Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
Advanced English Grammar and Proficiency
Lesson 1: 27/09...................................................................................................................... 4
What is grammar?.............................................................................................................. 4
Etymology of the term “grammar”.......................................................................................4
TED-Talk: does grammar matter?...................................................................................... 4
Parts of speech/word classes.............................................................................................4
Prepositions........................................................................................................................5
Adverbs.............................................................................................................................. 5
Les 2: 07/10.............................................................................................................................5
homework answers............................................................................................................ 5
Back to definitions (1).........................................................................................................5
“Grammaticality”................................................................................................................. 6
Parts of a sentence: recap................................................................................................. 6
What is a sentence?...........................................................................................................6
Parts of a sentence: terminology........................................................................................6
exercise 1 (which of these is not a sentence, and why):.............................................. 7
exercise 2 (identify the subject, main verb and object in each of these sentences):....8
exercise 3 (identify the main clause in each of these sentences):............................... 8
exercise 4 (how many clauses are there in these sentences):.....................................8
Understanding “incomplete sentences”..............................................................................9
exercise 5 (identify and correct the incomplete sentences from the list of famous
opening lines of novels):...............................................................................................9
exercise 6 (read these paragraphs and identify and correct the incomplete
sentences):................................................................................................................. 10
The heart of the sentence: verb....................................................................................... 10
Finite verbs vs. non-finite verbs........................................................................................11
Subject-verb agreement................................................................................................... 11
Back to definitions (2)....................................................................................................... 11
Presentations....................................................................................................................11
Les 3: 14/10........................................................................................................................... 11
Modal verbs - more advanced uses................................................................................. 11
Typical problem area 1: should and must.........................................................................12
Typical problem area 2: past forms (incorrect use of ‘could’)........................................... 12
exercise 1 (select the correct option):........................................................................ 12
exercise 2 (correct the use of modal verbs in each of these sentences):.................. 13
Passive constructions.......................................................................................................13
exercise 3 (rewrite these sentences):.........................................................................13
exercise 4 (rewrite these sentences in two ways using reporting verbs):.................. 14
Relative clauses............................................................................................................... 14
Participle clauses............................................................................................................. 14
Conditionals......................................................................................................................15
Subject verb agreement quiz............................................................................................15
Les 4: 21/10...........................................................................................................................16
Warm-up...........................................................................................................................16
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
1
, Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
Statistics 101.................................................................................................................... 16
Incorporating data: more useful vocabulary..................................................................... 17
exercise 1 (choose the most appropriate option):...................................................... 18
exercise 2 (fill in the gaps):.........................................................................................18
Writing about similar and dissimilar phenomena..............................................................18
Specifying similarities and differences............................................................................. 19
Using linkers to signal similarities and differences........................................................... 19
Using more advanced linkers........................................................................................... 19
Les 5: 28/10...........................................................................................................................19
Formulating a definition.................................................................................................... 19
Using different category nouns.........................................................................................20
Introducing an example.................................................................................................... 20
Expressions used when providing examples................................................................... 20
exercise 1 (identify the information that is being exemplified):...................................21
exercise 2 (correct any errors you find):..................................................................... 21
exercise 3 (insert the missing word(s)):......................................................................21
Citing................................................................................................................................ 21
Paraphrasing.................................................................................................................... 22
Citing versus paraphrasing...............................................................................................22
Signposting.......................................................................................................................22
Distinguishing Cohesion from Coherence........................................................................ 23
Grammatical cohesion......................................................................................................23
Lexical cohesion...............................................................................................................23
Les 6: 04/11........................................................................................................................... 24
Avoiding needless repetition............................................................................................ 24
exercise 1 (amend these sentences to avoid repetition):........................................... 24
Using correct pronoun references.................................................................................... 24
exercise 2 (improve or complete the sentences by using a suitable pronoun phrase):..
