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AR629_002_ Ardohain
LSA 3
Systems
Grammar
Helping students to better understand ways of comparing at intermediate
level
Word Count: 2488
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AR629_002_ Ardohain_ Helping students to better understand ways of comparing at
intermediate level
Contents
Introduction 3
Definition 3
Analysis 4
Meaning 47
Form 47
Pronunciation 7
Problems
Meaning 8
Form 8
Pronunciation 9
Solutions
Solution 1 Meaning and Form 9
Solution 2 Meaning and Form 9
Solution 3 Meaning 10
Solution 4 Pronunciation 10
Conclusion 10
Bibliography 11
Appendices 1117
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AR629_002_ Ardohain_ Helping students to better understand ways of comparing at
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Introduction
I have chosen to analyse ways of comparing at intermediate level. According to the
needs analysis, most students in this course want to improve their speaking and writing
skills and comparatives will help them to broaden their vocabulary and improve their
fluency.
As Parrot says the structures used in English to express comparative meaning are
sometimes difficult for learners. From my experience, this is because there are lots of
ways of comparing in English and they don´t always follow the basic pattern: i.e. S+
comparative adjective +O. He also says that course books provide idealised patterns so
learners can have a set of rules but comparatives rarely occur that way. (Parrot:
2000:68) CUP
This background essay gave me the chance to broaden my knowledge of ways of
comparing beyond text books in order to apply it in my classes.
Definition
I think Thornbury offers the best definition because he doesn´t use the idealised
definition text books usually use and he doesn´t generalise saying that it is the only way
to compare, as it is not.
He says that the most common way of making comparisons in English is to use
comparative forms of adjectives or adverbs, which may or may not be followed by a
phrase or clause beginning with than: e.g. He´s older than her, The baby´s more
intelligent than you, My house is bigger and to make equal comparisons, using (not) as
...as
: e.g. My car is as good as yours or He isn´t so/as intelligent as he seems.
(Thornbury: 2006 :38)
I may add that you use comparative structures to compare two things, people, places etc.
You can also intensify or downtone comparatives using: a little, slightly, much or a lot
before a comparative structure: e .g The baby´s much more intelligent than you
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AR629_002_ Ardohain_ Helping students to better understand ways of comparing at
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He´s a little older than her. You can also express emphasis by repeating a comparative:
The traffic´s getting worse and worse
e.g. or you can also show cause and effect using a
comparative structure with the: e.g. The more you eat, the more you want.
I think that complementing these two definitions we come up with a complete definition
for the structures analysed in this essay.
Analysis
Scope: I am only going to analyse comparative structures and not superlative ones
because I would like to deal with ways of comparing things, places or people and not
focussing on extremes. I will also deal with adjectives although adverbs can be used as
well.
I put together what Swan and Parrot say about ways of comparing at intermediate level
in the following table. From my experience teaching comparatives, I believe they
mention all what we need to know about them at intermediate level.
Comparative Use/Meaning Form Example Comments
structure
To express We use it to say As My car is as good as *Pronoun after
equality that people or + yours as:
things are equal Adjective Informal
As...as in some way +as As + object
He is as good as me* pronoun
**Formal
He is as good as I As+
am** Subject+verb
When we use a
fraction on its
own, we
generally don´t
use a
comparative
form. Instead
we use
as+adjective
It´s half as big
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To express We use it to say Not so/as+ He isn´t so/as
inequality 1 that people or adjective+ intelligent as he
things are as seems
Not as...as unequal
Not so...as
As much/many We can use as S+Vb+as+ There aren´t as many
...as much/many... as many as they said
to talk about +as+S+Vb
quantity
S+Vb+as+
much He doesn´t earn as
+as+S+Vb much as he should
To express To say that For short He´s older than her All these Exact
inequality 2 people, things adjectives measurements
More...than; etc. are unequal (onesylla We sometimes
older...than; in a particular ble) use compare
way, we can use Adjective things in terms
comparative + er / r of exact
adjectives or measurements.
more + There are In this case we
adjective often New York is bigger generally
spelling than BA. specify the
changes:C quantity
+V+C= immediately
double last before the
consonant comparative
Bigbi form.
gger It´s thirty per
cent/twenty
times bigger.
