closed (by the health inspector).
When the agent is obvious. For example: The robber will be arrested. (by the police).
Scientific newspapers often use the passive voice, as well as news broadcasts. A lot of business writing which stresses a product of achievement instead of the people uses the passive voice, too.
e.g.: A lot of trees are chopped down every year.
e.g.: The fact that trees are chopped is more important than the people who do this.
Some active sentences don’t have an object, mostly when there is an intransitive verb, so it is sometimes impossible to make a passive sentence. (An intransitive verb shows a completed action, so it doesn’t have an object. Some intransitive verbs are: appear, become, happen, lie, look, sit and sleep. It’s usually quite easy to spot the passive voice because it uses a “be” verb (am, is, are, was, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been and being) and a past participle. Don’t overuse the passive voice because it makes sentences sound boring. In English, the active voice is always more engaging and interesting for the listener or reader.
When do we use passive sentences?
Interest in the action: we often choose passive structures when we want to talk about an action, but we are not so interested in saying who or what does/ did it. Passives without “agents” are common in academic and scientific writing for this reason.
e.g.: Elephants are killed for ivory.
e.g.: Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
e.g.: George Washington was elected president.
Putting the news at the end: we often prefer to begin a sentence with something that is already known, or that we are already talking about, and put the “news” at the end. This is another common reason for choosing passive structures. Compare:
e.g.: An elderly aunt gave Paul the paintings. (active verb so that the “news” – the paintings – can go at the end).
e.g.: Nice paintings. – Yes, they were given to me by an elderly aunt. (passive verb so that the “news” – the paintings – can go at the end).
Keeping the same subject: in order to keep talking about the same person or thing, it may be necessary to switch from active to passive and back.
e.g.: The children waited for an hour; then they were given the medals; then they were sent back to their seats. they sat there for another hour – by this time they were getting bored. Then they were taken to their school. (More natural than: waited for an hour; then the manager gave them…)
Putting heavier expressions at the end: longer and heavier expressions often go at the end of a clause, and this can also be a reason for choosing a passive structure.
e.g.: I got angry with Paul trying to interfere in everything I was doing.
(More natural than: Paul trying to interfere in everything I was doing got me angry. – the phrase “Paul… to interfere” would make a very long subject).
Meaning and grammar: meaning and grammar do not always go together. Not all active verbs have “active” meanings; for instance, if you say that somebody receives something or suffers, you are really saying that something is done to him/ her. Some English active verbs might be translated by passive or reflexive verbs in certain other languages:
e.g.: We are thinking.
e.g.: All of a sudden the window closed.
And some English passives might be translated by active or reflexive verbs:
e.g.: She was born in 1977. Spanish is spoken in Spain.
Some verbs can be used in both active and passive forms with similar meanings: for example to worry/ to be worried, to drown/ to be drowned. Sometimes active and passive infinitives can be used with very similar meanings. For example: There’s nothing to worry about/ to be worried about.
CHAPTER FOUR: TEACHING GRAMMAR
IV.1. The importance of teaching grammar
IV.1.1. What is grammar?
Harmer defines the grammar of a language as ‘the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language.’
Teaching grammar is one important part of teaching a foreign language, as well as teaching vocabulary. Grammar is extremely useful in teaching our students reading, writing, listening or speaking, and as all these skills have to be achieved, grammar can be taught and learned through both receptive and productive skills.
It is well known that students aren’t pleased to learn grammar structures because they find it difficult and sometimes boring but here comes the teacher’s role. Teachers’ job is to make classes enjoyable, interesting and fun for students to actively participate in the learning process. Reading and listening activities are pleasant and challenging because they involve knowing words, but knowing a word means more than just knowing its meaning, since meaning includes sense relations and context, for example. ‘To know a word we also need to know about its use, how it is formed and what grammatical behaviour it provokes or coexists with.’ ( Harmer, 2001) Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach well. Many people, including language teachers, hear the word "grammar" and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. They associate "good" grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in writing and in formal oral presentations, and "bad" or "no" grammar with the language used in everyday conversation or used by speakers of nonprestige forms. Language teachers who adopt this definition focus on grammar as a set of forms and rules. They teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on them. This results in bored, disaffected students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but consistently make errors when they try to use the language in context. Other language teachers, influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between language learning and language acquisition, tend not to teach grammar at all. Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar instruction, they expect students to learn their second language the same way. They assume that students will absorb grammar rules as they hear, read, and use the language in communication activities. This approach does not allow students to use one of the major tools they have as learners: their active understanding of what grammar is and how it works in the language they already know. Language teachers and language learners are often frustrated by the disconnection between knowing the rules of grammar and being able to apply those rules automatically in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
When we say grammar we mean “the rules by which words change their form and are combined into sentences” or “a book which teaches these rules” (Longman dictionary definition) but when we speak about learning a language these definitions are not enough. Since a knowledge of grammar is essential for competent users of a language, it is clearly necessary for our students. It is certainly possible to teach aspects of grammar – indeed that is what language teachers have been doing for centuries – but language is a difficult business and it is often used very inventively by its speakers. In other words real language use is often very untidy and cannot be automatically reduced to simple grammar patterns. Students need to be aware of this, just as they need to be aware of all language possibilities. It means that they have to be aware of language and how it is used.
As teachers we should be prepared to use a variety of techniques to help our students learn and acquire grammar. Sometimes this involves teaching grammar rules, sometimes it means allowing students to discover the rules for themselves.
IV.1.2. Teaching grammar
One of the teacher’s job is to show how the new language is formed, how the grammar works and how it is put together. One way of doing this is to explain the grammar in detail, using grammatical terminology and giving a mini-lecture on the subject. This seems problematical, though, for two reasons; firstly many students may find grammatical concepts difficult, and secondly it will only be possible in a monolingual group at lower levels if the teacher conducts the explanation in the student’s mother tongue.
A more effective and less frightening way of presenting form is to let the students see and/ or hear the new language, drawing their attention in a number of different ways to the grammatical elements of which it is made.
Before we introduce any new language we should have analysed the form we are going to teach ( how the verb is formed, how certain nouns become plural, for example) and also the grammatical pattern we are going to teach in it. At the most basic level, we need grammar to show meaning. Through syntactic and morphological modifications we can give our utterances meaning. For example, ‘children read book’ can be modified syntactically (e.g. through word order) or morphologically (e.g. using past participle) to signify the doer, done to, time and aspect, number and classification, question and negative. We use grammar according to how we want to present the message, down to the subtlest of meanings, for example, the passive to take away the responsibility of the doer.
In the traditional model of ELT, grammar played a central role to the detriment of the other language components. The overriding importance attached to grammar was based on the assumption that accuracy (grammatical correctness) secured successful communication. The belief was challenged in the early 1970s with the realization that grammar knowledge was only one component of the communicative competence (alongside discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence). Consequently, grammar teaching was almost abandoned; it is only recently that grammar has regained its rightful place in an integrated approach to language teaching. The question still remains WHAT to teach (what grammar items) and HOW to teach grammar in an effective and efficient way.
The answer to the first question – WHAT to teach – (selection of grammar structures to be taught) points out to compliance with two criteria:
i. Comprehensibility – teachers should teach the functional load of grammar, i.e. structures which enable meaning understanding in a communicative situation: basic verb forms; affirmative, interrogative and negative patterns, tenses and modals, etc.
ii. Acceptability – it is equated to an adequate level of correctness and naturalness of the linguistic output.
With reference to HOW to teach grammar, there are two lines of approach:
i. form-focused instruction (highly valued in the traditional model) – learners’ needs are pre-defined in the grammatical syllabus. Admittedly, grammar teaching reflects the typical classroom use of language, out of context in a rather non-authentic way; focuses on well-formed sentences (which are not lengthy), on language output as evidence of language learning; relies heavily on explicit knowledge and on controlled practice.
ii. “fluency-first” pedagogy/ meaning-focused interaction (contemporary approach) – learners’ needs are assessed based on their performance during fluency activities. It underlies the natural use of language in real-like communication settings; relies on implicit knowledge and on automaticity (internalization of rules); activates learners’ strategic competence (situation management by paraphrasing, reorganization, remedial work), etc.
The typology of grammar activities falls into three broad types:
i. controlled/mechanical practice (for example, repetition and substitution drills).
ii. semi-controlled/contextualized/ meaningful practice: students are encouraged to relate form to meaning by showing how the grammar structures are used in real-life communication. For example, in order to practice the use of prepositions to describe locations of places, students are given a street map with various buildings identified in different locations. They are also given a list of prepositions such as across from, on the corner of, near, on, next to. They then have to answer questions such as “Where is the book shop? Where is the café?, etc. The practice is now meaningful because they have to respond according to the location of places on the map.
iii. free/communicative practice (learners use the structures in authentic communication while paying attention to this rule-governed behaviour). For example, students are asked to draw a map of their neighbourhood and answer questions about the location of different places, such as the nearest bus stop, the nearest café, etc.
Globally, grammar activities display the following features:
i. specific grammar structures are in focus and learners are provided with explicit information a
ii. learners are asked to use the structures in sentences of their own;
iii. learners have the opportunity to use the structures repeatedly during the English classes (there is need for reinforcement and for building up on prior knowledge);
iv. learners are expected to understand the rule (via consciousness-raising) use of the
grammatical structures in a successful way;
v. there is feedback on the learners’ performance (they get a sense of their performance);
IV.1.3. Control factors in teaching grammar
i. constant exposure to language at an appropriate level of difficulty (roughly-tuned input – the input is slightly above the learners’ level of proficiency).
ii. building of meaning-focused interaction.
iii. opportunities for learners to identify and direct attention to grammar structure form, semantics or meaning and pragmatic conditions of their use before and while actually using the language. For example, phrasal verbs: a) form of phrasal verbs: they are two-part verbs comprising a verb and a particle (e.g. to look up) or a verb, a particle and a preposition (e.g. to keep up with). Phrasal verbs are transitive or intransitive. A distinctive feature of phrasal verbs is that in many cases the particle can be separated from the verb by an object (e.g. He looked the word up in the dictionary); b) meaning of phrasal verbs: many of them are multiple meaning structures – e.g. to put up: literal meaning and figurative meaning – to stay at a hotel, etc; c) pragmatic use of phrasal verbs: they mostly characterize the informal style
To sum up, communication cannot take place in the absence of structure, or grammar, a set of shared assumptions about how language works, along with a willingness of participants to cooperate in the negotiation of meaning. Hence, the goal of grammar teaching is to enable learners to internalize rules so as to become efficient in communication. Furthermore, communicative fluency does not imply loss of grammatical accuracy, instead they are interrelated.
IV.1.4. Learning different types of grammar
Language has patterns and regularities which are used to convey meaning, some of which make up its grammar. Knowledge of grammar is thought by many to be the central area of the language system. In some ways grammar is easy to study in L2 learners, because it is highly systematic. For these reasons much of L2 learning research of the 1980s concentrated on grammar. The term ‘grammar’ refers to a systematic analysis of the structure of a language, a set of rules and examples dealing with the syntax and morphology of a standard language, usually intended as an aid to the learning and teaching of that language.
Prescriptive grammar attempts to establish rules for the correct use of language in society. A prescriptive grammar is an account of a language that sets out rules (prescriptions) for how it should be used and for what should not be used (proscriptions) based on norms derived from a particular model of grammar. For English, such a grammar may prescribe I as in It is I (I should be used after the verb be), and proscribe me as in It’s me.
It may proscribe like used as a conjunction, as in He behaved like he was in charge, prescribing instead He behaved as if he were in charge; or ‘Whom should be used as the relative pronoun in objective function’, e.g. The man whom I saw, and so on.
Prescriptive grammars have been criticized for not taking account of language change and stylistic variation, and for imposing the norms of some groups on all users of a language.
Descriptive grammar provides a precise account of actual usage, a description of linguistic structures, usually based on utterances elicited from native-speaking informants. In a descriptive grammar the author attempts to build a model of language which represents his theory of language, i.e. he seeks to provide other linguists with a specification of his insights into the nature of language. Such a model must satisfy, or at least attempt to satisfy, three criteria of adequacy: observational, descriptive and explanatory (as outlined by Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, 1965). It must, in simple terms, a) provide an analysis which is minimally consistent with observed primary data; b) correspond in its analysis to the innate knowledge of the ideal speaker-hearer; and c) provide a means of selecting between rival models and theories so as to choose the one which best explains the phenomenon of human language.
Traditional grammar books have often, however, combined description and prescription. A traditional grammar concerns the parts of speech, e.g. “a noun is the name of a person, place or thing”. Analysing sentences means labelling the parts with their names and giving rules that explain verbally how they may be combined. While many grammarians today do not reject this type of grammar outright, they again feel it is unscientific. While the concept of ‘the parts of speech’ is indeed part of grammar, there are many other powerful concepts that also need to be taken into account.
Since the late 1950s, it has become common in linguistics to contrast descriptive grammars with generative grammars. Generative grammar, introduced by N. Chomsky, concentrated on providing an explicit account of an ideal native speaker’s knowledge of language (competence) rather than a description of samples (performance). Chomsky argued that generative grammars are more valuable, since they capture the creative aspect of human linguistic ability. Most linguists generally regard both approaches as complementary.
Structural grammar: Language teaching has also made use of structural grammar based on the concept of phrase structure, which shows how some words go together into the sentence and some do not. In a sentence such as “The man fed the dog”, the word “the” goes with “man”: if we put “the” with “man”, we get one structure “(the man)”, if we put “the” with “dog”, we get another structure “(the dog)”. “Fed” belongs with “(the dog)” to get a new structure “(fed the dog)”. Now the two structures “(the man)” and “(fed the dog)” go together to assemble the whole sentence.
A typical way of representing this phrase structure is through tree diagrams that show how the words build up into phrases and the phrases build up into the whole sentence, such as:
the man fed the dog
Teachers have been using this directly in substitution tables:
Example:
Students form sentences by choosing a word from each column: “I …can… draw… a… white… rose”. They are substituting words within a constant grammatical structure. Such exercises have long been a staple of language teaching in one guise or another. Structure drills and pattern practice are based on the same idea.
Unlike a descriptive grammar, a pedagogical grammar, seeks to present an existing model in a form which provides the teacher or syllabus designer with access to the theoretical insights of the descriptive grammar in order to form the basis of language teaching syllabuses and materials. The three criteria for adequacy which apply to the descriptive grammar are not ignored by the writer of the pedagogical grammar – they are of interest to him as criteria for selecting which descriptive grammar he will present – but are, so to speak, subordinated to the need to express the findings of the linguistic theory in a practical way. In addition, the descriptive grammar must be consistent in its choice of theory – one model–one theory – but a pedagogical grammar can be eclectic and draw on more than one theory.
A clear example of a non-eclectic pedagogical grammar would be Owen Thomas (Transformational Grammar and the Teacher of English, 1965) which is based exclusively on Transformational-Generative Grammar, while R. Quirk and S. Greenbaum (A University Grammar of English, 1977) can be taken as representative of an eclectic model drawing on both systemic grammar and TG.