25
Using parallel structures...................................................................................................25
exercise 3 (identify the parallel forms in these sentences):........................................25
Avoiding too many short sentences................................................................................. 26
Sentence combining.........................................................................................................26
Avoiding disorganised long sentences............................................................................. 26
Ensuring clarity and comprehensibility in long sentences................................................ 27
Building successful long sentences..................................................................................27
Les 7: 18/11........................................................................................................................... 27
Punctuation recap............................................................................................................ 27
Commas: commonly used and abused............................................................................ 28
Commas versus semicolons............................................................................................ 29
Semicolon versus colons..................................................................................................29
Scare quotes aka sneer quotes........................................................................................29
Hyphens and dashes: not interchangeable...................................................................... 29
Question marks and exclamation marks.......................................................................... 30
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
2
, Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
Indirect questions............................................................................................................. 30
exercise 1 (identify and correct the indirect questions containing errors):................. 30
exercise 2 (complete the indirect questions):............................................................. 31
Adjusting your language based on how confident you are of your claims........................31
Emphasising.....................................................................................................................31
Cleft sentence.................................................................................................................. 31
Using hedging language...................................................................................................32
Hedging in academic writing............................................................................................ 32
Qualifying what you say................................................................................................... 32
Why we use hedging language........................................................................................ 32
Les 8: 25/11........................................................................................................................... 32
Understanding noun phrases (NPs)................................................................................. 32
Using noun phrases......................................................................................................... 33
Nominalisation..................................................................................................................34
exercise 1 (identify the longest noun phrase in each of the following sentences):.....34
exercise 2 (making sentences more “noun-centric” by replacing specific sections with
a noun phrase or compound adjective (inserted before the noun)):...........................34
exercise 3 (complete the sentences with a noun phrase or a compound adjective):. 34
Using more sophisticated lexis.........................................................................................35
Using more sophisticated collocations............................................................................. 35
Phrasal verbs................................................................................................................... 35
Formal phrasal verbs........................................................................................................36
Les 9: 02/12...........................................................................................................................37
A refresher on linkers....................................................................................................... 37
Linkers referring to causes and results............................................................................ 37
Characteristics of formal language: “do nots”...................................................................38
Characteristics of formal language: “do’s”........................................................................38
Finding more formal/academic alternatives......................................................................38
Les 10: 09/12.........................................................................................................................39
Warm-up exercise............................................................................................................ 39
Orthography..................................................................................................................... 40
Words are often misspelt because:.................................................................................. 40
Spelling.............................................................................................................................40
Homophones.................................................................................................................... 40
Distinguishing between homophones...............................................................................41
exercise 1 (correct the homophone errors, if applicable):.......................................... 42
Commonly confused words.............................................................................................. 42
exercise 2 (select the appropriate option):................................................................. 43
exercise 3 (choose the correct option):...................................................................... 45
exercise 4 (identify the mistakes and correct them):.................................................. 48
Spelling error ≠ grammar error ≠ usage error...................................................................48
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
3
, Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
Lesson 1: 27/09
presentation in pairs
attendance is compulsory → max. 2 lessons absent without medical certificate
50% continuos assessment + 50% exam
a self-study package replaces lesson on 11/11
deadline is on Sundays at 8pm
What is grammar?
rules that form the base of a language on sentence-level, structures, patterns
Etymology of the term “grammar”
Late Middle English from Old French gramaire, via Latin from Greek grammatikē (tekhnē)
‘(art) of letters’, from gramma, grammat- ‘letter of the alphabet, thing written
rules often overlap between written and spoken English
TED-Talk: does grammar matter?
