TOPIC 12

ENGLISH TITLE: ESSENTIAL MORPHOSYNTACTIC ELEMENTS OF THE

BASIC COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
PROGRESSIVE USE OF GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES IN ORAL AND
WRITTEN PRODUCTIONS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION.

SPANISH TITLE: ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA

LENGUA INGLESA. ESTRUCTURAS COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES.
USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA
COMUNICACIÓN.

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 INDEX

0 - INTRODUCTION

1 - ESSENTIAL MORPHOSYNTACTIC ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH

1.1 - MORPHEMES
1.2 - WORDS
1.3 - SENTENCES

2 - ELEMENTARY COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURES

3 - PROGRESSIVE USE OF GRAMMAR CATEGORIES TO ACHIEVE

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
3.1 - APPROACHES TO GRAMMAR
3.2 - COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
3.3 - GRAMMAR ACTIVITIES

4 - CONCLUSION

5 - BIBLIOGRAPHY

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0 - INTRODUCTION

Opposite to the acquisition of the mother language, the learning of a foreign

language supposes the conscious study of the same one across his grammar, of his
pronunciation, his vocabulary, etc. (KRASHEN, S. and TERREL, T., 2003). We will bear in
mind that to get closer to the English language, the morphosyntax and the use of
grammatical categories are part of this learning.

It is important, therefore, to think that the education of the English language like
foreign language in early ages and in the Infant and Primary Education needs a natural
approach that allows the child to acquire the language of a playful and unconscious form,
and this is what I am going to deal with along the topic.
The present essay aims to study morphosyntax in the foreign language. For this
purpose I will divide the topic into three main sections:
- First, I will present the notion of morphosyntax and its elements.
- Second, I will deal with the elementary communicative structures.
- Third, I will study the progressive use of grammar categories to improve CC.
- Finally, I will compile the main conclusions and the bibliography used to develop
this topic.

Beginning with the development of the subject, the first point: essential
morphosyntactic elements in English.

1 - ESSENTIAL MORPHOSYNTACTIC ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH

Morphosyntax is where morphology and syntax come together. It looks at words and
their parts (roots, prefixes, and suffixes) and also at the grammatical structures in which they
take place (phrases and clauses). Generally speaking we can say that the most basic units of
syntax are the sentence and the morpheme. The sentence is the largest unit of syntax. The
morpheme is according to the famous American linguist BROOMFIELD, L., the smallest
meaningful unit in a given language. A morpheme can consist of a word (such as “listen”) or of a
word element that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units (such as the “s” at the end of
the word “books”).
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 1.1 - MORPHEMES

We can find different types of morphemes:

• Free morphemes occur as separate words, we find:
- Lexical morphemes, which are words that carry the content of the message
(such as nouns or verbs)
- Functional morphemes, which are mainly functional words in the language (such
as conjunctions, prepositions or articles)
• Bound morphemes cannot stand alone and are attached to another form.

Morphology is traditionally divided into 2 main fields: inflectional morphology and

derivational morphology.

► Inflectional Morphology: studies the way in which words vary to express grammatical
contrasts in sentences, such as:
- Aspect: perfective, imperfective progressive, non-progressive
- Case: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, partitive
- Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter, animate, inanimate
- Mood: indicative, subjunctive, optative
- Number: singular, dual, trial, plural
- Person: first, second, third...
- Tense: present, past, future
- Voice: active, passive

► Derivational Morphology: studies how new words are constructed, without making
reference to the role that a word may play in a sentence. There are two main groups:
- Affixation: divided into prefixation (adding prefixes) and suffixation
(adding suffixes).
- Infixation: emphatic structures such as abso-booming-lutely.

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1.2 - WORDS

Words are usually the earliest units to identify in the written language, as they
commonly have spaces on either side.

