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Nunan (1999) identifies inductive approach as a process where learners discover the grammar rules themselves by examining the examples. In a inductive approach it is also possible to use a context for grammar rules. That is to say, learners explore the grammar rules in a text or an audio rather than isolated sentences. Thornbury (1999) notes that in an inductive approach learners are provided with samples which include the target grammar that they will learn. Then learners work on the examples and try to discover the rules themselves. When students obtain the grammar rules and they practice the language by creating their own examples
If your students are writing horrible sentences, it doesn't matter how many times you explain the need for more forethought and care. On the next assignment, without proper instruction and guidance, they will do the same. Combining sentences, which should be one of the basic skills of the English language, is often skipped in earlier grades. When teachers see that their students can read and comprehend more complex syntax, the writing skill is not reinforced. However, this often hampers students in the later grades. Fortunately the process can be reversed-or stopped in its tracks before it starts-with a strong foundation in combining sentences.
Examples from Reading A primary teaching of combining sentences should begin with reading and instruction instead of isolated examples on a board. You may, for instance, start out by asking students how they know to end once sentence and begin another. There will be a variety of correct answers to the question, which you can write on the chalk board. Next, take an example from a recent short story covered in class, and have the students notice the choices that the author made when ending sentences and beginning new ones. Explain to your students that, although the author made some excellent choices, there are plenty of other options.
Use the text to combine sentences and break them apart. Use different techniques such as breaking two sentences into three, or combining the tail end of a sentence with the sentence following. This project will demonstrate not only the choices of the author, but the skills of the pupils themselves to make reasonable sentence combination decisions.
Write a Bad Paragraph Oftentimes, teachers will harp on the need for editing and peer-editing without demonstrating to the students what type of editing is needed. When they've pored over their work for perhaps hours at a time, it is difficult for them to reckon with their own faults.
A great teaching strategy for sentence combination is to introduce an unfamiliar piece of text that is poorly written, and allow them to combine the sentences together for a more coherent whole. Once the students have the basic understanding of how and why sentences are combined in various configurations, you can use their reading to demonstrate examples of bad sentences.
Take a paragraph of text from a short story recently covered and re-write it so that the sentences are short, choppy, and entirely without transition. Alternatively, you can write a paragraph of your own. Have them edit the paragraph as a class, and then write their own "bad prose" for a friend to combine sentences as homework.
Explain the Formal Elements At this point, you can begin explaining to students the fundamental elements that make for a good sentence. Whereas before they would not have understood the grammatical backbone on which your lessons are built, by now they will be prepared to hear why sentences function the way they do. Focus on grammar and concrete images and build from this. A main part of this unit will be:
Explaining the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions Reinforcing how punctuation can make these decisions stronger. While these elements of grammar are sure to be lost on some students, make them extremely simple at first, focusing on the seven coordinating conjunctions and then moving onto the possibilities allowed by the subordinating.
Seek Activities As always, these lessons will become boring and dry without a variety of activities to keep students interested.
Get them into the lesson, allowing them to act out the parts of sentences and having one or two students at a time play conjunctions. Puzzles, timed activities, and word searches will all be valuable tools. If all else fails, look for interactive games online that pique the interest of the students. In this age of technology, there is no reason to forego the more colorful and entertaining possibilities of the Internet for the more banal workbook activities to which the students are probably accustomed. Combine video (Conjunction Junction is still fun!), audio, written, and oral exercises for the best possible results. Remember, it takes only one particularly memorable activity for the concept to become entrenched in the mind of a student.
