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Syntax refers to a set of rules that determines the arrangement of words in a sentence. This is one of the main ways writers convey meaning in a text. (MasterClass. n.d.)

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Recent years have seen rapid growth in the numbers of children being taught foreign languages at younger ages. While course books aimed at young learners are appearing on the market, there is scant theoretical reference in the teacher education literature. Teaching Languages to Young Learners is one of the few to develop readers' understanding of what happens in classrooms where children are being taught a foreign language. It will offer teachers and trainers a coherent theoretical framework to structure thinking about children's language learning. It gives practical advice on how to analyse and evaluate classroom activities, language use and language development. Examples from classrooms in Europe and Asia will help bring alive the realities of working with young learners of English.

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Recent years have seen rapid growth in the numbers of children being taught foreign languages at younger ages. While course books aimed at young learners are appearing on the market, there is scant theoretical reference in the teacher education literature.

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ERIC - EJ659455 - Kagan Structures for English Language Learners., ESL Magazine, 2002

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Highlights Kagan Structures, easy-to-learn, easy-to-use cooperative learning instructional strategies that promote second language learning. In classrooms where these strategies are used, students for whom English is a second language learn both English and academic content far more quickly and thor…

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.21.1469

Keywords:
translation, language teaching, translation method, learning tool, language skills

Abstract
The present paper focuses on the application of translation to help learners acquire, develop and strengthen their knowledge and competence in the English language. Translation integrated into the language learning activity along with generally used ones, e. g. reading, listening, writing, and vocabulary development could be defined as "pedagogical tool", considering that its purpose is to teach a language. Translation activities forces students to communicate both ways: into and from the foreign language. While translating students are incited to notice differences in structure and vocabulary, to strengthen grammatical competence, to shape their own way of thinking and to correct habitual errors that could be remained unnoticed. Students can make the best out of their learning, if they are encouraged to use translation skills properly. Translation activities are used in the advanced English learning programmes at Kaunas University of Technology. This paper is based on a brief theoretical literature, the analysis of the activities in the language classroom, and the analysis of the data of the survey. The findings of the survey suggest that translation can be used in the English language learning course in order to enhance students' foreign language skills.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.21.1469

Author Biography

Inga Dagilienė, Kaunas University of Technology

Užsienio kalbų centras, lektorė

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Translation as a Learning Method in English Language Teaching

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https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.21.1469 translation, language teaching, translation method, learning tool, language skills The present paper focuses on the application of translation to help learners acquire, develop and strengthen their knowledge and competence in the English language. Translation integrated into the language learning activity along with generally used ones, e. g.

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Contents: The Nature of Language, Acquisition of the First Language, Approaches to Language Teaching, Grammar-Translation Method, Structural Approach, Audio- Lingual and Direct Method, Bilingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching, Language Content and Kinds of Lessons, Techniques for Teaching English, Teaching English in Universities, Teaching English in English Medium Schools, Equipping the English Teacher, Micro-teaching in Teacher Education.

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Contents: The Nature of Language, Acquisition of the First Language, Approaches to Language Teaching, Grammar-Translation Method, Structural Approach, Audio- Lingual and Direct Method, Bilingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching, Language Content and Kinds of Lessons, Techniques for Teaching English, Teaching English in Universities, Teaching English in English Medium Schools, Equipping the English Teacher, Micro-teaching in Teacher Education.

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Dinner games:
At dinner or even after dinner family members can role play each other and try to act like a different member of the family. Expectations should be set so there are rules and regulations to the game.

To integrate more syntax and semantics, this can be done through perspective writing. Have a member of the family write a letter to another family member as someone else. (For an example: have a child write a letter to mom pretending to be dad) The prompt could be something along the lines of "What did you do yesterday?" or "What will you do tomorrow?"

