How to Raise Students’ Syntactic Awareness Kenneth Chyi Department of English Language & Literature, Fu Jen Catholic University April 8, 2009.

How to Raise Students’

Syntactic Awareness

Kenneth Chyi

Department of English Language & Literature,Fu Jen Catholic University

April 8, 2009

Definition of Syntactic Awareness

• Syntactic awareness / Grammatical Awareness suggests that the reader is able to recognize “grammatical patterns or structures” (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p. 249).

2005 Chyi’s CC ClassGrammar Review Test

1 97 6 92 11 82

2 63 7 85 12 64

3 97 8 87 13 75

4 95 9 84 14 88

5 89 10 79 15 65

Mean Score 83.53

Standard Deviation 11.54

2007 Chyi’s CC ClassGrammar Review Test

1 100 6 91 11 89

2 70 7 78 12 71

3 80 8 74 13 96

4 84 9 84

5 91 10 77

Mean Score 82.8

Standard Deviation 9.65

Reasons for Raising Syntactic Awareness

Raising Syntactic Awareness can

• help students understand grammar better.

• help students use grammar better and construct grammatically correct sentences. (a meta-cognitive strategy).

• prepare students for their future, especially in their profession life (especially in English).

Syntactic Awarenessvs.

Using Grammar

Using Grammarbetter

RaisingSyntactic Awareness

Understanding Grammar

Raising SyntacticAwareness Activity

• Ask student leaders to select two sentences from the assigned readings.

• The leaders have to analyze the grammar structure of the selected sentences and present them in front of the class.

• Conduct the whole-class discussion.

STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 1

They have become, through marketing, S V conj

word of mouth, and demonstrable reliability,

the common pants of America. O(The Jeaning of America and the World. By Carin C. Quinn )

S.C.

Prep.

STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 2

The setting is a plain in Denmark {where Fortinbras,

S. V. O. clause

the nephew of the Norwegian king, leads an army across

↑appositive

Denmark to attack a small section of Poland}, fortified by

↑←appositive

20,000 soldiers, but in truth the piece of land is not of great

value.

(Listening to Hamlet: The Soliloquies. By Melinda Mosier )

V.

S.S.C.

Conj. S. V.

Participial Phr.

STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 3

The inadequacy of this thesis begins well s. v. adv.

before we get to the question of whether conj.

civilization must clash.

n. v.

S. V. Conj.

S.

STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 5

Biological determinism may reassure some adults S. V.

about their present, but it is feminism, the ideology of (pronoun)S. V.flexible and converging sex roles, that fits our children’s the real future.(Why boys don’t play with dolls. By Katha Pollit.)

Notes• It is … that … 強調句型 Cleft Sentence

Conj.

S.

V.

STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 4

…, the T-shirts appeared to be intended as an

S. V.

affirmation of African Americans as an ethnic

group and as a commentary on the narrow conj.

range of roles for black characters in the show.(The Social Meaning of T-Shirt. By Diana Crane )

Why underline this?

Why underline this?

Students’ Common Problems

• Unfamiliar with the jargons/terminologies.

• Unable to correctly identify the syntactic function of some parts of the sentence.

• Unable to make the distinction between the part of speech of a noun and its function in a sentence.

• Confused about the terms/difference between the complement and the object.

Thank you.