Sentence Combining: Teaching Rules of Sentence Structure by Doing Print
Email
Writing
Students with poor writing skills often write sentences that lack 'syntactic maturity' (Robinson & Howell, 2008). That is, these writers' sentences often follow a simple, stereotyped format. In public schools, grammar skills have traditionally been taught in isolation to give students the advanced writing knowledge required to master a diverse range of sentence structures. However, isolated grammar instruction appears to have little or no positive impact in helping poor writers become better writers (Graham & Perin, 2007). A promising alternative is to use sentence combining (Graham & Perin, 2007; Strong, 1986). In this approach, students are presented with kernel sentences and given explicit instruction in how to weld these kernel sentences into more diverse sentence types either by using connecting words to combine multiple sentences into one or by isolating key information from an otherwise superfluous sentence and embedding that important information into the base sentence. In a simple demonstration of sentence combining, a student may generate these two sentences in her composition on the American Revolution: The American army had few supplies in the winter of 1776. The American army had few trained military leaders. The instructor might meet with the student and have the student recopy the two sentences in this format: The American army had few supplies in the winter of 1776. The American army had few trained military leaders. (and) The student would be encouraged to combine the two shorter sentences into a more comprehensive sentence by using the connecting word (coordinating conjunction) 'and' to combine objects: The American army had few supplies and few trained military leaders in the winter of 1776. Formatting Sentence Combining Examples These simple formatting conventions are used in sentence-combining exercises (Saddler, 2005; Strong, 1986): In each example, the base clause (sentence) appears first. Any sentence(s) to be combined or embedded with the base clause appear below that base clause.
Example: Base clause: The dog ran after the bus. Sentence to be embedded: The dog is yellow. Student-generated solution: The yellow dog ran after the bus.
Connecting words to be used as a sentence-combining tool appear in parentheses at the end of a sentence that is to be combined with the base clause.
Example: Base clause: The car stalled. Sentence to be combined: The car ran out of gas. (because) Student-generated solution: The car stalled because it ran out of gas.
The element(s) of any sentence to be embedded in the base clause are underlined.
Example: Base clause: The economic forecast resulted in strong stock market gains. Sentence to be embedded: The economic forecast was upbeat. Student-generated solution: The upbeat economic forecast resulted in strong stock market gains.
Using Sentence Combining in Instruction
Teachers who use sentence combining in their writing instruction should follow a direct-instruction approach (Saddler, 2005). The instructor fosters a learning atmosphere that encourages students to take risks when participating in sentence-combining activities. When first introducing sentence-combining to the class, the instructor explains that using varied sentence structures helps writers to better convey meaning. The instructor tells students that there are often multiple correct ways to combine sentences. The instructor completes several sentence-combining examples in front of the group, using a think-aloud approach to show his or her thinking process in successfully combining sentences. Students should then complete sentence-combining examples in pairs or groups, with the instructor circulating through the class to check for student understanding. Eventually, students work independently on sentence combining tasks to demonstrate mastery. They may then be asked to look in their own writing for examples in which they could combine sentences to improve A listing of types and examples of sentence-combining appears below in Table 1. When creating lessons on sentence combining, instructors should review the potential types of sentence-combining in Table 1 and decide the order in which those types might be presented to their class.
Table 1: Sentence-combining types and examples (Saddler, 2005; Strong, 1986): NOTE: This table is also available as an attachment at the bottom of the Type of Sentence
Multiple (Compound) Sentence Subjects or Objects:
Sentence Combining Example
Base Clause: Skyscrapers in the city were damaged in the h
Sentence to Be Embedded: Bridges in the city were damag hurricane.
Solution: Skyscrapers and bridges in the city were damaged hurricane.
Base Clause: When they travel, migratory birds need safe h
Sentence to Be Embedded: When they travel, migratory bi need regular supplies of food.
Solution: When they travel, migratory birds need safe habi
.Base Clause: Dry regions are at risk for chronic water short
Sentence to Be Embedded: Overpopulated regions are at r water shortages.
Solution: Dry and overpopulated regions are at risk for chro shortages.
Base Clause: Health care costs have risen nationwide.
Sentence to Be Embedded: Those health care costs have al risen quickly.
Solution: Health care costs have risen quickly nationwide.
