Content Based Instruction Training has happened in Tanzania!!!!!

Good things to happen in Tanzania

Recently, from 4 to 15 December 2017, TELTA in collaboration with the US Embassy and Peace Corps Tanzania conducted intensive Content Based Instruction training for teachers from 23 regions of Tanzania. 

The first phase of the training was conducted at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, where by only English Language teachers participated. The second phase combined both English language teachers, Peace Corps volunteers and their counterparts who teach other subjects. It was done this purposely to make all these teachers work together and see how language is embedded into the content. The main task of the Language teachers was to help other subject teachers showing how they can simplify  and use English in their contents. 

The objective of the training was to look how language can be integrated into the teaching of the content matters in the classrooms using the same teachers of such subjects. The main discussion was how other subject teachers can incorporate instructional strategies that expose the students to high level academic language needed for success in English medium content that they can transfer to other academic disciplines such as Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Mathematics.

The training was fully facilitated by Prof Ann Snow, the Senior Lecturer from North Carolina University, US. Prof Ann really showed her competency on the theme as her presentations were really reflecting what were being discussed by the participants.

As an approach to foreign language education, Content-Based Instruction (CBI) refers to the integration of language learning as well as content learning. CBI is a totally different method of teaching from traditional foreign language teaching methods in so far as “language proficiency is achieved by shifting the focus of instruction from the learning of language per se to the learning of language through the study of subject matter.

During the whole training, the participants saw the CBI approach as potential to enhance students’ motivation, to accelerate students’ acquisition of language proficiency, to broaden cross-cultural knowledge, and to make the language learning experience more enjoyable and fulfilling. Participants were trained on how to use graphic designs that are helpful in their classrooms, they also learnt other strategies as PQP, Dictocompo and many others to make sure that the concept was really understood.

Considering all the pros and cons, the participants agreed that CBI presents a challenging while rewarding alternative to traditional foreign language approaches. In the long run, CBI is a language teaching method worth the previous commitment to it. From the related projects that the participants are required to organize and implement, some valuable characteristics of CBI are expected to be noticed.

This training is expected to show the changes in teaching of other subjects, as there will be collaboration of teaching language which is embedded by the content.

WHY SHOULD WE TEACH SPEAKING SKILLS IN THE CLASSROOM?

WHY SHOULD WE TEACH SPEAKING SKILLS IN THE CLASSROOM?

Motivation
Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be.

Speaking is fundamental to human communication

Just think of all the different conversations you have in one day and compare that with how much written communication you do in one day. Which do you do more of? In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills. Do you think this is a good balance? If the goal of your language course is truly to enable your students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practised in the language classroom.

Dealing with common arguments against teaching speaking skills in the classroom 
Students won't talk or say anything
One way to tackle this problem is to find the root of the problem and start from there. If the problem is cultural, that is in your culture it is unusual for students to talk out loud in class, or if students feel really shy about talking in front of other students then one way to go about breaking this cultural barrier is to create and establish your own classroom culture where speaking out loud in English is the norm. One way to do this is to distinguish your classroom from other classrooms in your school by arranging the classroom desks differently, in groups instead of lines etc. or by decorating the walls in English language and culture posters. From day one teach your students classroom language and keep on teaching it and encourage your students to ask for things and to ask questions in English. Giving positive feedback also helps to encourage and relax shy students to speak more. Another way to get students motivated to speak more is to allocate a percentage of their final grade to speaking skills and let the students know they are being assessed continually on their speaking practice in class throughout the term.

A completely different reason for student silence may simply be that the class activities are boring or are pitched at the wrong level. Very often our interesting communicative speaking activities are not quite as interesting or as communicative as we think they are and all the students are really required to do is answer 'yes' or 'no' which they do quickly and then just sit in silence or worse talking noisily in their L1. So maybe you need to take a closer look at the type of speaking activities you are using and see if they really capture student interest and create a real need for communication.

Another way to encourage your students to speak in English is simply to speak in English yourself as much as possible in class. If you are shy about speaking in English, how can you expect your students to overcome their fears about speaking English? Don't worry if you are not completely fluent or don't have that elusive perfect native accent, as Swain (1985) wrote "We learn to speak by speaking" and that goes for teachers as well as students. The more you practise the more you will improve your own oral skills as well as help your students improve theirs.