Grammatical (linguistic) competence: There is another meaning of “grammar”, namely the knowledge of language that the speaker possesses in the mind, known as linguistic or grammatical competence. All speakers know the grammar of their language in this sense without benefit of study. A native speaker knows the system of the language, even if s/he may not be able to verbalise this knowledge clearly: it is ‘implicit’ knowledge. Nevertheless a single sentence of English could not be produced without knowing English grammar in this sense. A man who spontaneously says “The man fed the dog” shows that he knows the word order typical of English, in which the Subject “The man” comes before the Verb “fed”. He knows the ways of making irregular past tenses in English – “fed” rather than the regular “-ed” (“*feeded”); he knows that “dog” requires an article “the” or “a”; and he knows that “the” is used to talk about a dog that the listener already knows about. This is a very different type of knowledge from the ability to describe the sentence he has produced in terms of grammar, something only people who have been taught explicit ‘grammar’ can do.
As well as grammatical competence, native speakers also possess knowledge of how language is used. This is often called communicative competence (i.e., the speaker’s ability to put language to communicative use): it is not just knowledge of the language that is important, it is how to use it appropriately for the activities in which speakers want to take part – complaining, arguing, persuading, and so on. Hence the more general term pragmatic competence reflects all the possible uses of language rather than restricting them to communication. Therefore, pragmatic competence refers to the speaker’s ability to use language for a range of public and private functions, including communication (N. Chomsky, Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use: 1986).
IV.1.5. Grammatical morphemes
Language teaching has often distinguished ‘content’ words from ‘structure’ words.
Content words (alternative terms ‘lexical’ or ‘full’ words) are words which have definable lexical meaning (e.g. book, boy, red, run); that is, they have the kind of meaning that can refer to definable things, concepts and can be looked up in a dictionary. Content words represent an open class: they allow the unlimited addition of new items.
Structure words consist of articles, pronouns, prepositions or conjunctions (e.g. words like the, to). They represent closed-system or closed class items: their membership is fixed or limited (they are limited in number). A computer programme for teaching English needs about 220 structure words. It is easier to look up structure words in a grammar book than in a dictionary. The meaning of structure words such as “the” or “to” depends on the grammatical rules of the language, not on dictionary definitions. It is virtually impossible to invent a new structure word because it means changing the rules of the language rather than adding an item to the stock of words of the language.
The smallest unit of grammar is the ‘morpheme’: the morpheme consists either of a word (“boy”) or part of a word (“’s” in “the boy’s”). Morphemes are studied in a branch of grammar called ‘morphology’. Some words consist of a single morpheme – “to” or “book” or “great”. Some can have morphemes added to show their grammatical role in the sentence, say “books” or “greater”.
In the first language young children use content words more easily than grammatical morphemes. Children commonly produce sentences such as “Mummy go shop”, meaning something like “Mummy is going to the shops”, where the adult sentence includes the ‘missing’ grammatical morphemes: “is”, “-ing”, “to”, “the”, and “-s”. It is as if the children know the structure for the sentence and the content words, but either do not know the grammatical morphemes or are incapable of using them.
In the early 1970s it was discovered that English children learn these grammatical morphemes in a definite sequence of acquisition (R. Brown, A First Language: The Early Stages, 1973). Two researchers (H. Dulay and M. Burt, Should we teach children syntax, 1973) decided to see what this meant for L2 learning. They made Spanish-speaking children learning English describe pictures and checked how often the children supplied eight grammatical morphemes in the appropriate places in the sentence. Suppose that at a rudimentary level L2 learners say “Girl go”. How do they progress from this? The order of difficulty for the L2 learners is the following sequence from (i) to (viii):
(i) plural “-s”: the easiest morpheme for the learners was the plural “-s”, getting “Girls go”.
(ii) progressive “-ing”: next easiest for the learners was the word ending “-ing” in present tense forms like “going”.
(iii) copula forms of “be”: next came the use of be as a copula, i.e. as a main verb in the sentence (“John is happy”) rather than as an auxiliary used with another verb (“John is going”). Changing the sentence slightly gets “Girls are here”.
(iv) auxiliary form of “be”: after this came the auxiliary form of “be” with “-ing”, yielding: “Girls are going”.
(v) definite and indefinite articles “the” and “a”: next in difficulty came the definite and indefinite articles “the” and “a”, enabling the learners to produce “The girls go” or “A girl go”.
(vi) irregular past tense: ”: the next morphemes were the irregular English past tenses, (those that do not have a form of “d” ending pronounced in the usual three ways /d/, /t/, or /id/) such as “came” and “went”, as in “The girls went”.
(vii) third person “-s”: the next in order of difficulty was the third person “-s” used with verbs, as in: “The girl goes”.
(viii) possessive “-s”: Most difficult was the ending used with nouns to show possession, as in “The girl’s book”.
L2 learners have least difficulty with plural “-s”, most difficulty with possessive “-s”. It was not just Spanish-speaking children had a sequence of difficulty for the eight grammatical morphemes. Similar orders have been found for Japanese or Korean children; the first language does not seem to make a crucial difference: all L2 learners have much the same order. Nor does it matter if the learners are children or adults: adults have roughly the same order as children.
IV.1.6. Learning grammar and L2 teaching
Teachers are often surprised by what grammar means in L2 learning research and how much importance is given to it.
Above all, grammar is competence in the mind rather than rules in a book; one crucial end-product of teaching is that students should be able to ‘know’ language in an unconscious sense, so that they can put it to good use. Teaching has to pay attention to the internal processes and knowledge the students are building up in their minds.
Grammar is also relevant to the sequence in which elements of language are taught. Of necessity language teaching has to present the various aspects of language in order rather than introducing them all simultaneously. The conventional solution used to be a sequence of increasing grammatical complexity, teaching the present simple first, and the past perfect continuous last, because the former is much ‘simpler’ than the latter.
When language use became more important to teaching, the choice of a teaching sequence was no longer straightforward since it was aspects of communication that now had to be sequenced. For example, the textbook Opening Strategies (Abbs & Freebairn, 1982) uses an order based on language functions: Lesson 1 “Ask for and say numbers”, Lesson 2 “Ask about people’s nationality”, Lesson 4 “Say what you want”, Lesson 11 “Give permission”, and so on. Any function-based order runs into problems in arriving at a logical sequence: is ‘requesting’ simpler or more complex than ‘complaining’? Hence grammar began to creep back in to textbooks because it was easier to arrange in order. Opening Strategies in addition to its functional order, has a grammatical order, starting with the present simple tense of “be”, going on to the present tense of full verbs, then past simple of “be”, followed by present continuous, and so on.
L2 learning research has often claimed that there are definite orders of difficulty for learning language, such as the order for grammatical morphemes.
An application to teaching is proposed by M. Pienemann and M. Johnston (Factors influencing the development of language proficiency, 1987) who suggest there are two types of acquisition sequence: developmental and variational.
(i) A developmental sequence is caused by the learner’s problems with processing language, particularly with sorting out strings of words into sentences. According to
Pienemann and Johnston, developmental sequence is a consistent order in which learners acquire the L2, based on difficulty of language processing.
The early sequence for English has five stages:
a. the learner produces single words or formulas: “I don’t know”
b. the learner then produces strings of elements, that is to say ‘simple sequences of words’
c. the learner can identify different types of element in the string, and produces questions in
which the verb is moved to the beginning such as “Can you tell me?”
d. the learner can identify and move elements in the string, as in questions with wh-words:
“What are you studying?”
e. the learner next acquires the ability to break a string into smaller strings and recombine
them in different ways, shown by complex sentences such as “He asked me to go”
(ii) A variational sequence incorporates factors which differ from one situation to another. One example is the omission of items from the sentence as in “I go station”. The converse example is the oversupply of items such as the frequent use of the present continuous “I am living in London” when “I live in London” is intended.
This separation between two types of sequence is important for language teaching as the implications of the two types can be rather different:
– With developmental sequences the teacher has to fall in with the sequence in some way; Pienemann in ‘Psychological constraints on the teachability of language’, 1986 puts this as the Teachability Hypothesis: ‘the course of second language development cannot be altered by factors external to the learner’.
– variational sequences are much more under the learner’s control and so can be changed by the teacher. The application of sequences to teaching depends upon what kind of sequence we are looking at, whether the developmental and variational sequences, orders of difficulty or of acquisition, or others.
Fuller discussion of the implications of L2 order of learning or difficulty depends on the rest of teaching. It must balance grammar against language functions, vocabulary, classroom interaction, etc. Teachers do not necessarily have to choose between these alternatives once and for all. A different decision may have to be made for each area of grammar or language and each stage of acquisition.
IV.1.7. Making grammar conscious
The question of whether grammar should be explained to the students has been frequently raised: the use of explicit explanation implies that L2 learning can be quite different from L1 learning. The fact that children learn their first language without resort to conscious understanding does not mean that adults cannot learn a second language in this way. Justifying conscious understanding in L2 learning involves separating L2 learning from L1 learning with respect to whether the learners get explanations. The belief that L2 learning can potentially make use of explicit explanation underlies distinctions such as those made by St. Krashen (Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, 1981) between ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’ (the latter being conscious and available only to older learners).
Mostly grammatical explanation has relied on the assumption that rules that are learnt consciously can be converted into processes that are known unconsciously. Thus, according to Vivian Cook (Second Language Learning and Language Teaching, 1994: 28), the French subjunctive was explained to students at school not just to give them academic knowledge of the facts of French, but to help them to write French. After a period of absorption, this conscious rule would become part of their unconscious ability to use the language.
William Rutherford (Second Language Grammar: Learning and Teaching, 1987) and others have been advocating ‘consciousness raising’ in teaching – the drawing of the learner’s attention to features of the target language.
Stephen Krashen (1981), however, has persistently denied that consciously acquired rules change into normal speech processes in the same way as grammar acquired unconsciously.
More indirect uses for grammar have also been put forward in recent years. One suggestion by Eric Hawkins (Awareness of Language, 1984) is for language awareness: the learners’ general awareness of language should be raised as a preliminary to L2 teaching, partly through grammar. If the students know the kind of thing to expect, they are more receptive to it. Hawkins suggests ‘an exploratory approach’ where the pupils investigate grammar by, for example, deciding where to insert an adjective such as “see-through (i.e. transparent)” in the sentence “She put on her cosy, old, blue, nylon blouse”. Pupils invent their own labels for grammar, rather than being taught a pre-established system. As Hawkins puts it, ‘grammar approached as a voyage of discovery into the patterns of the language rather than the learning of prescriptive rules, is no longer a bogey word’. It is not the teaching of particular points of grammar that matters but the overall increase in the pupil’s language sensitivity.
The textbook Learning to Learn English (R. Ellis & J. Sinclair, 1989) provides some exercises to make EFL learners more conscious of their own predilections, for instance suggesting ways for the students to discover grammatical rules themselves. Another researcher, Philip Riley (Discourse and Learning, 1985) has suggested ‘sensitization’ of the students by using features of the L1 to help them understand the L2. Increasing awareness of language may have many educational advantages and indeed help L2 learning in a broad sense.
IV.1.8. Teaching techniques
IV.1.8.1. General principles: Methodologists emphasize the fact that although it is important to develop the students’ understanding of the grammatical facts of the language we are teaching, it is not these facts that we wish our students to learn. We are not interested in filling our students with grammatical paradigms and syntactic rules. What we do hope to do is to cultivate linguistic performance in our students which is consistent with the facts. In other words, grammar teaching is not so much knowledge transmission as it is skill development.
By recognising this, we can take advantage of several insights from second/foreign language acquisition research concerning how students naturally develop their ability to interpret and produce grammatical utterances. Some insights are related to our topic:
i. Learners do not learn structures one at a time. It is not the case that a learner masters the definite article, and when that is mastered, moves on to the simple past. From their first encounter with the definite article, learners might master one of its pragmatic functions – e.g. to signal the uniqueness of the following noun phrase. But even if they are able to do this pragmatically appropriately, it is not likely that learners will always produce the definite article when needed, because learners typically take a long time before they are able to do this consistently. Thus, learning is a gradual process involving the mapping of form, meaning, and pragmatics; structures do not emerge in learners’ interlanguage fully developed and error-free. Recycling various aspects of structures over time seems a much more reasonable alternative.
ii. Even when learners appear to have mastered a particular structure, it is not uncommon to find backsliding occurring with the introduction of new forms to the learners’ interlanguage. For example, the learner who has finally mastered the third person singular marker on present tense verbs is likely to over generalise the rule and apply it to newly emerging modal verbs. Thus, teachers should not despair at similar regressive behaviour on the part of their students. Well formed structures are usually restored once the new additions have been incorporated and the system reanalysed.
IV.1.8.2. Inductive versus deductive presentation. An additional choice teachers face is whether to work inductively or deductively during the presentation phase.
An inductive activity is one in which the students infer the rule or generalisation from a set of examples. For instance, students might infer the subject-auxiliary inversion rule in forming yes-no questions, after having been exposed to a number of such questions.
In a deductive activity, on the other hand, the students are given the rule and they apply it to examples.
If one has chosen an inductive approach in a given lesson, a further option exists – whether or not to have students explicitly state the rule. Some specialists consider that the use of explicit rules is irrelevant, because, in their opinion, one certainly can teach grammar without stating any explicit rules. They further argue that what we are trying to bring about in the learner is linguistic behaviour that conforms to the rules, not knowledge of the rules themselves. On the other hand, there are other specialists who consider that there is no reason to avoid giving explicit rules, except perhaps if one is working with young children. Usually students request rules and report that they find the rules helpful. Moreover, stating a rule explicitly can often bring about linguistic insights in a more efficacious manner, as long as the rule is not oversimplified or so metalinguistically abstruse that students must struggle harder to understand the rule than to apply it implicitly.
Returning now to the inductive versus deductive question, we find that the choice is not one resolvable with an either/or approach. There are many times when an inductive approach in presenting a grammar point is desirable because by using such an approach one is nurturing within the students a learning process through which they can arrive at their own generalisations. Other times, when one’s students have a particular cognitive style that is not well suited for language analysis or when a particular linguistic rule is rather convoluted, it may make more sense to present a grammar structure deductively.
Indeed, one takes comfort from P. Corder’s sensible observations: “What little we know about the psychological process of second language learning, either from theory or from practical experience, suggests that a combination of induction and deduction produces the best result. Learning is seen as fundamentally an inductive process but one which can be controlled and facilitated by descriptions and explanations given at the appropriate moment and formulated in a way which is appropriate to the maturity, knowledge, and sophistication of the learner. In a sense, teaching is a matter of providing the learner with the right data at the right time and teaching him how to learn, that is, developing in him appropriate learning strategies and means of testing his hypotheses. The old controversy about whether one should provide the rule first and then the examples, or vice versa, is now seen to be merely a matter of tactics to which no categorical answer can be given”. (Corder, Error Analysis and Interlanguage, 1981: 133).