Two or more subjects can be combined with a conjunction (e.g., or, and). Two or more direct or indirect objects can be combined with a conjunction (e.g., or, and).
Adjectives & Adverbs: When a sentence simply contains an adjective or adverb that modifies the noun or verb of another sentence, the adjective or adverb from the first sentence can be embedded in the related sentence.
Table 1: Sentence-combining types and examples (Saddler, 2005; Strong, 1986): NOTE: This table is also available as an attachment at the bottom of the Type of Sentence
Sentence Combining Example
Base Clause: The house was falling apart.
Sentence to Be Combined: No one seemed to care. (but)
Solution: The house was falling apart, but no one seemed t
Base Clause: The glaciers began to melt.
Sentence to Be Combined:The earth’s average temperatur (because)
Solution: The glaciers began to melt because the earth’s av temperature increased.
Base Clause: The artist was the most popular in the city.
Relative Clauses: Sentence contains an embedded, subordinate clause that modifies a noun.
Sentence to Be Combined: The artist painted watercolors o (who)
Sentence contains an embedded, subordinate clause that modifies a noun.
Solution: The artist who painted watercolors of sunsets wa popular in the city.
Base Clause: The explorer paddled the kayak across the rag
Sentence to Be Embedded: The explorer was an expert in h
Solution: The explorer, an expert in handling boats, paddle across the raging river.
Base Clause: Some historians view the Louisiana Purchase a important expansion of United States territory.
Sentence to Be Embedded: The Louisiana Purchase was Pre Jefferson’s achievement.
Solution: Some historians view President Jefferson’s Louisia as the most important expansion of United States territory.
Connecting Words: One or more sentences are combined with connecting words. Coordinating conjunctions (e.g., and, but) link sentences on an equal basis. Subordinating conjunctions (e.g., after, until, unless, before, while, because) link sentences with one of the sentences subordinate or dependent on the other.
Appositives: Sentence contains two noun phrases that refer to the same object. When two sentences refer to the same noun, one sentence be reduced to an appositive and embedded in the other sentence.
Possessive Nouns: A sentence that describes possession or ownership can be reduced to a possessive noun and embedded in another sentence.
Attachments
If your students are writing horrible sentences, it doesn't matter how many times you explain the need for more forethought and care. On the next assignment, without proper instruction and guidance, they will do the same. Combining sentences, which should be one of the basic skills of the English language, is often skipped in earlier grades. When teachers see that their students can read and comprehend more complex syntax, the writing skill is not reinforced. However, this often hampers students in the later grades. Fortunately the process can be reversed-or stopped in its tracks before it starts-with a strong foundation in combining sentences.
Examples from Reading A primary teaching of combining sentences should begin with reading and instruction instead of isolated examples on a board. You may, for instance, start out by asking students how they know to end once sentence and begin another. There will be a variety of correct answers to the question, which you can write on the chalk board. Next, take an example from a recent short story covered in class, and have the students notice the choices that the author made when ending sentences and beginning new ones. Explain to your students that, although the author made some excellent choices, there are plenty of other options.
Use the text to combine sentences and break them apart. Use different techniques such as breaking two sentences into three, or combining the tail end of a sentence with the sentence following. This project will demonstrate not only the choices of the author, but the skills of the pupils themselves to make reasonable sentence combination decisions.
Write a Bad Paragraph Oftentimes, teachers will harp on the need for editing and peer-editing without demonstrating to the students what type of editing is needed. When they've pored over their work for perhaps hours at a time, it is difficult for them to reckon with their own faults.
A great teaching strategy for sentence combination is to introduce an unfamiliar piece of text that is poorly written, and allow them to combine the sentences together for a more coherent whole. Once the students have the basic understanding of how and why sentences are combined in various configurations, you can use their reading to demonstrate examples of bad sentences.