When students work in pairs or groups they just end up chatting in their own language. 
Is the activity or task pitched at the right level for the students?
Make sure you give the students all the tools and language they need to be able to complete the task. If the language is pitched too high they may revert to their L1, likewise if the task is too easy they may get bored and revert to their L1. Also, be aware of the fact that some students especially beginners, will often use their L1 as an emotional support at first, translating everything word for word to check they have understood the task before attempting to speak. In the case of these students simply be patient as most likely once their confidence grows in using English their dependence on using their L1 will begin to disappear.

Are all the students actively involved and is the activity interesting? If students do not have something to say or do, or don't feel the need to speak, you can be sure it won't be long before they are chatting away in their L1.

Was the timing of the activity good? The timing of a speaking activity in a class can be crucial sometimes. How many teachers have discovered that their speaking activity ended up as a continuation of the students break-time gossip conducted in the L1? After break-time, why not try giving students an activity to calm them down and make them focus before attempting speaking activities that involve groups or pair work. Another way to discourage students speaking in their L1 is to walk around the classroom monitoring their participation and giving support and help to students as they need it. If certain students persist in speaking in the L1 then perhaps you should ask them to stay behind after class and speak to them individually and explain to them the importance of speaking English and ask them why they don't feel comfortable speaking in English in the class. Maybe they just need some extra reassurance or they don't like working with certain students or there is some other problem that you can help them to resolve.

When all the students speak together it gets too noisy and out of hand and I lose control of the classroom 
First of all separate the two points a noisy classroom and an out-of-control classroom. A classroom full of students talking and interacting in English, even if it is noisy, is exactly what you want. Maybe you just feel like you are losing control because the class is suddenly student centred and not teacher centred. This is an important issue to consider. Learner-centred classrooms where learners do the talking in groups and learners have to take responsibility for using communicative resources to complete a task are shown to be more conducive to language learning than teacher-centred classes (Long & Richards 1987). Nevertheless, many classrooms all over the world continue to be teacher centred, so the question you have to ask yourself is, how learner centred is my classroom?

Losing control of the classroom, on the other hand, is a different issue. Once again walking around and monitoring the students as they are working in groups can help, as you can naturally move over to the part of the classroom where the noise is coming from and calm the rogue students down and focus them back on the task without disrupting the rest of the students who are working well in their groups. If students really get too rowdy then simply change the pace of the class and type of activity to a more controlled task, for example a focus on form or writing task where students have to work in silence individually. Once the students have calmed down you can return to the original or another interactive group activity.

Conclusion
These are just some of the problems that teachers with large classes face when teaching speaking activities in the classroom. These problems are not new nor are the solutions offered above. Teachers all over the world continue to face the same hurdles, but any teacher who has overcome these difficulties and now has a large class of energetic students talking and working in English in groups together will tell you it is worth all the trial and error and effort at the outset. If you believe in the importance of teaching speaking skills in the classroom but are having difficulties making speaking activities work in your classroom why not contact your local teaching associations or branch of TESOL. Maybe they run workshops for teaching speaking skills, or maybe they can put you in contact with other teachers in similar situations but with more experience teaching speaking skills who will be willing to share their experiences with you.

References
1. Celce-Murcia. M. (2001). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed). USA: Heinle&Heinle.
2. Long M.H & Richards, J.C. (1987). Methodology in TESOL. USA: Heinle&Heinle.
3. Nunan. D. (1991) Language Teaching Methodology. UK: Prentice Hall International (Chapter two & three)
4. Tanner .R. & Green.C.(1998) Tasks for teacher education. UK. Addisson Wesley Longman. Ltd.

Fiona Lawtie, ELT teacher, British Council, Caracas

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-speaking-skills-2-overcoming-classroom-problems

SPELLING BEE

SPELLING BEE

If you’re looking for an exciting way to help your kids learn spelling and gather the family – or friends and neighbors -- for some educational and entertaining together time, consider rallying the troops together for a home spelling bee.

A spelling bee is a contest in which participants are asked to spell words in a round-robin format, where each person gets a turn to spell a word that is suitable for his or her level.

In planning your home spelling bee, you’ll want to make sure that you keep things challenging, but not so difficult that your kids get discouraged. Remember, the name of the game is f-u-n!