There are actually many different types of word:

• Closed classes, they do not allow the creation of new members (prepositions,
pronouns, articles and conjunctions.)
• Open classes, they allow the creation of new members (nouns, adjectives, verbs
and adverbs.) These are the most usual processes to make new words:
- Compounding: Adding one base to another, e.g. blackboard.
- Reduplication: Part of the word is doubled. Knock-knock.
- Clipping: They are informal shortenings. Doctor.doc
- Blending: Part of two different words are combined- Brunch
- Acronyms: They are abbreviations whose use has been widespread. Laser
- Coinage: Turning proper nouns into common ones. E. g. Kleenex

1.3 - SENTENCES

Sentences, the sentence is the highest grammatical unit and consists of one
independent clause or two or more related clauses. Sentences in English comprise the
following units:
- Subject: It encodes the main participant in the situation presented by the clause.
- Verb: It is the verbal component of the clause. It can be transitive, intransitive or
copular.
- Objects: They reflect other participants that are different from the subject.
Objects can be direct and indirect.
- Complements: They add information about the subject or the complement.
- Adverbials: They are optional elements which express omissible circumstances.

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We can classify sentences by structure:
• Simple Sentence – “I love chocolate.” One independent clause.
• Compound Sentence - “I love chocolate, and I love eating chocolate.” Two or more
independent clauses.
• Complex Sentence – “I love chocolate because it’s decadent.” One independent
clause and one or more dependent clauses (italicized). Note: according to
Wikipedia, a sentence like “The dog chewed up the shoes that I just bought” is a
simple sentence, not a complex sentence, because the relative clause “that I just
bought” simply modifies the noun without performing any other function.
• Complex-Compound Sentence – “I love chocolate because it’s decadent, and I
love eating chocolate because it’s delicious.” Two or more independent clauses and
one or more dependent clauses.

We can classify sentences by purpose:

• Declarative Sentence – “I love chocolate.” Used to make a simple statement. Most
sentences are declarative.
• Interrogative Sentence – “Do you love chocolate?” Used to ask a question.
• Exclamatory Sentence – “I need chocolate!” Used for emphasis and emotion.
• Imperative Sentence – “Please buy me some chocolate.” Used for commands, with
the pronoun you always implied.
• Conditional Sentence – “If I had a billion dollars, I would buy a castle made of
chocolate.” Used to express what one would do if a condition were met. There
are several types of conditional sentences: the present general (or zero condition),
the future more-vivid (or first condition), the future less-vivid (or second condition),
the present contra factual (also sometimes called the second condition), and
the past contra factual (or third condition).

Now, let us move onto another important aspect of this unit, elementary communicative
structures.

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2 - ELEMENTARY COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURES

Let me present the structures and lexicon commonly used in social relations. Since
language is a sociocultural phenomenon, understanding and controlling interactions in
discourse are important for learners.

• Markers of social relations:

- Greetings: on arrival (hi/hello/good morning), leave-taking (bye/see you),
introductions (how do you do?), seasonal greetings (Merry Xmas/Happy
Easter)
- Address forms: formal (Miss., Mr.), informal (John!), familiar
(dear/darling/mate)
- Politeness conventions: politeness formulae (please/thank you), polite
requests (would you please…?)

Now I am going to study the expression of information. This is probably one of the
most important reasons we use language for: to give someone information we think they
do not know. Questions and statements are the structures we typically use to convey or
ask for information.

• Expression of information:
- Asking and answering (What’s your name? My name is Sonia)
- Identifying (Is that your car?)
- Reporting (I have a red car)
- Correcting (No, that is not my car)

Speakers should be able to convey their emotional attitudes and feelings towards
the person they are addressing and towards the subject they are talking about.

• Expression of attitudes:
- Expressing agreement and disagreement (I agree)

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 - Expressing modality: obligation, necessity, ability and permission (Can I..?/ You
must.../ I need…)
- Expressing wants, desires, intentions and preferences (I wish you a Merry
Xmas)
- Expressing likes and dislikes (I like)
- Expressing apologies (I’m sorry)
- Expressing feelings (I love you)

Once treated elementary communicative structures let’s move to the last point of
the topic: progressive use of grammar categories to improve communicative competence.

