GRAMMAR PROJECT

Misplaced Modifiers

Ingrid Jimena Cajamarca Fonseca

Francisco Pérez Gómez

English Grammar 1-2

Universidad nacional de Colombia

May 15th, 2014

INDEX

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..2

Objectives...……………………………………………………………………………......3

Research Question………………………………………………………………….…...3

Methodology………………………………………………………………………………4

Theoretical and/or Concept Framework………………………………………………..4

Analysis and Findings…………………………………………………………………...7

Conclusion/Further Suggestions………………………………………………………16

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………….17

References…………………………………………………………………………….....18

1

INTRODUCTION.

Basic English Grammar teachers explain some topics such as adjectives and

adverbs very vaguely and superficially; that is why many students write and say

ungrammatical sentences which sometimes lead to ambiguities. It is necessary for

us to know what modifiers are and where we can place them to a completely

effective communicative act.

Based on my own experience I can say that mostly at schools only some modifiers

such adverbs are taught, but rarely do teachers provide students with a detailed

description or explanation about the different kinds of adverbs and their respective

uses. Adverbs are always taught as one whole group where there are only three

ways to place them within a sentence: after a verb, before an adjective or before

another adverb.

In fact, when students have to face more advanced tests (oral or written) and find

sentences such as: “We rowed the boat vigorously”, “We vigorously rowed the

boat” and “Vigorously we rowed the boat”; it is a complete nightmare because we

do not know which of these sentences is correct, what is the difference between

them.

As languages students and future language teachers, it is vital our thoroughly

understanding of this topic and then, our excellent future performance as language

professors so that, our students’ English level improves significantly in a short

period of time.

2

OBJECTIVES.

General Objective: To contrast the teaching and use of modifiers in real life with

the rules given by traditional grammar.

Specific Objectives:

To explain what a modifier is

To classify modifiers according to traditional grammar

To explore rules given by traditional grammar about the place of modifiers

within a sentence

To describe the way students use modifiers in real life

To describe the way some English teachers in the Universidad Nacional

teach modifiers

RESEARCH QUESTION.

Problem Question

Rarely teachers provide students

with a detailed description or

explanation about the different kinds

of modifiers and their respective

uses1. When teaching this topic, a lot

of vital information is omitted.

How do teachers improve oral and

written skills in English Language

Students by teaching modifiers in

their sessions?

1 Based on my personal experience

3

METHODOLOGY.

As the knowledge English Language Students have about Modifiers can be

clearly evidenced in the way they employ those structures in written and oral

processes, and taking into account the words of G. Brown and G. Yule (2000):

"In contrast, the analysis of discourse... is typically based on

the linguistic output of someone other than the analyst... More

typically, the discourse analyst's 'data' is taken from written texts or

tape recordings. It is rarely in the form of a single sentence. The type

of linguistic material is sometimes described as 'performance data'”.

The methodology that will be applied in this project is discourse analysis. On

the other hand, analysis of excerpts of books of traditional grammar and some web

pages articles will be also necessary. That is why it is vital to pay special attention

to the employment of the language.

The research question will be answered by the use of some resources such as

Traditional Grammar books and web pages articles, analysis of interviews with

some teachers from Universidad Nacional and personal experience2; and finally by

the design of a survey through the software SurveyMonkey3, this survey will target

English Language Students4.

2 The design of a survey, which target group will be some school partners who had the same teaching process that I had, will make my personal experience objective.3 SurveyMonkey is a United States company which provides internet users with tools to create and design virtual surveys. Recovered: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/SurveyMonkey; accessed December 14th 2013, 12:49 am4 This survey will target all English Language students from Universidad Nacional, except students who were taking English grammar 1 course in the second semester of 2013 (see annex 3 slides 2 to 14).

4

As this research was divided into two parts, the concept framework was the

same in both of them; however, the first part which was developed during the

second semester of 2013 can be taken as a more general study. In the second

part, developed during the first four months of 2014, the same resources were

used; moreover, there were some new interviews of teachers from Universidad

Nacional, and the survey mentioned above targeted English Language Students

from the fourth level of English Oral Communication Class with professor Luis

Orlando Hernandez. There were analyzed modifier’s use patterns not only in

written papers but also in oral production.