STEP-BY-STEP SPELLING BEE GUIDELINES:

Gather participants

For a truly competitive oral spelling bee, you’ll want to select about eight to 10 participants, though more or fewer is fine.

Tip

Make sure participants don’t feel uncomfortable when singled out to spell in front of a group. If a participant is not comfortable taking the spotlight to spell, give them another job to do: Let them read off the words and use it in a sentence (we’ll call that person “the reader”) or perhaps act as a judge. Remember: kids will also learn spelling by reading the words, thinking up sentences, and following along to judge the correct spelling.

Read clearly and spell carefully

The reader should pronounce the word clearly and correctly as it is written, then use it in a sentence, then read the word again clearly.

So if the word was, say, “orchestra,” the reader might say “Orchestra. String, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments are all important parts of an orchestra. Orchestra.” Or if the word was “snowflakes,” the reader might say, “Snowflakes. I ran outside to catch snowflakes on my tongue. Snowflakes.”

The competitor would then say the word, spell the word, and say the word again: “Snowflakes. S-N-O-W-F-L-A-K-E-S. Snowflakes”

Tip

Be sure to choose words that are suited to the level of the participants. You don’t want the words to be so easy that they’re not challenged or so difficult that they grow frustrated.

Move things along

If a competitor spells a word correctly, he or she remains inthe game, awaiting his or her next turn. If the competitor spells a word incorrectly, he or she is eliminated from competition and the next participant is given the same word to spell, continuing down the line until the word is spelled correctly.

Tip

Although traditionally a participant is eliminated from spelling bee competition as soon as his or she is unable to spell a word, for your home spelling bee, you may want to tinker with the formula a little. You may let a participant continue to compete until he or she misspells, say, five words. Or you might want to keep score and anoint the person who correctly spells the most words the winner, in order to let all the participants continue to play. Or you might give each person a one “pass” to use at some point during the game to trade in a word that stumps him for another word. Get creative with the rules in order to keep things comfortable and fun for participants.

Reinforce

Get a whiteboard or a big piece of cardboard to write each word on as it is spelled correctly. This will help participants to learn all the words in the competition, not just the ones they are asked to spell.

Repeat until you have your winner

If you’re playing by the traditional elimination rules, keep playing until only one participant is still standing. Then have everyone applaud the winner and let the winner take a bow.

Don’t be afraid to mix things up

You can also have a non-competitive spelling bee in which participants are asked to write words as they are dictated. Participants can work individually or in a group, discussing and working together to decide on the correct spelling of a word. Again, write the words down on a dry-erase board, chalkboard, or poster board as they are spelled correctly in order to reinforce learning.

Or you may want to hold a themed spelling bee, using words from newspapers and magazines for a “current-events bee,” from the sports section for a “sports bee,” or from a cookbook for a “cuisine bee.”

Step it up

Whether you are holding an oral spelling competition or a non-competitive written spelling bee, take a gradual approach. Begin with easy word sand progress to more difficult ones.

Talk about it

After the spelling bee is over, talk things over with participants. Ask them what was most difficult and what was easy. This will give you a chance to reinforce key spelling concepts and introduce helpful ways to approach spelling.

This article was written by Amy Reiter for Kidspot, Australia's leading resource for parents about education.

WHAT SCHON SAYS ABOUT REFLECTION

Reflection/Lessons Learned

Schön (1983) describes two types of reflection: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. 

Reflection-in-action helps us as we complete a task.  It is that process that allows us to reshape what we are working on, while we are working on it.  It is that on-going experimentation that helps us find a viable solution.  In this, we do not use a “trial-and-error” method.  Rather, our actions are much more reasoned and purposeful than that.  If something isn’t working correctly (doesn’t seem right, doesn’t seem to move you closer to the goal) then you “reflect” (a conscious activity) in the action-present.  A critical aspect is the questioning of the assumptional nature of knowing-in-action (KIA), where KIA is not the action itself, but what that action really indicates that we know.  In other words, knowing-in-action is often that tacit information that we know about doing something—it is often left unexplained or unmentioned when we describe what we do.  It is revealed in skillful performance.  Reflecting-in-action is generally called forth when a surprise appears in the process of accomplishing the task.  And that surprise causes one to question how the surprise occurred given our usual thinking process.

