Unit 1
Check your understanding
1. F 2. F 3. F 4. T
In-Class Activities
1. (1) No. Since the foreign language learners don’t have the same linguistic environment as thenative speakers do, they cannot develop their language awareness or intuition as the latter. L2 acquisitional and pedagogical experience has proved that teaching L2 grammar can facilitate and accelerate L2 learning. Thus, it is necessary for the learners to grasp the grammar if they want to learn English well.
(2) A good mastery of grammar doesn’t necessarily mean that the learner is competent enough to make use of the knowledge to effectively express themselves. Also, after learning L2 grammar, L2 learners persist in making grammatical errors.
(3) Sheer grammatical knowledge without practicing is not sufficient. L1 grammar affects the use of L2 grammar.
(4) Open.
2. (1) Partly true. The different grammatical rules between Chinese and English make it difficult for learners because the interference of the first language may cause troubles for L2 learners.
(2) Yes. For example, usually, both English and Chinese sentencesare generally composed of a subject, a predicate and an object. The attribute modifies nouns, and the adverbial modifier modifies verbs or adverbs.
(3)There seems to be too many exceptions to the grammatical rules in English. [Open to other factors]
(4)Open.
3. (1) I.
(2)For instance: Jack is taller than me.
Who will you meet this Friday?
4. (1) “please” should be followed by an imperative sentence.
“Invest here. Because your money wants to do more than bank” should be “Invest here because your money wants to do more than the bank (does)."
(2) For the former case, one can be economical of words; for the latter case, one can be emphatic by making “because …” salient.
5. (1)“whos”,“ams”, “ a grown-up i & you- ful”, “known who and who”, etc. are ungrammatical.
(2) Many readers would like the childishness and the playful use of pronouns. Probably, the poetmay express his recall of and love for the youth and childhood.
6. (1) Formal structures:
The publishing of the book brought him tremendous popularity
Could it possible for you to hand me the pen?
Standing on the top of the mountain, I could see the entire city below.
Informal structures:
The book was published and made him very popular.
Give me a pen .
I stood on the top of the mountain and could see the city all over.
(2) Open.
Post-Class Tasks
1. a. a set of rules for good use of the language (usu. taught to students);
b. a set of rules as shown by native speakers in their use of the language;
c. implicit knowledge that enables one to produce and understand sentences;
d. theoretical construct of rules as found universal to all natural languages.
2. Grammaticality is a relative or fuzzy term. Even among native speakers, there may be disagreement on the grammaticality of some sentences. Sometimes, therefore, we use “acceptability” to describe the well-formedness of a sentence. Some sentences may be more acceptable than others; a sentence may be more acceptable to some people than to others.The following two sentences may be good examples:
Usedn’t he to smoke?
She’s gonna visit us tomorrow.
3. Because appropriateness of grammar is part of what we communicate in real life.For instance, the more formal, the greater social distance.
4. No business too small, no problem too big.
Impossible made possible.
Every time a good time.