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Addressing ELL Proficiency at home (for guardians)

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Addressing ELL Proficiency at home (for guardians)

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These at home activities address various language proficiencies of ELLs because they focus on social skills, writing, tenses and perspective. The child can use role playing and perspective to work on pragmatics. Then they can work on writing and the past, present and future tense verbs which is semantics. Finally they can use full sentences through syntax to form a letter for the family to read that will make sense.

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Role play/puppets:

Allow students to model social situations at home, or shopping or any other social setting. This can be done through a morning meeting activity.

Model social situations (created from the teacher) and act it out through puppet plays or stories

This supports development of language structure because it offers students to bring their social skills and home life/ culture into school as long as there is a safe place to share.

This can be differentiate for EL's by simplifying scenes to just one moment like "you are at the mall with a friend, what would you do for the day?" Let the students imagine their scenes and flourish with creativity

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Making faces/miming:

Miming activities, specifically teaching children how to show feelings through facial expression. This could be part of miming scenes from well-known stories (e.g. the three little pigs being frightened of the wolf)

This supports development of language structure because it helps students understnad social cues and emotions through stories or acting. This can be helpful through conversion to identify how someone is feeling through facial emotions and communicate accordingly.

To modify this for EL students the teacher should make directions very clear about the character the student should be acting and make known which part of the story is acted. For an example tell the student to "act out the pigs when they are frightened in the story", NOT just "act out the three little pigs"

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Board games that involve turn taking:

Guess who

Trouble

Mouse Trap

Sorry

This supports development of language structure because these games allow students to interact socially with peers and work on "winning attitudes" vs. "losing attitudes". These games allow friendly and healthy competition and may need to be practiced on how to treat friends when losing or winning games.

These games can be modified for ELs by adding visuals or making small adjustments to each game to make it more understandable for the student. Through equity it is important to explain to the class why equality isn't exactly equal for every student and that EL students aren't "cheating" by having tools they need to succeed.

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Just a minute:

Allow students during morning meeting or some downtime to speak on a subject for "just a minute". You can give them a topic or suject and for one minute (timed) they need to be discussing this sujbect only. If they go off topic they are eliminated from the game. This is good practice to keeping to the topic and not going off task.

To differentiate this for EL students, a teacher can allow sentence starters so the students don't get stuck and have nothing to talk about. This helps them stay on task but also give their own input since it's just a sentence starter not a whole sentence.

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Comparative Questioning:

After reading a story, discuss characters and compare them with a venn diagram. You can also use questioning such as "which character is older?" or "how is the weather different in this story than the weather here today?"

This supports development of the language structure by making text to world, text to text and text to self connections which helps students with comprehension since semantics is about meaning.

This can be differentiated for EL students by reading through both texts on the same day instead of comparing texts from different days. It will stay more fresh in their head. If there is a youtube read aloud for the book this may also be helpful in showing visuals or slowing down reading and can be paused and discussed as the story is read.

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Listening and sorting activities:

The teacher can provide students with three-step movement directions. Then ask a voulenteer to act out the movememnt in front of the class. Another activity similar to this is "simon says". This requires listening and apply what is heard.

This supports development of the language structure because it is making meaning within the words being spoken and then acted physically to see if the students understood the meaning of the step by step directions.

This can be modified for EL students by giving ideas to the student who is the leader a list of ideas either written out or whispered to them from another student or the teacher. This way the EL student can be a leader as well.

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Word card activity:

Make or provide a "memory match" game. Where students have to flip cards to match pictures with words. This can be done to identify homophones or make compound words. They can also create lists by family or category (i.e foods, furniture, drinks)

This supports language development because it can be modified for each learner or lesson. The game rules stay the same but the structure can change depending on what is being taught, (i.e homophones or compound words)

This activity can be differentiate for ELLs by doing them in partners or whole group depending on what is more helpful for them. ELLs can also be provided with a digital version that reads the words to them when the card is flipped so they can do this independently if needed.