THEORETICAL AND/OR CONCEPT FRAMEWORK.

To understand better the analysis I will make about all the resources I already

mentioned, it is necessary to have a general context and some concepts clear5:

Adjective: A form-class word that functions as a noun modifier. Adjectives can be

made comparative and superlative (tall, taller, tallest) and can be qualified or

intensified (very tall).

Adverb: A form-class word that generally modifies a verb, as in I will be going

soon. Adverbs can also modify the sentence as a whole, as in Unfortunately, I was

out when you phoned. Some adverbs can be compared (more quickly) or

intensified (very quickly), their position in the sentence is often flexible (I will soon

be going; Soon I will be going).

Adverbial: Any structure (word, phrase, or clause) that functions as a modifier of a

verb-that is, that fills the role of an adverb. In We drove to the airport to pick up

Uncle Louie, to the airport is an adverbial prepositional phrase and to pick up Uncle

Louie is an adverbial infinitive phrase, both modifying the verb drove.

5 All the definitions are taken from the glossary of the book Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers

5

Clause: A sequence of words that includes a subject and a predicate: Ellen slept;

Ellen dreamed about her daughter, who was away at school.

Conjunctive adverb: A conjunction with an adverbial emphasis (however, there

fore, nevertheless, moreover, etc.) that connects two clauses, as in Chocolate is

delicious; however, I try my best to stay away from it.

Dependent clause: A clause that fills a role in a sentence (such as adverbial,

adjectival, or nominal) and that cannot stand independently as a sentence: He

climbed until he was exhausted (adverbial clause); I wonder where I put my keys

(nominal clause functioning as direct object).

Independent clause: The main clause of a sentence, one that can stand on its

own: that used to look run down

Modifier: A word, phrase, or clause that adds information about a noun or verb or

the sentence as a whole: The blue chair that I bought at the auction needs

painting; The tomatoes grow fast when the nights are warm: Unfortunately she lost

her job.

Nonrestrictive modifier: A modifier-a word, phrase, or clause in the noun phrase

that comments on the noun but is not necessary for defining or identifying it. It is

set off with commas: The Finance Committee, which met last week, is still working

all the budget.

Participial phrase: A present or past participle together with its subject or

complements and / or modifiers: Still clutching their pizza in their hands, the kids

left the room.

Phrase: A word or group of words that functions as a unit in the sentence and is

not a clause. The boy is a noun phrase. The boy with the blue shirt is a noun

phrase that includes a prepositional phrase modifying the noun boy. The boy who

is mowing the lawn is a noun phrase that includes an adjectival clause modifying

the noun boy.

6

Relative clause: A clause introduced by a relative pronoun (who, which, that) or a

relative adverb (when, where, why) that generally functions as an adjectival, as in

the book that you wanted has arrived; the area where I live is densely populated.

The broad reference which clause functions as a sentence modifier: John bought a

gas-guzzler, which surprised me.

Restrictive modifier: A modifier-a word, phrase, or clause-in the noun phrase that

restricts and identifies the meaning of the noun. It is not set off by commas:

Homer's epic poem The Odyssey is a great book to teach; The chair that you just

sat on is broken.

Verb: A form-class word that names an action, process, event, or state; that can

always take both -s and -ing endings; and that can be signaled by auxiliary verbs: It

goes; she is going; we should go.

Verb phrase: A verb together with its auxiliaries, modifiers, and complements. The

predicate of the sentence is a verb phrase, as in He left all his belong ings,

including his guitar, in the house. The term is sometimes used more narrowly to

refer to just the main verb and its auxiliaries.

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

In this section the objectives that were previously proposed were achieved

through some resources that have been already mentioned; this, in order to do a

complete analysis and to come up with an answer to the main question of this

project in the next section. First of all, based on some web page resources and

some books, it is explained what a modifier is.

