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A NEW METHOD OF
TEACHING
ENGLISH
TO LEARNERS FROM
NONENGLISH SPEAKING
COUNTRIES.
By
Israel Jayakaran, Colonel (Retd)
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Introduction
English learners from Non English speaking countries require a
new method altogether; a logical and .a foolproof one at that. The
traditional grammar or the British approach
of functional grammar
speak with
them. And when I ask a question, they know what they want to say in
answer but do not know how to put those words in a proper English
sentence.
constructed; which word will go in which slot and so on? If they are
given a standard formula in this regard, they would have no problem
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Subject
and
Predicate. This division appears rather lose and makes the reader none
the wiser. Why not teach, every Simple sentence can be divided
into two parts like this,
What worries a learner most of the time is the grammar part and
seldom the meaning part.
has
|
Auxiliary
kicked
|
Verb
And the Meaning part will have OBJECT/ COMPLEMENT which may be
in any
of
a sentence.
Phrases like
objective
complement should be abandoned.
complement
subjective
that the
This is an Universal formula and holds good for any Simple sentence
in any tense in the English language.
For each tense, the S+A+V part will be different. The O/C part is
independent of the grammar part.
A sentence need not have the O/C part at all. But, while the
S+A+V part will give some small meaning, it is the O/C part that will
reveal the full meaning.
Categories of sentences
Traditional grammar says that there are
sentences,
4 types
of
viz,
of
Declarative/Assertive
sentence?
The
above
NegA
street dog.)
this poor
We must introduce
good
in every tense, both in Active and Passive voice, and once these are
memorized, a student will be able to compose a
on his/her
Next,
own
Simple sentence
very confidently.
remaining 6. Here is an example: Given (a2) Jane has not read her
lessons well at all .
a1: Jane has read her lessons well.
Gen Q: How has Jane read her lessons?
SpQ: Has Jane read her lessons well?
NegQ: Hasnt Jane read her lessons well?
EQ1: Jane has read her lessons well, hasnt she?
EQ2: Jane hasnt read her lessons well, has she?
Types of sentences
According to me, the English language uses only
sentences.
3 types of
Compound sentence.
have 2 Simple
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Parts of speech
Many books as of now state that there are 8 parts of speech
and a few say there are 9. Those who say 9, have included Articles
as a separate part of speech instead of treating it as Adjectives. This
argument sounds very reasonable for the simple reason, that articles
will refer to the number of a noun while adjectives will describe a
common noun in some qualitative way.
Why then
are
we
An
For all this, there are only 32 auxiliaries in the language and
they are used both for Active and Passive voices. Auxiliaries are of
two kinds: Pure auxiliaries (or Universal Auxiliaries), whose job is only
to partner/help a verb in any of its 3 forms(21) and Auxiliary cum
Verbs (11).
11
But, the English language seems to use some action less verbs as
well. They are.
AM, IS,ARE,,WAS and WERE. They happen to be A.Vs. Examine
the
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Tenses
We recognize the tense of a sentence through the Auxiliary +
Verb or A.V combination and not by looking at the Verb alone.
There are 18 such A,V combinations. It is the S+A+V or S+A.V part that
will tell us the tense because the A+V of one tense is not repeated in
any other. [This stipulation however, applies only when we use the
Basic Auxiliaries, which are: AM, IS, ARE, HAS, HAVE, WAS
WERE,
PRESENT
FUTURE
CONTINUOUS,
PRESENT
PERFECT,
SIMPLE PRESENT,
PRESENT
PERFECT
Many books have bulked the PRESENT tense and SIMPLE PRESENT
and call them Present tense. I beg to differ. While one is an action
less tense, the other is an actionoriented tense.
They cannot be
grouped together.
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This is how the language uses in all 16 tenses 2 action less and
14 action based.
Some new information about a Simple sentence
Take the sentence,
James is writing a letter to his mother.
S
A
V
O1
O2
Writing is the activity.
.
The Meaning part consists of two objects.
We can look at the O/C part in another way also. It tells us
the
details of
the activity
of writing.
We have already noted that a normal Verb will reveal the nature
of the activity. Someone must be performing this activity.
That
someone is the Subject. So, we can look at the Subject, not only as
one having a simple Noun but also as the Doer of an activity.
This
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Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogative
Put the test question after S+A+V along with any other word(s)
found in the sentence, if necessary, to identify the end words.
Nouns.
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Sentence analysis
Analysing a sentence means, breaking it into S,A,V,O,C
components.
The Grammar rules for all tenses
There is an
Subject
Auxiliary
Verb form
AM
IS
AM
ARE
IS
AM
Present in
ING
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WE,YOU,THEY ARE
HE,SHE,IT
IS
DO
Present
DOES
WERE
WAS
WAS
WAS
WERE
Cont. verb
DID
Present
WILL/SHALL
Present
WILL BE
SHALL BE
Cont. verb
HAS
HAVE
PP verb
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I,WE,YOU,THEY
HE,SHE,IT
HAVE BEEN
Cont. verb
HAS BEEN
HAD
PP form
HAD BEEN
Cont. verb
WILL HAVE
SHALL HAVE
PP verb
WOULD HAVE
PP verb
COULD HAVE
SHOULD HAVE
MUST HAVE
OUGH TO HAVE
NEED HAVE
MIGHT HAVE
Would/could/should/must/ }
ought to/need got/become/ }
use only
been USED TO
}
the verb in bold
.
