StructuralLink:FunctionWordsUnit4Thescenarioofinstructionprovidedasfollowsisdesignedjustforreference.Theteacherissuggestedtocombineillustratingthefocusedpointswithdoingthegivenexercisesintheunitorseparateillustratingthepointsfromdoingtheseexercises.Unit4Classroomteachingiscompletelypresupposedonpre-readingthetextoutsideclassroom.I.Lead-inDoyouknowhowwordsinEnglishareusedasvariouslinksthroughwriting?First,wordsinEnglisharenotusedrandomlywithoutlinkingwithinasentenceorbetweensentences,forexample,“Shesatnearthewindow,lookingoutattheyardandwonderingif

shecouldplantthegardeninthespring.Itwouldbehardtocareforit

by

herself”.Thewordsinboldfacelinkotherwords,phrasesorclausesinthesentencesandbetweenthetwosentences.Second,thewords“a,the,she,themselves,everything,but,under,must,etc.”,arefunctionwordsingeneral,whichserveasstructurallinkinEnglishwriting.Functionwordsareessentialtoacquireinthesensethatservetoexpressgrammaticalorstructuralrelationshipswithotherwords.Thoughfunctionwordsaretrivialinnumber,theyaccountforhalfofthewordsweuseindailyspeech.Whatdoyouknowaboutfunctionwords?Functionwordsarewordsthathavelittlelexicalmeaningorsemanticcontentoftheirown,butinsteadplayanimportantroleinlinkingelementswithinasentenceorbetweensentencesinwriting.Givesomeexamplesoffunctionwordsfromthetext.Lookatsomeofthefunctionwordstakenfromthetext(para.5):and,it,so,they,itI.Lead-inIdentifywhichwordsareusedtoconnectwords,phrases,orclausesinthesentence,andwhichareusedtoconnectthesentencesinthetext:Takeitandsoasexamples:it:asaformalsubject,linkingtheinfinitiveclause(phrase)whichistherealsubjectwithinthesentence

so:asasubordinatingconjunction,linkingthetwosentencesbeforeandafteritinthetextInthisunitorinthisbook,wewilllearnhowtousefunctionwordsasstructurallinkaccuratelyand

appropriatelyinwriting.

I.Lead-inActivatingknowledgeoffunctionwordsmeansmakingfunctionwordsknowledge

lyinginthemindsofstudentsstartworking.II.ActivatingKnowledgeTherearemanykindsoffunctionwordsinEnglish.Theyaremainlycategorizedintosixtypes,namely,determiners,propositionalpronouns,indefinitepronouns,conjunctions,prepositions,andauxiliaryverbs.Determiners:a,an,the,any,each,both,few,many,every,my,this,that,etc.Personalpronouns:I,we,you,he,they,me,myself,himself,themselves,etc.Indefinitepronouns:anybody,anything,everybody,everyone,everything,etc.Conjunctions:and,but,after,before,although,as,because,since,so,sothat,etc.Prepositions:

in,at,on,about,above,after,behind,between,etc.Auxiliaryverbs:be,do,have(primaryverbs);will,shall,can,may,must,should,etc.(modalverbs)Applyingknowledgemeansdoingyourwritingpracticebasedontheknowledgeyouhaveacquired.TaskOne

Functionwordsmakesentencescoherenti.e.bywayofreferenceinthetext.Thefollowingtwosentencesaretakenfromthetext.Readthemcarefullyandworkoutwhattheboldfacedpartsrefertointhetext,andwhattypestheybelongto.(1)Beforelong,shedecidedthebeeswerenotgoingtobotheranyone,soshewentaboutherbusinessanddidn’tgivethemanyotherthought.Thethirdpersonalpronouns

she1andshe2refertograndma;

herreferstograndma’s;

themreferstothebees.Theyareusedasfunctionwords.

III.ApplyingKnowledge(2)Shouldshehiresomeonetogetridofthebees?Thatwouldcostmorethanshecouldafford.Shedecidedtowaitandthinkitover.Inthesesentences,

she1,she2andshe3refertograndma;

thatanditrefertothephrase“hiresomeonetogetridofthebees”.She

isapersonalpronounas

afunctionword.That

isademonstrativepronounwhichbelongstothegroupofdeterminersasfunctionwords.It

isanonpersonalpronoun

as

afunctionword.