According to a post and a presentation (see annex 1, slide 4) made by Purdue

University6 on its web page “Owl”7, a modifier is a word or group of words (phrase)

6 Purdue University http://www.purdue.edu/; accessed January 14th 2014, 12:32 am7 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/36/

7

that describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about other words in a sentence. This

definition coincides with Haussamen et al., (2003)8 where a modifier is described

as a word, phrase, or clause that adds information about a noun or verb or the

sentence as a whole.

In Owl page and presentation (see annex 1, slide 4), a deeper description about

modifiers is also given; however, this project is focused only on misplaced

modifiers:

Misplaced modifiers occur when the subject of the modifier is

unclear because the modifier is poorly placed. The reader may be

unsure of what word the modifier is describing. The reader may even

think the misplaced modifier is describing a different word than

intended.

– A modifier in the wrong place in a sentence makes sentences

awkward, confusing, or (unintentionally) humorous.

In order to contrast the teaching and use of modifiers in real life with the rules given

by traditional grammar, modifiers were explained specifically since the traditional

grammar point of view. Some books classify modifiers in certain ways, these

explanations will be useful to be compared with the way teachers teach modifiers

in their lessons at Universidad Nacional and also to know why, based on my

personal experience (see annex 2 school survey) I say that this topic is not

thoroughly covered at school.

This survey targeted some school partners (see annex 2 slides 2 to 5) who support

through their answers that at school they learned mostly adverbs but only in a

vague way. To make my personal experience objective, a survey, which targeted

some school partners who supported through their answers that at school they

learned mostly adverbs but only in a vague way, was applied. They all studied at

Colegio Sagrados Corazones in Madrid, the same school where I studied so, it

made possible to say that we all received the same input; they also assure that

8 Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers (pp. 102)

8

they do not remember to have learnt the topic “modifiers” (see annex 2 slide 8),

however 100% of them are sure to have talked in class the topic “adverbs”

according to the provided description (see annex 2 slide 9); the next question

shows how those people would probably place a modifier (see annex 2 slide 10),

and they are not completely sure about the two last options: before an adjective

and before another adverb, they all are completely sure only about the first option:

after a verb. In the question number 5 none of them answered correctly due to the

fact that in this case the provided options have a different meaning depending on

the emphasis of the sentence, instead of saying that, 60% of them assure that the

three sentences have the same meaning, the remaining 40% do not know how to

make a distinction.

In question 6, most of the answers were right because to avoid ambiguity, the

modifier "only" should be placed immediately before the words it modifies; 80% of

the people supported the idea, the remaining 20% do not know what the difference

between the two options is (see annex 2 slide 11).

Finally, the surveyed people rated their own learning process as vague or bad

because the acquired knowledge was not enough deep for them to be completely

sure about their answers. They do not know all the possible ways to place a

modifier within a sentence (see annex 2 slides 13 and 14).

Furthermore, to classify modifiers according to traditional grammar, I will mention

and make a contrast between two traditional grammar books, specifically between

the way their authors classify modifiers. It was the best of sentences; it was the

worst of sentences by June Casagrande is the first book where four chapters are

destined to explain modifiers; the second book I will reference in this section is

Grammar Alive! A guide for teachers by Brock Haussamen with Amy Benjamin,

Martha Kolln, Rebecca S. Wheeler, and members of NCTE's Assembly for the

Teaching of English Grammar.

June Casagrande (2010) explains that modifiers can be of different kinds i.e

modifiers are divided into different groups: Adverbs and adverbials, relative

9

clauses, prepositional phrases, participial phrases or participial clauses; this

coincides with the explanation given by Haussamen et al., (2003), the difference is

in certain way the particular details of each one of those classes of modifiers.

Adverbs, according to June Casagrande, can modify verbs, adjectives, other

adverbs9 and whole sentences; moreover those adverbs are subdivided into three

groups: Adverbs of manner, the ones that describe the manner in which an action

occurred: walk quickly, eat slowly, dance enthusiastically; sentence adverbs, those

that give commentary on whole sentences: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn;

and conjunctive adverbs, which create a link to the previous sentence:

Consequently, the engine exploded. Nonetheless, adverbs are a kind of adverbial

for Haussamen et al., (2003) (I will go deeper in this issue later).