For short
adjectives LA is livelier than *** some
(twosylla Boston other
ble) twosyllable
ending in adjectives can
–y have –er,
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Adjective especially
without ending in an
¨y¨+ i + er unstressed
*** vowel, /l/ or
Livelylive /әr/
lier E.g.
Simplesimpler
Some
adjectives Your house is better
have than mine.
irregular
comparati
ve forms
Goodbett
er
Farfarthe
r/further Her flat is farther t
than yours.
Badworse
My job is worse than
Oldelder yours
His brother is elder
than Mary
For long
adjectives
(two or The baby´s more
more intelligent than you
syllables)
you can
use The baby´s less
more/less intelligent than you
+ adjective
Much/man
ymore
Littleless
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Intensifiers We use a range a) S+vb+ The baby´s much There are a
Far* of words and intensifier more intelligent than range of words
Much expressions + you and expression
(quite) a lot * before more+adj to intensify or
A great deal comparative + than + ´downtone´co
Considerably forms to make noun. mparative
By far them seem forms.
A little stronger or b) S+vb+ He´s a little older
A bit * weaker. intensifier than her
Slightly +
Barely (any) adjer+tha
Hardly (any) n+ noun.
Scarcely (any)
*used mainly
in spoken and
informal
contexts
er and –er, We often repeat S + vb + The traffic´s getting
more and the same adjer worse and worse
more... comparative +and+adj
form, separated er
by ´and´ to
emphasise
S + vb + It´s getting
more
more/less and more popular
+and+mor
e+adjectiv
e
(The In expressions The The more you eat, Note: In this
comparative..., which describe +comparat the more you want. structure, the
the complementary ive word ¨the¨ is
comparative...) processes. adjective not really the
Things change +the+com definite
or vary together. parative article it was
adjective originally a
form of the
demonstrative
pronoun,
meaning ´by
that much´.
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Adapted from (Swan 2005: 110) and (Parrot: 2000: 76)
Notes about meaning: Parrot is against focussing only on form and not in meaning.
From my experience teaching intermediate level students this is true. Text books take
meaning for granted when it comes to comparative structures. Parrot suggests making
student notice the context where they occur and asking contextrelated questions to
focus on meaning. (Parrot: 2000:75)
Notes about form: Parrot points out comparative structures are usually presented as part
of the following pattern: S+V+comparative+than+O e.g. The baby´s more intelligent
than you . However, he says that they may not be followed by a phrase beginning ¨than¨
because what is being omitted is implied in the context of the sentence: e.g
. Nowadays
planes are faster (than before) I agree with Parrot that students should be presented with
examples of comparatives as they happen in conversation and texts. (Parrot: 2000:72,
73)
Pronunciation: Connected speech features: The following are normally weak i.e. we
pronounce them so quickly that they are only just distinguishable in the flow of speech.
The vowel sound in both cases is / ә/
e.g. Bigger /ˈ bɪ gә/, Than /ðәn/ /ðә/, bigger than /bɪ gә ðәmi:/
In words which end in the sound /ŋ/ we add g before the comparative ending
/lɒŋ/: e.g. Longer /lɒ ŋgә/ (Parrot:2000:404,405)
Elision: /d/ is elided when it is between two other consonants:
e.g. bigger and longer / ´bɪ gәn´ lɒ ŋgә /
Linking /r/: When it joins the first word to the second which begins with a vowel. It can
only be applied when the letter ¨r¨ occurs in the written form. E.g. shorte r a
nd
/ˈʃ ɔ:tәrәn/ (Underhill:2005:60,66)
Weak forms: than after a comparative is pronounced with /ә/ in connected speech.
"He is taller than me": /tɔ ː lә ðәn/.
as when talking about equality (or inequality) is pronounced with /ә/: "He's not as tall as
me": /әz tɔ ːl әz/.
