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version 2.26 4/10/16 ENGLISH GRAMMAR GUIDE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN SAB

version 2.26 4/10/16 ENGLISH GRAMMAR GUIDE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN SABAH Ibrahim Jadoon Fulbright Senior English Teaching Assistant KOTA BELUD (2016) MALAYSIAN-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE (MACEE) Contact Ibrahim: +1-859-200-9355 (WhatsApp) | ikjadoon@gmail.com P a g e | i Hello! Thank you for taking the time to pick up this guide. More importantly, thank you for reading past the title page—I am afraid the word “grammar” will turn most readers away. However, don’t worry—this guide is written in everyday, jargon-less English and it’s nothing like a real grammar textbook (for better and worse). Most English grammar textbooks are mind-numbingly complex, even for native speakers like me, because they’re usually meant for linguists or grammarians. This guide is meant to be practically useful for English teachers in Sabah. I wrote this guide over two years while I taught English at SMK Taun Gusi in Kota Belud, Sabah, as a Fulbright grantee serving as a Senior English Teaching Assistant. It comes from my experiences in teaching Malaysian students and my knowledge as a native English speaker. The primary goal of this guide is to build a common grammar foundation. If English grammar is like a tree, this guide is the tree trunk and some important tree branches. It’s not exhaustive (i.e., there aren’t many leaves on this tree), but should prepare you well. Without this critical trunk, I think grammar quickly becomes confusing and needlessly complex. The guide is also includes frequently asked questions (FAQ) from teachers and students about weird English quirks. Often there are logical and reasonable answers, tapi, macam semua bahasa-bahasa dalam dunia ni, kadang-kadang lebih senang kalau kamu hafal ja, lah. In a distant fantasy, every SMK/SK would create a school-specific grammar curriculum, share it among the English teachers, and organize it into manageable grammar goals for each year of school. While that’s a tall order, I hope this guide helps schools move towards that goal. A reading note: I’ve written this guide as “strictly true”. Just to be clear: if I write “always” or “must”, there are no exceptions. Of course, poems, songs, and English slang bend many grammar rules. About me: I’ve lived in the United States for 22 years. In 2013, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Centre College in Kentucky (yes, like KFC). After my degree, I applied for this Fulbright Scholarship. I taught Form 1 to Form 6, organized annual multi-day English camps (Form 4/5 the first year and Form 6 the second year), started an English school newspaper (a real one! message me if you’re interested in the Newspaper Guide), organized grammar workshops at nearby schools for English teachers and students, and aided students in applying for USA-based scholarships. I apologize in advance for any grave omissions or errors. Feel free to message me about anything—yes, even grammar questions.  P a g e | ii Table of Contents Preparing to Teach Grammar ............................................................................................................. iv 1. My Grammar Teaching Philosophy ................................................................................................ iv a. The two reasons why I love teaching grammar ............................................................................................................ iv b. How do we teach confidence? ........................................................................................................................................ v c. We need to enter the minds of our students. ............................................................................................................... v d. All Malaysian students are smart enough to learn English grammar ....................................................................... v e. If we cannot explain grammar simply, we do not understand it well enough. Full stop. .................................... v f. Reducing student shyness ................................................................................................................................................ v 2. Practice is essential—listening/notes are not enough ................................................................ vii a. Students need to be reminded why practice is important ........................................................................................ vii b. Practice exercises should only cover what has been taught. .................................................................................. viii c. Use assessments FOR learning .................................................................................................................................... viii d. Consider the “flipped classroom” ............................................................................................................................... viii 3. There are fun ways to teach & practice grammar ....................................................................... viii a. Games work well to practice grammar ...................................................................................................................... viii b. Grammar Discovery allows students to learn grammar “naturally” ....................................................................... xi 4. What is this guide and what is it not? ............................................................................................ xii The English Grammar Guide ................................................................................................................1 5. Prerequisite Knowledge ......................................................................................................................1 b. The four main parts of speech ........................................................................................................................................ 1 a. Fundamental grammar & sentence structure ............................................................................................................... 1 6. Nouns ....................................................................................................................................................2 a. What are nouns? ................................................................................................................................................................ 2 b. How many of a noun is very important in English .................................................................................................... 2 c. The plural principle! .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 7. Verbs .....................................................................................................................................................3 f. How to teach the chart .................................................................................................................................................... 5 g. Miscellaneous information .............................................................................................................................................. 8 a. Common irregular verbs .................................................................................................................................................. 9 b. How to pronounce “-ed” .............................................................................................................................................. 10 h. Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA) ................................................................................................................................... 11 i. Modal Verbs ..................................................................................................................................................................... 11 c. Modal Verbs list .............................................................................................................................................................. 12 j. Changing verbs into nouns ........................................................................................................................................... 14 8. Articles (a/an/the)............................................................................................................................ 