The eight chapter of It was the best of sentences; it was the worst of sentences, is

focused on relative clauses, is focused on how they can act as modifiers, she also

explains about adjectives as modifiers (the way we all know them); however, in

Grammar Alive! The author writes about relative clauses in a different and indirect

way10: In other section of the book11, he divides modifiers into restrictive and

nonrestrictive modifiers:

Restrictive modifier: A modifier -a word, phrase, or clause- in the

noun phrase that restricts and identifies the meaning of the noun. It is

not set off by commas: Homer's epic poem The Odyssey is a great

book to teach; The chair that you just sat on is broken.

Nonrestrictive modifier: A modifier-a word, phrase, or clause-in the

noun phrase that comments on the noun but is not necessary for

defining or identifying it. It is set off with commas: The Finance

Committee, which met last week, is still working all the budget.

9 Haussamen et al., also say in Grammar Alive! “…modifiers can themselves have modifiers: the absolutely (adv.) perfect (adj.) birthday present.”10 I will explain it based on the comparison with some information from the Student’s book Total English Upper Intermediate p.p 12511 See pages 102 and 105 in the book Grammar Alive! A guide for teachers

10

The author makes a distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers;

their definitions coincide with the definitions of defining and non-defining relative

clauses12 respectively so, when talking about restrictive and nonrestrictive

modifiers, the author is saying that relative clauses (defining and non-defining) are

also modifiers.

Both authors mention in their books prepositional phrases and participial phrases

(or clauses) as modifiers as well; June Casagrande says: “Prepositional phrases,

like relative clauses, are modifiers.”13, for instance. However I will not write a lot

about them because they have been mentioned along the previous paragraphs.

Finally, the last category: an adverbial for June Casagrande is “whatever that is

doing adverbs’ job”; it may or not be an adverb, for instance prepositional phrases.

For Brock Haussamen et al., an adverbial can be found in a sentence in five

different ways modifying the verb14: As an adverb, as a noun phrase, as a

prepositional phrase, as a verb phrase and as a clause. He also introduces the

idea of modifiers placement through the following sentence: “It is not only their

variety of form that makes the adverbials such useful tools for the writer; it is also

their movability.”

Modifiers are flexible to be moved in a sentence yet, they cannot be just moved

lightly; the way we can “play with them” in a sentence is carefully specified through

some rules given by traditional grammar; related to the modifiers position,

Haussamen et al., (2003) say15:

“The structure of the NP provides a good example of the system atic

nature of our grammar. When we add modifers, we do so in an es

tablished way. In preheadword position, we can add both adjectives

and nouns as modifiers, but only in that order:

12 See Total English Upper Intermediate Student’s book pp. 125 Defining and non-defining relative clauses.13 See It was the best of sentences; it was the worst of sentences pp. 9614 As mentioned before in page 9, paragraph 3 (about adverbs)15 See pages 86 and 87 in the book Grammar Alive! A guide for teachers

11

In postheadword position, we can add prepositional phrases,

participial phrases, and relative clauses (also called adjectival, or

adjective, clauses) -always in that order”:

When this author is talking about adverbials, he also explains how they can be

placed in different places within a sentence:

“Adverbials can open or close the sentence, depending on the writer's

focus (Last night, we went to the movies; We went to the movies last

night). They can also appear in the middle of the sentence, between

the subject and the predicate, or between the verb and the

complement, positions in which they are of ten set off by commas-and

call attention to themselves (All three ofus, because we studied hard,

got A's for the course). Adverbials are versatile in purpose as well,

adding, as they do, information of time and place and manner,

reason, and the like.”

For this first part of the analysis, it was also described the way students use

modifiers in real life through the analysis of a survey which targeted English

Language Students from Universidad Nacional (see annex 3). In the three first

questions, surveyed people had to choose the sentence that placed the modifier

correctly; in the first question (see annex 3 slide 15) 53,85% answered the first

option and 46,15% answered second option, it means that majority of people

answered in a wrong way; this because the phrase “the next day” needs to be

12

closer to the infinitive "to visit" that it modifies. It shows that students have some

difficulties when identifying what modifies what.

