Making Intermediate Grammar Work

Grammar in Context for ESL Students

Samples

Text includes recommendations for further practice and use of the grammar form being presented:

3-13.

Add the correct present tense form of the verb in parentheses. Then discuss with your classmates the difference in meaning in each pair between the simple and the progressive verb.

3-14.

Put the sentences in Exercise 3-13 into the plural. Make all necessary changes. Practice both orally and in writing.

3-15.

Put the sentences in Exercise 3-13 into the interrogative form.

3-16.

Answer the following questions. Ask the appropriate person if you do not know the answer to any question.

Additional strategies are given to the students for further practice in the use of grammar forms:

3-17.

Read a question in Exercise 3-16 once, and try to write the complete question on separate paper without looking back at the book. Then compare what you wrote with the question in the textbook. Check your writing for grammatical accuracy, including the verb form, articles, and singular or plural nouns. Check your spelling. You may want to write the question again. Then go on to another question and repeat the process. You can also do this same exercise with other short sentences in this chapter such as those in Exercise 3-13. You can also practice repeating a short sentence orally after reading it once, then comparing what you said with what you read. These exercises will help you increase your active knowledge of English, building your fluency and accuracy.

Regular reference to grammar points in previous chapters. For example Chapter 9 reviews the use of articles with count and noncount nouns in connection with the discussion of pronouns:

FORMS OF ONE

Notice the use of one in the following examples.

Ted bought a heavy tennis racket, and Jill bought a light one. Ted prefers heavy ones, and Jill likes light ones. Ted plays well with the heavy one that he bought. Jill does well with the light one that she purchased. The ones that Ted has owned before were heavy, and the ones that Jill has had were light.

Are the articles—a, an, and the—used differently here from the way they are used with nouns?

One in the above sentences takes the place of racket, and ones is being used in place of rackets. The articles are used in the same way that they are used with nouns:

Each chapter contains a prompt for a longer writing assignment using the major grammar point or points presented in the chapter. For example, the following prompt is from Chapter 7, on modal auxiliaries and related forms:

7-27.

Write a series of sentences in paragraph form describing parenting. Include what parents have to do and what they should do. Discuss what may happen in a family with children. Tell what may have made children do some of the things that they should not have done. Include at least ten modal auxiliaries in your writing. When you have finished your paragraph, exchange papers with one or more classmates, and offer suggestions to one another on how to improve the writing in each paragraph.

Extensive practice with grammar forms in context:

6-19.

Add the correct form of the verb in parentheses. In each set of sentences, familiarize yourself with the time concepts before you complete the verb forms.

1.

Alice __________ (have) a birthday party for a friend today. Earlier this morning, she __________ (clean) the house and __________ (buy) food for the party. Since then, she __________ (start) to prepare the food. Jill __________ (come) to help her an hour ago, and the two friends __________ (work) together since then. They __________ (make) two dishes so far, and they __________ (make) ravioli for the past half hour. When they __________ (finish) making the ravioli, they __________ (start) cleaning the vegetables to be served with the dip. They __________ (clean) vegetables for at least twenty minutes because they __________ (offer) seven different kinds of them. When they __________ (be) done with the vegetables, they __________ (put) them into the refrigerator. After that, they __________ (prepare) two fruit trays. They __________ (arrange) the fruit artistically on the trays. Then they __________ (think) about the drinks. At that point, they __________ (be) ready to have one themselves.

2.

Sue __________ (watch) the weather forecast on television lately because she __________ (go) to Oklahoma City next weekend for a conference. She __________ (fly) there, and she __________ (like, not) to fly when the weather __________ (be) bad. She also __________ (want) to know what the weather __________ (be) like there over the weekend because she __________ (need) to know what clothing to take. She __________ (know) that it __________ (get) cold there in the winter, but she __________ (know, not) just how cold. When she __________ (travel), she __________ (like) to be prepared. In that way, she __________ (have, not) so many problems.

Practice material which goes from simple to complex:

13-5.

Change the following sentences to the passive. Watch the agreement of the verb with the new subject.

13-6.

Put each active sentence and each passive one that you wrote in Exercise 13-5 into the interrogative form.

13-7.

Working in groups of three or four students, create new sentences by changing, where possible, the agent in the sentences in Exercise 13-5. Practice with both the active and the passive forms. Here are some examples to get you started.

The landlord’s wife collected the rent last Monday. The rent was collected by the landlord’s wife last Monday.

The apartment building manager collected the rent last Monday. The rent was collected by the apartment building manager last Monday.

Nobody collected the rent last Monday. The rent was not collected by anybody last Monday.

13-8.

Answer the following questions. Remember not to use the definite article when you are talking about no particular one(s). Respond both orally and in writing.

13-9.

Develop questions similar to those in Exercise 13-8 based on the following prompts. Write at least one question for each prompt. Use different verb tenses. Watch the use of articles.

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