IV.1.8.3. Grammar lessons are usually composed of three phases: presentation, practice and communication (although all three may not be conducted within one class period). Rather than illustrating a single lesson plan from start to finish, it seemed more beneficial to concentrate on characterising and exemplifying activities that could be used during the practice phase. It used to be that the practice phase of a lesson was devoted almost exclusively to grammar drills. Ever since the ineffectiveness of using drills (which do not engage students’ attention) was acknowledged, there has been little by way of guidance offered on what to do during the practice phase of a lesson.
Form: Once a particular grammar structure has been analysed, a challenging teaching point for the particular class of students should be chosen. The learning process associated with the teaching point should also be identified. The nature of the learning process and of the learning challenge gives important clues as to activity characteristics.
For example, when dealing with the formal dimension of grammar, it would appear that the major learning processes involved would be stimulus-response learning for phonemic patterns and verbal chaining or principle learning for morphemes or syntactic patterns. Stimulus-response learning would be the type of learning required for learning to pronounce an unfamiliar word. Chaining and principle learning seem the applicable learning processes for morphology and syntax since what we are attempting to have our students learn is to comprehend and produce either verbal chains between morphemes/words or rule-pattern governed syntactic patterns. Identifying the type of learning involved helps us to think about the desirable characteristics of any practice activity. Students would have to be restricted to using just the particular target form; in other words, structural diversity would not be permitted.
Let us take an example and see how these characteristics are applied. If we were to teach yes-no question formation, we might determine the immediate challenge to be linguistic form, based on our analysis of the three dimensions.
The first step in the lesson is the presentation of the linguistic rule. We have several options regarding the presentation phase: the rule could be presented inductively or deductively. Also, the rule could be made explicit or not.
We next will need to select an activity that encourages meaningful repetition of the pattern, no verbatim repetition. We want the students to concentrate on producing only yes-no questions. A game like Twenty questions would appear to meet the criteria: students get to ask 20 yes-no questions about an object or person in an attempt to guess the identity; hence, they receive abundant practice in forming questions, and the questions they produce are meaningful. The game can be repeated as long as the students remain interested.
Questions can also be used to elicit other structures. For example, a variation on the same game might be to have students guess “Whose_____________ is it?” Their responses (e.g., It’s Maria’s, It’s Nike’s, It’s Grace’s) would provide an opportunity to practise the 3 allomorphs of the possessive. Then, too, the responses to the guesses would offer a good deal of practice with short forms (e.g., No, it isn’t/Yes, it is).
Another example of a game which appears to meet the above criteria is the Telephone game, which can be used to practise the forms of reported speech. One student would whisper something to another student (e.g. “I’m happy it’s Friday”). The second student would whisper to a third student what s/he has heard from the first student (Tom said that he was happy it was Friday).
In sum, certain games are good devices for practising grammar points where the identified challenge resides in the formal dimension.
Meaning: If the teacher has decided that the challenge of a particular structure lies in the semantic dimension for the class, then a different sort of practice activity should be needed. It would seem that verbal association, multiple discrimination, and concept learning would all come into play when working on the meaning of a particular grammar structure. The major procedures would be for the student to learn to bond the form to its meaning and also to distinguish the meaning of one particular form from another.
Sometimes a single pairing of form and meaning suffices for a student to make the bond. Due to memory constraints, it seems prudent to restrict the number of new items being practiced at any one time to between 2 and 6.
Sequencing: Grammar structures are not acquired one at a time through a process of “agglutination” (W. Rutherford, 1987). Rather, different aspects of form, meaning and pragmatics of a given structure may be acquired at different stages of interlanguage development.
Many teachers have little control over where they start a grammar sequence. They must adhere to a prescribed syllabus or textbook. But for those who have a choice, there are a few clear-cut answers. The usual advice is to begin with the simple structure and work up to the more complex.
Presenting a structure: Now we can briefly illustrate options for presenting a structure during the initial phase of a lesson. A necessary ingredient for this phase is having some language sample/examples that illustrate the teaching point.
In the audiolingual method, grammar points are introduced via a dialogue which students listen to, and subsequently memorize. While dialogues are useful for introducing points of grammar, there are a variety of other formats that can be used: songs and poems; authentic texts (e.g. newspaper articles); segments of taped radio/television broadcasts
Moreover, the person who selects these samples can be varied, too. For example, if the grammar point has to do with the distinction between mass and count nouns:
– the teacher could bring in an advertising circular from a local supermarket. Or
– the students might be invited to bring in their favourite recipes. Or
– the teacher and students might generate a language sample together which contained count and mass nouns (e.g. “I went to the supermarket” game).
When practising an inductive approach, students would be presented with the language sample, let’s say the advertising circular. They then would be encouraged to make their own observations about the form of mass. Now we can briefly illustrate options for presenting a structure during the initial phase of a lesson. A necessary ingredient for this phase is having some language sample/examples that illustrate the teaching point.
If practising a deductive approach, the teacher would present the generalisation and then ask students to apply it to the language sample. This approach would be suitable for our example of teacher-students generated language since students might be aided in playing the game by having knowledge of the mass/count distinction.
One advantage of using an inductive approach during the presentation phase is that it allows teachers to assess what the students already know about a particular structure and to make any necessary modifications in their lesson plan.
IV.1.8.4. Context. Our job is to present the students with clear information about the language they are learning. We must show them what the language means and how it is used; we must show them the grammatical form of the new language is, and how it is said and/or written.
What we are suggesting here is that students need to get an idea of how the new language is used by native speakers and the best way of doing this is to present language in context. The context for introducing new language should have a number of characteristics:
– It should show what the new language means and how it is used. That is why many useful contexts have the new language being used in a written text or a dialogue.
– a good context should be interesting for the students. This doesn’t mean that all the subject matter we use for presentation should be wildly funny or inventive all the time. But the students should at least want to see or hear the information
– a good context should provide the background for a lot of language use so that students can use the information not only for the repetition of model sentences but also for making their own sentences.
Often the textbook will have all the characteristics mentioned here and the teacher can confidently rely on the material for the presentation. But the textbook is not always so appropriate: for a number of reasons the information in the textbook may not be right for our students. In such cases we will want to create our own contexts for language use.
Context means the situation or body of information that causes language to be used. There are a number of different context types, but for our purposes we will concentrate on three: the students’ world, the outside world and formulated information.
The students’ world can be a major source of contexts for language presentation. There are two kinds of students’ world. Clearly we can use the physical surroundings that the students are in – the classroom, school or institution. But classrooms and their physical properties (desks, tables, blackboards, chairs, etc.) are limited. The students’ lives are not constrained in the same way, however, and we can use facts about them, their families, friends and experiences.
The outside world provides us with rich contexts for language presentation. For example, there is an almost infinite number of stories we can use to present different tenses. We can also create situations where people speak because they are in those situations. This is especially useful for the practice of functional language, for example. These categories – story or situation – can be simulated or real. Most teachers are familiar with ‘made up’ stories that are often useful for class-work.
Formulated information refers to all that information which is presented in the form of timetables, notes, charts, etc.
The context we choose will depend on the type of language being introduced.
One of the teacher’s jobs is to show how the new language is formed – how the grammar works and how it is put together. One way of doing this is to explain the grammar in detail, using grammatical terminology and giving a mini-lecture on the subject. This seems problematic, though, because many students may find grammatical concepts difficult. A more effective way of presenting form is to let students see and/or hear the new language, drawing their attention in a number of different ways to the grammatical elements of which it is made. For, whilst advanced students may profit from grammatical explanations to a certain extent, at lower levels we must usually find simpler and more transparent ways of giving students grammatical information.
It is undoubtedly important for the students to understand the meaning of the new language they are learning. This is conveyed during the lead-in stage where key concepts clearly demonstrate what is going on. We also need to know whether the students have understood the new language so that we can organise our teaching accordingly. Not only is the lead-in stage vital, but it will also be necessary for the teacher to check frequently that the students have understood.
IV.1.8.5. Checking meaning:
It is undoubtedly important for the students to understand the meaning of the new language they are learning. This is conveyed during the lead-in stage where key concepts clearly demonstrate what is going on. We also need to know whether the students have understood the new language so that we can organise our teaching accordingly.
Checking meaning can be done in three ways: information checking, immediate creativity and translation.
Information checking. The teacher will often need to find out if students have understood the information in the lead-in, or whether students understand what a model means.
Immediate creativity and different settings: The immediate creativity stage is a good indicator of whether or not students have understood the meaning and use of the new language. We may ask students to produce sentences of their own in order to check that they have understood the new language or to ask the students something using the new language which is nit part of the context that is being used for the presentation.
Translation: Where the teacher is teaching a monolingual class, translation is obviously an excellent technique if the teacher is fluent in the students’ language. The main advantages of translation are that it is quick and efficient. There are, however, two disadvantages to the use of translation: it is not always possible to translate exactly and it is not really possible with groups of different nationalities.
IV.1.8.6. Discovery techniques:
In our model for introducing new language, we saw how the teacher creates a context (or uses one from some materials) and elicits language which is then given as models for the students to repeat. The whole procedure is basically teacher-led since it is the teacher’s job to explain the language and conduct a cue-response drill before moving to immediate creativity and pair-work (where the students start to take over control a bit).
Discovery techniques, on the other hand, aim to give students a chance to take charge earlier. The idea is simple: give students a listening or reading text – or some examples of English sentences – and ask them to discover how the language works. We might give students a text which is a story, for example, and we could ask them to look at it again to see how many ways they could find in it for referring to the past tense. Or, they could listen to a tape and write down any sentences which had the conjunction ‘if’ in them. Then they could see if there was any pattern to those sentences.
What is being suggested is that there is a range of techniques where the teacher gets the students to do most of the work. There are good pedagogical and methodological reasons for this since the students will be more involved and since this kind of activity invites them to use their reasoning processes.
Of course, discovery techniques are not suitable for all students on all occasions. Frequently, this problem-solving approach takes more time than a more controlled presentation. It is also true that designing material for discovery activities – or finding a text that will suit this approach – is far easier at intermediate and advanced levels than it is when teaching beginners.
Despite some of these apparent drawbacks, the use of discovery activities is a welcome alternative to other types of presentation.
In this chapter we have been advocating a primarily oral approach in which the first thing students do with the language is to say it. At any stage, however, the teacher may ask the students to write the new language.
Often the teacher will use the writing as reinforcement for an oral presentation such as the type we have so far described. Thus either immediately before or after the immediate creativity stage the teacher asks students to write sentences using the new language. The sentences may be the original models the teacher used during the accurate reproduction stage, and the students might be asked to copy these sentences from the blackboard.
They might see the same sentences, but the teacher might leave out certain words (this is commonly called a fill-in exercise).
The students might be shown model sentences and then be asked to write similar sentences of their own. This is a written version of the immediate creativity stage.
The students might see a short piece of connected writing using the new language and then be asked to write a similar piece. This is often called parallel writing.
All of these techniques have their merits, although copying is often unchallenging and boring. The main object, though, is to relate the spoken and written forms of the new language and to enable the students to write the new pattern as well as say it.
IV.1.8.7. Correction of errors
During the accurate reproduction phase there are two basic correction stages: showing incorrectness (indicating to the student that something is wrong) and using correction techniques.
Showing incorrectness means that we will indicate to the students that a mistake has been made. If the student understands this feedback he or she will be able to correct the mistake and this self-correction will be helpful to him or her as part of the learning process.
There are a number of techniques for showing incorrectness:
Repeating: We only ask students to repeat what he or she has just said by using the word ‘again’.
Echoing: We will be even clearer if we repeat what the student has just said, using a questioning intonation since this will clearly indicate that we are doubting the accuracy or content of what is being said.
Denial: We can simply tell the student that the response was unsatisfactory and ask for it to be repeated.
Questioning: We can say ‘Is that correct?’ asking any student in the class to answer our question. This has the advantage of focusing everybody’s mind on the problem.
Expression: Many teachers indicate that a response was incorrect by their expression or by some gesture. This is very economical (and can be quite funny) but can be dangerous if the student thinks that the expression or gesture is a form of mockery.
In general, showing incorrectness should be handled with tact and consideration. The process of student self-correction which it provokes is an important and useful part of the learning process. Showing incorrectness should be seen as a positive act, in other words, not as a reprimand.
Using correction techniques: Frequently showing incorrectness is not enough for the correction of a mistake or an error and the teacher may therefore have to use some correction techniques:
Student corrects student: we can ask if anyone else can give the correct response. We can ask if anyone can ‘help’ the student who has made the mistake. If another student can supply the correct information it will be good for that student’s self-esteem. However, the student who originally made the mistake may feel humiliated if this technique is used insensitively.
Teacher corrects student(s): Sometimes we may feel that we should take charge of correction because the students are extremely mixed-up about what the correct response should be. In that case we can re-explain the item of language which is causing the trouble. This will be especially appropriate when we see that a majority of the class are having the same problem.
The object of using correction techniques, of course, is to give the student(s) a chance to (know how to) get the new language right. The stages of correction we have shown here are especially useful for accuracy work, where the main focus is grammatical correctness.
In his delineation of the function of a language teacher, P. Corder writes, “the function of the teacher is to provide data and examples and where necessary, to offer explanations and descriptions and, more important, verification of the learner’s hypotheses (i.e. corrections)” (1981: 134). Thus, Corder considers error correction a necessary element of pedagogical practice, and we would certainly concur. There are, however, those who would proscribe it, believing that error correction will inhibit students from freely expressing themselves. While there are clearly times that error correction can be intrusive and therefore unwarranted (e.g. during communicative phase activities), at other times focused error correction is highly desirable. It provides the negative evidence students often need to reject or modify their hypotheses about how the target language is formed or functions. Students understand this, which explains why they often deliberately seek error correction to assist them with their language learning task.
CHAPTER FIVE: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO
TEACHING THE PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH
V.1. Aspects of teaching the Passive Voice
All grammatical structures are important for the knowledge of a language. The passive voice is an important structure because it appears both in written and spoken English. In order to be able to write or speak in English, it is extremely important to know how to use this construction. The passive voice muddles up the clarity of speaker’s writing and speaking, the focus of the sentence being taken away from the subject and placed on the object. When teaching the passive structures in an ESL classroom, the teacher needs to make sure that the students understand all the parts of speech of the sentence so they are able to form the passive tenses correctly.
There are some problems the teacher should take into consideration when teaching the passive voice structures:
Whether the focus should be on using the language or on learning grammar;
Students need to learn the rules of grammar when they acquire English as they don’t earn them when they acquire their native language;
The grammar rules needn’t be reproduced for students to study English successfully;
How important it is for students to be aware of grammatical information about the language;
While there is a number of different techniques for presenting and practicing grammar, a good teacher has several possibilities how to teach grammar. According to Jeremy Harmer the grammatical information can be given to students in two major ways. The first one could be extremely covert and the second will be made extremely overt. Covert grammar teaching means that grammatical facts are hidden from the students, even though they are learning the language. Students may be asked to do any activity where a new grammar is presented or introduced, but their attention will be drawn to this activity not to the grammar. Overt grammar teaching means that the teacher actually provides the students grammatical rules and explanations, the information is openly presented. With overt teaching grammatical rules are explicitly given to students, but with covert teaching students are simply asked to work with new language to absorb grammatical information which will help them to acquire the language as a whole.