In the next question (see annex 3 slide 16), majority of students answered wrongly

(69,23%), and just the remaining 30,77% of them answered correctly, it was

because to avoid ambiguity, the modifier "only" should be placed immediately

before the words it modifies. In the third question (see annex 3 slide 17), exactly

the same as in second one, happened; majority of students (79,62%) placed the

modifier “only” in other position leading to ambiguity, the 23,68% (3 students)

chose the correct answer.

This part of the survey shows that for students is still difficult to apply the golden

rule: “modifiers have to always be as close as possible to the word or group of

words they modify”

Based on the last part of the survey it was developed an analysis on how students

use modifiers when they produce texts (see annex 3 slides 18 to 24). Using a

constituent structure in each paragraph (see annex 4) it was possible to notice that

students frequently use restrictive modifiers more than nonrestrictive modifiers, it

was evident, besides, that they sometimes tend to set off nonrestrictive modifiers

(relative clauses) with a dot (.) before and a comma (,) after them in spite of setting

them off with commas only.

It is also clear that students use plenty of adjectives, which are also modifiers, and

they place them, in most of the cases, before nouns, for example: “a huge lake”

(art, adj, noun) (see annex 4 answer #6). Adverbs are placed mostly before an

adjective, for example “a really kind manner” (Art, adv, adj, noun) (see annex 4

answer #2); in some cases adverbs are placed before and after a verb, for

example: “he really likes here” (Pron, adv, verb, adv) (see annex 4 answer #4) or “I

really love it!” (noun, adv, verb, noun) (see annex 4 answer #6); or only after a

verb, for example “That was really sad” (Det, verb, adv, adj) (see annex 4 answer

#6).

13

Students often put into practice the formulas mentioned by Haussamen et al.,

(2003)16. Firstly, the formula (Det, adj, n, noun) sometimes with an adverb between

the determiner and the adjective, for example: “the most peaceful places” (Det,

adv, adj, noun) (see annex 4 answer #1); secondly, the formula (Det, noun, prep

phr, part phr, rel clause) using only a prepositional phrase or a relative clause, for

example: “the lake where we went together” (Det, noun, relative clause (restrictive

modifier) adv) (see annex 4 answer #1) or with an adjective between de determiner

and the noun (pronoun in this case), for example: “The huge one before crossing

the river” (Det, adj, pron, prepositional phrase) (see annex 4 answer #5). In these

two previous rules determiners are very often replaced by the article “a” for

example: “a bear, which was enormous!” (Art, noun, relative clause - restrictive

modifier) (see annex 4 answer #6).

Having described the way students use modifiers in real life; through some

interviews, I was described the way Paul Gerard Priolet and Leonardo Varela

Santamaría, as English teachers in the Universidad Nacional, teach modifiers.

Paul Priolet is an official translator, and teacher at Universidad Nacional Sede

Bogotá, he is a native speaker from New York, his nationality is French-US, he has

been teaching during seven years; Paul deems that the most important aspects

that an English language student should learn are grammar, syntax, vocabulary

“and more than topics, structuring language” (see annex 5 min 48) for them to feel

comfortable speaking English. If a student asks him what the difference is between

the sentences: “We rowed the boat vigorously”, “We vigorously rowed the boat”

and “Vigorously we rowed the boat”, first of all he would talk to him/her about the

placement of adverbs (because the meaning could change). When I asked him if

modifiers is an important topic for him to teach he said “of course” and referenced

our English 4 classes, where he spent a lot of time talking about misplaced

modifiers, dangling modifiers, and other related topics; to answer the 5th question

he mentioned the golden rule: “to understand what the modifier is modifying” (see

annex 5 min 2:06); finally, to structure the topic or to choose the aspects to be

16 See page 11, rules about the position of modifiers.

14

taught to his students, he takes into account aspects such as the program or

curriculum that should be followed, certain goals that each course would have, a

diagnosis of the students at the beginning of the semester; however, he thinks in a

course there should be a flexibility between students and teacher to agree those

topics and the structure of the course.

As he said, modifiers is also an important topic; in the practice he actually spent

class time in order to make us as students understand how important is to place

modifiers properly, that is why his ideas are supported at some extent in this

project.

