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 Class
Grammar 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 Class
Grammar 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 metacognitive strategy).
• prepare students for their future, especially in
their profession life (especially in English).
Syntactic Awareness
vs.
Using Grammar
Understanding
Grammar
Using Grammar
better
Raising
Syntactic Awareness
Raising Syntactic
Awareness 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
Prep.
word of mouth, and demonstrable reliability,
the common pants of America.
O
S.C.
(The Jeaning of America and the World. By Carin C. Quinn )
STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 2
The setting is a plain in Denmark {where Fortinbras,
S.
S. V. O.
clause
S.C.
the nephew of the Norwegian king, leads an army across
V.
↑appositive
Denmark to attack a small section of Poland}, fortified by
Participial Phr. ↑←appositive
20,000 soldiers, but in truth the piece of land is not of great
Conj.
S.
V.
value.
(Listening to Hamlet: The Soliloquies. By Melinda Mosier )
STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 3
The inadequacy of this thesis begins well
s.
v.
adv.
before we get to the question of whether
conj.
S.
V.
civilization must clash.
n. S.
v.
Conj.
STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 5
Biological determinism may reassure some adults
S.
V.
about their present, but it is feminism, the ideology of
Conj.
(pronoun)S. V. S.
flexible and converging sex roles, that fits our children’s
V.
the real future.
(Why boys don’t play with dolls. By Katha Pollit.)
Notes
•
It is … that … 強調句型 Cleft Sentence
STUDENT’S EXAMPLE 4
…, the T-shirts appeared to be intended as an
S.
V.
Why underline this?
affirmation of African Americans as an ethnic
group and as a commentary on the narrow
conj.
Why underline this?
range of roles for black characters in the show.
(The Social Meaning of T-Shirt. By Diana Crane )
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.