He announces, "I new bike given."
"You were given a new bike?" you clarify. He nods.
You're beginning to notice a pattern in his sentence structure. Even though you've correct him several times, he continues to place the verb at the end of the sentence. In English this doesn't make sense. You wonder why this is happening and want to fix it. First, you need to identify the problem. Based on the conditions described above, you conclude that your student is struggling with word order. You do a little research and discover that word order falls under the category of syntax.
Syntax
Syntax is the study of phrases, clauses, and sentences (Parker and Riley, 47). It is a set of grammatical structures that allow the combination of words into phrases and sentences (Genetii, 119). All sentences have an internal architecture of words, phrases and clauses. Every language has its own internal architecture which affects its word ordering (http://literarydevices.net/syntax/). In English, words cannot appear in a random order.
English follows a subject, verb, object order
It also follows a left-to-right sequence governed by principles that are codified in phrase structure rules (Parker and Riley, 49). These rules govern three things:
- which elements are permitted in a particular type of phrase
- the left-to-right orderings of those elements
- whether any of the elements are optional.
Correcting the Problem
Your student may have trouble understanding why word order in a sentence is so important. Offer him a pair of sentences to compare.
The dog licked his owner.
The owner licked his dog.
In this example word order is important because it changes the meaning of the sentence. Other times word order might not change the meaning, but may be grammatically incorrect. Explain to your student the meaning of the two sentences above and ask them to tell you which one makes sense (http://jobs.languagelink.ru/teaching_word_order.php).
Recasting
Recasting is a common method you already may be unintentionally using. Recasting is simply implicitly correcting a student's incorrect sentence by repeating it back to them correctly.
Student: I want read.
Teacher: You want to read?
In the example above, the teacher is correcting the student's incorrect sentence by repeating it back to them in the form of a question. Recasting does not have to use a question. The video below demonstrates basic recasting.
Recasting is a subtle way to correct your students and usually they will pick up on it fast enough and begin to correct themselves. It is a simply method to employ because most likely you are already using it.
Reinforcing Activities
Many teachers have found it helpful to have their students memorize the English word ordering: subject, verb, and object. Practicing this is very important. There are many activities and worksheets available for your students. Activities such as Maze are fun and easy to create. Take a simple sentence such as Mary made a cake for me, and then break the sentence up word by word into a grid like the one below. Have your students connect the words in the correct order by drawing a line. Only words that share a side can be connected. This assignment can be made easier by capitalizing the first word of the sentence and by adding a period at the end of the last word. It can also be made harder by using additional lines for more complex sentences.
When creating worksheets to teach word ordering it is important to not include correct and incorrect sentences and ask the student to differentiate between the two. This will only confuse them. It is highly important to reinforce correct sentences.
Another activity your class will enjoy is Fruit Basket. Arrange chairs in a circle with one less chair than the number of people playing. The person without a chair stands in the middle and begins the game. You can use this game to practice any sentence order, so for the sake of explaining this activity we will use the phrase "I like." The person in the middle must create a sentence that starts with "I like." For example, he could say, "I like chocolate." Everyone in the circle who likes chocolate must stand up, leave their chair, and find a new seat. The last person who doesn't find a chair will be left in the middle and must create an "I like" sentence. The game continues until you decide to end it.
Conclusion
Every language has its own unique word order and it is common for ESL students to struggle with this concept. Syntactically, English follows a subject, verb, object order. Many teachers suggest having your students memorize this order sequence. Recasting is an easy and effective way to correct your students that you may subconsciously be using already. There are many resources for activities and lesson plans besides the ideas that have been included on this website. Through practice students will learn to use correct word ordering.
Bibliography
Arnsten, Tara. "How to Teach Word Order." BusyTeacher.org. 2016. http://busyteacher.org/3687-how-to-teach-word-order.html (accessed April 18, 2016).
Genetti, Carol. How Languages Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
LanguageLink Editors. "Ideas for Teaching Word Order." LanguageLink.ru, 1997. http://jobs.languagelink.ru/teaching_word_order.php (accessed April 26, 2016).
LiteraryDevices Editors. "Syntax." LiteraryDevices.net. 2013. http://literarydevices.net/syntax/ (accessed April 18, 2016).
Moulton, William G. A Linguistic Guide to Language Learning. Modern Language Associate of America, 1975.
Parker, Frank and Kathryn Riley. Linguistics for Non-Linguists. London: Pearson Publishing, 2009.