 As you work on your projects you should reflect-in-action.  Many of the “surprises” you will encounter will appear because the knowing-in-action on which you draw is largely skills that you perhaps developed in other fields.  Thus, the surprises occur because your old model doesn’t work without modification for the new task.  You reflect-in-action and find out what is different and how you can change your thinking to address this new task.

Reflection-on-action in our design projects is provided by final reflection papers, portions of design documents titled “lessons learned,” and also any time (written or otherwise) in which you evaluate your own process (this is actually a critical part of the design process and should well be incorporated into your design documents).  “We reflect on action, thinking back on what we have done in order to discover how our knowing-in-action may have contributed to an unexpected outcome” (Schön, 1983, p. 26).

So, how do you reflect-on-action?  How do you write lessons learned or a reflection paper? 

1.     Start by choosing a critical incident.  This incident could be something that you believe you finally did correctly after much ado or it could be something that even in the end you believe you didn’t do very well (in that case, the incident is that you turned in something that you were not pleased with).  This incident will likely be reflected somewhere in your process documents—maybe it is a poor learner analysis or a schedule that was never adhered to. 

2.     Then, think about the components of that incident from two different time frames.  For example, if it’s something with which you struggled and were proud of the accomplishment in the end, try to find that “light bulb” that helped you make sense of it.  Then, what was it like before that time and what was it like after that time.  If it’s something that you still did not master, think about what you did and what you would have like to have done.  Write up that personal discussion (a reflection paper will be a conversation with yourself in a way).

3.     Next, discuss the thinking process that either existed, or needed to exist, between the two time frames.  What was not right in the knowing-in-action?  See if you can find specific examples to link in this discussion.  And, draw on your resources (book, articles, etc.) that help explain the incident. 

4.     Finally, wrap it all up.  Summarize your lesson.  In other words, what have you learned so next time your knowing-in-action (or at least your reflection-in-action) will be different and will reflect your new understanding? 

Reference

Schön, D. A. (1987).  Teaching artistry through reflection-in-action.  In Educating the reflective practitioner (pp. 22-40).  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE

Characteristics of Language

A system of communication will qualify to be a language if it has language characteristics. These characteristics are universal, that is, they apply to all natural human languages. Here are some of them:

1.       Language is a system

A system is a group of related parts that work together as a whole for a particular purpose. Language is a system of set of speech sounds which are connected and working together to form different words in a language. Speech sounds are systematically combined together into words, and words into sentences.

2.       Language is symbolic

A symbol is any thing that stands to represent something else. Language is symbolic in that words whether written or spoken are used to represent ideas, objects and actions by convention (agreement). The word ‘dog’ for example, is a symbol it is used to represent a four legged animal kept at home. These symbols (words or phrases) are not naturally connected to its meaning. They have no direct resemblance with the things they represent neither in appearance nor in sound. The word ‘dog’ in this case has no natural connection (resemblance) with the animal called dog in appearance or in its sound. Every language community has its symbols (words) which are used to represent all its physical and conceptual experiences.

3.       Language is arbitrary

Some thing is said to be arbitrary if its origin and its relationship with other things is not based on reasons or plan. It has come by chance. Language is arbitrary because one can not tell when and where language started, it came by chance and also there is no direct or physical relation between its  symbols (words) and its meaning. Symbols are related to their meaning by convention; they have no inherent relation with their meanings. Yule (1985) says they do not, in any way ‘fit’ the object they denote. The word ‘dog’ for example, as it was pointed out earlier has no inherent relation with the domesticated barking animal with a four legs in the world neither in appearance nor in its sounds. Any form of human language demonstrates arbitrariness.

4.       Language is vocal or oral

Vocal in this context has been used to mean ‘voice’. Language is primarily vocal in that it must be produced with voice, any natural human language must be produced with voice in our mouth and it should be perceived (heard) via ear. Indeed, only spoken language can be truly considered ‘language’.  Spoken language existed even before the invention of writing and sign language. Writing is only collection of symbols to represent and preserve spoken language in permanent form and it is marginal and recent form of language. Up to date there are still many languages in the world which are not written but those languages are not in any means inferior to the written ones, all languages whether documented or undocumented are equal in their characteristics, expressive potential and grammatical complexity. There are no primitive languages, nor are any known to have existed in the past, even among the most remote tribes of Stone Age or hunter and gatherers.  Written language is not language in and of itself. Many written languages today are regularly undergoing orthographic reforms to reflect changes in the spoken language.

