(SKKN 2022) some experiences in teaching sentence transformation to improve gifted students writing skills

The nature of sentence transformation tasks used in English exams for gifted students is the technique of paraphrasing, which is an important communication technique.. However, for the m

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English is a compulsory subject which is included in nearly all entrance exams, as well as GCSE for high school students English is also a subject that takes up a large amount of time in the educational curriculums The quality of teaching and learning of the subject makes an undeniably important contribution to affirming the prestige of each school

Being well aware of the role of English, in recent years, many schools have devoted many resources to the English selected team to take the provincial exam for gifted students Students participating in the team are highly trained in language knowledge, reading and writing skills, among which writing skill is arguably the most challenging for both teachers and learners

Doing paraphrasing and sentence rewriting is really challenging for most students in learning English This is because they lack of knowledge on strategies

of good paraphrasing, and less of experience and practice in paraphrasing skill to their own writing Hence, mastering this skill is vital for English students as they will need the skill to effectively transferring ideas, meaning and information from some sources through other words

Teaching sentence transformation is also not an easy task for teachers at secondary schools This is because of teachers’ empiricism They are used to using fixed equivalent structures, which may lead to the fact that students have

difficulties identifying strategies or methods to deal with unfamiliar sentence patterns Poor results is what we are unnecessary to predict

From the aforementioned reality, as well as from my own experience in training selected teams in recent years at Nguyen Trai High School, I have chosen

“Some experience in teaching sentence transformation to improve gifted students’ writing skill at Nguyen Trai High school” as the main theme of my initiative My ambition is to help students classify sorts of sentence transformation before identifying strategies and methods to deal with specific tasks

2 Target learners, objectives:

The target learners to whom this initiative may be suitable are the students being trained to participate in provincial English exams for gifted students

My objectives is to help students classify sorts of sentence transformation before identifying strategies and methods to deal with specific tasks I also would like to provide teachers who are in charge of school’s selected teams with a source

of reference to plan their lessons

3 Scope of the research:

Nguyen Trai High school, academic years from 2019-2022

The nature of sentence transformation tasks used in English exams for gifted students is the technique of paraphrasing, which is an important communication technique Sentence transformation means a restatement of another piece of writing with new words or phrases while keeping the same meaning as the given ones

There are many kinds of paraphrasing introduced in the literature However, for the mentioned target leaners, two kinds of paraphrasing used in exams for gifted students will be introduced in this initiative: syntactic, relating to the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence; semantic, connected with the meanings of words

I SYNTACTIC

Method 1 Using different Parts of Speech

The same word or the basic idea can exist in several different forms For

example, the word success is a noun It has two other forms: successful (adjective), succeed (verb) By using different forms of the same word, we can

express the same idea in several different ways Examples:

1 He succeeded in his attempt (SUCCESSFUL)



We can express this idea using adjective successful:

His attempt was successful.

2 Respect your parents and teachers (BE)

Be respectful to your parents and teachers.

However, at higher levels, it is essential that students be required to be knowledgeable of using collocations to transform sentences Examples:

1 He succeeded in his attempt (MET)



2 The two men signed the document (PUT)



The two men put their signatures on the document

Method 2 Changing Adverb clauses into Prepositional phrases and vice versa.

Adverb clauses are subordinate clauses formed by a subordinating conjunction followed by a clause Adverb clauses differ from verb, noun, and adjective clauses in that adverb clauses perform adverbial grammatical functions For example:

• The child is sad because he forgot his teddy bear (Why is the child sad?)

• After she finishes her essay, she will study for her test (When will she study for her test?)

• If the gas tank is empty, the car will not start (For what reason will the car not start?)

• Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional Phrases performs the grammatical function of adverbial Prepositions are traditionally defined as “words that relate nouns, adjectives, and verbs to other nouns, adjectives, and verbs.” Prepositional phrases are phrases with

a preposition functioning as the head of the phrase plus any noun phrases, verb phrases, noun clauses, and prepositional phrases functioning as prepositional complements For example:

• My mother waited in line for three hours (Where and for how long did my mother wait?)