Leonardo Varela is a teacher at Universidad Nacional Sede Bogotá, his nationality

is Colombian, he has been teaching during ten years; he considers as the most

important topics for the students to communicate properly in English as a second

language, lexis because students can develop better their competences in English

as second language, phonetics and phonology because of the intention of

language, language identity because students need to understand how important is

to build their own personality around the learning of the second language, self-

learning because it is key specially in this time when technology plays the vital role,

metacognitive review because teachers should encourage students to give

feedback to each other in second language learning. If a student asks him what is

the difference between the sentences: “We rowed the boat vigorously”,

“We vigorously rowed the boat” and “Vigorously we rowed the boat”, he would

ask the student to go beyond the sentence level; it should not be analyzed only

from a grammatical point of view but also from a pragmatical point of view (he

explains the difference of intention between the three sentences). For teacher

Leonardo, modifiers are definitely important due to the fact that they “carry the

intention of the speaker and the way the speakers want to be understood” (see

annex 6 min 4:45), he remarks that modifiers are not only a grammatical element

but that they go beyond in language. He would structure the topic according to

three areas: Phonethics and phonology (the intention when speaking), cultural

15

differences that influence meaning of modifiers, and lexical-syntactical level of

modifiers.

Similar to Paul Priolet, to structure the topic or to choose the aspects to be taught

to his students, Leonardo Varela explains that first, following the curriculum is

important and “marry the needs of students with the curriculum” (see annex 6 min

8:32) second, to use his professional experience in phonetics and phonology

(because he lived in a native speakers community for more than 6 years) and third

to negotiate talking to some other teachers, according to their experience on

different subjects, about what is important and what is not important for students to

learn; to him it is not only important the national standard but also the international

one.

As they explained, modifiers are important for improving communication goals; that

is why students have to learn modifiers from different points of view as teacher

Leonardo Varela proposed.

For the second part of this project, developed during the four first months of the

current year, the population of study was not so vast; however, there were some

new findings that should definitely be mentioned:

It was discovered that students from fourth level of English Oral Communication

with professor Luis Orlando Hernandez still struggle when using modifiers, in this

case they were provided, at first, with some modifiers so that, they could create a

dialogue using them. Besides some grammar errors, it was possible to notice that

students manage to use basic structures such as adverbs before adjectives in

most of the cases, they tend to use the words “before” and “after” only as a

preposition but almost never as an adverb; some of modifiers were “forced” in

some contexts and that made students change the structures; also the difficulty

they showed got stronger when they had to implement relative clauses i.e

restrictive or nonrestrictive modifiers in their speeches, in that case, intonation

patterns showed that students did not have sufficient security to produce some

utterances and that made difficult the identification of pauses that could posteriorly

16

show the oral distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers (see

annex 7 and videos 1, 2, 3 and 4).

Written evidence was gathered in a slightly different way; the same survey that was

used in the previous part of the study was applied once again but the new element

in this analysis is that students answered to questions 1 to 3 via internet and were

asked to write the text of question 4 in class so that, they did not have time to think

or prepare too much their ideas for the texts.

Only five students participated in the virtual process, in the first question 100% of

them answered correctly (see annex 8, slide 7), in the second question 60% of

them answered incorrectly (see annex 8 slides 1 to 8) and in the third question only

20% of them had the right answer (see annex 8 slide 9). It means that students are

not familiarized with modifiers and its rules at all. However some of the most

remarkable patterns found in the first part of the analysis were also evidenced in

this group of students: they sometimes tend to set off nonrestrictive modifiers

(relative clauses) with a dot (.) before, and a comma (,) after them in spite of

setting them off with commas only (see annex 4, part 2). In some cases it was

difficult to distinguish if the modifier was restrictive or nonrestrictive because of

punctuation marks usage.

It is also clear that students use plenty of adjectives, which are also modifiers, and

they place them, in most of the cases, before nouns, for example: “holy Sunday”

(Adj, noun) (see annex 4, part 2 answer # 1). Adverbs are placed mostly before an

adjective, for example “really impressive animal” (Adv, adj, noun) (see annex 4,

part 2, answer # 2).