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Comprehension and Response:

Have students use "Somebody, wanted, but, so then" to summarize reading material. This will help them from being too wordy in their responses and be precise with their wording. They will get the main/major points of the story and a graphic organizer may be helpful for them to practice writing.

This supports development of language because it allows students to form complete sentences and paragraphs with the use of graphic organizers to convey meaning of what they read.

This can be modified for EL's by using sentence starters in the graphic organizer. For example (somebody: who is the person the story is about?/ wanted: what did the person want?) Prompts are useful in understanding what each word is asking you to find in the story.

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Pragmatics is an important part of learning a language because it helps the learner to steer away from miscommunication and communicate as they chose across different cultures and languages. (U.S. Department of State. n.d.)

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What is pragmatics?

If we use our general knowledge of the word "pragmatic," we would expect that pragmatics has to do with things that are practical, but in linguistics, pragmatics has a specialized meaning. Imagine this scenario:
After living in a new country for a few weeks, a young teacher goes to the bank to make a transfer. This teacher is not yet familiar with the language and culture of her host country. While processing the transaction, the bank teller asks, "Did you eat?" The teacher does not understand why the bank teller is asking this question. Although the teacher understood the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation the bank teller used, she did not know how to respond. She is confused because, for her, it is odd to be asked this kind of question during a business transaction. In her culture, the question "Did you eat?" is used to invite someone to eat with you or to offer them something to eat. After a long pause, the teacher answers "Yes," but still wonders why the teller had asked this question. Later, the young teacher learns from her colleagues that in her host country, "Did you eat?" is simply a greeting like "How are you?" It is only meant to be a greeting, not any kind of invitation.
This is an example of pragmatics. Pragmatics tells us that communication is not only about the words we use.

Understanding Pragmatics

In the example above, the listener and speaker had different understandings about the meaning of the very same words. Communication is influenced by cultural backgrounds and the social contexts in which people use language. The study of pragmatics is about the ability to use language in socially appropriate ways. Pragmatic ability refers to knowledge about pragmatics and the ability to apply that knowledge. Understanding pragmatic meaning can be challenging since speakers do not always directly say what they mean, and listeners may not always correctly interpret the intended meaning of a message.

So, why don't speakers directly communicate their intended messages? In some instances, communicating directly is considered too abrupt. For instance, Americans often find questions about age too direct. However, in some cultures, "How old are you?" is a common question because it helps speakers understand how to address one another. In some cultures, certain messages might commonly be communicated through hints rather than direct communication. For example, someone might say "It's cold in here" rather than directly asking another person to close the door. Even within the same culture and language group, people use language in different ways depending on the context. For instance, in an English Teaching Forum article called " Pragmatic Activities for the Speaking Classroom," Joseph Siegal gave the examples of how apologizing to a potential employer for being late to a meeting would require different strategies and language than apologizing to a friend for being late. Likewise, complaining about working conditions to a colleague would differ from complaining to a manager. In order to be very proficient communicators, we need to know how to communicate appropriately given the situation.
Following the experience at the bank in the story above, the young teacher encountered many more instances in the host country in which people often asked questions that were surprising. They asked about age, salary, and even shoe size. Not only was the teacher sometimes confused about the way people in the host culture communicated, she also found that sometimes the messages the teacher communicated were misunderstood. One day at the supermarket, the teacher told the cashier that a bag would not be necessary. The cashier looked a bit shocked, but the teacher did not understand why. Later, the teacher learned that it was more polite to say "That's okay" when refusing something that had been offered. When the teacher learned about the concept of pragmatics, the differences in communication between the home culture and host culture started to make sense, and she started to think of ways to incorporate pragmatics into lesson plans in English language classes so that both she and her students became more skilled communicators across languages and cultures.