V.2. Methodological Experiment on Teaching the Passive Voice
In the experiment, I selected two classes, both from Nicolae Balcescu Gymnasium School, Dragasani, namely, the VIIIth A grade as for the Experimental Class, and the VIIIth D grade as for the Control Class.
Both classes consist of 32 students, all of them aged 14-15 years old. With the Control Class (VIIIthA) I used a traditional method of teaching the Passive Voice, namely the Grammar Translation Method, while with the Experimental Class (VIIIth D) I used the modern Communicative Approach.
I intend to demonstrate through using both these two teaching approaches that the communicative one is superior the traditional one, more exactly, the Communicative Approach is better than the Grammar Translation Method, using specific activities for each of the above mentioned methods.
The textbook chosen for their study in the VIIIth grade is High Flyer for both classes. The reasons that dictated this choice are the following:
The classes present an internal homogeneity;
High Flyer is a two-level course for the gymnasium classes, continuing to high-school; therefore they start it in the VIIth grade and continue it up to the VIIIth grade;
The course follows a solid grammar syllabus and includes developments of the four skills, while focusing on topics that reflect young people’s interests, it offers real language in a real world;
Each unit revises or presents two different grammar points in the context of a topic, through a reading or listening text, the rules of form and use of each point being then explicitly highlighted in a grammar box;
The grammar boxes are followed by controlled and then freer practice of the structure. This allows the rules to be internalized so that students can achieve linguistic competence;
The amount of time provided for the study of English (two classes a week) for both classes, creates the condition for the experiment to be conducted without impending on their study of the textbook;
The textbook used contains activities related to the passive voice as well as theoretical support which made it easier to devise a plan with measures that should bear not only on the proficient use of the passive structures by the students involved, but also on the effective study of the course syllabus;
Fortunately, the textbook has a support workbook with a grammar builder so that the students never go short of practice material.
V.2.1.Instruments and design
Pre-test: The Diagnosis test was used to test the subjects’ grammatical competence before the experiment. The test paper for the diagnosis test included different items with a full mark of 100 points.
Post-test: A final test was used to test the subjects’ grammatical competence after the experiment. The test paper for the final test also included different items with a full mark of 100 points.
V.2.2The stage
The main focus of this stage was to reactivate students’ knowledge in the field of the Passive Voice and enrich this knowledge by adding new uses (all passive tenses, the omission of the agent, the get-passive ). Logically, before projecting the activities and applying them in the classroom, some theoretical research was necessary. To this purpose, a wide range of activities were introduced at different moments.
V.2.3.The diagnosis test
The diagnosis test contained the following types of items:
Multiple choice item
Fill in item
Rephrase item
Building sentences item
Retroversion item
For many years, multiple choice items were considered to be ideal test instruments for measuring students’ knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. In this item, students had to choose the correct form and the correct verb form by looking at the whole sentence.
The fill-in item implies choosing the correct word from a list of verbs by understanding the context and the meaning of that verb form and to put it in the blank space in the sentence.
The rephrase item allows assessing the students’ ability to rephrase utterances, to express the same idea in a different way, using a given structure.
This type of items are very useful because the teacher can assess the students’ capacity to build up correct sentences paying attention to the word order and the passive structure.
The retroversion items are subjective items whose aim is to assess students’ ability to make a linguistic transfer. The following elements were graded: correctness of grammar and lexical structures and spelling accuracy.
DIAGNOSIS TEST
Choose the correct answer:
‘Was Tom pleased with the newspaper article about him?’
‘No. He was angry because his name…….wrong.’
spelt B. had been spelt C. is spelt
‘Did you buy that picture?’
‘No, it …….to me for my birthday.’
was given B. gave C. is given
‘Are you going to buy a wedding dress?’
‘No. My dress……by my mother.’
is being made B. is made C. made
‘Have you arranged the party yet?’
‘Yes. All the invitations ………’
are sent B. have been sent C. sent
‘So, have you had your book published?’
‘Yes. It ……..in all bookshops from June 1st.’
will be B. is C. is being
‘Do your cats eat a lot?’
‘No. They……once a day, that’s all.’
is fed B. are fed C. fed
‘Paul is taking me to a ball this weekend.’
‘I would love ………. to a ball. ’
take B. to take C. to be taken
‘Did you hear about the burglary last week?’
‘Yes. The thieves………..now, haven’t they?’
have been caught B. caught C. are caught 24p
Complete the sentences using one of the following verbs in the correct passive tense: to colonise, to know, to believe, to cover, to think, to carry out, to find, to use, to send, to tell, to consider, to build, to build, to hope.
Do you think Mars …………….by humans one day? The planet Mars………..as ‘the red planet’. The soil there is red and its surface…………covered in volcanoes.
Until recently, it………….that nothing could live on Mars, but during a recent space mission, tests ………., and now it ……….that life on Mars might be possible one day. During the space mission, special equipment………….to examine the planet. No form of life….…… yet, and so far, the planet……….unsuitable for inhabitation. However, we………….by scientists that, by 2020, humans…………to Mars, and that one day, special cities…………….so that we can live there. It ………..that by 2150, Mars will be a wonderful place to live. If a colony……….. on Mars, Would you like to live there. 28p
Rephrase the following sentences using the word in bold :
People say that a change is as good as a rest.
be A change………………………….as good as a rest.
Sylvia is organizing the wedding reception.
by The wedding reception…………………………Sylvia.
Someone sent us an anonymous letter.
were We …………………………………an anonymous letter.
My father broke my mother’s glasses when he sat on them.
got My mother’s glasses………………………………….when my father sat on them.
Erica covered the sofa with an old sheet.
was The sofa…………………………an old sheet by Erica.
Someone should inform the employees about the strike.
be The employees…………………………..about the strike.
They will offer Mr Templer a more responsible post.
to A more responsible post………………………Mr Templer.
David hasn’t signed the new contract yet.
been The new contract……………………………David yet. 16p
Make passive sentences from the words in brackets.
A: That’s a beautiful picture.
B: Yes. (It/ paint/ my mother)
…………………………………………………………………
A: Have they caught the thieves yet?
B: Yes. (two men/ arrest/ yesterday)
………………………………………………………………..
A: Did you build the garage yourselves?
B: No. (the garage/ build/ before we moved in)
………………………………………………………………
A: Why is Paul afraid of dogs?
B: ( he/ bite/ a dog/ when he was a little boy)
……………………………………………………………..
A: Sarah is very ill.
B: (she/ take/ to hospital last night)
……………………………………………………………..
A: This room is a disgrace.
B: ( it/ not clean/ for weeks)
……………………………………………………………..
A: Are you going to drive to work today?
B: I can’t. (the car/ not fix/ yet)
…………………………………………………………….
A: Did you know about your surprise party?
B: No. ( it/ arrange/ in secret)
…………………………………………………………. 16p
Translate into English.
Copiii vor fi duși la școală de către Ellie.
……………………………………………………………………….
Copiii sunt îngrijiți de bunica lor.
…………………………………………………………………………..
Poezia trebuie învățată pe de rost.
……………………………………………………………………………..
Fotografiile le sunt arătate lor chiar acum de către verișoara lor.
………………………………………………………………………………..
Casa nu fusese curățată de către Jane până în clipa când soțul ei a sosit.
………………………………………………………………………………..
De către cine este predat dansul popular la această școală?
………………………………………………………………………………..
Câinele Adelei nu a fost plimbat încă.
…………………………………………………………………………………
Comoara din insula nu va fi găsită niciodată.
…………………………………………………………………………………. 16p
The evaluation of the test led to the results illustrated in the table below:
DIAGNOSIS TEST VIIITH A
TABLE 1
Distribution of students according to the grades obtained
GRAPH 1
According to Graph 1, the results were the following:
11 students of 32 in class VIIIth A have a poor level of knowledge;
Only 7 students have an intermediate level of knowledge;
6 students managed to obtain a good enough grade 8;
8 of them succeeded in obtaining the highest grades 9 and 10.
For the first task 28 students of 32 were able to choose the correct answers; 4 subjects partly identified the correct verb form.
The second exercise was successfully solved by 21 students of 32 and the remaining of 11 had difficulties in understanding the meaning of the verb and filling in the blanks correctly.
The third was correctly solved by 20 students of the 32 and the others 12 partly rephrase the sentences correctly, proving that they can easily make connections and word associations.
The fourth task was by far the most difficult for them, only 8 managing to solve it without mistakes, 13 students solved more than half of the task and 11 students proved that they do not know how to form Passive sentences correctly.
The retroversion exercise was correctly solved by 14 students, 7 solved more than a half of the task, and the remaining of 11 were not able to properly make a linguistic transfer.
The same teswas applied to the class VIIIth D and the results they obtained were the following:
DIAGNOSIS TEST VIIITH D
TABLE 2
Distribution of students according to the grades obtained
GRAPH 2
As it can be seen in Table 2, the results were the following:
12 pupils of 32 in class VIIIth D have a poor level of knowledge;
Only 9 students have an intermediate level of knowledge;
8 students managed to obtain a good enough grade 8;
3 of them succeeded in obtaining the highest grades 9 and 10.
The following characteristics can be noticed in Graph 2.:
The curve has 2 peaks, the highest peak corresponds to grade 7;
The mean (average) does not lie at the center of the distribution, and the distribution is not symmetrical around the mean;
The tail of the distribution touches the horizontal axis;
The mass of the distribution is concentrated on the left of the figure. The distribution is said to be right-skewed.
V.2.4 Performance and errors analysis according to the objectives of assessment
GRAPH 3
Comparing the results of the diagnosis tests, one can notice that the students in class VIIIth A are better than the students in class VIIIth D. Most of them obtained high grades, therefore they have a higher level of knowledge.
However, the following aspects must be mentioned while analyzing the errors:
Some students show uncertainty in identifying the correct verb form for the passive voice in English, namely they either used Present/ Past Active instead of Present/ Past Passive , add the agent when it has to be omitted, or use Present Simple instead of Present Perfect. For example:
e.g. ‘Have you arranged the party yet?’
‘Yes. All the invitations are sent.’
‘Do your cats eat a lot?’
‘No. They fed once a day, that’s all.’
There are students with a minimal vocabulary, who have difficulties when they are asked to make a linguistic transfer from Romanian into English; this task was the most difficult for them.
There are also students who have difficulties related to spelling:
However, I must say that quite a lot of students prove the ability to establish connections and context understanding.
V.3 Traditional vs. Communicative Approach. Types of activities
The experiment lasted for five weeks. During this period of time there were used different types of activities in the two classes: the Experimental Class and the Control Class.
Where there was once consensus on the “right” way to teach foreign languages, many teachers now share the belief that a single right way does not exist.
It is certainly true that no comparative study has consistently demonstrated the superiority of one method over another for all teachers, all students and all settings.
There is a large variety of methods in practice today, but since our experiment focused on two methods- the Grammar-Translation Method and the Communicative Approach I will refer only to them. Of course, how a method is manifested in the classroom will depend heavily on the individual teacher’s interpretation of principles.
V.3.1.The Grammar-Translation Method
It focuses on developing students’ appreciation of the target language’s literature as well as teaching the language. Students are presented with the target language reading passages and answer questions that follow.
Other activities include translating literary passages from one language into the other, memorizing grammar rules and memorizing native-language equivalents of the target language vocabulary. Class work is highly structured, with the teachers controlling all the activities.
Goals:
To be able to read literature in target language;
To learn grammar rules and vocabulary;
To develop mental acuity.
Roles: Teacher has authority; students follow instructions to learn what the teacher knows.
Teaching/Learning Process:
Students learn by translating from one language to another, often translating reading passages in the target language to the native language;
Grammar is usually learned deductively, on the basis of grammar rules and examples. They learn paradigms such as verb conjugation, and they learn the native equivalents of vocabulary words.
Interaction: student-teacher and student-student. Most interaction is teacher-student: student initiated interaction; student-student interaction is minimal.
View of language; culture: Literary language is seen as superior to spoken language.
Aspects of Language; The Approach Emphasizes: Vocabulary, grammar emphasized; reading, writing are primary skills. Pronunciation and other speaking or listening skills are not emphasized.
Role of Students’ Native Language: Native language provides key to meanings in target language and it is used freely in class.
Means for Evaluation: Tests require translation from native to target and target to native language. They also require applying grammar rules and answering questions about foreign culture.
Response to Students’ Errors: heavy emphasis placed on correct answers.
In the Control Class most activities were based on the concept of language acquisition as habit formation which was reinforced by the teacher by means of controlled repetition and manipulation. Both the lessons and the materials were teacher-centered. Grammar was taught deductively. Presentation and study of grammar were followed by teacher’s controlled practice in the form of exercises and drills.
The teacher writes down the grammar point on the board.
The teacher gives explanations of the rules or structures.
The teacher gives examples to illustrate the rules or structures introduced.
Practice: the teacher asks students to use the target language to make up sentences.
Practice: the teacher gets students to do some quite controlled exercises at sentence level such as gap-fill exercises, sentence completion, matching, or translation.
Traditional teaching is concerned with the teacher being the controller of the learning environment. Power and responsibility are held by the teacher and they play the role of instructor (in the form of lectures) and decision maker (in regards to curriculum content and specific outcomes). Language classrooms predicated on this approach are characterized by rote learning, memorization, and repetition.
V.3.1.1.. Introducing the Passive Voice
Present Simple and Continuous Passive
To introduce the passive voice, the teacher can begin by writing on the board an active sentence in the Present Simple Tense and the passive form of it. Then, s/he does the same for the Present Continuous Tense – Grandma is cooking a cake at present. / A cake is being cooked by grandma at the moment. ; Grandpa reads the newspaper every morning. / The newspaper is read by grandpa every morning. Next, s/he writes one column of sentences in the Present Simple / Continuous Active and asks the students to follow the examples in order to turn the given sentences into the Passive Voice.
Active
The company produces cars every year.
Their friends are walking the dogs in the park now.
They make cheese from milk.
The music producer chooses the song for the music video.
A director directs the music video.
A cameraman shoots the video.
A singer or band sings the song.
The postman is delivering the letters at the moment.
Passive
……………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………
……………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
The following activities are all designed to provoke spoken communication between the teacher and the students.
Past Simple and Continuous Passive
The teacher writes the following patterns and samples sentences on the board.
Past Simple Passive: Subject + the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ in the past tense + the Past Participle of the verb to be conjugated + the agent
e.g. The dog was taken out by Tom.
Past Continuous Passive: Subject + the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ in the Past Tense + the auxiliary verb ‘to be’+ -ing + the Past Participle form of the verb to be conjugated + the agent
e.g. The house was being cleaned by the housekeeper yesterday at 5 o’clock.
The teacher highlights the form of the Past Simple/ Continuous Passive. S/he explains that the subject of the active sentence becomes the agent of the passive sentence and the direct object of the active sentence becomes the grammatical subject of the passive construction. The teacher explains that the agent is preceded by the preposition ‘by’ and the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ indicates the mood, the tense, the person and the number. S/he emphasizes the role of the Passive Voice to focus on the doer/ the agent. The teacher also explains students that the preposition ‘by’ precedes the agent while the preposition ‘with’ precedes the material.
