Aguilar 1 Dustin Aguilar Pedagogical Grammar 5090 Dr.

Robert Wilson 11/29/2012 Adversative Relations Lesson Plan This paper will explain a 60-minute ESL lesson plan on the topic of teaching logical relations. It will include a section covering the teaching context, relevant grammatical facets of the forms, the teaching objectives, possible student errors, and an explanation of the teaching methods based on current research. Teaching Context This lesson plan will target students in the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI) at the University of North Texas, an institute that teaches academic English and prepares students for success in higher education. For students in this institute, conversational English is only part of the curriculum; the primary focus is to improve English for academia. Therefore, the lesson plan will focus on forms and punctuation as well as conversation. The target students for this lesson will be in Level 2, a low intermediate level in which students have attained basic conversation and writing skills. Students at this level at IELI will have already been introduced to logical relations with coordinating conjunctions like and, or, but, and so. They will also have been introduced to conjunctive adverbials including moreover, however, and therefore. However, the extent to which they will have been introduced to such adverbials is limited. The target students will be predominantly Arabic L1 speakers, but the class will also contain Chinese speakers. The class size will be from eight to fifteen students, and the students could range anywhere from age seventeen to sixty. However, the predominant age range will most likely be from eighteen to twenty-three. These students will have relatively high motivation and will expect regular homework assignments. Grammar Structure The lesson plan will focus on adversative conjunctive adverbials (ACAs) in sentences with adversative logical relationships. Some attention will be given to the coordinating conjunctions and, but, and so, but most of the attention will be given to conjunctive adverbials. Celce-Murcia and Larson-Freeman (1999) give what they call a fairly complete list of conjunctive adverbials, which can be divided into the following subcategories based on semantic quality. Some are single words, and others are lexicalized units: Illustrative (and) Moreover Furthermore Similarly In addition Likewise After all Also Causal (so) Therefore Consequently Thus As a result In turn Adversative (but, yet) However Nevertheless On the contrary On the other hand Alternatively In contrast Conversely

Aguilar 2 For example/instance Indeed In fact In particular In sum Likewise That is In other words Despite that In any case/event Otherwise Rather Still Regardless

Such adverbials are categorized as conjunctive rather than subordinating because adverbial subordinators occur in subordinate clauses whereas conjunctive adverbials are complete adverbials occurring in independent clauses. However, these adverbials are like all other adverbials because most of them can occur in sentence initial, medial, final positions (Larson-Freeman 1999). These conjunctive adverbials and the coordinating conjunctions that correspond to them are punctuated differently. The coordinating conjunctions that the lesson plan will address are and, but, and so. All of which occur conjoining two independent clauses preceded by a comma, and they do not commonly occur in sentence initial positions in standard written English. a. The pirates are scary, and theyre headed this way. b. The pirates are scary, but Ill take my chances with them. c. The pirates are scary, so Ill be leaving. The conjunctive adverbials occur in independent clauses, but they do not conjoin independent clauses; however, they do frequently occur in sentence initial positions. In such positions, a word like however must be followed by a comma, but Celce-Murcia and Larson-Freeman (1999) state that the comma is somewhat dependant on the word that is used. For instance, they say that nevertheless, thus, and rather do not need following commas. The Grammar Book does not give a description of or a list of conjunctive adverbials that must be followed by commas, and it does not explain the distinction. The following are two examples of the appropriate punctuation for however in the sentence initial position. Either a semicolon or a period may be used. a. The pirates are scary; however, Ill take my chances with them. b. The pirates are scary. However, Ill take my chances with them. c. *The pirates are scary, however, Ill take my chances with them. When conjunctive adverbials appear in sentence medial positions, they are preceded and followed by commas, but when they appear sentence final, no punctuation is normally need. The exception is with the word however, however. While these punctuation distinctions are important, for the purpose of the lesson plan, we will only discuss sentence initial adversatives. Future lesson plans will address adversatives in medial and final positions. An important distinction to make is that the adversative relationship exists within the two clauses regardless of the presence of a conjunctive adverbial. As Heltsly (1991) points out, the conjunctive units are not cohesive in and of themselves, but they reach into the texts that surround them to gain meaning. The word however and other