Teaching Pragmatics

Understanding the pragmatics of a language helps learners use language appropriately in different situations, but what does pragmatics mean for the English language teacher? It is important to realize that there is no one best way to teach pragmatics. Teachers can build information on pragmatics into existing lesson plans, or they might add information or lessons on pragmatics as the need becomes evident. For example, after being asked many questions that were taboo, the young teacher created a lesson on taboo questions when meeting someone for the first time in order to talk with students about taboo questions across cultures. Lessons on pragmatics often relate to different language functions, such as greetings, requests, complaints, invitations, and apologies and often include the home culture and the target culture, but they might also include other cultures as well.

Lessons on pragmatics are sometimes (but not always) carried out through speech act sets. A speech act set is a set of possible strategies for use in a particular language function. For instance, for an apology, a speech act in English could include the following strategies: expression of apology (I'm sorry for being late), acknowledgment of responsibility (It is my fault), explanation or account (The reason this happened is that I forgot to set my alarm.), offer of repair (I will buy you lunch.), and promise of non-recurrence (It will never happen again.). When giving an apology, speakers would use a minimum of at least one strategy, but could make use of numerous strategies.

Instruction in pragmatics can start at early levels of language proficiency. For instance, in our example, there was a great deal of pragmatic meaning in the greeting, and greetings are often one of the first language functions learners are introduced to. As English language teachers, our main goal for teaching pragmatics is to raise learners' awareness about the choices they can make when interacting in the target language. Textbooks for language learning don't always include information about pragmatic ability, and pragmatics does not always receive much attention in teacher training programs. Fortunately, there are many excellent resources on American English ( americanenglish.state.gov) with ideas for teaching pragmatics in the English language classroom. The following section will provide information on the resources for teaching pragmatics and highlight some of the activities available on American English.

Some Ideas for Teaching Pragmatics

Introducing Pragmatic Awareness

In " Introducing Pragmatic Awareness at Low Levels," Edit H. Kontra describes an activity about how we speak tells a lot about our intended message. For instance, when asked how we are doing, we might say "I'm fine" with a very sad voice, which shows that we are, in fact, not fine. For the main part of the lesson, in pairs, students read dialogues from their course book using different moods, and other students attempt to identify the moods of the speakers. Following the reading of each dialogue, students talk about how language was used to convey certain moods. Observations often relate to features of language such as rhythm, intonation, or tone.

In " Luck of the Draw (Pragmatics)," Amy Hanna explains an activity for using appropriate greetings with different people and different contexts. Students practice using different greetings through role-plays where the speakers and locations are randomly selected. This activity can also be used for practicing pragmatics with a variety of other functions such as apologizing, giving advice, making a request, making an excuse for being late, or closing a conversation. As an extension activity, students can evaluate the appropriateness of peers' use of pragmatics in different situations.

Request Scenarios

In the Forum article " Pragmatic Activities for the Speaking Classroom," Joseph Siegel provides useful information for teaching pragmatics in a speaking class through activities for request scenarios. The teacher comes up with a number of scenarios in which a request would be made. Each scenario has certain specific features, such as age of speakers, context, past relationship of speakers, and so on. The teacher gives the scenario, and students decide how they would make a request. The teacher and students go over the responses and talk about why a certain response is appropriate for the situation and why others are not appropriate. The teacher can then extend that activity with "a range of interlocutors." For the range of interlocutors, the teacher writes down a list of different people on the board with numbers next to each person. For example, 1 = elderly man, 2 = woman in a business suit, and 3 = a boy younger than you. The teacher then provides a scenario. For example: You have your hands full. You drop a bag and can't pick it up. (Examples are taken from the article.) Students then decide which person they are talking to and provide an appropriate request.

Complaints

In the Forum article " Twelve Activities for Teaching the Pragmatics of Complaining to L2 Learners," Amanda Hilliard provides activities for teaching complaints. These activities help learners understand how to complain appropriately in different situations. In one activity from this article, students are given different situations. For example: Your classmate always comes late to group meetings and is not helping at all with your group's presentation. Complain to that classmate. (Example is taken from the article.) Students first write down their answers in their native language, and then they translate that response into English. Students and teacher then talk about what students have written in the chart and discuss their appropriateness.