Problems
A)Meaning:
1) Students at this level may not know why the comparative is repeated in the sequence:
E.g. The situation is getting worse and worse . They may be unaware of its emphatic use.
2) They may not know that ¨the quicker, the better¨ can be used in complementary
processes where things vary together. Learners may find the use of THE with
comparative odd. ( This is also a problem to do with form)
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B) Form:
I believe that problems to do with form have a common element: lack of
memorability:
1) From my experience teaching intermediate level students, adults and young learners
tend to confuse comparative and superlative structures. They may use ¨more¨ in
superlative statements instead of most. E.g. She is the more intelligent person I know.
This is particularly characteristic of learners whose first language is Latinbased due to
L1 interference when there is only one word to use in both comparative and superlative
forms. E.g. Italian does not have comparative inflections so an Italian learner may say:
She is much more fat than you.¨ instead of ¨she is fatter than you¨
2) Learners at this level may overgeneralise the rules. For example: they may think that
the comparative of simple is more simple instead of simpler. They assume that as they
are twosyllable adjectives and they do not end en ´y´, the rule of more applies,
especially when they end in an unstressed vowel, /l/
3) Students at this level usually use very instead of an intensifier or ´downtoning´
phrase: For example: They may say: He is very more important than my boss instead of
He is much/a lot more important than my boss.
4) French learners at intermediate level also use the word ´that ´instead of ´than´
because in their mother tongue they use a ´that´ equivalent (´que´) for comparatives and
other structures.
e.g. I am thinner that you instead of I am thinner than you or
She runs as fast that you instead of she runs as fast as you.
C)Pronunciation
Learners may not understand comparative structures well due to features of connected
speech:
Weak forms: Some learners do not know or they have not noticed that aspects of
connected speech such as weak forms occur in comparative structures. They may
expect words to be pronounced as the dictionary entries even in rapid speech or natural
conversation. For example, they may pronounce or expect to hear the strong for of than
/ðæn/, the
er endings /er/ instead their weak forms /ðәn/ and /ә/, the strong form of as
/æz/ instead of its weak equivalent /әz/
Elision: Some learners do not understand comparatives in spoken texts because some
sounds are omitted: For example: /d/ is elided when it is between two other consonants:
e.g. bigger and longer / ´bɪ gәn´ lɒ ŋgә /
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Solutions
Solution 1: Meaning and form
Inductive learning is the key to deal with problems to do with form. If the teacher
presents the form to the students, they do not take part in the process of noticing these
rules by themselves. So these rules do not become part of their learning process. They
are given. Learners must experience for themselves this act of discovery so these rules
become meaningful, memorable and serviceable. And this process, in turn, ensures its
permanence in their memory (Thornbury: 1999:51)
All in all, a solution to this problem is, for example, the use of a text where students can
see the comparative forms used in the context where it naturally can occur in real life
and they come up with the patterns that rule them. In appendix 1 there is an example of
this procedure taken from Harmer´s book: How to teach English.
(Harmer:1998:53,59,61)
Of course, the newspaper article is out of date as this book is from 1998. But this
activity can be done using and authentic text or a text that has been adapted as
sometimes it is difficult or even impossible to find an authentic text with all comparative
structures in it.
Then, by means of concept questions in the context of the article, the teacher clarifies
meaning. After that, students should practice the way this comparative structures are
pronounced so the teacher can drill model sentences to show pronunciation and features
of connected speech.
Once meaning and pronunciation are clear, the teacher deals with form. In fact, students
discover form by themselves and using the text they can write a set of rules that are
common to these examples of comparative structures. Here is where I differ with
Harmer. He practices choral and individual drilling after form, I think it is more
meaningful for students to do it when they understand meaning. (Harmer: 1998: 53, 56,
59, 61)
I believe that teaching comparative structures at intermediate level through a guided
discovery procedure and in the context of a text solves both problems with form and
meaning.