Aguilar 3 conjunctive adversatives hold a semantic quality that requires the reader to draw information from the preceding clause and deduce what kind of information to expect from the following clause. This relationone sentence connecting logically to the following sentenceis referred to as a local relation. The other type of relation is known as a global relationone idea in a series of sentences connecting logically to another group of sentences or ideas (Pretorius 2006). Heltsley (1991) explains how conjunctive adverbials operate semantically in global relationships: All [conjunctive adverbials] imply a variety of logical, contexted-based relations that are not easily explainedby single sentence examples. In other words, a word like however draws meaning from the context of the entire discourse in which it is found. Adversative Conjunctive Adverbial & Logical Relations Lesson Plan Objectives 1. Students will learn to identify, understand, and use adversative conjunctive adverbials to form adversative relations. 2. Students will be introduced to conjunctive adverbial punctuation. 3. Students will better understand punctuation for the previously acquired coordinating conjunctions Materials However Joke, Love Letter game, 3 large sheets of paper, markers, computer, overhead projector, sentence strips (3-4 sets of 12 sentences), Bad Idea short story. Introduction Cartoon 1. Introduce lesson by showing a cartoon strip Im not the strongest guy in the world; however, Im very short! a. Ask students to try to identify why it is a joke. b. Explain that the two clauses do not seem contradictory even though but would lead the reader to read them as such. Activity 1 Inductive definition (15 min.) 1. Show Love Letter on the projector (a mock love letter with the ending removed along with a list of conjunctive adverbials and corresponding endings). c. Allow students to insert different conjunctive adverbials from the word bank and decide which endings of the letter fit with the different adverbials. d. Have students place the conjunctive adverbials in the following categories: So, And, and But. Write the categories and the respective adverbials on large sheets of paper e. Hang the pages in the room where they will stay. f. Have students come up with a definition for when to you use adversatives, and write that definition on the But poster. Activity 2 Sentence strips (15 min.)

Aguilar 4 1. Divide class into teams of 3-4. 2. Give teams 5 minutes to recreate sentences using the correct conjunction. 3. Have teams read their sentences before the class. Judge whether they used the correct conjunction. Teams get a point for every correct sentence and 2 points if it is a correct use of an adversative conjunctive adverbial. 4. Give students a new set of sentence strips with only the primary clause. Students must create their own secondary clauses. Award points accordingly (5 min). Activity 3 Production exercise Summer vs. Winter (20 min.) 1. Divide the class in two groups. Half of the students must argue that the best time to visit America is in the winter. The other group must argue for summer. 2. Give students 10 minutes to discuss with their group and try to come up with at least 5 points to argue. Give two points for causal statements and 3 points for adversative statements. 3. As the groups debate. Write their points on the board drawing attention to punctuation. 4. Mediate the debate. Activity 4 Writing exercise A Bad Idea (25 min.) 1. Read students a short story called A Bad Idea while students follow along. 2. Have students underline or circle all of the adversative conjunctive adverbials and their punctuation. 3. Give students the rest of class to write their own Bad Idea story. Description of Activities & Explanation of Methods This lesson plan will focus on teaching comprehension of adversative logical relations and the use of adversative conjunctive adverbials based on a report from E.J. Pretorius (2006), wherein Pretorius says, Knowledge of cohesion distinguishes skilled readers from their less skilled counterparts. Also Pretorius reports that there is marked improvement in academic performance the stronger the ability to comprehend logical relations. The report also points out that illustrative relationships are more easily attained, followed by causal, then adversative. In fact, the distinguishing factor between passing students and at-risk students, in this study, was the ability to distinguish causal and adversative relations. Activity 1 For activity 1, the teacher will project the first part of a love letter on the board. The letter will be from a man to his girlfriend extoling her beauty and other desirable qualities. The end of the letter will be removed and students will have two word banks to choose from. One bank will consist of the aforementioned conjunctive adverbials listed on page 2 of this paper. The adverbials will not be separated into their classifications. The second bank will consist of three different possible endings: I want to marry you, I think we should break up, You are a very wonderful person. Each possible ending presents a different logical relationship to the first part of the letter. Students will try each conjunctive adverbial with each possible ending to find which words are adversative, causal, and illustrative. This will give students an opportunity to inductively deduce the grammar rules for the conjunctive adverbials.