• DETERMINERS (Chỉ định từ)

• Articles (mạo từ)

• Qualifiers (từ chỉ số lượng,

định lượng)

• Possessive Nouns/ Pronouns

• MODIFIER (bổ nghĩa)

• Adjective (tính từ)

• Participles (phân từ)

Head noun

• Common nouns (plural, singular)

• Proper nouns

• Abstract nouns

• ……

Post-modifiers

• PHRASES (Cụm từ)

• Preposition phrases (cụm giới

từ)

• Participle phrases(Cụm phân

từ)

• CLAUSE (mệnh đề)

• She wore two scarves and three hats because of the cold (Why did she wear two scarves and three hats?)

• The party ends at midnight (When does the party end?)

• Since both Adverb clauses and Prepositional Phrases function as adverbial, they may replace each other as a way of paraphrasing or rewriting sentences, especially in exams for gifted students

As mentioned above, prepositional phrases are phrases with a preposition functioning as the head of the phrase plus any noun phrases so it is essential that teacher help students understand what a noun phrase is and how it functions

A noun phrase consists of a noun or pronoun, which is called the head, and any dependent words before or after the head Dependent words give specific information about the head

In exams for gifted students, transformations from adverb clauses into prepositional phrases, in fact, from clauses into noun phrases is particularly common Here are some examples:

• Adverbial of time:

When he arrived in Tokyo, he found a telegram waiting for him

 On

• Adverbial of concession:

Despite her dislike for coffee, she drank it to keep herself warm.

Although _

• Adverbial of condition:

If he hadn’t helped, we would all have died

Without _

But for _

• Adverbial of reason:

As John work hard and methodically, he succeeded in his exam

Because of _

The common way to deal with such tasks is to transform from clauses to noun phrases as followed:

Example:

• Although she works hard, she doesn’t deserve a raise

• Despite her hard work, she doesn’t deserve a raise

It is also advisable that teacher supply students with variety of conjunctions and prepositions that are rare in textbooks For instance, students can use since, for,

as, due to…instead of because/because of, which are very common

Method 3 Using noun clauses

Another way to paraphrase, or more popular way for gifted students, to transform sentences is to use noun clauses Before being able to do so, they need to understand what noun clauses are and how they function

A noun clause is a dependent clause that acts as a noun It can be used as the subject, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, subject complement,

or appositive

• Subject: What I had forgotten was that I had a test today

• Direct object: You must choose which flavor of ice cream you want

• Indirect object: I will tell whoever will listen my frightening story

• Object of a preposition: Josie is not interested in whatever Kyle says.

• Subject complement: Michael's excuse was that he had forgotten to set his alarm

• Appositive: It seems to bother the teacher that all the students are being too quiet

(That the students are being too quiet seems to bother the teacher Note that the appositive renames It, but does not follow immediately like other appositives.)

It can also be used as an adverbial noun (a.k.a an adverbial objective or adjective complement), which is a noun that acts like an adverb modifying a verb, an adjective, or an adverb

• I'm afraid that we don't carry that ice cream flavor any longer (The dependent clause modifies the predicate adjective afraid.)

Noun clauses often begin with pronouns, subordinating conjunctions, or other words The introductory word generally has a grammatical function in the sentence

• Relative pronouns: that, which, who, whom, whose, what

• Indefinite relative pronouns: whoever, whomever, whatever, whichever, whether, if

• Interrogative pronoun: who

• Interrogative adjective: what

• Interrogative adverb: how

• Subordinating conjunctions: how, if, when, whenever, where, whether, why

In fact, mastering noun clauses is helpful for students while doing transformation as this kind of tasks is very common in exams for gifted students It

is also useful in essay Here are some examples:

1 It is disappointing that Tom can't come

That

2 We don’t care whether Nick leaves or stays

 Whether _

3 He spoke English so well, which surprised me.

What _

4 Many people in the world live in intolerable poverty, which must concern all of

us (THAT)

 _

Using nouns clauses, it is easy to have answers below:

1 That Tom can't come is disappointing

2 Whether Nick leaves or stays makes no difference to us.

3 What surprised me is that he spoke English so well

4 That/The fact that many people in the world live in intolerable poverty must

concern all of us

Method 3 Using changing word order and equivalent structures.

