Teaching the Parts of Speech

1: Lesson Plan (Present Tense “Sort”)
The name of the lesson: Simple Present vs. Present Continuous
The L1 language group and age: Pre-Intermediate, age 11
The materials needed: Board, chalk, worksheets, paper, pens or pencils
A description of the lesson warm-up: Ask students, “What do you do in the day?”—the Engaging phase (2 minutes). This opens the discussion to what routine activities students perform. These are listed on the board (eat, dress, sleep, etc).
A description of the presentation of the material to the class: Give examples of sentences using both simple present and present continuous and show how the verb conversion alters the sentences on the board. Give the students an opportunity to create their own examples using routine activities that they do throughout the day. Go over their examples in class, sharing them and allowing them to write them out on the board. Identify the parts of speech to build on prior learning and incorporate the present lesson.
Sorting out the forms: Underlining the verbs and marking them on the board as simple present or present continuous and then listing them under their respective categories.
Open-Ended Practice: Provide a worksheet with sentences that have both simple present and present continuous. Have students underline simple present and circle present continuous. On back of worksheet have students give five example sentences of their own of both tenses.
As Folse (2009) notes, sorting out and consolidating new grammar information is essential for students to learn new grammar rules. That is why it is so helpful that they see the sorting out process on the board. Then they can go and, having learned by example, do the assignment given them on their own. They will be able to identify the different tenses, sort out simple present and present continuous and then create their own sentences and write them on the back of the worksheet for reinforcement. Identifying other parts of speech in class also helps to consolidate this new information with prior knowledge.
2: Identifying an Action Research Area of Focus
Area of focus: This action research project will explore whether sentence diagramming instruction is helpful for teaching ELLs how to identify verb tenses.
Variables: Independent variables will be the proficiency level of the students (beginner) and the subject matter (identifying various verb tenses). The dependent variable is the mode of instruction (sentence diagramming method).
Research questions: Do students master how to identify verb tense form more quickly when the teacher uses sentence diagramming instruction? Does the identification of verb tense forms carry over into appropriate usage of verb tense forms in written and oral communication?
Possible sources:
Bunn, J. (2017). The sentence. Balancing the Common Core Curriculum in Middle
School Education. New York, NY: Springer International Publishing.
Florey, K. (2006). Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of
Diagramming Sentences. New York, NY: Harvest Books.
Garderen, D., Scheuermann, A. (2015). Diagramming word problems. Intervention in
School and Clinic, 50(5), 282-290.
Landecker, H.  (2009).  Diagram this headline in one minute, if you can.  Chronicle of 
Higher Education, 55(36), 10-12.
Iwasaki, S. (2013). An English grammar textbook for my teaching career. Studies in
Applied Linguistics, 81, 81-84.
Mrthoth. (2007). Sentence Diagramming 1: Verbs, Subjects, and Adverbs. English
Grammar Lesson [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeHhFuxw_5w
Project procedure: For this project, one teacher could use sentence diagramming as a means of identifying various verb tense forms with one group of beginner ESL students, and another teacher could use no sentence diagramming in the instruction.
Data collection: Students from each class could be tested on their ability to identify correctly the verb tense forms as well as their ability to use verb tense correctly in written and oral communication.
Connection with goals, history, etc: I came to appreciate the concept of diagramming as a means of better understanding the parts of speech when I was studying grammar in college. First off, grammar was never really taught to us much in high school, so it was a relief just to find a professor offering this course for us in college. Second, I was interested in diagramming because it was always my mother’s favorite subject in secondary school when she was a girl—so I wanted to learn it. I found it to be very helpful in understanding the parts of speech. Even with verb tenses, seeing the parts of speech diagrammed on paper or on the board made it easier to think about what words formed the verb or verb phrase. As Florey (2006) points out, diagramming is a lost art that can really be implemented in today’s classrooms to help students better understand sentence structure and how words fit together. Landecker (2009) has shown that students can get really excited about diagramming, and Mrthoth (2007) has shown that sentence diagramming can be a very helpful tool in language learning. I would like to strengthen students’ ability to identify all the parts of speech and especially how to identify verb forms. This study would help to determine if, in fact, diagramming can make a difference in that outcome using action research as Mills (2014) recommends.

References
Bunn, J. (2017). The sentence. Balancing the Common Core Curriculum in Middle
School Education. New York, NY: Springer International Publishing.
Florey, K. (2006). Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of
Diagramming Sentences. New York, NY: Harvest Books.
Garderen, D., Scheuermann, A. (2015). Diagramming word problems. Intervention in
School and Clinic, 50(5), 282-290.
Iwasaki, S. (2013). An English grammar textbook for my teaching career. Studies in
Applied Linguistics, 81, 81-84.
Landecker, H.  (2009).  Diagram this headline in one minute, if you can.  Chronicle of 
Higher Education, 55(36), 10-12.
Mills, G.E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (5th ed.). Boston,
MA: Pearson.
Mrthoth. (2007). Sentence Diagramming 1: Verbs, Subjects, and Adverbs. English
Grammar Lesson [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeHhFuxw_5w