Aguilar 5 Students will categorize conjunctive adverbials under their corresponding headings: And, But, and So. Heltsley (1991) says that this classification forms a solid foundation upon which to build more sensitive semantic differences because most students can understand these categories. This activity addresses what Heltsley calls a basic problem of teaching logical connectors. Most lessons on the subject present local relations leaving out global logical relations. This supposes that logical connectedness lies only in the units that are connected, but as her paper shows, the relationship covers more than the immediate, connected sentences. The love letter game, introduces the concept of connectedness in the context of global relations. The primary part of the love letter can be as long as a paragraph, and the sentence immediately followed by the however is not the only sentence to which the secondary clause is adverse. This will give students a good foundation for conceptualizing adversative (and other) relationships: one idea is adverse to another. Activity 2 In the Sentence Strip activity, students will be divided into teams of 3-4, and each team will be given sentence strips consisting of a primary clause, a separate conjunctive adverbial, and a separate secondary clause. Students will race to form as many correct logical relations as they can. Correct punctuation will be included on the card with the conjunctive adverbial. The sentences in this activity must be constructed in a certain way in order to maximize the activities effectiveness. Heltsley (1991) points out that students can construct circumstances that could result in any number of logical relationships for any two sentences. For example the following two sentences do not have a clear enough relationship to draw a certain conclusion on which conjunctive adverbial to use: We like Miss Smith___ we like Mr. Jones. a. . In addition, b. . Nevertheless, c. ; however, d. ; therefore, To avoid falling into the trap of vague relationships, the Sentence Strip game must include sentences that introduce simple syllogisms. The sentences should use simple logic and give enough context that a number of students will draw similar conclusions about the nature of the relationship: It is very hot today___ I am wearing a black jacket. While this sentence in not long. It provides a simple relationship that does not allow for much reinterpretation on the part of the student. Heltsley (1991) also suggest using sentences from textbooks or from literature. Activity 3 For the production exercise, the class will be divided into two teams. Each team will have 10 minutes to develop arguments about the perfect time to visit America summer or winter. Students will be given the opportunity to debate, and points will be awarded for correct adversative conjunctive adverbial use. This task is designed to satisfy the characteristic requirements for speaking exercises explained by Junko Nobuyoshi and

Aguilar 6 Rod Ellis (1993). It is communicative in purpose. It focusses on the message rather than a grammar form. It produces a gap in the form of a difference of opinion. It offers opportunity for negotiation of meaning, and it requires students to develop the resources to perform the task. This production task comes only after all of the students have had a chance to inductively understand the forms, and this task is communal, so the students get to work together to produce correct forms and hopefully prove their point! Activity 4 For activity 4, A Bad Idea, the instructor will read a short story with many adversative conjunctive adverbials. Students will follow along on their own copies of the story, marking the adverbials they find and marking the punctuation. This positive input will help the students inductively deduce the punctuation rules. After the story, the instructor will solicit a punctuation explanation from the students. This activity brings focus back to global relations, which Pretorius (2006) reports to be the defining factor between at-risk students and passing students. Showing adversative relations and their correlating conjunctive adverbials will not only give more context for understanding global adversative relations, but it will also give more positive input for punctuation. Students will also be asked to write their own Bad Idea story. They will be encouraged to use many adversative conjunctive adverbials. Because they have been exposed to salient comprehensible input, they will be able to produce the correct form with the correct punctuation. Prediction of Negative L1 Transfer The language learners with Arabic L1 are likely to receive mostly positive transfer from their L1 in the case of ACAs. Arabic has a number of conjunctive adverbials that are similar to those found in English. However, research shows that Arabic learners of English tend to use adversative transitions less frequently than additive and temporal transitions. Also, the same research reports that the word but is used most frequently as an ACA at 40% (Mohammed-Sayidina 2010). The research observes only adversative transitions but does not draw distinctions between adversative conjunctive adverbials (however), coordinating conjunctions (but), and adversative subordinating adverbials (although). Arabic does not draw a distinction between coordinating conjunctions like but and conjunctive adverbials like however. In English the punctuation is different. This represents a potential negative L1 transfer. The semantic use of the words transfers, but he punctuation does not. Mohammed-Sayidina (2010) points out another potential L1 transfer error; Arabic speakers create cohesion between sentences by repetition of nouns while English does so with pronouns. This is not a potential problem with the use of ACAs, per se, but it poses a problem in writing adversative relationships, which is a part of this lesson plan. Chinese students also can draw from positive L1 transfer in the semantic use of ACAs in adversative relationships, as Chinese has similar words. However, a study of Chinese EFL learners shows that students tend to misuse adversative conjunctives. The study showed that in a few instances the students used an adversative adverbial where an additive adverbial was necessary (Meisuo 2000). However, the study did not offer an explanation as to why. Meisuo points out that one function of Chinese that affects the use of ACAs is that Chinese only allows ACAs to occur as sentence/clause initial, and Chinese students tended to only use ACAs in sentence initial positions in their English writing. This may cause confusion when students are introduced to the mobility of the

Aguilar 7 English ACAs. Another function of Chinese is that it only distinguishes between coordinating conjunctions and ACAs in certain situations, but for the most part, there is no difference in punctuation for the Chinese equivalent of but and however. This can cause punctuation errors because the L1 transfer could result in sentence b. a. Pirates are usually quite ugly, but I want to be one. b. *Pirates are usually quite ugly, however I want to be one. Furthermore, Chinese allows for subordinating adverbials to accompany coordinating conjunctions, which may cause negative L1 transfer. In the following example, sentence a is permissible in Chinese, but not in English. However, in Chinese sentence b is not correct. In sentence b, Chinese requires that , but be used. The optionality of although can cause potential errors in English. a. Although the pirates are coming to get us, but Im not afraid. b. Although the pirates are coming to get us; however, Im not afraid. Both Arabic and Chinese may receive negative L1 transfer in the form of punctuation, but as far as semantic use is concerned, neither language is likely to have negative transfer.

Aguilar 8 Works Cited Celce-Murcia, Marianne, and Diane Larsen-Freeman. The Grammar Book. N.p.: Heinle, 1999. Print. Heltsley, April. Logical Connectors: Semantics, Scope, and Pedagogical Implications. Thesis. Tokai University, 1991. N.p.: n.p., n.d. NII-Electronic Library Services. 1991. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. Meisuo, Zhang. "Cohesive Features in the Expository Writing of Undergraduates in Two Chinese Universities." RELC Journal 31.1 (2000): 83-87. June 2000. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Mohammed-Sayidina, Aisha. "Transfer of L1 Cohesive Devices and Transition Words into L2 Academic Texts: The Case of Arab Students." RELC Journal 41.3 (2010): 254-64.Transfer of L1 Cohesive Devices and Transition Words into L2 Academic Texts: The Case of Arab Students. SAGE, 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. Nobuyoshi, Junko, and Rod Ellis. "Focused Communication Tasks and Second Language Acquisition." ELT Journal 47 (1993): 203-10. Oxford University Press, 3 July 1993. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. Pretorius, Elizabeth J. The Comprehension of Logical Relations in Expository Texts by Students Who Study Through the Medium of ESL. Thesis. University of South Africa, 2006. N.p.: n.p., n.d. ScienceDirect.com. Elsevier Ltd., 28 Feb. 2006. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.

Appendix

Im not the strongest guy in the world; however, Im very short!