From the above activities, we can get some ideas about how we might approach teaching pragmatics. Fortunately, there are many other resources available on American English on the page " Teaching Pragmatics." The following resources are sorted by language function so that you can find them easily.

Apologies: " Pragmatic Activities for the Speaking Classroom"
Closings: " How do you say good-bye?"
Complaints: " Twelve Activities for Teaching the Pragmatics of Complaining to L2 Learners"
Compliments: " Giving and Responding to Compliments"
Greetings: " Luck of the Draw (Pragmatics)," " Greetings with a Difference"
Greetings, small talk, and leave-taking: " Hello, I Must Be Going!"
Openings and closings: " How are you, Auntie Elizabeth?"
Politeness: " Politeness is More Than 'Please,'" " Softening Short Requests"
Refusals: " Teaching Refusals in an EFL Setting"
Requests: " Pragmatic Activities for the Speaking Classroom," " E-mail Requests," " What Do You Think? Requesting Responses from Professors "

Conclusion

The classroom is a safe place for learners to experiment with using language in different ways, so it is a good place for them to acquire pragmatic competence. Pragmatic instruction often focuses on asking learners to determine the best way to communicate in a certain situation given the context and the culture, and is generally linked to language functions. A lesson in pragmatics might be related to content in the textbook. For instance, when going over a textbook unit on apologies, the instructor can add information concerning how people apologize in the home language and the target language. Alternatively, teachers might add in lessons in pragmatics because of student need. If, for example, the instructor notices that students come across as too direct in the target language, the teacher can prepare a lesson on politeness. Although instruction in pragmatics is not always present in the curriculum or in textbooks, there are numerous resources for teaching pragmatics-many of which can be found on the American English website. As teachers, we can learn about the pragmatics of a language and different ways to teach it by researching the language functions we are teaching. Pragmatics is an important part of learning language because it helps learners to avoid miscommunication and to communicate as they wish across cultures and languages.

Want to learn more? Visit the Teacher's Corner group on Facebook!

The AE Teacher's Corner is a closed Facebook group originally created for readers of Teacher's Corner on americanenglish.state.gov. As our group has grown, it has taken shape into a dynamic community of English language teachers and learners who learn together, collaborate and support each other. Every month we feature a new article from Teacher's Corner and throughout the month, participants are encouraged to engage in extended conversation, exchange teaching resources related to the theme, and participate in contests.

Join our private Teacher's Corner group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AETeachersCorner/. Please answer all three questions completely. You will not be accepted into the group unless you answer the questions.

Photo Credits (From Top): Jessica Da Rosa on Unsplash; Alexis Brown on Unsplash; Adam Solomon on Unsplash; Rémi Walle on Unsplash; and Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

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Teacher's Corner: Simple Ways to Incorporate Pragmatics in the EFL Classroom

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If we use our general knowledge of the word "pragmatic," we would expect that pragmatics has to do with things that are practical, but in linguistics, pragmatics has a specialized meaning. Imagine this scenario: After living in a new country for a few weeks, a young teacher goes to the bank to make a transfer.

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To properly communicate, one must first learn the meaning of words. Children need to be able to comprehend what others are saying in order to engage in social contact and make sense of their surroundings. Children may not be able to understand what is being said or discussed around them if they do not understand semantics. A EL student must be able to comprehend the actual meaning of words in order to understand what people are saying. (The importance of semantics in Second language learning. )

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Syntax is important because it is a set of rules that helps the reader or writer make sense of sentences. Using syntax in sentences correctly allows easy communication and understanding between different parties. Syntax helps with understanding of grammar within a sentence and can allow for completely different meanings of similar sentences.

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Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge university press.

Dagilienė, I. (2012). Translation as a learning method in English language teaching. Studies about languages, (21), 124-129.

Finch, A. (2003). Using poems to teach English. English Language Teaching. 15 (2), 29–45. English Language Teaching, 15(2), 29-45.