Method 3.1 Using inversion

Usually, we put the expression at the beginning of the sentence to emphasise what we're saying It makes our sentence sound surprising or striking or unusual It also sounds quite formal

In formal styles, when we use an adverb with negative meaning (e.g never, seldom, rarely, scarcely, hardly) in front position for emphasis, we invert the subject (s) and auxiliary (aux)/modal verb:

1 We have never witnessed such cruel behaviour by one child to another

 Never have we witnessed such cruel behaviour by one child to another.

2 One seldom hears a politician say ‘sorry’

Seldom does one hear a politician say ‘sorry’

Expressions beginning with not:

We also invert the subject and verb after not + a prepositional phrase or a clause in initial position:

3 Not for a moment did I think I would be offered the job, so I was amazed

when I got it

4 I didn’t realise my wallet was missing until I got home

 Not until I got home did I realise my wallet was missing.

Here and there

Inversion can happen after here, and after there when it is as an adverb of place After here and there, we can use a main verb without an auxiliary verb or modal verb:

1 Here comes the bus!

2 I opened the door and there stood Michael, all covered in mud.

3 She looked out and there was Pamela, walking along arm in arm with Goldie.

There are also other inversions with various sentence patterns such as harly…when, no sooner…than, only by/when, conditionals…which are widely used during popular lessons an need not be listed here It is advisable that students comprehend the main priciple of inversion so that they can identify the appropriate method to deal with specific tasks

Method 3.1 Using equivalent structures.

Changing mood, voice, using equivalent structures is traditional method that teachers have been applying at all grades and is popular among students Therefore, this should be included in lesson plan rather than in this initative

II SEMANTIC

Method 1 Using synonyms, antonyms.

A synonym is a word or phrase that has almost the same meaning as another word or phrase For example, 'smart', 'clever' and 'intelligent' are all synonyms because they can have almost the same meaning in most contexts This allows us to paraphrase, i.e to replace a word for a synonym (another words with a similar meaning) Examples:

1 Movies can be divided into three types (CATEGORIES)

Movies can be divided into three categories.

2 The way a person dresses affects the impression that other people have.

(INFLUENCES)

The way a person dresses influences the image that other people have.

3 Shaun was disappointed because the movie wasn’t very good (SATISFIED)

 Shaun wasn’t satisfied, because the movie wasn’t very good.

Method 2 Using Idiomatic Expressions

We should keep in mind that idiomatic expressions usually have special meanings and implications which can differ from their literal meaning

Examples:

1 Suddenly, the little boy opened the door and came into the assembly room.

 Out of

(Out of the blue, the door opened and the little boy entered the chamber )

2 You must accept the fact that she has left you (TERMS)

 You must come to terms with the fact that she has left you.

3 You can walk to the station easily from the hotel (DISTANCE)

 The station is within easy walking distance of the hotel.

III STRATEGY TO SUCCEED IN SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION.

To be sucessful, students need an appropriate strategy It is recommended that they cover five steps in paraphrasing sentence such as:

1 Read the original source carefully to understand the meaning of the sentence correctly

2 Students have to identify the key information in the original sentence that need transfering

3 Students have to identify the methods needed to transform the sentence

4 Transform the sentence

5 Check the result: Verb tense, subject and verb agreement, verb form, word form, prepostions…

For each step, examples are needed to illustrate

1 Results of the initiative.

The initiative has been applied for three years at Nguyen Trai High School with 3 teams named A, B, C and other three teams to confront All participants must pass qualifying tests to obtain input level equivalent to B1 Team A, B, C’s members have been taught with aforementioned approach while the confronting groups with traditional methods The end-couse results were as below:

Year Team Average The end-couse results (%) Good Excellent

2019 Team Aconfronting group A 30,041,5 47,2540,0 11,2530,0

The table of results show that while applying the initiative the number of students with excellent results reach 45 percent whereas the students of confronting groups only gain roughly 15 percent highest This proves that the approach mentioned in this initiative is effective