Take a paragraph of text from a short story recently covered and re-write it so that the sentences are short, choppy, and entirely without transition. Alternatively, you can write a paragraph of your own. Have them edit the paragraph as a class, and then write their own "bad prose" for a friend to combine sentences as homework.
Explain the Formal Elements At this point, you can begin explaining to students the fundamental elements that make for a good sentence. Whereas before they would not have understood the grammatical backbone on which your lessons are built, by now they will be prepared to hear why sentences function the way they do. Focus on grammar and concrete images and build from this. A main part of this unit will be:
Explaining the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions Reinforcing how punctuation can make these decisions stronger. While these elements of grammar are sure to be lost on some students, make them extremely simple at first, focusing on the seven coordinating conjunctions and then moving onto the possibilities allowed by the subordinating.
Seek Activities As always, these lessons will become boring and dry without a variety of activities to keep students interested.
Get them into the lesson, allowing them to act out the parts of sentences and having one or two students at a time play conjunctions. Puzzles, timed activities, and word searches will all be valuable tools. If all else fails, look for interactive games online that pique the interest of the students. In this age of technology, there is no reason to forego the more colorful and entertaining possibilities of the Internet for the more banal workbook activities to which the students are probably accustomed. Combine video (Conjunction Junction is still fun!), audio, written, and oral exercises for the best possible results. Remember, it takes only one particularly memorable activity for the concept to become entrenched in the mind of a student.
Sentence Combining: Teaching Rules of Sentence Structure by Doing Print
Writing
Students with poor writing skills often write sentences that lack 'syntactic maturity' (Robinson & Howell, 2008). That is, these writers' sentences often follow a simple, stereotyped format. In public schools, grammar skills have traditionally been taught in isolation to give students the advanced writing knowledge required to master a diverse range of sentence structures. However, isolated grammar instruction appears to have little or no positive impact in helping poor writers become better writers (Graham & Perin, 2007). A promising alternative is to use sentence combining (Graham & Perin, 2007; Strong, 1986). In this approach, students are presented with kernel sentences and given explicit instruction in how to weld these kernel sentences into more diverse sentence types either by using connecting words to combine multiple sentences into one or by isolating key information from an otherwise superfluous sentence and embedding that important information into the base sentence. In a simple demonstration of sentence combining, a student may generate these two sentences in her composition on the American Revolution: The American army had few supplies in the winter of 1776. The American army had few trained military leaders. The instructor might meet with the student and have the student recopy the two sentences in this format: The American army had few supplies in the winter of 1776. The American army had few trained military leaders. (and) The student would be encouraged to combine the two shorter sentences into a more comprehensive sentence by using the connecting word (coordinating conjunction) 'and' to combine objects: The American army had few supplies and few trained military leaders in the winter of 1776. Formatting Sentence Combining Examples These simple formatting conventions are used in sentence-combining exercises (Saddler, 2005; Strong, 1986): In each example, the base clause (sentence) appears first. Any sentence(s) to be combined or embedded with the base clause appear below that base clause.
Example: Base clause: The dog ran after the bus. Sentence to be embedded: The dog is yellow. Student-generated solution: The yellow dog ran after the bus.
Connecting words to be used as a sentence-combining tool appear in parentheses at the end of a sentence that is to be combined with the base clause.
Example: Base clause: The car stalled. Sentence to be combined: The car ran out of gas. (because) Student-generated solution: The car stalled because it ran out of gas.
The element(s) of any sentence to be embedded in the base clause are underlined.
Example: Base clause: The economic forecast resulted in strong stock market gains. Sentence to be embedded: The economic forecast was upbeat. Student-generated solution: The upbeat economic forecast resulted in strong stock market gains.