Put the verbs in brackets into the Past Passive:
Lucy’s purse ………. At the mall last week. (to lose)
A banknote …………under his seat in the tram by Jane’s nephew. (to find)
A very nice poem ……………by the smartest girl in the classroom. (to recite)
When his father got home, dinner………………………. (to cook)
When Sheila came into the room, her favourite tune…………. ( to play)
Drinks……………… when their group arrived at the party. (to serve)
Fill in by or with:
This salad is made……………. tomatoes and onions.
The novel was written………….D. H. Lawrence.
The garden was dug…………a spade.
The pudding was made……….chocolate.
The picture was painted ………..Jackson Pollock.
Translate into English:
Problemele au fost rezolvate repede de toți elevii acum o oră.
Doar jumătate dintre muzeele acelui oraș au fost vizitate d turiști în excursia lor de anul trecut.
Daniel a fost convins de către prietenii lui să învețe poezia pe dinafară ieri.
Suveranul a fost încoronat în această biserică cu ani în urmă.
Un zgârie-nori a fost construit în centrul orașului în urmă cu doi ani.
Premiul întâi la concursul de literatură a fost câștigat de o soră a colegei mele luna trecută.
Present Perfect and Past Perfect Passive
The teacher explains how the two tenses form the passive by writing on the board and also by giving yhem examples, moduling and repeating the form of the verb. The purpose is to raise the students’awareness about using the passive forms of the two tenses, explaining that they need to be careful to the time adverbials in order to use them correctly.
Rewrite the newspaper headlines as complete sentences:
RARE BIRDS FOUND IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
……………………………………………………………….
NEW JERSEY HIT BY BAD WEATHER
………………………………………………………………
QUEEN WELCOMED TO AUSTRALIA
………………………………………………………………
POP CONCERT CALLED OFF BECAUSE OF RAIN
………………………………………………………………
FIVE PEOPLE INJURED IN CAR ACCIDENT
………………………………………………………………
Students are then given the following information:
Look at the information and write sentences in the passive as in the example:
Located: Paris, France
Designed by: Gustave Eiffel
Completed in: 1889
Made of: iron
Used for: radio and television transmission
(since beginning of twentieth century)
Number of visitors: more than 6 million people every year
The Eiffel Tower is located in Paris, France.
……………………………………………….
………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………..
The teacher explains that specific newspapers often use the passive voice, as well as news broadcasts because the passive sentences put emphasize on the people/ things who receive the action. . While the students are writing their sentences, the teacher monitors them, giving help where needed and making sure the students are following the patterns.
The teacher was in control at all times. Students talked only when they were asked. Incorrect answers were immediately corrected.
The first language was maintained as the reference system in the acquisition of English language. Students’ mother tongue was the medium of instruction. I used Romanian to explain new grammar and to enable comparisons to be made between the two languages: their mother tongue and the target language. The vocabulary was based only on the reading text used and words were taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study and memorization.
As for the skills, I focused mainly on reading and writing; little attention was paid to speaking, pronunciation and listening.
Translate into English:
Acest ceai este folosit de către oamenii bolnavi.
Rutele comerciale vor fi deschise către acea parte a lumii în curând.
Tom va fi dus la grădina zoologica de către părinții lui săptămâna viitoare.
Moștenirea fusese cheltuită înainte să-și dea el seama.
Flota fusese condusă de alt amiral înainte de acea bătălie.
Scările din fața casei lor sunt făcute din marmură.
Acest pământ este locuit de mulți ani.
Compania va fi împărțită între cei doi fii ai proprietarului.
Complete the text with the correct passive tense:
The Golden Globe Awards ……………… (first/organized) in 1944 in Los Angeles. Since then, they …………… (hold) every year. The awards show is an important Hollywood event. Every year, millions of viewers around the world tune in to see who …………… (give) a prize for their talents. Famous directors, writers and actors arrive on the red carpet and enjoy …………… (admire) by photographers and fans.
Awards that …………… (present) on the night are for best motion pictures, best actor, best director and more. Five nominations …………… (can/ make) for each award from which one winner ………………. (choose). The awards …………………. (sometimes/hand out) to the winners by the son or daughter of a famous celebrity. Last year, Lorraine Nicholson, daughter of Jack Nicholson, …………….. (ask) to help out in the show.
The Golden Globe Awards ……………… (consider) to be one of the highest honours anyone in the television or film industry can receive.
V.3.2. The Communicative Approach
The positivist view in social sciences is replaced by an ethnographia mundi concern in the 1960s. There is a shift of emphasis from language per se to its instrumentalization ( language as means of communication in social contexts) and to a more naturalistic view. From a linguistic perspective, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) draws on the Speech act Theory ( J. Searle, 1969), shifting attention to the relationship between language and its users, from habit formation to the real intended meaning.
Mitchell ( 1994: 38-39) points out some of the best features of the CLT:
Classroom activities should maximize opportunities for learners to use the target language for meaningful purposes, with their attention on the messages they are creating and the tasks they are completing, rather than on the correctness of language and language structure.
Learners trying their best to use the target language creatively and unpredictably are bound to make errors; this is a normal part of language learning, and constant correction is unnecessary, and even counterproductive.
Language analysis and grammar explanation may help some learners, but extensive experience of target language use helps everyone.
Effective language teaching is responsive to the needs and interests of the individual learner.
Effective language learning is an active process, in which the learner takes increasing responsibility for his or her progress.
The effective teacher aims to facilitate, not control, the language learning process.
Communicative language teaching is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign language that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement to the earlier structural methods. This was partly in response to Chomsky’s criticism of structural theories of language and partly based on the theories of British functional linguists, such as J.R. Firth and M.A.K. Halliday, as well as American Sociologists, such as D. Hymes, J. Gumperz and W. Labov, and the writings of J. Austin and J. Searle on speech acts. Some of the areas of linguistic research in the view of language are: functional grammar, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, semantics.
According to Grenfell and Harris (1999: 21), the popularity of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) lies in:
The status of the foreign language in the classroom ( the extent to which it is used in the instruction process);
Attitude to errors ( what, when and how to correct? In the traditional model, errors was seen as a heavy impairment, being sanctioned immediately and error correction was the teacher’s central pedagogic tool. In CLT, there is tolerance to errors, which is understood as a natural stage in the learner’s linguistic development.);
Authenticity of language ( a wide range of authentic or real life materials (realia) is used in the classroom. Besides exposing learners to real life situational language, these materials also immerse them in the foreign language culture and raise the learners’ motivation for learning the language of the other speech community);
Spoken and written language are treated as separate entities, requiring different teaching techniques;
Practice vs. real language ( even if, to some extent, the learners still perceive the classroom environment as not genuine, there is meaningful interaction in and through the foreign language, relating back to the intention to mean and legitimacy of tasks)
In communicative activities, the students should have a desire to communicate and some kind of communicative purpose. If they have a purpose, their attention should be centered on the context of what is being said or written and not the language form that is being used.
The Communicative Approach stresses the need to teach communicative competence as opposed to linguistic competence, thus, functions are emphasized over forms.
Students usually work with authentic materials in small groups on communicative activities, during which they receive practice in negotiating meaning. The students will have to deal with a variety of language, rather than just one grammatical construction. While the students are engaged in the communicative activity, the teacher does not intervene (correcting mistakes, insisting on the accuracy and asking for repetition).
Goals. – to become communicatively competent; to use language appropriate for a given social context ( the approach focuses on language as a medium of communication. Recognizes that all communication has a social purpose: the learner has something to say and find out); to manage the process of negotiating meaning with interlocutors;
Roles. The teacher facilitates students’ learning by meaning classroom activities, setting up communicative situations.
Teaching/learning Process Activities are communicative- they represent an information gap that needs to be filled. Speakers have choice of what to say and how to say it. They receive feed-back from the listener that will verify that a purpose has been achieved. Authentic materials are used. Students usually work in small groups.
Interaction Student-Teacher, Student-Student
The teacher initiates interactions between students and participates sometimes. Students interact a great deal with each other in many configurations.
Dealing with feelings. Emphasis is on developing motivation to learn through establishing meaningful, purposeful things to do with the target language. Individuality is encouraged as well as cooperation with peers, which both contribute to sense of emotional security with the target language.
View of language; Culture. Language is for communication. Linguistic competence must be coupled with an ability to convey intended meaning appropriately in a different social context. Culture is everyday lifestyle of native speakers of the target language. Non-verbal 112ehavior is important.
Aspects of language. Functions are emphasized over forms, with simple forms learned for each function at first, then more complex forms. Students work at discourse level. They work on speaking, listening, reading and writing from the beginning. There is a consistent focus on negociated meaning.
Means for evaluation. Informal evaluation takes place when teacher advises or communicates. Formal evaluation is by means of an integrative test with a real communicative function.
Response to students’ errors. Errors of form are considered natural. Students with incomplete knowledge of language can still succeed as communicators.
V.3.2.1.Introducing the Passive Voice
In introducing the Passive Voice through communicative activities I used mainly speaking, listening and deductive grammar explanations. Students were guided to the meaning and appropriate usage of the new learned structures through miming and other aids because I didn’t explain grammar and lexis. The students were let to listen for gists and for specific information in different exercises. I also used flashcards for new lexical items and practiced reading with understanding and writing in forms suitable and attractive for students. Concerning the class grouping I used a great deal of pair and group work and I tried to design a lot of creative activities, such as crosswords, picture-stories, matching and gap-filling exercises, dialogs and guessing games.
Activity I (Oral activity)
First of all, the lesson began in a relaxing atmosphere, warming up with a game or a joke told by the teacher.
The new grammar, in our case the Passive Voice (Present and Past Passive) was hidden in the context and highlighted and focused upon once the context had been set.
For example, they had a text in the textbook about audio-video devices ‘Music on the move’ and they heard how these machines were created, produced and how they worked. The teacher uses brainstorming and discussion to establish the vocabulary and the expressions that were to be used to accomplish the communicative task. Questions and answers are based on the language topic. The language used by the teacher and students is English.
The teacher gives a short presentation of grammar using the discovery techniques, then s/he gives students the opportunity to practice the point in a controlled exercise.
Staying in pairs, the students ask and answer questions on the information found in the text.
What the teacher should be listening to is the use of the passive voic.
e.g. What is this machine called?
This machine is called ‘Walkman.’
The teacher acts as a monitor and a facilitator. The interaction is mainly S-S and the teacher intervenes only when it is necessary.
The teacher uses modern teaching aids such as whiteboard, coloured marks, overhead-projector, Power-Point-Presentations pictures, CDs, and worksheets.
The students are asked to take part in activities designed to get them to produce the vocabulary and grammar they have been taught. The teacher notes the errors and the interesting points. She usually intervenes only when asked or at the end of the task.
They were involved in dialogues and guessing games to get them talk and use the passive voice. Games are introduced at any time and stage in the lesson.
This teaching activity combines the topic of scientific development with the passive voice. Students work in pairs and are asked to think of three machines and write the names on a piece of paper. They have to ask Yes/ No questions to guess the other students’ machines.
e.g. Chris: ‘Is it a musical machine?’
Andres: ‘Yes’
Chris: ‘Can it be played on the beach?’
Andres: ‘Yes’
Chris: ‘Is it a Walkman?’
Andres: ‘Yes, it is. Well done’
Activity II: Historical Monuments (Oral Activity/ Writing Activity)
The teacher puts the students in groups and gives them a picture of the Forbidden City and some prompts in order to build both questions and answers on the topic.
The students read the prompts and one group asks the questions while the other have to answer. The teacher acts as a facilitator and tutor.
After finishing the task, the teacher asks the students to complete a writing activity using the information given (the prompts).
Look at the prompts below and make passive sentences about the Forbidden City:
construction of / Forbidden City / complete / in 1420
protect / high walls and a moat on all four sides
country / govern / from the Forbidden City for nearly 500 years
in 1924 / Forbidden City / rename / Palace Museum and / open / to / public
visit / thousands of people every year
use / as / set for / film ‘The Last Emperor ’ / which / direct / Bernardo Bertolucci
might / use / again / in future / for / similar project
e.g. The construction of the Forbidden City was completed in 1420.
Now write a passage about the Forbidden City using passive sentences:
e.g. The forbidden City is situate in Beijing, China. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Activity III: Quiz solving (Speaking Activity)
A freer practice activity could be to put students into two groups and get them to devise a quiz using a mixture of tenses (depending on the level of your class and what you have taught). Elicit some ideas for the basis of questions such as countries of origin, songs and their singers, films and their actors/directors, sporting events, books and their writers or characters etc. Don’t forget to monitor all activities.
Example questions:
Where are Volkswagen cars manufactured?
Germany
China
Japan
When was the first mobile phone made?
1956
1960
1973
When was Iron Man 3 released in cinemas?
2011
2012
2013
Who was aspirin invented by?
Alexander Fleming
Felix Hoffman
Friedrich Bayer
What is used to make tyres?
Rubber
Plastic
Polyester
Students will be awarded 1 point for the correct answer and 1 point for correct use of the passive. The teacher will write the scores on the board.
Activity IV: What happened? (Speaking Activity)
Provoke students to speak about their feelings and about what has happened to them lately. Ask students questions randomly a few times until you’re happy that they’re using the form correctly and then get them to work in pairs and ask each other. Students have to spontaneously think of an answer using the passive. For example:
Teacher: Why are you sad?
Student: I was defeated in the tennis game today.
Teacher: What happened to your hair?
Student: I had my hair cut by an unskilful hairdresser.
Student A: What happened when you got home late last night?
Student B: It was punished by my parents.
Student C: What happened to your father’s car.
Student D: It was crushed by a drunk driver.
This activity will also work well with children as it requires imagination and there is room for the ridiculous.
Activity V: What have you done there? (Speaking Activity)
This is a communicative activity which allows students to find out more about a plastic surgeon’s job. First, the teacher asks students to watch a power-point presentation material on the topic and s/he first asks them to use the causative have structure to speak about what they have heard and read.
e.g. Cosmetic surgery, which used to be only for film stars, has recently become very popular among the population as a whole. Surgeons remove people’s scars and blemishes. They also lift people’s face in order to look younger. In a recent poll, many people admitted that surgeons had altered their noses. Surgeons had also reshaped the eyes of several people. Doctors had also thickened one woman’s lips. Psychologists are worried that so many young people want doctors to change their appearance. So if you are thinking of asking a doctor to perform an operation, think again. Plastic surgery can also ruin people’s lives.
Student A: People have scars and blemishes removed.
Student B: People have their face lifted in order to look younger.
Then, the teacher writes on the board words naming different jobs and asks students to work in pairs and ask one another what they have done by those people.
e.g. decorator / mechanic / photographer / tailor / burglar
Student A: I am having my house decorated by a decorator.
Student B: My father had his car repaired by a mechanic.
Student C: I will have my suit made by a tailor.
