Page 99 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

SENTENCES, PHRASES, ANDTEXT CONSTRUCTION 85
For additional examples of sentence correction, see Suggestions for Teaching.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Rigid and predictable patterns in English syntax provide framework for teaching sentence structure by means of slots that must or may be filled. Once they are understood, students can use the slot patterns to more effec- tively edit their own writing for grammaticality:
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Sentences must have a verb and a subject (except for imperative sentences with an understood subject you).
In academic prose, adverbs and prepositional phrases are mobile, but subjects and verbs are not.
Noun phrases must include a main (or head) noun, which can be preceded with, in this order, an article or possessive, quantifiers, adverbs to describe adjectives, and adjectives.
Main be-verbs can be followed by nouns, adjectives, or adverbs/ad- verbial phrases of time or place. Mainlinkingverbsaresimilartomainbe-verbsandcanfollowedby nouns or adjectives, but not adverbials of any kind. Transitiveverbs require a direct object, and some transitive verbs(giv- ing verbs) can also take an indirect object. Students can insert the prepositions toorfor or ask a what question to identify the direct object. The verb phrase has two essential elements: tense (which can be marked or not) and the main verb. Optional verb slots include modals and auxiliaryverbs.
Isolating the subject and the verb helps students check for sub- ject-verb agreement.
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS FOR TEACHING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES
Teaching suggestions presented here advance in the degree of their sophis- tication. Their primary instructional objectives are to reduce the frequency of preventable errors and/or fine tune students' self-editing skills. The exer- cises and teaching activities are designed to focus on the following sentence structure skills:
• Identifying missing or incorrectly added sentence elements based on the regular structural patterns in English (focus noted; e.g., please find and correct all errors in subject-verb agreement).
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