Using Sentence Combining in Instruction
Teachers who use sentence combining in their writing instruction should follow a direct-instruction approach (Saddler, 2005). The instructor fosters a learning atmosphere that encourages students to take risks when participating in sentence-combining activities. When first introducing sentence-combining to the class, the instructor explains that using varied sentence structures helps writers to better convey meaning. The instructor tells students that there are often multiple correct ways to combine sentences. The instructor completes several sentence-combining examples in front of the group, using a think-aloud approach to show his or her thinking process in successfully combining sentences. Students should then complete sentence-combining examples in pairs or groups, with the instructor circulating through the class to check for student understanding. Eventually, students work independently on sentence combining tasks to demonstrate mastery. They may then be asked to look in their own writing for examples in which they could combine sentences to improve A listing of types and examples of sentence-combining appears below in Table 1. When creating lessons on sentence combining, instructors should review the potential types of sentence-combining in Table 1 and decide the order in which those types might be presented to their class.
Table 1: Sentence-combining types and examples (Saddler, 2005; Strong, 1986): NOTE: This table is also available as an attachment at the bottom of the Type of Sentence
Multiple (Compound) Sentence Subjects or Objects:
Sentence Combining Example
Base Clause: Skyscrapers in the city were damaged in the h
Sentence to Be Embedded: Bridges in the city were damag hurricane.
Solution: Skyscrapers and bridges in the city were damaged hurricane.
Base Clause: When they travel, migratory birds need safe h
Sentence to Be Embedded: When they travel, migratory bi need regular supplies of food.
Solution: When they travel, migratory birds need safe habi
.Base Clause: Dry regions are at risk for chronic water short
Sentence to Be Embedded: Overpopulated regions are at r water shortages.
Solution: Dry and overpopulated regions are at risk for chro shortages.
Base Clause: Health care costs have risen nationwide.
Sentence to Be Embedded: Those health care costs have al risen quickly.
Solution: Health care costs have risen quickly nationwide.
Two or more subjects can be combined with a conjunction (e.g., or, and). Two or more direct or indirect objects can be combined with a conjunction (e.g., or, and).
Adjectives & Adverbs: When a sentence simply contains an adjective or adverb that modifies the noun or verb of another sentence, the adjective or adverb from the first sentence can be embedded in the related sentence.
Table 1: Sentence-combining types and examples (Saddler, 2005; Strong, 1986): NOTE: This table is also available as an attachment at the bottom of the Type of Sentence
Sentence Combining Example
Base Clause: The house was falling apart.
Sentence to Be Combined: No one seemed to care. (but)
Solution: The house was falling apart, but no one seemed t
Base Clause: The glaciers began to melt.
Sentence to Be Combined:The earth’s average temperatur (because)
Solution: The glaciers began to melt because the earth’s av temperature increased.
Base Clause: The artist was the most popular in the city.
Relative Clauses: Sentence contains an embedded, subordinate clause that modifies a noun.
Sentence to Be Combined: The artist painted watercolors o (who)
Sentence contains an embedded, subordinate clause that modifies a noun.
Solution: The artist who painted watercolors of sunsets wa popular in the city.
Base Clause: The explorer paddled the kayak across the rag
Sentence to Be Embedded: The explorer was an expert in h
Solution: The explorer, an expert in handling boats, paddle across the raging river.
Base Clause: Some historians view the Louisiana Purchase a important expansion of United States territory.
Sentence to Be Embedded: The Louisiana Purchase was Pre Jefferson’s achievement.
Solution: Some historians view President Jefferson’s Louisia as the most important expansion of United States territory.
Connecting Words: One or more sentences are combined with connecting words. Coordinating conjunctions (e.g., and, but) link sentences on an equal basis. Subordinating conjunctions (e.g., after, until, unless, before, while, because) link sentences with one of the sentences subordinate or dependent on the other.
Appositives: Sentence contains two noun phrases that refer to the same object. When two sentences refer to the same noun, one sentence be reduced to an appositive and embedded in the other sentence.
Possessive Nouns: A sentence that describes possession or ownership can be reduced to a possessive noun and embedded in another sentence.
Attachments
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