15 b. To make a noun specific, we have many choices. ..................................................................................................... 15 c. To make a noun general, simply do not use any articles. ......................................................................................... 16 P a g e | iii d. The two article rules and the one exception: ............................................................................................................. 16 f. There are some similarities to BM ............................................................................................................................... 16 g. Situations where we omit articles ................................................................................................................................. 16 h. Rule for “a” versus “an” ................................................................................................................................................ 16 9. Pronouns ............................................................................................................................................ 17 10. Nouns vs. adjectives vs. adverbs vs. verbs ................................................................................... 17 11. Prepositions ....................................................................................................................................... 17 a. Prepositions are words that connect nouns to nouns .............................................................................................. 17 d. Commonly Confused Prepositions .............................................................................................................................. 18 12. Miscellaneous grammar ................................................................................................................... 19 a. List of contractions: (borrowed from grammar.about.com) ................................................................................... 19 b. The difference between “really” and “very” .............................................................................................................. 19 c. Making negative verbs requires “do/does/did” ........................................................................................................ 19 d. Tidak, bukan, and tiada .................................................................................................................................................... 20 e. Yang requires “to be” ...................................................................................................................................................... 20 f. “Neither,” “either,” and “both” ................................................................................................................................... 20 g. “Will” vs “would” ........................................................................................................................................................... 20 h. The three meanings of the verb “to have” ................................................................................................................. 20 i. “Many/much” and “few/little” .................................................................................................................................... 20 j. “Everyday” vs “every day” ............................................................................................................................................ 21 k. Verbs must have a subject ............................................................................................................................................. 21 l. “On / at / in” for locations and time ......................................................................................................................... 21 m. Di sana and di sini ........................................................................................................................................................ 21 n. Creating questions: invert the subject + verb & the use of “do” ........................................................................... 21 o. Singular vs. Plural nouns ................................................................................................................................................ 22 p. Punctuation ...................................................................................................................................................................... 22 13. Resources that explain English grammar (correctly) ................................................................... 24 14. Resources where language questions are asked and answered .................................................. 25 15. Important topics I wish I had time to cover  ........................................................................... 25 a. Phrasal verbs .................................................................................................................................................................... 25 b. Intransitive vs. transitive verbs ..................................................................................................................................... 25 c. Passive voice .................................................................................................................................................................... 26 d. Most of the rarer tenses ................................................................................................................................................. 26 e. Stylistic concerns ............................................................................................................................................................. 26 P a g e | iv Preparing to Teach Grammar 1. My Grammar Teaching Philosophy a. The two reasons why I love teaching grammar i. (#1) Give students concentrated exposure 1. Students with high English exposure will never have seen “They has a story.” They will only have ever seen “They have a story.” If we have lots of fluent English exposure, we absorb grammar without ever learning a grammar rule. 2. This is how we naturally learn languages—or even football! Watch enough official football games and you will learn the rules without a teacher. 3. But, for students with low English exposure, both sentences (“They has a story” and “They have a story”) sound somewhat correct—that is the root of all English grammar mistakes (“tak pasti—mungkin?”). 4. Grammar lessons give students the rules of English without time-consuming exposure. They work excellently for knowledge transfer—but are not enough for long-term memory. For long-term memory, practice is the only option. ii. (#2) Sustainably increase student confidence 1. Sustainable confidence requires that students have a clear understanding of the grammar they read, write, hear, and speak. If they are repeatedly exposed to English without understanding why English sentences are like this, they will lose confidence slowly over time. a. This confidence drain is easy to see in Form 4 and Form 5 students, especially due to PT3 streaming. After Form 1-3, if they still do not understand the English in their classroom, they give up. b. In psychology, this phenomenon is called learned helplessness. If we fail at a hard task too many times, then we give up on all tasks, easy or hard. 2. Without understanding grammar, students’ confidence will always be fragile. Students are constantly exposed to correct and incorrect English in Malaysia, so if their classes do not address grammar, they will remain indecisive and unconfident. Teaching the rules clears “infectious misconceptions” that spread in students’ minds—like how so many of my students write I’am — how do all of them make this same mistake? No native English text has ever written those letters! P a g e | v b. How do we teach confidence? i. Show students something that they think they can’t do, encourage them to work hard so they can do it, and then show them their results. Repeat many times. The outcome is real, lasting confidence. ii. Is this easy to do? Usually, no. But, it’s absolutely worth it. c. We need to enter the minds of our students. i. How will they interpret and receive our instruction? ii. In other words, the sooner we uploads/Ingenierie_Lourd/ english-grammar-guide.pdf