Kagan, S., & High, J. (2002). Kagan Structures for English Language Learners. ESL Magazine, 5(4), 10-12.

Mukalel, J. C. (2005). Approaches to English language teaching. Discovery Publishing House.

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"The boy jumped happily."
"The boy happily jumped."
"Happily, the boy jumped."

The arrangement of words are different but make similar sentences. The writer changes syntax to make the writing interesting or put emphasis on a specific part of the sentence. (Writing Explained. 2020).

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Syntax definition: Syntax is the grammatical structure of words and phrases to create coherent sentences.

What is syntax?

What does syntax mean? Syntax is the grammatical structure of sentences. The format in which words and phrases are arranged to create sentences is called syntax.

Let's look at an example of how a sentence can be rearranged to create varied syntax.
Examples of Syntax in a Sentence:
By rearranging just one word in the sentence, a varied syntax is formed. Each is grammatically correct and acceptable English language form.

A writer will vary sentence syntax to make writing more interesting or to emphasize a particular point.

Words and phrases must follow English rules for correct arrangement and coherent sentences.

Syntax vs. Diction: What's the Difference?

Syntax and diction are different concepts in grammar and in literature.

What is syntax? Syntax is the arrangement of words that make a sentence.

What is diction? Diction is word choice.

The following examples have similar syntax but different diction.

The boy jumped happily.

The girl sang beautifully.

The dog barked loudly.

Each of these sentences has the same syntax. Each sentence follows the structure of subject-verb-adverb. However, each sentence uses different diction (word choice).

The following examples have similar diction but different syntax.

Each of these sentences has the same diction. Each sentence uses the same four words. However, each sentence has different word order to create different syntax.

In other words, diction and syntax focus on different things. Diction focuses on word choice, while syntax focuses on the order and structure of those words.

Proper Syntax in English Sentences

In English, a strong, active voice sentence will always have the subject doing the action of the sentence. These sentences will follow a basic subject-verb-object format.

Below are a few examples of different types of syntax in English. Each of these examples has different syntax.

Simple sentences follow a subject-verb format.
Simple Syntax Examples:
Compound sentences have more than one subject or verb.
Compound Syntax Examples:

The boy jumped and the girl sang.

I did not go to the concert but I went to the fair.

Complex sentences contain a subordinating clause.
Complex Syntax Examples:

The boy jumped even though he was nervous.

Because she was excited, the girl sang.

Compound-complex sentences contain two independent clauses and more dependent clauses.
Compound-complex Syntax Examples:

Even though he was nervous, the boy jumped and he landed across the stream.

The girl sang and the woman shrieked because they were excited.

Read more on English sentence structure.

Parallel Structure in Sentences

When constructing sentences, it is important to always keep in mind that ideas should be parallel.

In English, parallel structure is most often an issue when creating a series list. Therefore, we will look at an example of appropriate parallel structure through lists.
Correct example:

I like running, jumping, and hiking.

In this example, three gerunds are used (running, jumping, hiking) to create the grammatically correct list.
Incorrect example:

I like to run, jumping, and hiking.

In this example, "to run" and "jumping" and "hiking" are not parallel. "To run" is an infinitive and "jumping" and "hiking" are gerunds. This sentence is grammatically incorrect and this sentence does not have proper syntax.

Summary: What is Syntax in Literature?

Define syntax: the definition of syntax is,

the arrangement of words and phrases to create sentences

a way for writers to express creativity and create interest

a balance of words that must be parallel to be grammatically correct

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What is Syntax? Definition, Examples of English Syntax - Writing Explained

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Syntax definition: Syntax is the grammatical structure of words and phrases to create coherent sentences. What does syntax mean? Syntax is the grammatical structure of sentences. The format in which words and phrases are arranged to create sentences is called syntax. Let's look at an example of how a sentence can be rearranged to create varied syntax.

