newbadthings
New member
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2010
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
TOEIC grammar (verbs) -- how to explain the "why?" when it comes to word choice
So as it stands, my girlfriend is an ESL teacher to a group of Japanese students. It's not entirely new territory for her, but she's never had to deal with the issue of teaching grammar based on the TOEIC test. As an example from her textbook:
To us native English speakers, or anyone already familiarised with the language, we know that the answer is C, "holds," because it fits in with the context and just "sounds right." But how do you explain that to a Japanese student? Surely you can't just tell them, "it's right because it sounds right." Even more confusing to me is that the rest of the options are verbs too, which should mean that the lexical structure of the sentence would still be sound, but incorrect since it isn't using the "right word."
Therefore, what is the most effective of accepted way to approach this topic with ESL students?
Thanks, all.
So as it stands, my girlfriend is an ESL teacher to a group of Japanese students. It's not entirely new territory for her, but she's never had to deal with the issue of teaching grammar based on the TOEIC test. As an example from her textbook:
To us native English speakers, or anyone already familiarised with the language, we know that the answer is C, "holds," because it fits in with the context and just "sounds right." But how do you explain that to a Japanese student? Surely you can't just tell them, "it's right because it sounds right." Even more confusing to me is that the rest of the options are verbs too, which should mean that the lexical structure of the sentence would still be sound, but incorrect since it isn't using the "right word."
Therefore, what is the most effective of accepted way to approach this topic with ESL students?
Thanks, all.
