Teach English in Xuefu Zhen - Yancheng Shi

Introduction: Grammar, as it dictates rules for the formation of a sentence, can be considered to be the most potent tool for communication. Every language, that it does not matter on how every one of the words is formed, relies on grammar to get meanings across. Although grammar has many definitions and may mean differently to different people, this essay focuses on the linguistic part of the grammar which is defined by many scholars to be “the study of ways that defines how words and phrases work with one other to convey meanings”. From the very definition of grammar, it is clear that meanings can not be well interpreted without the appearance of grammar. However, it is easier to teach students with a similar grammar background of English than to teach those whose govern of native language differs from English. Many grammars of other languages vary significantly from English, frequently originated from the diversity of culture. But, to meet the length requirement, it is the Chinese grammar, the one that author of this thesis learned as part of his native tongue, and English grammar, the one that author has been teaching for a few years, to be compared. The similarities and differences between Chinese grammar and English grammar Even though the Chinese character is formed in a different methodology comparing to the English lexis, there are many similarities between the syntax of these two languages. First, the basic sentence structure is the same. For a sentence to be a sentence, both grammars require to have at least one verb in any sentence. In addition, for convictions in both cultures, they all manifest to be starting with subjects with the verbs usually to follow, with occasional variations. Second, the usage of notional words in Chinese is not very far from the usage of those in English. In both cultures, adjectives, that are used to describe nouns, are put before the nouns; adverbs that are used to define verbs are placed before the verbs. Last but not least, Chinese grammar utilizes functional words similar to that of English grammar. Conjunction words are often used to relate two sentences; prepositions are typically used to add clauses (although the way to add clauses is different in the Chinese grammatical culture); both grammars relies on the use of interjection to express stress within the formation of sentences. However, English grammar is controlled (ref?). Taking the basic subject-verb-object sentence structure as an example, the subject must be a noun, and the object must be a noun or an adjective. However, Chinese grammar does not stipulate that. An adjective can be a subject, a verb can be a subject, and sometimes there is no subject at all! Therefore, the English grammar is under more control than the one of Chinese, which could result in a methodological approach of teaching English grammar to Chinese students. One fascinating thing is that the verb varies under different circumstances of each sentence in the English language, which is something that can not be seen in Chinese sentences. Moreover, the rules of how to change the verbs are quite clear. For example, if something happened in the past and had an effect in the past, a past perfect tense must be employed. Therefore, tense modification is something essential and hard for Chinese students to study, which, according to observation throughout ten years of teaching, is where most Chinese students are struggling with. A more straightforward yet more effective approach for students to learn these alternation requirements is a necessity. The methodological approach Since the verb changes are stipulated clearly, it becomes possible for summarization (There ought to be some pics to illustrate the summarization. But since images can not be loaded, they are omitted). From the pictures, two things are crystal clear. On the one hand, the number of common verb variations is limited. On the other hand, all irregular variations are just one tense moving to the left (i.e. using did for do). Therefore, were students able to learn the rules of using verbs, all the tenses and irregularities can be mastered quickly. The following up question is how to let students learn the rules effectively and efficiently. As aforementioned, English has a grammar with strict control. Therefore, it is convenient for both teachers and students to utilize some controlled methods for teaching and learning, such as fill-in-blanks, sentence organization, verb verification for organized sentences, and passage writing with specific suitable topics(like If life could start over, and What did I do yesterday). The result of using the abovementioned verbal change pictures has been excellent. In several research examinations, I have conducted on high school teens, students who learnt this method were faster (11 seconds on average) in a controlled 10-sentence-completion exercise to finish, with higher accuracy (2.2% on average). In addition, those who had learnt this method all revealed an increase in the marks (8.2 on average) at school, according to the following up survey.