Even though teachers often provide students with
answers to certain grammar exercises, it does not guarantee that learners will
really remember or understand them. Most of the time, discovery exercises—that
is, when students need to research a topic themselves and report back—turn out
to be more effective than answer keys provided by teachers. This lesson allows
students to examine an online corpus that they can use both in and outside the
classroom in case they doubt the grammatical correctness of their writing.
Because it does not provide direct answers to questions, students have the
opportunity to practice their analytical skills by interpreting the results of
their searches.
Levels:
Intermediate+
Aims
Develop students’ ability to make appropriate
preposition choices in writing.
Encourage students to analyze language in
use.
Assist students in discovering answers instead of
providing them with answers.
Class Time: 45
minutes
Preparation Time: 15
minutes (if you want to prepare your own grammar exercise) or none (if you use the Appendix)
Resources Needed:
Computer lab or students’ own laptops, internet access,
handout
Procedure
Divide students in groups or pairs and ask them
to complete a grammar exercise. A sample grammar exercise is provided in the
Appendix.
After everyone is done, instead of providing
students with the correct answers in class, encourage them to find the correct
answers themselves.
Familiarize students with the corpus first (if
necessary) by explaining that it is a freely available collection of English
texts which currently totals more than 560 million words. The corpus is
regularly updated and expanded.
Walk students through the first question on the worksheet by
inviting them to enter the first target word from the exercise (i.e., grateful) into the search bar (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. COCA search for grateful. (Davies,
2008)
Ask students to click on the grayed “[POS]”
option, which stands for part of speech, and ask students to select “prep.ALL”,
the tag used for prepositions, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Part-of-speech drop-down menu in the
COCA. (Davies, 2008)
Clarify that the system will add a code to the
search bar in order to search for prepositions used immediately after grateful. Students must ensure that there is a space
between grateful and the code (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. COCA search for grateful followed by a preposition. (Davies,
2008)
Ask students to click on “Find matching strings”
to find out the most commonly used prepositions after grateful (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. COCA results for prepositions after grateful. (Davies, 2008)
Ask students to click on the results under the
“Context” column (see Figure 4) to investigate the difference between the first
two combinations. Students should notice that grateful for
is used to describe something a person is happy about or thankful for. It is
something a person has received from somebody else, for example, grateful for the time, grateful for their donations, grateful for the
break, etc. The combination grateful to is
mostly used to indicate appreciation to a person who did something for someone
else. For example, grateful to the people, grateful to all of them,
grateful to you, grateful to him, and so
on.
As a class, choose the option that works best
for the sentence in the exercise. Because the person is happy about
contributions made by their advisor, the correct answer is the collocation grateful for. Students should be able to come to this
conclusion themselves.
Complete one or two more items from the
worksheet together with the students.
Ask students to check their answers using the
search results from COCA for every sentence in the exercise (included at the
end of the Appendix).
Options
The COCA could be used instead of an answer key
for almost any grammar exercise: use of gerunds (eating, attending,
driving, etc.), subject-verb agreement (she goes, I
go, etc.), verb forms/tenses (went vs. has/have
gone, etc.), and count and noncount nouns (rice vs. a bowl
of rice, water vs. a cup of water, etc.) to cite a few
examples.
After students have a chance to work with the
COCA in class, a similar activity could be assigned as homework.
Encourage students to create an account on the
COCA website. Even though it is free of charge, it allows no more than 10–15
searches without registration.
Conclusion
Data-driven answers to grammar exercises like this
allow students to become more independent language learners and teach them how
to use a corpus tool to improve their grammatical accuracy.
Anastasiia
Kryzhanivska is an ESOL program director
and an English Department assistant teaching professor at Bowling Green State
University, where she teaches ESOL, linguistics, first-year writing, and
teacher education classes.
In this blog, I would like to talk about how English can be taught to elementary age children through science. Many classroom teachers that I have worked with have reported that science was especially hard for their multilingual learners (MLLs). This post shows how these students can succeed in science class—and make great strides in their English language acquisition—if the language and content of science is modified for them and they are provided with the appropriate supports. Here are four ways to do this.
Reading Black History Month at Dar America, by Spencer Salas
Happy February from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte! For this post, to celebrate Black History Month, I’d like to write about the power of public libraries and how I came to read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.
In 1991, I graduated from the University of Virginia and began teaching at the American Language Center in Casablanca, Morocco. I stayed for three years. Every day, I’d walk to the school on Boulevard Moulay Youssef — passing by a restored villa, “Dar America/The American House.” It was an extension of the Cultural Affairs section of the U.S. Consulate and, among other things, a library. I filled out a card and became a member. Read more.
In conversations with preservice teachers, a question that inevitably arises is this: Why did you choose to become a teacher? Among the varied answers, there is always one common theme. This relates to wanting to make a difference in people’s lives by influencing the next generation, and, potentially, changing the world.
But do we actually do this? As individuals, do we even have the capacity to change the world? We live in a time where poverty, war, oppression, injustice, and uncertainty are predominant issues in every part of the globe. Many of us, as teachers, may feel overwhelmed, and unsure of where to even begin.
February 20 is World Day of Social Justice. The day is celebrated to raise awareness of social justice issues worldwide, highlight the power of global solidarity, and advance opportunities to promote social development and human dignity. As educators, this may be a useful opportunity to enable conversations about inequities and injustices, so that we can help students to develop the critical thinking, collaboration, and self-reflection skills necessary to foster a better society. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Read more.
Teaching listening means more than just giving students listening activities and checking for understanding—it means teaching them how to listen. Listening in the Classroom takes promising research findings and theory and turns them into practical teaching ideas that help develop listening proficiency.
While engaging and motivating students in the classroom has always been critical for student success, it is even more important and challenging in the online learning environment. This practical guide will provide English language educators with a number of strategies and ready-to-use activities to help them engage and motivate their students for improved learner outcomes. It also covers trends in online learning, engagement and motivation principles and competencies, as well as ways administrators can support teachers' professional development. As an additional resource, the book comes with a companion website. **This title also includes a companion website with online resources.
While SEL is becoming increasing critical for learners’ success, teachers often feel unprepared to incorporate or address it in their classrooms. This book serves as a practical, concise, and easy-to-follow reference that English language teachers in K-12 and adult education and English language teacher educators can use in their classrooms. It is one of the limited emerging SEL resources available that is tailored to the English language teaching field and contributes to filling the existing gap of SEL in English language education. Teachers will be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to practice self-care and be confident in implementing SEL in their learning spaces to support and benefit their learners.
Active TESOL members may read current and recent issues of TESOL Connections online at http://www.tesol.org/tc. Inclusion in TESOL Connections does not constitute an endorsement by TESOL.
TESOL International Association
1925 Ballenger Avenue, Suite 550 Alexandria, VA 22314-6820 USA
Tel. +1 703.518.2501
Fax: +1 703.691.5327
E-mail: members@tesol.org (general information) www.tesol.org
Previous Article