III.ApplyingKnowledgeTaskTwoFunctionwordsarealsoknownasstructurewordsorgrammaticalwords.Theclassoffunctionwordsisfixed.Functionwordsservelinkingfunctionsandtheyareamarkerofwritingstyle.Gooduseoffunctionwordsmakesyourwritingachieveclarity,andevenexpressiveness.III.ApplyingKnowledgeTaskTwoIII.ApplyingKnowledgeUnderstandingthemeaninginspecificcontextisessentialforusingproperfunctionwords.Learnersshouldfamiliarizethemselveswiththeknowledgeoffunctionwordsandusethemaccurately.

Wrong:Undoubtedly,whenweobservethelanguagebehaviorofthatweregardasprimitivecultures,wefinditsurprisinglycomplicated.Right:Undoubtedly,whenweobservethelanguagebehaviorofwhatweregardasprimitivecultures,wefinditsurprisinglycomplicated.TaskTwoIII.ApplyingKnowledgeReadthefollowingparagraphcarefully.Firstidentifythemisuseoffunctionwordsandsecond,correctthemistakes.ItwasbelievedthataEskimomusthaveatthetipofhistongueavocabularyofmorethan10,000wordssothattogetalongreasonablywell,muchlargerthantheactivevocabularyofanaveragebusinessmanwhospeaksEnglish.However,theseEskimowordsarefarmorehighlyinflectedthantheseofanyofthewell-knownEuropeanlanguages,forasinglenounmustbespokenorwritteninsomehundreddifferentforms,eachhavingaprecisemeaningdifferentfromthatofanyother.Theformsoftheverbsareevenmorenumerous.TheEskimolanguageis,however,oneofthemostdifficultintheworldtolearn.TaskTwoIII.ApplyingKnowledgeMisuse:a,that,however,these,must,howeverCorrection:an,as,moreover,those,can,thereforeTaskThreeIII.ApplyingKnowledgeDifferenttypesoffunctionwordsservetolinkdifferentpartsofthesentenceortext.Asinthefollowingexample,determiners,suchas,“a,our,andmy”,serveasstructurallinkwhichmakethesentencecoherent.OnedayIdecidedtoplantagardeninourbackyard,andmyhusbandbegantopaintourweatheredfence.TaskThreeIII.ApplyingKnowledgeLookatthefollowingpairsofsentences.Differenttypesofconjunctionsarerequiredtoconnecttheminacoherentway.Combinethesentencesbyusingappropriateconjunctions.(1)Iwantedtophoneyou.Ididn’thaveyournumber.Iwantedtophoneyou,butIdidn’thaveyournumber.(2)Mary’smumwasill.Marycalledthedoctorforhermum.Mumwasill,soMarycalledthedoctorforhermum.IV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingWritingthroughexperiencingandreadingmeansinvolvingstudentsinwritingpracticebasedontheirpersonalexperienceandwhattheyhavelearnedfromthetext.IV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingRewritinginvolvesusingtheappropriatefunctionwordstoachievebettercoherenceinalargerpieceofwriting.Forexample,thispieceofwritingisnotcoherentinitsorganization.Improvethedraftbyrewritingit.Paycloseattentiontothefunctionwordsthatlinkwithinsentencesandbetweensentences.Originaltext:Thereisonefundamentalelementcomputershavenotyetacquiredtodojobofahumanbrain.Theyarestillnotcreativehavinglearningcapacity,andtheycannot,asyet,haveunderstandingandself-awareness.Rewritten:Thereisonefundamentalelementthatcomputershavenotyetacquiredtodothejobofahumanbrain.Theyarestillnotcreativeinhavinglearningcapacity,andtheycannot,asyet,haveunderstandingandself-awareness.IV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingOriginaltext:Thebackbonetocomputerisitsprogram;itisforreasonthatmanypeoplesuchasRogerPenrose,Oxfordphysicsprofessor,thinkcomputerscannevertakeplaceofman.Acomputercanneverbreakprogrammingitwillalwaysfollowit.Thatis,itmayneveracquirelearningpowerinthetruesensecreativityorawareness.Rewritten:Thebackbonetothecomputerisitsprogram;itisforthisreasonthatmanypeoplesuchasRogerPenrose,Oxfordphysicsprofessor,thinkthatcomputerscannevertaketheplaceofman.Acomputercanneverbreakprogramminganditwillalwaysfollowit.Thatis,itmayneveracquirelearningpowerinthetruesenseofcreativityorawareness.IV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingWritingThroughExperiencingandReadingGuidedwritinginvolvesstudentsinwritingashortpassagebasedonTextA.StudentsneedtoreadTextAmorecarefully