3 - PROGRESSIVE USE OF GRAMMAR CATEGORIES TO IMPROVE

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

3.1 - APPROACHES TO GRAMMAR

Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. Without grammar,

words hang together without any real meaning or sense. In order to be able to
communicate in a language to some degree of proficiency, we need to have some
grammatical knowledge. By teaching grammar we as teachers give our students the
means to express themselves. Fortunately, nowadays with the emphasis on the
communicative approach and a wide variety of stimulating resources, teaching grammar
does not necessarily mean endless conjugation of verbs or grammar translation.

The goal of grammar instruction is to enable students to carry out their

communicative purposes. There are two main approaches to teach grammar:
- A deductive approach: the rule is presented and the language is produced
based on the rule. This approach is time saving and allows more time for practicing
the language items; Therefore, it is an effective approach with lower level students.
- An inductive approach: The rule is inferred through some form some form of
guided discovery. This approach is often more beneficial to students who already
have a base in the language as it encourages them to work things out for
themselves based on their existing knowledge.
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 These two approaches can be used to teach grammar and help out students in the
acquisition of the CC.

3.2 - COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Communicative competence is what HYMES, D. stated as not only the capacity to

produce grammatically correct utterances (as CHOMSKY, N. argued), but also to the
capacity to know how to use a language: when to speak, when not, to whom, etc. Its
introduction to linguistic discourse has been generally associated with CHOMSKY, N.

During the 1970s and 80s many linguists with interest in the theory of language
acquisition gave their contribution to the development of Communicative Competence. In
1983, WIDDOWSON, S. made a distinction between competence and capacity. He
defined competence in terms of the knowledge of linguistic and sociolinguistic
conventions.

Recent theoretical and empirical research on Communicative competence is based

on three models of communicative competence: the model of CANALE, M. and SWAIN,
M., BACHMAN, L. and PALMER, A. and the ideas of the Common European Framework.

In this Common European Framework of Reference for language, communicative

competence is mentioned and developed, being divided in:
- Linguistic competence, this is the ability to produce grammatically correct
utterances.
- Sociolinguistic competence, it makes reference to the social and cultural context
that affect a communicative situation.
- Pragmatic competence, it is the use of functional resources in the language

We can also distinguish four characteristics in this competence:

- Feasibility, a native speaker knows if something is possible in the language.
- Occurrence, a native speaker knows how often things can be said in a language.
- Systematic potential, a native speaker has an inner system to create correct
utterances.
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 - Appropriacy, a native speaker knows whether something in the language is
appropriate in a given situation.

This concept has been adopted by the Spanish Educational Administration for
teaching purposes since the Organic Law on Education, 3rd of May of 2006, and now with
the Organic Law for Improving the Quality of Education 8/2013, 9th of December.

The importance of working this communicative competence in the classroom is

established both in the Royal Decree 126/2014, 28th of February, that establishes the core
curriculum nationwide, and the Decree 54/2014, 10th of July, which sets the Curriculum of
Primary Education for the Community of Castilla la Mancha. Both documents affirm that
the communicative competence is one of the competences that children must have
acquired at the end of Primary Education, and as we said before, it is our main goal for us
as English language teachers.

In the English area methodological guidance (Decree 54/2014, 10th of July) is also
required that after the stage of Primary Education students must have acquired the
communicative competence defined by the A1 level of the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages in the four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading and
writing.

3.3 - GRAMMAR ACTIVITIES

Let me go on examining the different stages we must follow to ensure the

progressive use of grammar categories to improve our pupils´ CC.
- Presentation stage: teachers introduce the grammar by using different techniques such
as flashcards, pictures, posters or games, depending on which is the most suitable for
each structure or moment. Learners perceive the grammar categories and take them into
short-term memory.
- Controlled practice: Learners internalize the new grammar items in a guided process by
getting involved in communicative activities to practice the structure they have learned.
They get prepared to use these items for communicative purposes.

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- Production stage: It is aimed to the production of learnt language items for some real-
life purpose. All these activities give students the opportunity to practice the language
more freely.
- Teacher’s feedback and correction: It should take place throughout the whole lesson.
We have to bear in mind that the aim of this step is not pointing out where an error takes
place, but to correct those mistakes that cause an interruption in communication.

Some of the grammar activities for our class could be:

- Play the "One or Two" : Activity physical response to contrast two phonemes in isolated
words. The teacher assigns a number to each phoneme, and then the students have to
recognize and sing the number you have assigned responding well to the number or
showing a sign that says so.
- Dictates of words: You can use many types: students must have all the words and just
draw a circle around that include a certain sound or be grouped into two different columns
words with different sounds.
- Sound included: Students are introduced to a group of objects (or pictures) and have
noted (or mark) those that include a certain sound. Thus we also emphasize the
relationship between lexicon and sound, sometimes wasted a nexus for learning
vocabulary.
- Bingo: A very useful game in language teaching since it serves to relate spelling and
pronunciation. Students have a table and need to dial only the words sung by the teacher
or another student; you can do many variations, including illustrations, or even phonetic
transcriptions (at an advanced level).
- Songs and tongue twisters: Both poetry as songs or twisters based on the
pronunciation of their structure and are therefore interesting for practice, not explicitly,
different sounds with a playful touch tool.
- Dialogues monosyllable: In order to work the intonation of statements we could build
very short dialogues using monosyllabic or disyllabic words in which it is very easy to see
both the intonation and the function it performs.

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- Internet Resources for the teaching of pronunciation: Internet allows a fundamental
fact for language teaching, expand communication possibilities. And it will add a sense of
motivation to the students.

4 - CONCLUSION

As we have seen over the presentation of the topic, communication is the main
purpose of any language, and it is a key word for us as English teachers. Not only is the
essence of human interaction, it is also the center of language learning, where oral and
written skills are involved.

Additionally, the main goal established for the Foreign Languages area emphasizes
the relevance of teaching a foreign language as an instrument of communication between
people and countries. This is materialized in the priority given to the effective achievement
of communicative competence.

We could sum up the topic by stating that many factors lay behind a good
teaching of Foreign Language. It is not just being able to carry out properly one lesson, but
being able to plan whole year lessons, accordingly with the different levels of curricular
adaptation, bearing in mind special educational needs and being conscious of the different
objectives and contents we aim to achieve in the whole year.

According to FORBES, M., “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with

an open one”, and this must be our main goal as teachers, to help to the integral
development of our students and to help them become responsible citizens in this
changing society.

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5 - BIBLIOGRAPHY

► Legal framework:
- Educational Act, LOMCE 8/2013 of December 9th, which modifies LOE 2/2006
of May 3rd
- Royal Decree 126/2014 of February 28th, which establishes the National
Curriculum for Primary Education
- Decree 54/2014 of July 10th, which establishes the Curriculum for Primary
Education for the Autonomous Community of Castilla la Mancha.

► Authors:
• Harmer, J. (1985). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman
• Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. New York:
Cambridge University Press
• Brewster, J., Ellis, G. and Girard, D. (1992). The Primary English Teacher’s
Guide. London: Penguin Books
• Halliwell, S. (1992). Teaching English in the Primary Classroom. London:
Longman
• Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning teaching: A guidebook for English language
Teachers. Oxford: MacMillan

► Internet Sources:
- www.britishcouncil.org
- www.teachingenglish.org.uk
- www.chomsky.info
- www.sdkrashen.com
- www.tpr-world.com
- www.cambridgeenglishonline.com

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