Development - Teaching spoken grammar | Delta Publishing

Teaching spoken grammar

Thursday 1 December 2011

Hello, my name is Ken Paterson and I’m a co-author (with Caroline Caygill and Rebecca Sewell) on Delta’s forthcoming title ‘A Handbook of Spoken Grammar’ (follow the links ‘Titles’ and ‘Language Practice’ on the DELTA website for details).

In the book we take 20 items of non-traditional grammar, explain how they work, and offer practice exercises and activities for learners.

Over the next three months in this blog, I’d like to discuss some points from seven areas of spoken grammar that we cover in the book:

- A very frequent structure with know

e.g. I don’t know which one to buy.

- The vague use of thing

e.g. I’ve got this thing at work tonight.

- Exaggerated language

e.g. I’ve got a million emails in my inbox.

- Reporting speech using look, oh, okay etc.

e.g. …so I said, ‘Okay, but hurry up.’

- Using synonymous language

e.g. A: It’s a great view! B: Magic, isn’t it?

- Heads

e.g. That book on the desk, is it yours?

- Tails

e.g. It’s too far to go for a week, Japan.

Watch this space for the first of these next week!

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