5.       Language is human

Language is purely for human beings. Only human beings have an ability to learn or acquire language for communication. It is there fore a species- specific, it is specific only to human being (Syal etal 2007). According Fromkin, (1974) the possession of language, more than any attribute, distinguishes humans from other animals; to understand our humanity one must understand the language that makes us human. Non human beings do not have the capacity to learn or acquire language (for the reasons that will be discussed latter). They have their own systems of communication (such as cries and signals) which are not language. Human beings have the in-born biological or in born transmitted ability for language learning. We all become human because we all know at least one language (ibid)

6.       Language is learnable or acquired

Language is not genetically or biologically inherited by the young generation from the old generation, the young generation has to learn or acquire it. Children can inherit colour, red eyes, behaviour or some diseases from their parents but they can not inherit language. Language must be learned or acquired not biologically or genetically inherited. Human must learn or acquire language from social groups of speakers of the language. Speakers of one language   can learn any other languages. There is an important distinction made by linguists between language acquisition and language learning.

Language acquisition

Language acquisition is the unconscious process of learning language in natural communicative settings. It is a natural process of mastering a language for meaningful communication. According to linguist Yule (1985) language acquisition refers to the gradual development of ability in language by using it naturally in communicative situations. In this case a learner needs to partake in natural communicative situations. Children are not taught their first languages (mother tongue) but rather they acquire it unconsciously from the natural communicative environment. Any normal child, born anywhere in the world, of any racial, geographical, social, or economic heritage, is capable of acquiring any language to which he or she is exposed. The differences we find among languages cannot be due to biological reasons.

There is an innate basis for acquisition of language in children. This innate capacity is active in early years of a child up to puberty, after that age, it difficult if not impossible to acquire a language.

Language learning

Language learning on the other hand is the conscious process of learning a particular language. It refers to a formal and systematic study of the knowledge of language and verbalizing. Yule, (1985) says ‘learning applies to the conscious process of accumulating knowledge of vocabulary and grammar of a language. In this process a learner needs to consciously apply deliberate efforts to knowing a language. It is the result of direct instruction in the rules of language. Adults do not acquire language but they need to learn it by applying deliberate efforts.

7. Language is communicative

Communication is the process by which people exchange information or express their thoughts and feelings, an act of communication is basically the transmission of information (message) from a source to a receiver, in language both source and receiver are human and the message can be transmitted through air or through a phone. The purpose of any human language in the world is to communicate information from one person to another in a given society. For communication to be successful the message must be received and understood by the receiver in the same way as it is intended by the sender. The skill of communicating depends not only on the strength of ones vocabulary, but the ability to express one's thoughts and ideas clearly. According to Crystal, D (1971) to initiate communication is one thing, but to make it successful is another.

It should be noted that human is not the only creature which is capable of communicating. In fact, Yule, (1985) says ‘all creatures, from apes, bees, cicadas, and dolphins are capable of communicating with other members of their species’

Sender or source is the person who gives out the message or anything that act as a source of information or message to the listeners or the receiver. A sender starts with an impulse he or she wishes to express and then must encode that idea into symbols (words) and signs (facial expressions, tone of voice, etc).

The message is an idea, thought or feeling that a person (the source) wishes to communicate to other persons or group of people (the receivers). The message is the content of interaction to communicate. All messages are carried by a channel (such as face-to-face, over the phone, email, etc).

The channel is the means or medium by which a message moves from the source to the receiver of the message. The channel can be a radio, television, phone, computer or postal.

The receiver or decoder is the listener or decoder of the message from the sender. After receiving the message the receiver has to send back the feedback. Sometimes the receivers of the message can decide to remain silent, silent also is a feedback.

Feedback is the receiver’s response to the message. Feedback allows the sender to know how his or her message is being received. Sometimes even no response or silence is a feedback.

NB: given the fact that the purpose of any language is to communicate does not mean that all the methods human being use to communicate are language. This is because we can communicate by gestures, facial expressions, or touch and these are not languages.