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Semantics definition: The branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between sentences or words and their meanings (Dictionary.com. n.d.)

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See synonyms for semantics on Thesaurus.com

noun (used with a singular verb)

the study of meaning.

the study of linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in meaning and form.

2. Also called significs . the branch of semiotics dealing with the relations between signs and what they denote.

the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc.: Let's not argue about semantics.

See more

Origin of semantics ¹

Other words from semantics

se·man·ti·cist [si-man-tuh-sist], /sɪˈmæn tə sɪst/, se·man·ti·cian [see-man-tish-uhn], /ˌsi mænˈtɪʃ ən/, noun

Words Nearby semantics

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use semantics in a sentence

noun (functioning as singular)

1. the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between sentences or words and their meanings

2. the study of the relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent

the study of interpretations of a formal theory

the study of the relationship between the structure of a theory and its subject matter

(of a formal theory) the principles that determine the truth or falsehood of sentences within the theory, and the references of its terms

See more

Derived forms of semantics

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for semantics

The scientific or philosophical study of the relations of words and their meanings.

Notes for semantics

Semantics is commonly used to refer to a trivial point or distinction that revolves around mere words rather than significant issues: "To argue whether the medication killed the patient or contributed to her death is to argue over semantics."

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Semantics Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com

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Semantics definition, undefined See more.

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An example of semantics focuses on the meaning of the sentence. If someone says they bought a new car (even if the car was bought used) to them its new. This creates semantic ambiguity.

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Morning meeting quick activities:

Give students open-ended sentences like "The man went..." and have the students complete the sentence so it makes sense. This can be done orally or with a partner.

This supports development of language because it is quick so it allows students to stay engaged in the lesson and allows the students to be creative while making a gramatically correct sentence.

This can be differentiated through partner work as well as providing word banks or visuals for students to use words or pictures to make their sentences.

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Pragmatics definition: Pragmatics is a field of linguistics concerned with what a speaker implies and a listener infers based on contributing factors like the situational context, the individuals’ mental states, the preceding dialogue, and other elements. (MasterClass. n.d.)

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"It's hot in here! Can you crack a window?"
If we take this literally, your friend is asking you to crack the window - to damage it. However, taken in context, we can infer that they are actually asking for the window to be opened a little.

"Gosh, would you look at the time?"
The literal meaning is that the person is instructing you to look at the time. However, we can infer that they are trying to get away from the conversation due to their general body language.

"Hey, how are you doing?" (passing by on the street)
response - "Good thanks, and you?"

In this case it is unlikely that your friend wants to hear the highs and lows of your entire week while passing by on the street, its a sense of being polite.

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Verb exercises:

Write "yesterday" "today" and "tomorrow" on a board or easel  and have students come up with a list of verbs using past present and future tense words to construct short sentences. An example would be "yesterday I WENT to school. Today I GO to school. Tomorrow I WILL COME to school."

Another way to practice this is through madlib exercises that have past present and future tense verbs.

This can be differentiated for EL students by providing a list of past present and future tense words on a chart and allowing them to use it for this exercise. The teacher can also provide the list through video or digitally.

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Tense Scavenger Hunt:

Give students a short story or magazine and ask them to find examples in the text of past tense words or phrases. Have them highlight the words.

This supports development of language structure because it allows students to recognize and then record past tense words in a sentence. It helps the students to spell them if they are writing them or recognizing them.

You can differentiate this for ELL students by pairing up students to compare their words or have students write out the words first by copying the spelling and then compare the words.

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Index card scramble:

Write words on index cards and have students arrange them to complete simple complete sentences. Make sure to model first and read the sentence aloud to make sure it makes sense. Sometimes students can hear an error when reading it aloud if they can't see it.

To differentiate this, the teacher can write the words on index cards instead of the students. This way the sentence will make sense when they are put in the correct order. While making students write their own index cards, the sentence can be written first on paper then each word can be put on an index card then mixed around to quiz their partner.