After that the teacher writes words describing places and asks students to describe what they have done in those places.
e.g. hairdresser’s / garage / dry cleaner’s / dentist’s / artist’s studio
Student A: I have my hair cut at the hairdresser’s.
Activity VI: Changes ( Speaking Activity)
To elicit the passive, any number of activities involving the students talking about changes can be used. Here are some examples.
Changes in your town (present perfect passive): Write down some changes in the town where you live over the past ten years. E.g., A new hospital has been built. Include things that haven’t been changed, but that you would like to see changed. E.g. The new sports stadium still hasn’t been opened.
Changes in the classroom (present perfect passive): Ask a student or students to leave the room. Make some changes in the classroom, e.g. knock some books onto the floor, turn the lights out, clean the board etc. Ask the students to come back into the room and guess what has been changed.
Changes in your life (past passive or passive with used to): Write the following words up on the board: call, blame, punish, teach. Ask the students to think about when they were younger. They should create sentences in the past passive, or used to passive with these verbs. For example:
When I was seven years old…
I was called Little Princess.
I was taught to listen in class and never question the teacher.
I always used to be blamed for hitting my little brother.
Activity VII: In the news (Speaking Activity)
Go to any news website and look for news stories that have examples of the passive. Put together three or four of these on a worksheet. Ask students to 1) find and underline the passives and 2) speculate why the passive is used there.
A variation on this activity would be to find an interesting news story (again, with examples of the passive in it and give students a number of key words from the story (include at least one passive). Ask students to tell what they think the news story is about, then compare with the original. Then analyse the differences. Did the students tend to use active voice or passive voice more?
Activity VIII: It is said ( Speaking Activity)
To practise the passive form of reporting verbs, you could do one of the following activities.
Five bizarre things
Ask students to think of five bizarre facts about the town they live or a place they know (they could do this for homework). These could be strange historical facts, legends about local people, scary stories, beliefs. Prepare five yourself about a place that you know to give them an example. Ask them to write out each fact, but starting with one of the following constructions:
It is believed that…
It is said that…
It is claimed that…
Ask students to exchange their bizarre facts and present them in front of the classroom.
Activity IX: Good Sentences Game (Speaking Activity)
Choose teams of three to play this game. Give one person all the cards with passive verbs such as "was hit," give the second person body-parts flashcards, and give the third person flashcards with pictures of animals, people and objects. Each member selects a card from his own stack, but doesn't show it to the other members. Then they lay their selected cards on the table, and the members try to make a sentence from them. An example of a correct passive sentence is "The ball was hit by a boy." If the sentence they make is correct, the team gets a point. If the sentence is nonsense, the group gets no points. Total all points at the end, and the group with the most points wins.
Activity X: Draw a Sentence (Speaking Activity)
Have students draw a pictorial representation of a sentence they create. This works well as an individual or group activity. They must illustrate the sentence in both passive and active voice and then present the drawings to the class. For example, "Grandma cooked a delicious cake." and "A delicious cake was cooked by grandma." The class decides which sentence is better to include in a writing activity and why.
Activity XI: Physical Vignette (Speaking Activity)
Call three students to the front of the classroom. Present each one with a slip of paper. For example, one student gets a slip that says "The new tailor." The next student gets one with the word "made." Another student's paper says "the suit." They must interact with each other to make a sentence by placing themselves in correct order. This obviously is an active sentence with the subject on the right. Call three more students to the front and follow the same procedure, but this time use "The suit" for one, "was made" for another and "by the new tailor." Ask the class what the difference is in the positions of the subject, verb and direct object in active and passive sentences. Allow other groups of students to make up their own sentences and to line themselves up accordingly.
Activity XII: Active to Passive Race Game
The objective of this game is to change active sentences to passive ones. This activity is designed for students in upper elementary or middle school. Begin by dividing the class into teams. Groups of three or four work together to change an active voice sentence to passive. Give each group of students a sentence strip made of colored cardstock on which you've written a sentence in active voice. The students must work together to change it to passive. For example, they must change the sentence "The chef cooked the fish perfectly." One group member races to the board and rewrites the sentence in passive voice. Play the game in rounds, and keep score for each group. Correct sentences are worth five points, while incorrect ones get zero. The group to reach the designated total points first wins the game.
Activity XIII: Newspaper headlines
Work in small groups. Write these newspaper headlines as full sentence. (Allocate a few headlines to each group.). Continue the stories to make a complete news bulletin, e.g. Oil discovered in city centre – Massive reserves of crude oil were discovered in the city centre yesterday when builders started digging the foundations for a new office block …
Activity XIV: Creating stories
The teacher sets the situation first: Sarah Ford, the well-known millionaire’s daughter, was kidnapped yesterday. Then he/she asks the students to look at the cues below and, working in groups of three, to prepare the story in 2 minutes using the passive. Each group then reports its story to the class. Students decide which group’s story is the best and has the fewest mistakes.
Cues: Sarah Ford kidnapped / yesterday. Threatening calls made / before. Sarah seen / last / park. Same day / letter sent. Sarah released / as soon as / kidnappers given £ 300,000. Police informed / immediately. All areas searched / since yesterday. Nothing found / so far.
Final Test
Match the sentences in the Active Voice with their equivalents in the Passive Voice:
They gave her a large bunch of flowers.
He ate soup.
She ironed her skirt yesterday.
I saw a movie.
He has written his homework.
They had bought her a present.
We will visit our cousins.
He reads the morning paper every day.
We were dusting the furniture.
People choose quiet places for their holidays.
She was given a large bunch of flowers.
Our cousins will be visited.
The homework has been written.
The morning paper is read every day.
Soup was eaten.
A movie was seen.
A present has been bought. / She had been bought a present.
The furniture was being dusted.
Quiet places are chosen for holidays.
Her skirt was ironed yesterday. (20p)
II. Choose the correct answer:
1. ‘Can you swim?’
‘Oh yes. I …………….. how to swim when I was five.’
a). taught b). am taught c). was taught
2. ‘Doctors have to do a lot of work.’
‘Yes, but they ……………….. well.’
a). be paid b). are paid c). pay
3. ‘Where does that lady keep her jewellery?’
‘It ………………… in a safe somewhere in her house.’
a). is kept b). are Kept c). was kept
4. ‘What is happening over there?’
‘Oh, a new cinema ……………………… .’
a). is being built b). is built c). was built
5. ‘How is Kevin?’
‘Well, his car ………………. last night, so he’s upset today.’
a). is stolen b). has been stolen c). was stolen
6. ‘What should you do if you are lost?’
‘You should stay where you are and wait ……………….’
a). was found b). to find c). to be found
7. ‘Have you got Claire’s phone number?’
‘Yes. It ……………… on this piece of paper.’
a). is written b). written c). be written
8. ‘Why can’t I use your car?’
‘Because it ………………. at the moment.’
a). was serviced b). is being serviced c). is serviced
9. ‘What will happen to the criminals?’
‘They …………….. for their crimes.’
a). are punished b). were punished c). will be punished
10. ‘Did you post the letters?’
‘No, they ……… already …………….. by the time I came in.’
a). were posted b) had been posted c). have been posted (20p)
III. Rewrite the sentences in the Active Voice:
1. Her excuse may not be believed by her parents.
…………………………………………………………….
2. The painting has been valued by an expert.
…………………………………………………………….
3. He likes being given presents.
……………………………………………………………..
4. The bill must be paid immediately.
…………………………………………………………….
5. Hot water is provided by the hotel 24 hours a day.
………………………………………………………………………
6. Our newspaper is delivered by a boy every morning.
………………………………………………………………………
7. Her wedding dress will be made by a designer in Paris.
………………………………………………………………………
8. The meeting was attended by several important art critics.
……………………………………………………………………….
9. Preparations are being made by the event organisers.
………………………………………………………………………
10. An interesting book has been published by the company.
…………………………………………………………………….. (30p)
IV. Translate into English:
1. Engleza este mult vorbită în toată lumea.
2. Lucrările vor fi înmânate profesorului la sfârșitul săptămânii.
3. Acete cutii sunt umplute cu lucruri vechi.
4. Nimeni nu a fost convins de povestea ei.
5. Catedra a fost mutată lângă fereastră.
6. Mai multe camere vor fi construite la noul spital.
7. hoțul fusese deja pedepsit pentru fapta lui la acea vreme.
8. Ușa aceea nu fusese deschisă mult timp.
9. El este mereu confundat cu fratele lui geamăn.
10. Cadoul nu a fost încă văzut de Sammy. (20p)
The results of the final test
In class VIIIth A there were 17 students who obtained high grades (9 and 10), while 15 students obtained grades between 6 and 8. Therefore, we can say that they made relevant progress, improving their knowledge about the passive voice in English.
On the whole, the test revealed some weaknesses, as well as some typical mistakes students have to overcome in order to increase their competence in the use of the passive voice.
According to the graph, it can be noticed that most students in class VIIIth A have an intermediate level of knowledge. More than half of the students obtained high grades, but in the diagnosis test only 5 obtained 10, at the same time, 11 student obtained grades under 7. The results of the final test for the students in class VIIIth A can be seen in the following table:
FINAL TEST XTH B
Table 3
Distribution of students according to the grades obtained
GRAPH 4
As for the Control Class, the class VIIIth D, they are presented in the Table 4 and Graph 5, which can be seen on the following pages:
FINAL TEST VIIITH D
Table 4
Distribution of students according to the grades obtained
GRAPH 5
V.4. The analysis of the experiment
V.4.1. The value of the Communicative Method/ Approach
At the end of the experiment, several conclusions can be formulated concerning the results of both classes. There is an obvious difference between the results obtained by the two classes involved in the experiment. The students in the VIIIth A made a significant progress unlike the students in the VIIIth D. There are some explanations that can be drawn, such as:
The students in VIIIth A are highly motivated, they truly want to progress, to learn more being afraid of failure;
The students were also motivated to practise language freely in their spare time, to take control of their own learning;
The students in VIIIth A are more engaged with the process of learning than those in the class VIIIth D, being always anxious to enrich their knowledge, to ask questions, to find new methods to learn efficiently;
I preferred peirwork and groupwork instead of lockstep so that they could help each other by working together which was extremely helpful for weaker students;
I used modern, interactive activities such as discovery techniques, games, debates, dialogues;
The atmosphere was relaxing and pleasant;
I adopted the role of a tutor and a resource rather than that of a controller and assessor;
Although I insisted on structures, students continued making grammar mistakes. New vocabulary and grammar structures should be taught interactively because students assimilate new structures or words without paying too much attention to rules.
In spite of presenting the general characteristics, meanings and uses of the passive voice, students still make mistakes because they have become part of their knowledge and were stored as accurate. Even though students make mistakes, especially in spoken English, they realize the mistakes and correct themselves, sometimes without any intervention from the teacher.
Identifying the error may not be enough in order to see and understand the correct form, but it definitely is an important step in improving students' writing and speaking skills.
Classes should be more student-centered, while the teachers should be more flexible, more creative with the materials they bring to class. Therefore, with the modern audio and video aids, the teacher can create the impression of real life conversation in class, this way students would be more motivated to take the lead in communication. Although, alternative textbooks offer a large variety of communicative activities, teachers often tend to use them for reading and writing traditional exercises which usually become boring and reduce students’ speaking in time.
As a result, students find themselves simply able to read and solve drills, but unable to communicate in English.
On the other hand, communicative teaching enables students to feel confident when they use language, it gives them real opportunities to express themselves in English. The use of modern techniques and strategies, such as: role-play, discovery techniques, interview, simulations, as well as the use of authentic resources: newspaper and magazine articles, poems, songs, manuals, recipes, videos, maps, pictures, together with realia, make learning English more interesting and motivating because it is dictated by pupils’ needs and interests, thus, it is much more student-oriented than other approaches.
The main advantages of communicative language teaching are that language is used for a genuine purpose meaning that real communication should take place, and that at the stage where the learners are preparing their report for the whole class, they are forced to consider language form in general rather than concentrating on a single form (as in the Traditional model). Whereas the aim of the Traditional model is to lead from accuracy to fluency, the aim of Communicative Teaching is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency. The range of tasks available offers a great deal of flexibility in this model and should lead to more motivating activities for the learners. Unlike a Traditional approach, the students are free of language control. They must use all their language resources rather than just practising one pre-selected item.
A natural context is developed from the students' experiences with the language that is personalised and relevant to them. With the traditional method it is necessary to create contexts in which to present the language and sometimes they can be very unnatural.
The students will have a much more varied exposure to language with the Communicative Method. They will be exposed to a whole range of lexical phrases, collocations and patterns as well as language forms. The language explored arises from the students' needs. This need dictates what will be covered in the lesson rather than a decision made by the teacher or the textbook.
Learners who are used to a more traditional approach based on a grammatical syllabus may find it difficult to come to terms with the apparent randomness of the communicative language teaching, but if the Communicative Teaching is integrated with a systematic approach to grammar and lexis, the outcome can be a comprehensive, all-round approach that can be adapted to meet the needs of all learners.
V.4.2. The Analysis of Errors
As a teacher of English, I tried to find out what causes students to make errors and what attitude should we adopt towards errors when they occur. The most powerful action step that a teacher can perform is to recognize passive voice constructions and know that students may misunderstand them.
Teachers know that students make errors but they have to decide whether or not to intervene and how to intervene. The question that arises is : ‘Who should accept responsibility, the teacher or the student?’.
On the one hand, teachers can be blamed for causing errors by sloppy or careless teaching or planning. On the other hand, students are to be blamed for their lack of motivation, self-discipline or general intelligence. Still, we must agree that even the most intelligent, conscientious and motivated students do make errors, even when learning under the best possible conditions. It is wiser to analyze the cause of errors and apply the results to the teaching process.
Here are some of the most common errors our students make:
1. Students leave off the –ed where the verb is regular .
e.g.: Our newspaper is deliver by a boy every morning.
2. Students use the past form instead of the past participle when the verb is irregular.
e.g.: He likes being gave presents.
3. Students use the wrong form of the verb to be or leaving it out altogether.
e.g.: An interesting book has published by the company.
4. Students forget to change the verb from singular to plural or plural to singular when the subject of the sentence changes.
e.g.: The children is going to be told a story.
5. Errors using the passive voice often occur when students do not edit for subject-verb agreement, omit the verb TO BE, or use the incorrect form of the past participle.
6. Students add the –ed suffix to the preposition instead of the verb.
e.g.: The light was turn offed by grandmother.
7. Students use an intrazitive verb in the passive.
e.g.: To work is driven Tom every morning.
8. Students omit the preposition ‘to’ before the indirect object for verbs which have both direct and indirect object.
e,g.: The photograph is being shown them by Emma.
