Ron's ESL Blogs

This time I would like to talk with you about a topic relevant to vocabulary.

That topic is English word formation processes.

As any student soon discovers, English has a very rich vocabulary. But obviously, it didn’t get all of its words at once. Most of the English words were gradually developed, some adopted, some simply invented.

By understanding these processes, you can get greater understanding of the background of English.

More importantly, by looking into the origin of single words, students can gain deeper understanding of the vocabulary they are trying to learn.

Let’s look at a practical example.

The student is studying a new word for them – “guard” (a person who protects a place or people). After understanding the literal meaning of “guard,” you can look into this word’s origin.

It turns out that it comes from the Old French word “garder,” which means, “protect.” Now, this makes sense, doesn’t it? A guard indeed protects!

Here is another example. The English word “secure” actually comes from the Latin word “securus,” which is built from “se-” (free from) and “cura” (care).

So as you can see, word etymology (the origin and history of words and their meanings) can truly enhance understanding.

Try this tip and see how it affects your or your students’ progress.

And click here to learn more about the different word formation processes in English.

Firstly, what do “stative” and “dynamic” mean?

Dynamic = moving or changing.

Stative = having a state, or existing.

Dynamic verbs are verbs that describe an action, not a state.

For example, “They are crossing the street.”

Stative verbs are verbs that describe a state, not an action.

For example, “I love the winter.”

Here are some more examples of dynamic verbs:
Take, break, eat, jump, work, find, buy, dance, fish

Here are some more examples of stative verbs:
Be, want, hate, know, own, sound, prefer, seem
Now, compare the following two passages.

The first passage uses only dynamic verbs, while the second one uses only stative verb:

1) “We are walking in the forest. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we are having a good time.”

2) “I like the winter. The sun is in the sky, the birds seem to be on the trees, and we want to stay here forever.”

Note that the first passage describes actual actions, while the second passage really describes states.

Next time, we’ll see how you should properly use dynamic and stative verbs.

Click here to learn more on English verbs.

Here is tip #4 on how to increase interest, involvement and results when teaching grammar:

Tip #4

Go step by step.

Yes, there are many different grammar topics.

And yes, your student won’t master English until they understand and can use many of them.

But in this case quality is more important than quantity.

Go over each subject until your student truly gets it. Until They can use it easily when reading, writing, or speaking English.

Even after you fully cover a certain rule, go back to it in future lessons, and reinforce your student’s understanding.

“Use It or lose It!” is the motto, so make sure the student continues to USE what they learn.

Finally, I am now going to share with you one final message on this important topic.

It will help you construct your lessons and make them more fun!

You can use sentence diagramming to teach grammar systematically.

It’s basically a visual way to show how all of the parts of a sentence are related. It can also get kind of addictive because diagramming a sentence is like solving a puzzle.

Click here to find out more about sentence diagramming and how it can help you.

So here is tip #3 on how to increase interest, involvement and results when teaching grammar:

Tip #3

Give plenty of examples. And make sure the student makes plenty of example sentences of their own.

An incorrect way to do this would be to teach a new grammar rule and then give an example or two.

You should get much better results if you show the student many practical examples, and then have them make at least 5-10 examples of their own.

For instance, in this English Verb Tenses section each tense has many illustrated examples, as well as example sentences. Such as:

• Present Perfect Tense
• Present Perfect Example Sentences

Don’t neglect the student’s own examples, as they are key to mastering any subject.

Here is tip #2 on how to increase interest, involvement and results when teaching grammar:

Tip #2

Teach for a reason. There is a reason for teaching and knowing each grammar rule, other than passing the test.

Each grammar rule is taught for a reason. If your student knows that reason, they will be more motivated to understand and use what you teach.

For example, why do we teach the English parts of speech?

Because a person who knows the parts of speech understands the building blocks of the language. Moreover, when using the dictionary, they can find the right meaning more easily.

For example, Lisa reads the sentence “They water the plants.”

She’s not sure what “water” means in this case, so she looks it up in a dictionary.

Since the dictionary has the words organized according to their part of speech, she will have an easier time locating the correct definition if she know that “water” is used as a VERB.

So make sure your students actually know why they study each grammar topic in the first place!

Click here for more tips and articles on how to teach English.