Solution 2: Meaning and Form
I have adapted a dictogloss activity written by Thornbury in his book ´How to teach
grammar¨ (Appendix 2 adapted version to teach comparatives) (Thornbury:1999: 82,
83, 84, 85)
A dictogloss is a form of dictation in which the students hear and reconstruct the whole
text from memory and then they compare it with the original. Both the reconstruction
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stage and the comparison stage help them recognise forms that would not be noticed by
students at this level.
The key element of this procedure is that they don´t have an exact memory of what was
said. So when reconstructing the text, they usually write already known structures.
When they compare the two versions, they notice the differences for themselves.
The teacher will monitor his students carefully in order to help with their
comprehension
The dictogloss technique helps learners notice the gap between their present language
competence and their target competence. (Thornbury:1999: 82, 83, 84, 85)
Solution 3: Meaning
I believe the solution to clarify meaning in comparative structures at this level is to elicit
meaning asking concept questions.
1) The situation is getting worse and worse . They may be unaware of its emphatic
use.
The teacher may ask the following concept questions:
Is the situation changing? Yes
Is the situation changing a lot? Yes
Is the speaker worried about this? Yes
Can you say ´The situation is getting worse´? Yes
Why do you think the speaker chose to say ´worse and worse´? To emphasise
Solution 4: Pronunciation
I believe that noticing also here plays a big role. Students should be made aware of the
features of connected speech in comparative structures e.g. the use of weak forms and
elision. Then, learners may find it useful to drill connected speech so they can
experience for themselves how comparatives are pronounced in natural conversation.
There is one technique that helps learners to drill better: back chaining. Whenever I use
back chaining, students feel more confident and are able to repeat the rapid speech more
naturally. You start drilling from back to front: For example in the sentence:
He´s a little older than me /hi:zәlɪtlˈәʊ ldәðәnˈ mi:/
than me /
ðәnˈ mi:/
a little older than me /әlɪtlˈәʊldәðәnˈ mi:
He´s a little older than me /hi:zәlɪtlˈәʊ ldәðәnˈ mi:/
Conclusion
This background essay has given me the opportunity to explore not only new ways of
teaching grammar but also new ways to help students better understand comparatives at
intermediate level.
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Bibliography
Harmer (1998) How to teach English
. Longman
Grammar for English Language
Parrot (2000) Teachers. CUP
Swan (2005)Practical English Usage
. OUP
How to teach grammar. L
Thornbury (1999) ongman
An AZ of ELT
Thornbury ( 2006) . Macmillan
Appendix 1
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Appendix 2
Step 1
The teacher sets the theme by introducing the topic. For example: Summer holidays
After chatting about this for a few minutes, I then say ¨I´m going to tell you about my
favourite two places to have a holiday. I need you to listen and, as soon as I have
finished, I want you to write down any words, phrases or sentences that you remember.´
San Francisco is and
smaller much more modern than London, but it’s less interesting . London has a
lot more
theatres and museums. The Americans are usually more interested in money than culture!
London isn’t as dangerous as San Francisco, and it’s less violent . I feel
much safer living here –
nobody carries a gun, not even the police!
People have a higher
standard of living in the States because generally, it’s much less expensive
than England. For example, petrol is less than half the price and things like food, clothes, and
cameras are much cheaper
Step 2
Students write down as much as they can recall, whether it be individual words or
groups of words. I then tell the class to compare what they have written with their
partners and try to reconstruct the text. I monitor to see if they any help with the
vocabulary but not with the construction of the text.
Step 3
One of the students writes their reconstructed version of the text on one half of the
board, with all the students´ suggestions. I only intervene to answer questions about
vocabulary and spelling.
Step 4
I then show them the original text and ask them to identify any differences between the
two texts. Students notice the differences and I always focus on the target language and
if other unrelated questions arise, I politely reject these explanations.
Step 5
Students write their own texts, of a similar length and style, about their preferences
when going on holidays. Then they discuss their ideas in groups and with the whole
class.
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