In order to help our students not make so many mistakes, we should take into consideration the following aspects:
Point out difficult passive voice constructions in the texts and discuss them with your students to make sure that students understand them;
Question students about the information in the passive constructions ( they meet in texts) to ascertain whether they have understood them correctly;
Include clear illustrations that clarify the information in passive voice sentences;
Increase students’ exposure to passive voice structures by incorporating them in exercises in ways that they might naturally appear and where their meanings absolutely clear;
Ocasionally develop inductive exercises related to students’ reading assignments that force students to choose between active and passive sentences;
Use accompanying activities such as multiple readings, answering questions, and create flow-charts in order to help students to focus on form, content and flow information;
Repeat the passive voice in various guises so that the students become confortable with the use of the passive and they can then go on to actually employ the passive voice in speaking;
Identifying the errors is not enough. Teachers need to make their students aware of their errors, as long as showing incorrectness is seen as a positive act.
Still, we should let our students make mistakes as we all learn best through making mistakes. The teachers should also give students time to realise they have made a mistake and try to correct it themselves. If they cannot, maybe someone else can help them. If nobody can help then the teacher can step in and tell the correct form. It is also important not to expose the students that have made the mistake, so, as far as possible, correct mistakes anonymously. We can do this by making notes of students’ mistakes as we monitor, then put them on the board later and give the students themselves the opportunity to correct them in pairs or small groups. The ability to correct themselves is an important one for students to develop. We should encourage it and give our students time to correct themselves; do not jump in immediately to correct them. Most students think that it is the teacher’s job to correct students’ mistakes, but this is not always so. Teachers won’t be by their students’ side to correct them in their everyday life. Learning a second language is like learning to walk; you keep on falling until you manage to walk on your own.
V.4.3. The analysis of the textbooks
All too often overall decisions about course content are not taken by teachers, but some higher authorities. Of course it will be necessary for a large institution to know that the same kind of teaching is taking place in all of its classes at the same level, but previous decisions about the exact syllabus and the textbook to be used can often tie teachers to a style of teaching and to the content of the classes if they are not careful.
Many institutions present the syllabus in terms of the main textbook to be used: by a certain date teachers are expected to have covered a certain number of units in the book. At the same time teachers are often provided with a list of supplementary material and activities that are available.
Where a textbook is involved there are obvious advantages for both teachers and students. Good textbooks often contain lively and interesting material; they provide a sensible progression of language items, clearly showing what has to be learnt and in some cases summarizing what has been studied so that students can revise grammatical and functional points that they have been concentrating on. Textbooks can be systematic about the amount of vocabulary presented to the students and allow students to study on their own outside the class. Good textbooks also relieve the teacher from the pressure of having to think of original material for every class.
But textbooks can also have an adverse effect on teaching for a number of reasons. As we have already said they tend to concentrate on the introduction of new language and controlled work: a teacher relying too heavily on the textbook will often not be encouraged to provide enough roughly-tuned input or output practice. Textbooks also tend to follow the same format from one unit to another.
Discerning teachers with time to spare can move around the material selecting what they want to use and discarding parts of the units that seem to them to be inappropriate.
Most teachers, though, are under considerable pressure both because they are obliged to complete the syllabus and because they teach a number of classes. They are also influenced by the attitude of the institution, their collegues and the students who sometimes see the textbook not just as the provider of a syllabus but also as a programme of study and activities that has to be closely followed.
There are two major reasons why such an attitude may not be in the best interest of either students or teachers. In the first place teachers who over-use a textbook and thus repeatedly follow the sequence in each unit may become boring over a period of time for they will find themselves teaching the same type of activities in the same order again and again.
In such a situation, even with good textbooks, students may find the study of English becoming routine and thus less and less motivating. One of the cornerstone of good planning is the use of variety in teaching precisely to offset this tendency. The other main teason for worrying about textbooks is that they are not written for your class. Each group of students is potentially different from any other and while most published books are written with a ‘general’ student audience in mind your class is unique and the students need to be treated individually.
Another worry is whether the textbook has a balance of skills and activities that was desirable for the balanced activities approach. The best person to achieve the correct balance is the teacher who knows the students and can gauge the need for variety. We do not suggest that textbooks are somehow destructive but they rarely have the perfect balance that the teacher is looking for.
As we can see, using textbooks has both advantages and disadvantages. In a few lines I am going to expose some advantages of using textbooks in the class:
Textbooks are written and designed by experts in the topics so they keep up-to-date with the research in a particular subject area;
Textbooks contain detailed content pages and indexes that can be used to quickly find what the student is looking for;
Textbooks are useful for young teachers because the material and structure of lessons is often very detailed, which means that teachers do not have to spend a lot of time coming up with new lesson ideas;
Textbooks now can come with supplementary materials that complement the lessons the teacher uses. The supplementary materials could be DVDs that have video and audio clips of information relating to the topic of study, companion websites that provide additional information or links to other related web pages or study guides;
Most popular textbooks in schools are series for all school levels to ensure a logical flow and normal progression of lesson difficulty. Most teachers can choose their textbooks so that they match the objectives of their course and meet the learning needs of their students;
Textbooks are accompanied by a teacher’s guide that spell out clearly and in detail every step to be taken in teaching a certain lesson or chapter. They also provide lesson plans, materials and ideas for additional activities;
Textbooks are easy to use because of their structured form that goes from simple, basic issues to more complex ones in theory as well as in practice;
Textbooks are ready to use and generally accompanied by audio or video materials related to the printed material that help students develop several skills at the same time;
Most textbooks have self-assessment modules for students to test knowledge at the end of every unit / every two units;
Even since I became a teacher of English I have come across and used quite a number of textbooks for my classes. The variety of textbooks is an advantage for both teachers and students because they have where to choose from.
In our school there are English textbooks published by very important publishers such as: Express Publishing, Longman, Oxford University Press, Macmillan. Still, there are a number of disadvantage of the textbooks I have used so far:
In a great number of textbooks there are few reading comprehension texts:
Lack of grammatical exercises. Most books restrict their presentation of grammatical concepts to a few lines and have grammar references at the end with some more theoretical information and a few books have additional exercises after that particular grammar explanations;
The units’ structure is quite repetitive and may become boring;
Some textbooks are old and do not reflect social realities and that’s why they become unattractive;
The textbook is an aid and not a sacred text. Our job as teachers is to work out the best way to use them; we should never let the textbook use us, or dictate the decisions we take about the activities in which the students are going to be involved. ( Jeremy Harmer, A Practice of English Language Teaching, 1995)
CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this research has been to find out the most appropriate methods for teaching the passive voice and also to identify the students’ needs in order to get the competence of using English.
Being aware of the complexity of children’s learning and of the varied methods of teaching gymnasium pupils, I aimed to understand how gymnasium students build up and develop their grammatical skills and to answer the research question: ‘What are the best methods the teacher should use in order to teach the passive voice?’
Taking an experiment on two classes, the research compares the Communicative Method to the Grammar-Translation Method in an attempt to prove the effectiveness of the former within the teaching process.
The Traditional Method is a cross lingual technique used in language learning. Grammar is given more importance in this method. Learners understand the grammar rules better. The exercises in this method put the learner into an active problem-solving situation. In the schools, the teachers often follow the traditional method of translation technique. It is an easy way to explain things. Reading and writing are the major focus. Vocabulary selection is based solely on the text used. The words are introduced through bilingual word lists dictionary and memorization. The grammar rules are presented. As the Grammar-Translation Method focuses on accuracy only, it fails to produce oral fluency in English; students find it boring as they have to memorize words and rules; it does not develop confidence among the learners; there is no link between the text words and the real life situations; the students are unable to use English fluently because the method focuses only in reading and writing little attention being paid to speaking.
Communicative language teaching is a functional approach to language learning whose main aim is to develop the communicative competency of the learner. The student’s need of understanding and expressing in the L2 (The language acquired through learning) is the main focus of this method and that’s why the learners in the experimental class made a significant progress in grammar learning after experiencing an experimental semester.
The main advantages of CLT are that language is used for a genuine purpose meaning that real communication should take place, and that at the stage where the learners are preparing their report for the whole class, they are forced to consider language form in general rather than concentrating on a single form (as in the Traditional model). Whereas the aim of the Traditional model is to lead from accuracy to fluency, the aim of Communicative Teaching is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency. The range of tasks available offers a great deal of flexibility in this model and should lead to more motivating activities for the learners. Unlike a Traditional approach, the students are free of language control. They must use all their language resources rather than just practising one pre-selected item.
A natural context is developed from the students' experiences with the language that is personalised and relevant to them. With the traditional method it is necessary to create contexts in which to present the language and sometimes they can be very unnatural.
The students will have a much more varied exposure to language with the Communicative Method. They will be exposed to a whole range of lexical phrases, collocations and patterns as well as language forms. The language explored arises from the students' needs. This need dictates what will be covered in the lesson rather than a decision made by the teacher or the coursebook.
Learners who are used to a more traditional approach based on a grammatical syllabus may find it difficult to come to terms with the apparent randomness of the CLT, but if the Communicative Teaching is integrated with a systematic approach to grammar and lexis, the outcome can be a comprehensive, all-round approach that can be adapted to meet the needs of all learners.
The language teaching materials which are referred to as functional, notional or communicative are often interpreted as signaling the death of grammatical mastery as a primary goal of language teaching. This interpretation has led to opposing reactions. Those teachers who felt bored or uncomfortable with the teaching of structure have embraced the functional approach because of its emphasis on “conversations” while those with a strong grammatical orientation have rejected it because they believe that functional syllabi have replaced functional sequence with an arbitrary resentment of conversational or situational topics, which they fear will never lead to competence in the language. Both groups have misunderstood the organization and intend of the functional communicative approach.
The functional communicative approach does not deny the importance of mastery of the grammatical system of the language, nor it does it abandon a systematic development of structural mastery in the presentation of materials.
Grammatical form is taught, not as end in itself, but as means of carrying out communicative intent. This change emphasis has sometimes obscured the concern for grammatical aspects in the language because traditional concepts of grammatical preposition no longer apply.
Structural patterns that are normally considered “advanced” because of relative complexity are often presented at the beginning of functional-communicative courses because they are used to perform the communicative function being presented.
Apparently complex and unattractive, teaching grammar, especially the Passive Voice, in a communicative way proves to be a challenging and rewarding experience.
After six weeks of experimenting both methods, I can conclude that the Communicative Approach is proved to be a suitable and successful teaching approach because the communicative activities offered variety to pupils, provide opportunities to give systematic feedback on students’ errors, engaged pupils in genuine communication, making them speak for a desire to communicate or to receive information and increased motivation, released tension and introduced a relaxed, dynamic interaction in class.
This last chapter of the thesis has focused on formulating conclusions on the research in order to present the main findings as well as the participants’ benefit from the investigation. It can also be seen as a guide for teachers as it offers some suggestions all teachers should reflect upon in order to improve their teaching of grammar.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Abbs, Brian & Freebairn, Ingrid. 1982. Opening strategies. Harlow, England: Longman;
Alexander, L.,G. 2001. Longman English Grammar. (p.241-245). London: Pearson Education Limited;
Allwright, D. 1984. The importance of Interaction in Classroom Language Learning. Applied linguistics,5.2;
Allwright, D. 1998. Language learning through communication practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press;
Bădescu, A. 1984. Gramatica limbii engleze. Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică. București;
Biber, D., Conrad, S., Leech, G. 2002. Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman;
Broughton, G. 1990. Penguin English Grammar for Advanced Students. London: Penguin;
Brown, Roger. 1973. A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge: Harvard University Press;
Budai, L. 1997. Gramatica engleză. Teorie și exerciții. București: Editura Teora;
Bygate, M., Tonkyn, A., & Williams, E. (Eds.). 1994. Grammar and the language teacher. Hemel Hempstead, England: Prentice Hall;
Celce-Murcia, M., & Hilles, S. 1988. Techniques and resources in teaching grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press;
Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: Mlt Press ;
Chomsky, N.1986. Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use. Greenwood Publishing Group;
Chițoran, D., Panovf, I., Poenaru, I. 1995. English Grammar Exercises. București: Editura Teora;
Close, R. 1980. A Reference Grammar for Students of English. London: London;
Cobb, F., Gardiner, R. 1994. Today’s English Grammar. București: Prietenii Cărții;
Cook, Vivian. 1994. Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. London: Arnold.
Corder, Pit. 1981. Error Analysis and Interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford University Press;
Dulay, H.C., Burt, M.K. 1973. Should we teach our children syntax? New York: London;
Duțescu – Coliban, T. 2000. Aspects of English Morphology. Nominal and Verbal Categories. București; Editura Fundației România de mâine;
Duțescu – Coliban, T.1980. The Grammatical Category of English. București;
Eastwood, John. 2000. Oxford Practice Grammar. (p.142-143).Oxford: Oxford University Press;
Eastwood, John. OXFORD Guide to English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press;
Elliot, T.B. The most common mistakes in English Usage. Editura McCraw-Hill Paperbacks;
Ellis, R. 1990. Instructed Second Language Acquisition. Learning in the Classroom. Oxford: Basil Blackwell;
Ellis, R. & Sinclair, J.1989. Learning to learn English. Oxford: Oxford University Press;
Fitikides, T.J. 2008. Common mistakes in English. Longman. London;
Foley, Mark, & Hall, Diane. 2003. Advanced Learner’s Grammar “A self-study reference & practice book with answers”. (p.104-107; p.108-111). Pearson Education Limited. London: Longman;
Gălățeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana & Comișel, Ecaterina.1993. Gramatica limbii engleze pentru uz școlar.(pag.68). București: OMEGAPRES & RAI ;
Gălățeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana. 1996. Sinteze de gramatică engleză. Exerciții și teste de evaluare. Editura Lucman. București;
Gălățeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana. 1996. Exerciții de gramatică engleză. Timpurile verbale. Editura Omegapres. București;
Greenbaum, S. & Quirk, R.1977. A Student’s Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman;
Grigoroiu, G. 2000. An English Language Teaching Reader. Vol.I, II, p.81-97. Reprografia Universității din Craiova;
Harmer, J. 1995. Teaching and Learning Grammar. London: Longman;
Harmer, J. 1995. The Practice of English Language Teaching . London: Longman;
Hawkins, Eric. 1984. Awareness of Language: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press;
Hubbard, P. L. 1994. Non-transformational theories of grammar: Implications for language teaching. In T. Odlin (Ed.), Perspectives on pedagogical grammar (p. 25-48). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press;
Hudai, L. 1999. A Modern English Grammar on Historical principles, vol.3. Allen and Unwin. London;
Krashen, S. 1981. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Pergamon Press;
Larsen-Freeman, D. 2001. Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring. Boston: Heinle & Heinle;
Leech, Geoffrey.1991. An A-Z of English Grammar &Usage. (p.329-334). London: Nelson Ltd.;
Leech, G., Svartik, T. 1979. A Communicative Grammar of English . Longman. London;
Leech, G. 2002. Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow. London;
Leech, G. 1971. Meaning and the English Verb. Longman. London;
Levitchi, L.1971. Gramatica limbii engleze: Morfologia. București: EDP;
Levitchi, L., Preda, I. 1967. Gramatica limbii engleze. București: EDP ;
Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative Language Teaching. An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press;
Murar, I. 2005. The English Verb. The category of Voice. Craiova: Editura Universitaria Craiova ;
Murar, I. , Pisoschi, C., Trantescu, A.M. 2008. Essentials of English Syntax. Craiova: Editura Universitaria Craiova ;
Murar, Ioana. 2011. The English Verb. (p.36-40; p.115-127).Craiova: Editura Universitaria Craiova ;
Murphy, Raymond.1997. Essential Grammar in Use. Second edition. (p.51). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press;
Nelson, P.L. 1995. Grammar is Great! London: Macmillan Heinemann ;
Nunan, D. 1989. Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press;
Owen, Thomas. 1965. Transformational Grammar and the Teach of English. New York: Rinehart & Winston Inc.;
Palmer, F.R. 1987. The English Verb. Oxford University Press;
Pawlowska, B. & Kempinski, Z. 2006. Teste de limba engleză : The Passive Voice. (p.87-89). București: Editura Teora ;
Pienemann, M. & Johnston. M. 1987. Factors influencing the development of language proficiency. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Applying Second Language Acquisition Research (p.45-141). Adelaide, Australia:National Curriculum Resource Center, AMEP;
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S. 1977. A University Grammar of English. Longman Group Limited;
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. 1985. A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman;
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman;
Riley, Philip. 1985. Discourse and Learning. London: Longman;
Rutherford, W. 1987. Second language grammar: Learning and Teaching. London: Longman;
Rutherford, W., & Sharwood Smith, M. 1988. Grammar and second language teaching: A book of readings. New York: Newbury House;
Scrivener, J. 1994. Learning teaching. Macmillan Heinemann
Seymour, David & Popova, Maria. 2005. 700 Classroom Activities. (p.87-88). London: Macmillan;
Swan, M. 1987. Practical English Usage. Oxford: OUP;
Șerban, D.1982. English Syntax. București: TUB;
Ștefănescu, I. 1988. English Morphology: The Nominal and Verbal Categories. Vol. II. Editura Didactică și Pedagogică. București;
Thomas, Owen.1967. Transformational Grammar and the Teacher of English. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston;
Thompson, A., Martinet, A. 1994. A Practical Guide for Teachers. London. OUP;
Thompson, A., Martinet, A. 1994. Exercises. Vol. I, II. London. OUP;
Veres, G., Andriescu, I., Cehan, A. 1998. A dictionary of English grammar. Polirom: Iași;
Vince, M. 2003. Intermediate Language Practice. (p. 58-61). Macmillan. Heinemann London;
Vince, M. 2003. Advanced Language Practice. Macmillan. Heinemann London;
Weaver, C. 1996. Teaching grammar in context. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann;
Wright, A., Betteridge, D., Buckby, M. 2006. Games for Language Learning. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press;
ANNEXES
Lesson Plan 1
Teacher: Dovleac Georgeta
School: Școala Gimnazială ,,Nicolae Bălcescu”, Drăgășani
Date: 05.03.2015
Class: 8th grade (L1)
Level: Upper Intermediate
Time: 50 min
Type of lesson: Grammar (The Passive Voice)
Materials: Strips of paper with active-voice sentences; handout on reasons of how and when to use the passive voice; pictures
that illustrate passive constructions; magazine or newspaper articles.