Was/were GOING TO
Present
(9 auxiliary sets)
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SHOULD
MUST
OUGH TO
NEED
MIGHT
(all
above)
ING verb
or Cont. verb
getting/becoming
getting/becoming only
USED TO
(all above) HAVE KEPT
ING verb
(9 Auxiliary sets)
The FIP tense uses only Universal auxiliaries. We use this tense to
talk about an action we wanted to do in some past time but didnt do
it.
not.
examples:
(a) We couldnt have attended your party yesterday because there
was heavy snow on our route.
(b) We might have caught the culprit but he was too strong for us.
(c) Some of us need have got used to giving evasive answers.
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Some comments about use of Simple Present and Simple past tenses
I had already stated that there is no English sentence without
S+A+V.
read
(A)V
our morning..
O
= eats
= catches
= fries.
eats
(A)V
a2 or
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Now, three elements could enter the O/C part and enrich our
sentences making them look sophisticated in style.
Infinitive
What is an infinitive? It is a Present form verb with the preposition
to as shown below:
Run
to run
Finish
to finish
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the English
grammar rules.
Infinitiveverbs in Emphatics
We can use the infinitiveverbs to make very powerful a1 or a2
categories along with A.Vs in the Subject section, as shown below:
(a) I
S
Infin. V
C(t)
superiors.
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(e) All teachers have / not to take any leave during this month
(f) Wasnt Krishna / to take part in the debate yesterday?
(g) Our team had / to abandon the trek programme due to heavy rain.
While we have used the A.Vs in the three tense families, we may
use in the S+A+V part
the normal
Thus, we can make use of all the A.Vs to make powerful positive
or negative statements. Have you noted that all the above sentences
are future looking types wherein no action has taken place? We cant
use the Emphatics for any past cases. For instance, the following
statement cannot be put in the Emphatic form:
We didnt see this man last night.
like this,
The king took part in the war to win.
Where shall we sit to discuss?.
We didnt gather here to fight, did we?
S NegA
V
C
O
Q. tag
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In all the cases, the infinitive Nouns pass the object test.
But,
make sure that the end word is the infinitive; only then we can treat
them as nouns.
ungodly.
C
a Captain to lead it in
action.
(c)The thief flourished a knife at her. (d) The thief frightened the
housewife.
The thief flourished a knife to frighten the house
wife.
But, dont think that every pair
infinitive.
could be connected
by an
(e)We went to the auditorium for a discussion. (f) The other party
had not turned up.
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Gerund
What is a gerund?
It is a Present form verb ending in ING When so done, the verb
turns into a Noun, a verbalnoun, and it is called GERUND.
We can use a Gerundnoun as Subject or Object.
Unlike the
in hotels?
C
(c), the gerundnounobject comes
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Gerundverb
Can we use a gerund with the force of a verb? Opinions differ
but I say, we can.
(d) Dont all parents advise their children against fighting with
other children??
(dd) Dont all parents advise their children not to fight with
others.
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Participle
What is a participle? A Participle is also a connector which can
convert two Simple sentences into a single Simple sentence.
Using
saw
a dog
(A)V
O1
O2
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This is the
participle test..
Here are more examples:
(a) We saw a small boy carrying a monkey on his shoulder.
(b) When we went to the shop we could not spot anyone
standing at the counter.
(c) John normally doesnt lie to anyone remembering his fathers
advice.
We can also start the sentence with the Present participle but
only in some cases, like this,
(cc) Remembering his fathers advice, John normally doesnt lie
to anyone.
Its
location would be, S+A+V+O or C + Past parti +O/C like in the other
case.
(a) We continued our trek charmed by the scenery around.
(b) Attracted with the light, several insects fell dead.
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(c)
English.
Perfect participle
We use the Perfect participle to show completion of two actions
one following the other. Its location too will be the same as in the
other two cases. Here are the examples:
(a) We went out for a walk having finished our dinner, around
2000 hours.
(b) Having struck a deal, we started our work on the important
project.
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(e) The MPs felt unsatisfied with the Ministers reply. (f) They
demanded a statement right from the PM
(3) Not satisfied with the Ministers reply, the MPs demanded a
statement right from the PM. (Past parti method)
When one of the sentences is with A.V (i.e. Present or Past tense),
use the participle BEING like this:
(g) I am your close friend. (h) Havent I the right to know some of
your secrets?
(d) Being your close friend, havent I the right to know some of
your secrets?(Pr Parti method)
(b) Banu is
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Passive voice
As of now, the Passive voice teaching method appears to be all
right. Here, I have two proposals for consideration
put such a
use
Conclusion
The Authors claim is that if we teach
Apart
from
the
above,
the
article
gives
some
new
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Isnt it time we
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