Moreover, there were some new discoveries, for example that students of fourth

level of English Oral Communication had fewer problems using modifiers in their

oral performance (even though the term had not been explained to them before)

than in the written papers which had the explanation and some examples of the

term “modifier”. Structure in orally produced sentences is less perceived than in

17

written production i.e in oral production the emphasis is meaning, while in written

production the emphasis is form.

As they were given the choice to choose the modifiers they wanted to use in both

oral and written production, it was also possible to evidence a potential for

avoidance (Saville-Troike, 2006) in which students tended to use short sentences

and avoided using structures that they found difficult or unknown; as for example,

the modifier “Thoroughly” used only by two students and “which was enormous”

which was used by four out of eight students (see annex 4, part 2).

For this second part, two professors took part; the first professor is Luis Orlando

Hernandez, his nationality is Colombian and he is an English Teacher at

Universidad Nacional in Bogotá, he has been teaching languages for over twenty

five years. He considers self-knowledge, vocabulary, listening skills and

grammatical knowledge as the most important topics to be taught to English as

Second Language students; with regard to the position of the modifier in the

sentences “We rowed the boat vigorously”, “We vigorously rowed the boat” and

“Vigorously we rowed the boat”, he would first, focus on the position of the word if

it is in written text or if it is oral, he would focus primarily on the emphasis the

student has. He expresses that modifiers are very important in English Language

Learning because they “aggregate meaning” (see annex 9, min 1:52), he prefers

not to structure that much the topic “modifiers” in a lesson but to make students be

aware of the position of them so as to know the real intention of the speaker; the

way he structures the explanation of the topic depends on student’s interests, the

progress of their language acquisition and their particular needs which are

reflected in repetitive mistakes.

On the other hand, Professor Ricardo Romero, who is also Colombian, and the

same as Professor Luis Orlando Hernandez, an English Teacher at Universidad

Nacional in Bogotá with a vast experience in this field, he has been teaching

languages for over twenty seven years. He conceives that there are not only

important topics to be taught to the students but it is better to talk about

competences (see annex 10, min 01:18): linguistic competence which includes

18

lexical vocabulary, grammar and composition rules; pragmatic competences

referring in that case to the specific functions that are necessary to communicate;

sociolinguistic competence through which people learn the levels of formality and

appropriateness; and finally strategic competence, this lead people to “survive a

conversation” (see annex 10, min 02:10). He promotes all the competences

together to give a wider perspective of English.

He defines English as a “language that has a very strict organization of a sentence”

(see annex 10, min 3:11) however, he expresses that the only flexible aspect in

English grammar is modifiers; teacher would explain the difference between the

sentences “We rowed the boat vigorously”, “We vigorously rowed the boat” and

“Vigorously we rowed the boat”, making emphasis on the position of the modifier

so as to see whether or not the meaning is affected, he would also talk about the

use of the verb to be with modifiers so as not to misplace them. He defines

modifiers as “the flavor or the intensity of the action” that is why they are very

important –he explains- He has a deductive approach in classes so, he would

structure the explanation of the topic in three principal stages: first of all students

identify the topic in context, then he makes the topic evident and finally he does

what he calls “open work” (see annex 10, min 06:07) focusing on the age and the

needs students have; he also organizes his lessons to teach modifiers in PPP

(Presentation Practice Production) with possibilities to change this order.

There is one interesting point in which all teachers agree and it is that modifiers

carry meaning and the necessity in students to learn them would, with no doubt,

lead to contexts than can facilitate their learning process, but we as teachers have

to be careful because it depends on us to make this topic interesting and

meaningful to students, it is vital that the sessions are not only focused in the

programs that should be followed, but also in student’s needs, ages and interests.

CONCLUSION/FURTHER SUGGESTIONS

19

Based on this study, it is possible to say that most of the students who start an

English philology major at Universidad Nacional, have a lot of difficulties with the

placement of modifiers because of the disinformation, the poor thematic and lack of

interest in high school; however this phenomenon decreases as soon as students

advance their English courses, they practice and acquire more knowledge about

the language.