8. Language is conventional

The word ‘convention’ in this context has been used to mean a formal agreement among people about particular rules or behaviour. Language is conventional because it must be agreed upon by the members of its speakers. It is communally agreed and possessed (Wardhaugh 1999). The only reason as to why Language exists is because users agree on symbols to be used and rules to be followed (Brown 1988).  Any language or part of it must be conventionally be accepted by the speech community concerned. The conventional or socially shared code of language allows listeners and speakers or writers and readers of the same language to exchange information (ibid).  An individual person can not create a language of his or her own. Any language created by an individual and not accepted by the speech community will die a natural death.

9. Language is an aspect of culture

A culture has to do with beliefs, art, values, norms, attitudes, traditions and customs that are shared and accepted by people in a particular society. In other words we can say culture of the society is whatever a person must know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members.  Language is part and parcel of culture. It influences our culture and even our thought processes, it interacts with each and every aspect of human life in the society and it can be understood if it is considered in relation to the society’s culture. No wonder therefore in learning a language one gets exposed to certain cultural elements of the nature speakers of that particular language. A community is known by the language it speaks this is because every aspect of culture is reflected in their language. Language is related to people’s culture in the following ways:

·         Language reflects the cultural values, norms, traditions and customs of its speech community. In other words we can say all cultural elements are coded in language. According to Wardhaugh, (1999) a culture values certain things and do them in certain way, they come to use their language in ways that reflect what they value and what they do.

·         Language helps culture to be practiced in a particular community. It binds our society to work for a common cultural practices such as ceremonies, initiations etc.

·         Language helps culture to be transmitted from one generation to another. Language is a principal way in which a new generation learns about itself, others and their culture. Human being can pass on the accumulated knowledge of the community and his culture to their offspring by means of language.

·         Language provides human being with a powerful and flexible tool of thought. People in the society can not think without a language. A linguist Fromkin, (1974) points out that thought depends on the prior existence of language.

·         Language and culture are also related in that, the culture creates a lens through which we perceive the world and create shared meaning. Language therefore develops in response to the needs of culture or to the perceptions of the world.

By looking at the language Characteristics discussed so far, which definition among the fore listed definitions above covers as many characteristics and hence suitable for language definition? We say the definition which covers as many language characteristics because according to Syal etal (2007) ‘no single definition which can include all the properties of language in it, it is not possible to have such a definition’ a good definition in this case will be selected basing on how many language characteristics have been covered. In this case a definition that covers as many characteristics compared to others is the best. And that is definition is definition number six (6) which states:

Language is learned, shared and an arbitrary system of vocal symbols though which human being in the speech community interact and hence communicate in terms of their cultural experience and expectations. The definition covers all the characteristics of language of arbitrariness, symbolic, conventional, vocal, systematic, learnable, communicative and cultural transmission.

Language versus a Language

In language study, sometimes the words language and a language are used to mean different but related concepts. The term ‘Language’ without an article ‘a’ is used to refer to the universal ability of all normal human beings to produce speech. It is used to refer to the unique characteristic shared by all human being. This ability has been endowed and shared in common to only human beings animals do not possess this ability.

On the other hand, ‘a language’ (with an article ‘a’) refers to a particular system of speech used by a particular community. It is a particular language used by a particular society. Wardhaugh, (1999) says ‘it what the members of a particular society speak’.  It is not held in common by all human beings but only those who belong to a particular community for example, each of the following is a language, English, French, Zulu, Chagga e.t.c.

Study questions

1. Which influences the other and how between language and culture?
2. How will you differentiate between language and a language?

SENTENCE

What is a Sentence?

Is a word or group of words that express and convey a complete thought from a speaker or writer. Each complete sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.

For example;

1. I am playing football like Zidane.
2. I will go to School.
3. They slept on the bed.
4. She goes to school every morning.
5. It is chasing a thief.

TYPES OF SENTENCES                                

These are: -

-          Statement

-          Command

-          Request / Question

-          Exclamation

Statement

Statement is a sentence whose purpose primarily is to convey information. It is used to express the events. Statement has a subject and a predicate

For example;

1. Juma wrote a letter to his mother.
2. My brother is going to watch TV now.
3. Mnaa is our class master.
4. She teaches us Mathematics and Physics.

Command

Giving out an order or suggestions.