grammar can be defined as a set of patterns for how words are put together
a dialect of a given language may become the standard variety of that language mostly due
to coincidental factors, and often due to being spoken by the people in power
the spoken version of a language has its own grammar and regularities, which have
evolved to serve the needs of the speakers who use it
descriptivism is an approach to examining language which aims to document how people
actually use language and track innovations
Parts of speech/word classes
parts of speech are a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its
syntactic functions, in English the main parts of speech are noun, pronoun, adjective,
determiner, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection
word classes → English has four major word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
word classes are either lexical (provide content) or functional (provide structure) and open
(new words can be added) or closed (new words cannot be added or only very rarely)
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
4
Advanced English Grammar and Proficiency
Lesson 1: 27/09...................................................................................................................... 4
What is grammar?.............................................................................................................. 4
Etymology of the term “grammar”.......................................................................................4
TED-Talk: does grammar matter?...................................................................................... 4
Parts of speech/word classes.............................................................................................4
Prepositions........................................................................................................................5
Adverbs.............................................................................................................................. 5
Les 2: 07/10.............................................................................................................................5
homework answers............................................................................................................ 5
Back to definitions (1).........................................................................................................5
“Grammaticality”................................................................................................................. 6
Parts of a sentence: recap................................................................................................. 6
What is a sentence?...........................................................................................................6
Parts of a sentence: terminology........................................................................................6
exercise 1 (which of these is not a sentence, and why):.............................................. 7
exercise 2 (identify the subject, main verb and object in each of these sentences):....8
exercise 3 (identify the main clause in each of these sentences):............................... 8
exercise 4 (how many clauses are there in these sentences):.....................................8
Understanding “incomplete sentences”..............................................................................9
exercise 5 (identify and correct the incomplete sentences from the list of famous
opening lines of novels):...............................................................................................9
exercise 6 (read these paragraphs and identify and correct the incomplete
sentences):................................................................................................................. 10
The heart of the sentence: verb....................................................................................... 10
Finite verbs vs. non-finite verbs........................................................................................11
Subject-verb agreement................................................................................................... 11
Back to definitions (2)....................................................................................................... 11
Presentations....................................................................................................................11
Les 3: 14/10........................................................................................................................... 11
Modal verbs - more advanced uses................................................................................. 11
Typical problem area 1: should and must.........................................................................12
Typical problem area 2: past forms (incorrect use of ‘could’)........................................... 12
exercise 1 (select the correct option):........................................................................ 12
exercise 2 (correct the use of modal verbs in each of these sentences):.................. 13
Passive constructions.......................................................................................................13
exercise 3 (rewrite these sentences):.........................................................................13
exercise 4 (rewrite these sentences in two ways using reporting verbs):.................. 14
Relative clauses............................................................................................................... 14
Participle clauses............................................................................................................. 14
Conditionals......................................................................................................................15
Subject verb agreement quiz............................................................................................15
Les 4: 21/10...........................................................................................................................16
Warm-up...........................................................................................................................16
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
1
, Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
Statistics 101.................................................................................................................... 16
Incorporating data: more useful vocabulary..................................................................... 17
exercise 1 (choose the most appropriate option):...................................................... 18
exercise 2 (fill in the gaps):.........................................................................................18
Writing about similar and dissimilar phenomena..............................................................18
Specifying similarities and differences............................................................................. 19
Using linkers to signal similarities and differences........................................................... 19
Using more advanced linkers........................................................................................... 19
Les 5: 28/10...........................................................................................................................19
Formulating a definition.................................................................................................... 19
Using different category nouns.........................................................................................20
Introducing an example.................................................................................................... 20
Expressions used when providing examples................................................................... 20
exercise 1 (identify the information that is being exemplified):...................................21
exercise 2 (correct any errors you find):..................................................................... 21
exercise 3 (insert the missing word(s)):......................................................................21
Citing................................................................................................................................ 21
Paraphrasing.................................................................................................................... 22
Citing versus paraphrasing...............................................................................................22
Signposting.......................................................................................................................22
Distinguishing Cohesion from Coherence........................................................................ 23
Grammatical cohesion......................................................................................................23
Lexical cohesion...............................................................................................................23
Les 6: 04/11........................................................................................................................... 24
Avoiding needless repetition............................................................................................ 24
exercise 1 (amend these sentences to avoid repetition):........................................... 24
Using correct pronoun references.................................................................................... 24
exercise 2 (improve or complete the sentences by using a suitable pronoun phrase):..
25
Using parallel structures...................................................................................................25
exercise 3 (identify the parallel forms in these sentences):........................................25
Avoiding too many short sentences................................................................................. 26
Sentence combining.........................................................................................................26
Avoiding disorganised long sentences............................................................................. 26
Ensuring clarity and comprehensibility in long sentences................................................ 27
Building successful long sentences..................................................................................27
Les 7: 18/11........................................................................................................................... 27
Punctuation recap............................................................................................................ 27
Commas: commonly used and abused............................................................................ 28
Commas versus semicolons............................................................................................ 29
Semicolon versus colons..................................................................................................29
Scare quotes aka sneer quotes........................................................................................29
Hyphens and dashes: not interchangeable...................................................................... 29
Question marks and exclamation marks.......................................................................... 30
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
2
, Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
Indirect questions............................................................................................................. 30
exercise 1 (identify and correct the indirect questions containing errors):................. 30
exercise 2 (complete the indirect questions):............................................................. 31
Adjusting your language based on how confident you are of your claims........................31
Emphasising.....................................................................................................................31
Cleft sentence.................................................................................................................. 31
Using hedging language...................................................................................................32
Hedging in academic writing............................................................................................ 32
Qualifying what you say................................................................................................... 32
Why we use hedging language........................................................................................ 32
Les 8: 25/11........................................................................................................................... 32
Understanding noun phrases (NPs)................................................................................. 32
Using noun phrases......................................................................................................... 33
Nominalisation..................................................................................................................34
exercise 1 (identify the longest noun phrase in each of the following sentences):.....34
exercise 2 (making sentences more “noun-centric” by replacing specific sections with
a noun phrase or compound adjective (inserted before the noun)):...........................34
exercise 3 (complete the sentences with a noun phrase or a compound adjective):. 34
Using more sophisticated lexis.........................................................................................35
Using more sophisticated collocations............................................................................. 35
Phrasal verbs................................................................................................................... 35
Formal phrasal verbs........................................................................................................36
Les 9: 02/12...........................................................................................................................37
A refresher on linkers....................................................................................................... 37
Linkers referring to causes and results............................................................................ 37
Characteristics of formal language: “do nots”...................................................................38
Characteristics of formal language: “do’s”........................................................................38
Finding more formal/academic alternatives......................................................................38
Les 10: 09/12.........................................................................................................................39
Warm-up exercise............................................................................................................ 39
Orthography..................................................................................................................... 40
Words are often misspelt because:.................................................................................. 40
Spelling.............................................................................................................................40
Homophones.................................................................................................................... 40
Distinguishing between homophones...............................................................................41
exercise 1 (correct the homophone errors, if applicable):.......................................... 42
Commonly confused words.............................................................................................. 42
exercise 2 (select the appropriate option):................................................................. 43
exercise 3 (choose the correct option):...................................................................... 45
exercise 4 (identify the mistakes and correct them):.................................................. 48
Spelling error ≠ grammar error ≠ usage error...................................................................48
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
3
, Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
Lesson 1: 27/09
presentation in pairs
attendance is compulsory → max. 2 lessons absent without medical certificate
50% continuos assessment + 50% exam
a self-study package replaces lesson on 11/11
deadline is on Sundays at 8pm
What is grammar?
rules that form the base of a language on sentence-level, structures, patterns
Etymology of the term “grammar”
Late Middle English from Old French gramaire, via Latin from Greek grammatikē (tekhnē)
‘(art) of letters’, from gramma, grammat- ‘letter of the alphabet, thing written
rules often overlap between written and spoken English
TED-Talk: does grammar matter?
grammar can be defined as a set of patterns for how words are put together
a dialect of a given language may become the standard variety of that language mostly due
to coincidental factors, and often due to being spoken by the people in power
the spoken version of a language has its own grammar and regularities, which have
evolved to serve the needs of the speakers who use it
descriptivism is an approach to examining language which aims to document how people
actually use language and track innovations
Parts of speech/word classes
parts of speech are a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its
syntactic functions, in English the main parts of speech are noun, pronoun, adjective,
determiner, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection
word classes → English has four major word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
word classes are either lexical (provide content) or functional (provide structure) and open
(new words can be added) or closed (new words cannot be added or only very rarely)
Advanced English grammar and proficiency (2024)
4