Students are guilty because they are not interested in the topics their teachers do

not teach, but teachers are also guilty because their experience as teachers

provides them with criteria and pedagogical tools yet, not all of them analyze their

students’ needs; it influences directly the student’s skills in a second language due

to the fact that they have neither resources nor enough confidence to communicate

in an oral or written way in English.

However, teachers improve oral and written skills in English Language

Students firstly by paying attention to their doubts and suggestions, by

analyzing carefully their oral production and written tasks, by asking and

understanding what their students need to learn and secondly by teaching

the topic modifiers from different points of view: not only grammar but also

phonetics, phonology and pragmatics and by providing students with

different resources to practice.

Then, a further suggestion should be made: teachers should always encourage

students to wonder what they do not know and let teachers know that. Especially

from third semester on, teachers should pay more attention to some topics such as

“relative clauses” and “punctuation” because they influence “misplaced modifiers”.

The correct placement of modifiers habit in a student could signify a tremendous

improvement or decreasing in his/her learning process.

Finally, teachers should always take into account that there is not only one aspect

to teach about this topic; as teacher Leonardo said: “modifiers carry the intention of

the speaker and the way the speakers want to be understood” (see annex 6 min

4:45) so, lexical, grammatical, pragmatical, cultural and phonetic aspects are

20

together as a whole and, if a student wants to express what he/she is thinking

about avoiding ambiguities; more interest, self-learning, effort and practice are

necessary.

Appendix:

Annex 1: Modifiers Owl slides-Power Point presentation (Cd Rom)

Annex 2: Survey School Partners Modifiers-Power Point presentation (Cd Rom)

Annex 3: Survey English as Second Language Students Misplaced Modifiers-Power Point presentation (Cd Rom)

Annex 4: Textual production analysis and Written Production Texts

Annex 5: Paul Priolet Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)

Annex 6: Leonardo Varela Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)

Annex 7: Previous Final Project’s Draft

Annex 8: Survey English as Second Language FOURTH SEMESTER-Power Point presentation (Cd Rom)

Annex 9: Luis Orlando Hernandez Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)

Annex 10: Ricardo Romero Interview-Audio (Cd Rom)

Annex 11: Attendance Grid

Annex 12: Letters and other attachments

References:

Aklam, R (2006) Total English Upper Intermediate Student’s Book. (pp. 125) NC:

Pearson Logman.

Brown, G; Yule, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Introduction: linguistic forms and

functions. Differences in form between written and spoken language. (pp. 17).

New York, USA: Cambridge University Press

21

CAJAMARCA FONSECA, Ingrid Jimena. English Grammar 1-2: Misplaced Modifiers-Annexes. [CD - ROM], Bogotá D.C: 2014

Casagrande, J. (2010) It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences

A writer’s guide to crafting killer sentences. A frequently overstand case the truth

about adverbs. New York, United States: Crown Publishing Group

Casagrande, J. (2010) It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences

A writer’s guide to crafting killer sentences. Antique Desk Suitable for Lady with

Thick Legs and Large Drawers Prepositional Phrases. New York, United States:

Crown Publishing Group

Casagrande, J. (2010) It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences

A writer’s guide to crafting killer sentences. Are your relatives essential? Relative

Clauses. New York, United States: Crown Publishing Group

Casagrande, J. (2010) It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences

A writer’s guide to crafting killer sentences. Dangler Danger Participles and other

Danglers. New York, United States: Crown Publishing Group

Haussamen, B, Benjamin, A, Kolln, M, Wheeler, R, members of NCTE's Assembly

for the Teaching of English Grammar. (2003) Grammar Alive! A Guide for

Teachers. (pp. 86, 87, 102, 105). United States: National Council of Teachers of

English.

Purdue Owl Engagement. NY 1.2: Modifiers. Recovered https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/36/

Purdue University, NY Sentence Clarity A workshop brought to you by the Purdue

University Writing Lab. (slides 4 - 14). Recovered

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/36/

Saville- Troike (2006) Introducing Second Language Acquisition. The Foundations of Second Language Acquisition, p.p 40. United States: Cambridge University

22