For example;

1. Go out.
2. Shut up
3. Sit down.
4. Take it to the dustbin.

Command always begins with the action verb.

For example;

1. Stand up.
2. Write it down.
3. Slow down.
4. Put it in your pocket.

Request

Means to ask something or permission from somebody else. Request normally uses the polite language. The words which are usually used in request are;

May                             Would                          Sorry                           Please

Can                             Could                          Excuse me

For example;

1. Please teacher, may I go out?
2. May I introduce myself to you?
3. Excuse me, Juma, can you give me a pen?
4. Please Sir; may I use your pen for a short moment?
5. Can you help me?
6. Could you mind if I ask you?

Exclamation

Means to surprise.Exclamation normally ends with the exclamation mark (!).

For example;

1. Ayaa!  She is dead.
2. Yallah! I was hurt.
3. Maashallah! You have done a good job.
4. Ebo! You are thief!
5. Duuh! It’s the huge Ship!
6. What! Kill me!
7. Shabash! I will kill you!
8. Ooh! My God!
9. Hii! It’s a fire!
10. Hurray! We have won the match.

Exercise

Underline the subject in the following sentences

                              i.      My son, Saleh, attends English orientation course at Manzese.

                            ii.      We spoke to his teachers.

                          iii.      I want to write a letter.

                          iv.      The train has arrived.

                            v.      The accident was witnessed by a policeman.

                          vi.      He began eating before the time.

                        vii.      She will either win or lose

Sentences have two parts, the subject and the predicate. Subject is a DOER of the actions.  It can be a noun or pronoun. Predicate refers to what is said about the subject.

Subject

The subject of a sentence indicates who is speaking, who is spoken to or who is spoken about.  

For example;

Who is speaking?

1. I travelled to Dodoma to take my certificate.
2. we have conducted drama competition in our school.
3. we are reading “Things Fall Apart”.
4. I had seen him on the way to Posta.

In the sentences above, the subject is I and we, the person or persons speaking.

Who is spoken to?

1. You can take all your properties from my room.
2. You may copy this work for future use.
3. Your parents are coming back from Europe today.

The subject in the above sentences is you, the person being spoken to.

Who is spoken about?

1. They arrived yesterday.

2. All students left the school early fearing Popobawa.

3. The Headmaster suspended them from school for misbehaviour.

The subject is they, all students and the Headmaster, who is spoken about.

Simple subject

The simple subject is the noun or pronoun that names the person, thing, place o idea that the sentence is about. The simple subjects normally do not include modifiers.

For example;

1. Dodoma is the capital city of Tanzania.
2. Manchester United, won the game against AS Roma.

Compound subject

A compound subject is a simple subject that has two or more nouns and pronouns.

For example;

1. Our school and many other schools across Tanzania have debate clubs.
2. responsibility and efficiency are important qualities for a good student.

Sentences are classified according to the number and kinds of clauses they contain. The four kinds of sentences are simple, compound, complex, and compound complex.

Simple sentences

A simple sentence is a sentence that contains one independent clause and no subordinate clauses. It may have any number of phrases. It may have a compound subject, a compound predicate, or both. It does not, however, have more than one clause.

For example;

1. They live on Indira Gandhi Street.
2. Collectors like old things.
3. Collectors like old things but value quality. (compound predicate).
4. My father is fat.
5. My brother will drive them.

Compound sentence

A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses that are joined. A compound sentence never has a subordinate clause. You usually join independent clauses with a comma and one of the co-ordinating conjunctions; and, but, nor, or, for or yet.

For example;

1. The books were antique, but they looked brand new.
2. My brother will drive them, or they will walk.
3. Some beggars need only money; others accept anything they are given..
4. They live on Indira Gandhi Street and their parents live on Masaki.

Complex sentences

A complex sentence consists of one independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses. Complex sentences may be broken up into simple sentences, simple sentences can be combined into complex sentences.

For example;

1. When she heard an explosion, she quickly phoned the police.
2. Hugo entered the room, and he sat down.
3. As you refuse to tell me what you were doing, I shall have to ask your classmates.
4. When coins were first used, they were made in simple shapes.

sub clause                                inde clause

COMPOUND –COMPLEX SENTENCES

A compound – complex sentence consists of two or more independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses.