TKT: KAL Part 3 Grammar: word classes trainers notes

Description
In this activity, participants learn about the different word classes and their functions, and
begin to explore the various sub-categories of each word class. This knowledge is required
for many TKT: KAL tasks.
Time required:

45 minutes

Materials
required:

Aims:

Participants Worksheet 1 (one copy for each participant)

Participants Worksheet 2 (one copy for each participant)

Participants Worksheet 3 (one copy for each participant)

Participants Worksheet 4 (one copy for each participant)

to introduce the different word classes

to check and increase understanding of the functions of word

classes

to increase understanding of the subcategories of each word class

Procedure
1. Divide the group into teams of 3 or 4 participants per team. Tell them there are nine
word classes/ parts of speech and the first team to give you all nine is the winner.
Participants work in their teams to list the nine word classes/ parts of speech. When
they have nine, they should shout out Stop!. Check their answers are correct: if not,
ask the other teams to answer (see Key below).
2. Give out Participants Worksheet 1. Ask participants to categorise the words
individually before checking with the rest of their team from Step 1. Feed back
answers, especially those where there is disagreement (see Key below).
3. Practise this by saying a word aloud. The group must tell you what part of speech it
is. After 2 or 3 words, participants continue this activity in their teams, each person
saying 2 or 3 words. Monitor and help with any disagreements.
4. Point out that parts of speech are not just different classes of things, but each class
has a different function in grammar. Elicit from participants what the function of the
different parts of speech is. Accept all answers at this stage.
5. Give out Participants Worksheet 2. Participants work in pairs or individually to
match the definitions with each word class. Check with a partner/another pair. Feed
back as necessary (see Key below), then ask participants in pairs to underline in the
definitions the function of each word class. Feed back (see Key below).
6. Write nouns in the middle of the board. Write Paris, sugar, imagination, book
randomly around the board, leaving some space between these words and nouns.
Elicit what kind of noun each of these words is, and write the types of nouns on the
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board to make a spidergram (see Key below). Point out that for each word class,
there are various subcategories, e.g. transitive verbs, adverbs of manner,
comparative adjectives, etc.
7. Give out Participants Worksheet 3. Participants work in small groups to complete
the table. Allow five minutes for this. Encourage participants to be as comprehensive
in their answers as possible to give them a good base for the following game. As you
check answers to this task, you could ask for examples of each subcategory. (See
Key below.)
8. Divide the group into at least three equally numbered teams. Each team writes
definitions of six subcategories from the table on Participants Worksheet 3. When
they have all finished writing, each team takes it in turns to read out a definition. The
first team to give the correct sub-category gets a point. The next team then reads out
their definition, and so on. The winner is the team with most points.
9. Give out Participants Worksheet 4. Ask participants to do the task individually or in
pairs. The task acts as a round up on word classes.
10. Discuss the following questions with participants:
a.

How might knowledge of word classes help the teacher in the classroom?
(e.g. to analyse learners mistakes, to guide learners who muddle the
grammatical function of different parts of speech, to help learners with
understanding relationships between words in listening and reading and
composing sentences in writing)

b.

Would it be useful or not for teach learners the terms used to describe
language in this unit? (this would depend on the learners, their age,
background, learning preferences and previous learning experience)

Additional information
TKT: KAL is unlikely to test knowledge of the parts of speech directly, as it is assumed
candidates already know these. The terms for the parts of speech and their subcategories
occur regularly in the exam.

Suggested follow-up activities

1. This activity could be followed by the activities TKT: KAL Part 3: Nouns and
adjectives, TKT: KAL Part 3: Determiners and pronouns, TKT: KAL Part 3: Adverbials
and TKT: KAL Part 3: Types of verbs.

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TKT: KAL Part 3 Grammar: word classes answer keys

Key to Procedure steps
Step 1:
The nine word classes are:
nouns

verbs

adjectives

adverbs

determiners

prepositions

pronouns

conjunctions

exclamations

Step 6:

book

imagination

countable
abstract
nouns

uncountable

proper
Paris

sugar
Key to Participants Worksheet 1
Note: words in bold are in more than one word class.
Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Determiners

rain

must

awful

hard

another

truth

cook

hard

then

each

cook

rain

his

since

which

lovely

there
Exclamations

advice
Prepositions

Pronouns

Conjunctions

because of

his

then

onto

which

since

theirs

although

there

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Key to Participants Worksheet 2

1. Nouns

f)

Words showing a class or category of thing, including people,

animals, inanimate things, places, events, qualities and states

2. Verbs

i)

denote actions, events, processes and states

3. Adjectives

b)

describe the qualities, features or states attributed to a noun or

pronoun

4. Adverbs

h)

indicate the time, place, manner, degree, frequency, duration,

viewpoint etc. of an event, action or process

5. Determiners

c)

Items which indicate the kind of reference a noun phrase has.

They express a range of meanings including definite/ indefinite,
possessive, demonstrative, quantifier, numeral

6. Prepositions

g)

a class of words used to express relationships between two events,

things or people in terms of time, space or other abstract relations

7. Pronouns

e)

Items used to substitute for the entities which lexical noun phrases
indicate

8. Conjunctions

a)

refer to items used to mark logical relationships between words,

phrases, clauses and sentences

9. Exclamations d)

Words, phrases or clauses conveying emotion

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Key to Participants Worksheet 3

abstract

uncountable

concrete

proper

countable

common

modal

auxiliary

main

transitive

intransitive

stative

dynamic

regular

irregular

lexical

phrasal

colour

material

evaluative

short

longer

comparative

superlative

predicative

attributive

gradable

ungradable

focus

time

place

attitude

manner

degree

articles

quantifiers

numerals

demonstratives

possessive adjectives

interrogative
adjectives

Prepositions

place

time

direction

Pronouns

possessive

demonstrative

indefinite

interrogative

personal

relative

subordinating

coordinating

time

place

reason

manner

contrast

condition

purpose

shock

pleasure, etc

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

frequency
Determiners

reflexive
Conjunctions

result
Exclamations

surprise

Key to Participants Worksheet 4

1 B

2 B

3 A

4 B

5 A

6 C

7 A

8 B

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TKT: KAL Part 3 Grammar: word classes Participants Worksheet

1
Put these words into the right box according to their part of speech.
N.B. Some may go in more than one category.

another

must

awful

rain

hard

then

each

his

since

truth

because of

which

cook

enormous

lovely

theirs

onto

although

there

advice

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Determiners

Prepositions

Pronouns

Conjunctions

Exclamations

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TKT: KAL Part 3 Grammar: word classes Participants Worksheet

2
Match these definitions with the word classes by writing the correct letter in each box.
When you have finished, underline in the table the function of each word class.

1. Nouns

a) refer to items used to mark logical relationships between

words, phrases, clauses and sentences

2. Verbs

b) describe the qualities, features or states attributed to a

noun or pronoun

3. Adjectives

c) Items which indicate the kind of reference a noun phrase

has. They express a range of meanings including
definite/ indefinite, possessive, demonstrative, quantifier,
numeral

4. Adverbs

d) Words, phrases or clauses conveying emotion

5. Determiners

e) Items used to substitute for the entities which lexical noun

phrases indicate

6. Prepositions

f) Words showing a class or category of thing, including

people, animals, inanimate things, places events, qualities
and states

7. Pronouns

g) a class of words used to express relationships between

two events, things or people in terms of time, space or
other abstract relations

8. Conjunctions

h) indicate the time, place, manner, degree, frequency,

duration, viewpoint etc. of an event, action or process

9. Exclamations

i) denote actions, events, processes and states

(Definitions adapted from Carter and McCarthy, 2006, Cambridge Grammar of English, CUP)

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TKT: KAL Part 3 Grammar: word classes Participants Worksheet

3
Note down as many subcategories you can think of for each word class.

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Determiners

Prepositions

Pronouns

Conjunctions

Exclamations

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TKT: KAL Part 3 Grammar: word classes Participants Worksheet

4
Look at the sentences and the three words taken from them. Two of the words perform the
same grammatical function in the sentence, one performs a different function. Which word
(A, B or C) performs a different function?

1. Everybody understood that each sentence he spoke

was an important one.

2. Although he was sick and tired, he insisted on playing

in the match as it was so important to him.

3. The girl noticed the angry men and women in the town
square.

4. Unfortunately, Ive absolutely no idea what hes talking

about, .. honestly, said the boy

5. Because he was so busy he didnt have enough time

to complete all the tasks on his to-do list

6. As she wanted to talk to her friend on the phone, she

handed the shop assistant her baby.

7. Because of his concern and as he didnt know what to

do, he rang his friend in order to discuss his problem.

8. He needed to fly fast so the next flight with a stop-over

was no use as he needed to go direct.

Everybody

each

one

Although

and

as

girl

men

women

unfortunately

absolutely

honestly

so

enough

all

friend

shop assistant

baby

because of

as

in order to

fast

next

direct

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Acknowledgements
Cambridge ESOL is grateful to the following for copyright permission:
Cambridge Grammar of English, CUP
Definitions adapted from Carter and McCarthy, 2006, Cambridge Grammar of English, CUP

Every effort has been made to identify the copyright owners for material used, but it is not always
possible to identify the source or contact the copyright holders. In such cases, Cambridge ESOL
would welcome information from the copyright owners.

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