Goal: Students learn how and when to use the passive voice.
Objectives: Students will be able to form the passive voice.
Students will be able to differentiate between the passive and active voice.
Students will know when the passive voice is used.
Motivation: Show students a picture. Then ask them a question about the picture, which elicits an active-voice response. Write down that answer on the board, and tell them that there is another way to answer the question with the passive voice.
Explanation
Presentation/review of Subject, Object, Verb, and Past Participle.
Difference between the active and passive voice construction.
Reasons of why the passive voice is used instead of the active voice at times.
Use of passive and adjective
Activities
Quiz Game. Divide the class into two teams. Each team gets a piece of paper containing general questions about famous people and their achievements. The students have to fill in the blanks with the right passive form of the verb in brackets and then they have to identify the correct answer. Once the game is over, check out if the questions were built correctly to ensure that the class understands the passive voice.
Partner work. Give students a picture of a touristic attraction and some prompts about it and ask students to describe the picture using the passive voice for their partner to guess the touristic objective that is being described. Then, students stand up and describe his or her picture in front of the class.
Partner work. Give each pair of student a newspaper or magazine article and ask them to find passive voice sentence and explain to the class why the writer used the passive voice instead of the active voice.
Lockstep. Give students worksheets containing sentences in the active and ask them to come to the blackboard and write the sentences in the passive paying attention to the omission of the agent.
Follow-up: Students go through a piece of writing that they’ve done recently, and find five cases where they used the passive voice. For each case, they must explain how they know it’s in the passive voice, state whether it should stay a passive voice, and convert it into an active voice.
Lesson Plan 2
Teacher: Dovleac Georgeta
School: Școala Gimnazială ,,Nicolae Bălcescu”, Drăgășani
Date: 03.04.2015
Class: 8th grade (L1)
Level: Upper Intermediate
Textbook: High Flyer (Longman)
Unit: Unit C ( Get better soon)
Time: 50 min
Lesson Topic: PASSIVE VOICE- CONSOLIDATION
LANGUAGE SKILLS:
Speaking- productive skill
Reading- receptive skill
Writing- productive skill
Listening- receptive skill
GENERAL AIMS:
to arouse the pupils’ interest in the subject of the new lesson
to improve their knowledge
to help students improve their speaking
to develop communication during class
to check comprehension
to make students use their previous knowledge
to stimulate students’ imagination
SPECIFIC AIMS: By the end of the lesson:
students will be able to give examples of passive constructions in English
students will revise in a pleasant way the previous lessons
students should understand the spoken and written message given by the teacher
TEACHING TECHNIQUES:
Games
Conversation
Fill in
Rephrase
ORGANIZATION OF THE CLASS: lockstep, group- work, individual work
AIDS: handouts, the textbook, dictionaries and blackboard
1. Activity 1: – Conversation
Warm-up (5-7 minutes)
the teacher greets the pupils
the pupils greet the teacher
organization of the class
check the homework
Procedure-Students’ homework (a translation exercise) is checked by exchanging notebooks with the partner and writing the correct version on the board by the students; feedback is given by the teacher.
2. Activity 2
Aim: to revise passive voice and its uses
Timing: (5 minutes)
Procedure-The teacher takes a sentence from the translation exercise previously checked and gives the passive counterpart, then asks students to explain the difference in form and in meaning.
‘The editor writes magazine articles.’ ‘Magazine articles are written by the editor.’
The teacher explains that in English we usually put new information at the end of the sentence. The passive changes the order of things: in the active voice the focus is on what the editor does, while in the passive voice the focus is on who does the writing.
3. Activity 3
Aim: to revise grammar functions and explain syntactic changes in the passive voice
Timing:(5 -7 minutes)
Interaction: T-S, S-T
Procedure:
The teacher writes the title of the lesson on the board and the aims of the lesson. Then the teacher asks the students for the explanations of passive and active voice based on students’ previous knowledge from their English and Romanian grammar lessons. If necessary, the teacher offers the definitions. (Voice: the form of a verb that shows whether the subject of a sentence performs the action or is affected by it).
The teacher asks the students to identify the grammar functions in the sentences on the board and then the teacher demonstrates the transformations occurred when turning a sentence into the passive voice.
4. Activity 4
Aim: to teach / revise the situations when the agent is omitted and why
Timing: (5-7 minutes)
Interaction: T-S, S-S
Procedure:
a. The teacher explains that the agent is not mentioned in the cases when we do not know, do not care or do not want to say who or what did something. (the agent is not known, unimportant or obvious. The teacher provides examples for each of the situations)
b. The teacher also explains that sentences in the passive voice do not include the agent and that it is mainly used in scientific and formal writing.
5. Activity 5
Aim: to teach / revise transitive or intransitive verbs and verb changes in the passive voice
Timing: (10 minutes)
Interaction: T-S, S-S
Procedure:
teacher asks for information about transitive and intransitive verbs and explains if necessary the difference.then the teacher asks the students to give examples of transitive and intransitive verbs.
The teacher revises with the students tense changes in the passive voice reminding them that the verb TO BE is the tense of the main verb in the active voice while the main verb is always a past participle in the passive. Simple, perfect and continuous tenses are demonstrated in the passive voice. The teacher gives the active voice sentences and the students must transform them into passive voice sentences.
The teacher demonstrates the cases of modal verbs in the passive voice.
6. Activity 6
Aim: to determine students use their previous knowledge and knowledge which has just been revised
Timing: (10 minutes)
Interaction: S-S, T-S
Procedure: (group work) The teacher asks the students the text in the textbook ( ‘The enemy within’) and perform some communicative activities. First, the sudents have to read only the introductory paragraph and then answer several questions. After that, each group has to choose from a list the most suitable subtitle for each part of the article. The last step of the activity is for students to write two passive versions of each of the given sentences.
7. Activity 7
Aim: home assignment and feedback
Timing: (5 minutes)
PROCEDURE : students and teacher remember the points taught and the homework is assigned by the teacher.
Worksheet 1
I. Fill in the active or passive form of the verbs in brackets:
II. Complete each sentence with two to five words including the word in bold:
1. They build the house last year.
was The house ……………………………… last year.
2. They are planting trees in the garden.
being Trees ……………………………… in the garden.
3. The dog was chasing the cat around the house.
was The cat ……………………………. around the house by the dog.
4. They haven’t cleaned the floor yet.
been The floor ……………………….. yet.
5. They had eaten all the food by the time I got there.
had All the food …………………………. by the time I got there.
6. You must finish the project by Wednesday afternoon.
be The project …………………………… by Wednesday afternoon.
7. Mr. Brown sent us a wedding invitation.
was A wedding invitation ………………………………… to us by Mr. Brown.
8. They should inform the citizens as soon as possible.
should The citizens ……………………………… as soon as possible.
III. Correct the mistakes:
1. The dishes has been washed.
2. The letters are being opened every morning in the office.
3. Your homework must finished by Monday.
4. The woman seen taking the children to school.
5. Mike has been tell about the new job.
6. The cars stole from the car park.
7. The house is been decorated recently.
8. The centre will visit by the King next month.
IV. Put the words in the correct order to make sentences in the Passive Voice:
1. garden / have / The children / sent / been / the / in.
2. film / remembered / long / will / time / for / This / a / be.
3. station / taken / The family / to / a / taxi / the / was / by.
4. Violet / Books / always / the / by / borrowed / school library / from / are.
5. teacher / David / A postcard / former / written / Christmas / his / to / by / was / last.
6. Paula / by / theatre / Randy / invited / to / will / the / be / tomorrow.
7. experiments / laboratory / made / Interesting / in / are / this.
8. these / Preparations / are / the / made / wedding / being / here / days / for / party.
9. every / cars / this / sold / week / shop / Lots of / are / in.
10. left / classroom / in / A schoolbag / has / the / been.
Worksheet 2
I. Put the verbs in the following sentences into the Passive Present Perfect:
1. A new edition of this grammar book ……………………………… (publish)
2. The children ……………………………….. home from the nursery school by bus. (bring)
3. All the bread …………………………….. at this bakery. (sell)
4. Wonderful clothes …………………………….. for the graduation party. (buy)
5. The meat for the barbecue ………….. already ……………………….. (cut)
6. The girl …………………………. from drowning by a lifeguard. (save)
7. The puppy ……………………………….. by a big dog. (hurt)
8. The classroom desks …………………………………….. by the pupils. (clean)
II. Write questions in the passive to which the words in bold are the answers, as in the example:
1. Captain Cook discovered Australia.
Who was Australia discovered by?
2. A dog was chasing Paul.
……………………………………………………
3. Simon is going to organize the party.
……………………………………………………
4. A bee stung him.
………………………………………………….
5. Fiona cooked this delicious turkey.
………………………………………………….
6. An international company publishes these books.
…………………………………………………………………………………….
7. A bomb killed the soldier.
……………………………………………………………………………………
III. Rewrite the sentences in the passive in both ways, as in the example:
1. His father gave Billy a new bicycle.
a). Billy was given a new bicycle by his father.
b). A new bicycle was given to Billy by his father.
2). Fred has offered Mary a watch.
a). …………………………………………………………………………
b). …………………………………………………………………………
3). Lisa is sending Tim an invitation.
a). ………………………………………………………………………….
b). …………………………………………………………………………..
4). She bought me some oranges.
a). …………………………………………………………………………..
b). ……………………………………………………………………………
5). Sonia is going to lend me some money.
a). ……………………………………………………………………………
b). ……………………………………………………………………………
6). Jack will show me the new car.
a). …………………………………………………………………………..
b). …………………………………………………………………………..
7). They paid him a lot of money for the job.
a). ………………………………………………………………………………..
b). ………………………………………………………………………………..
IV. Complete the text with either the will passive or the present perfect passive forms of the verbs in brackets:
Worksheet 3
I. Rewrite each sentence so that it does not contain the words someone or people:
1. Someone built ships with sails more than 5,000 years ago.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. Someone constructed a hot-air balloon in 1783.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. People developed the steam ship in the 19th century.
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
4. Someone opened the first successful passenger railway in 1830.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
5. People started the first passenger airlines after the First World War.
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
II. Read the text and underline all the subject, verb and object structures. Then rewrite the text using present simple passive verbs. Leave out any unnecessary words:
How a toy car is made
In the factory, they use a computer to plan the exact shape of the car. They then feed this computer program into a machine, and produce a plastic prototype. Then they produce the actual toy cars in a factory abroad. As far as construction is concerned, they make the bodies of the cars from plastic. They add small electronic motors to the cars, and then they paint them. They also attach licence plates. Quality control inspects the cars and then they wrap them and pack them into cardboard boxes. They ship the cars to Britain.
a. As a first step, ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
b. Then ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
c. The actual ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
d. The bodies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
e. Small ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Licence ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
f. At the next stage …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
g. Finally ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
III. Translate into English:
1. Câteva pahare au fost sparte la restaurant luna aceasta.
2. Piesa aceasta de teatru plictisitoare a fost deja uitată de public.
3. Copilul acesta este împins în curta școlii de un băiat rău în fiecare zi.
4. Cartea a fost scrisă luna trecută.
5. O atitudine diferită va trebui să fie adoptată de către părinții lui dacă vor ca el să reușească.
IV. Rewrite the newspaper headlines as completed sentences:
1. A rare bird has been found in the remote countryside.
2. …………………………………………………………………………
3. ………………………………………………………………………..
4. ………………………………………………………………………..
5. ……………………………………………………………………….
6. ……………………………………………………………………………….
V. Read the information about urban development. Then complete the text with the present perfect passive or the past perfect passive form of the verbs in brackets:
Copyright Notice
© Licențiada.org respectă drepturile de proprietate intelectuală și așteaptă ca toți utilizatorii să facă același lucru. Dacă consideri că un conținut de pe site încalcă drepturile tale de autor, te rugăm să trimiți o notificare DMCA.
Acest articol: LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I [310887] (ID: 310887)
Dacă considerați că acest conținut vă încalcă drepturile de autor, vă rugăm să depuneți o cerere pe pagina noastră Copyright Takedown.