Relatively simple, right?
Advanced Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To practice using defining defining and non-defining relative clauses.
Subsidiary Aims
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To practice writing sentences using defining and non-defining relative clauses.
Procedure (152-196 minutes)
Write these two sentences on the board. "The students who thin Glenn is handsome can come to his New Year's Eve party." "The students, who think Glenn is handsome, can come to his New Year's Eve party." What is the difference? Discuss with partner. Check. Tell students will we look more closely at this later.
Give students matching vocab handout. Review briefly as a class.
Give students Ex. 2 P. 76 as the test in "Test-teacher-test."
Elicit answers to test as a class as follows: If students do it in a snap, go straight to soliciting answers, have sts explain the answers. then complete box of "who, what, that" as a refresher. If on the other hand they struggle, concentrate first on the pronouns themselves. For example: "What are young servants? Are the things or people? People. Which pronoun is used for people? Who." Then draw box as above, and help them choose from among the possible answers. Now, in both scenarios, move on to defining and non-defining relative clauses. Go back to your original example and walk through meaning and form. Follow up with examples of defining and non-defining from test exercise.
Intonation: rising intonation in the middle of a sentence tells us there is more to come. It acts like a verbal comma. Ex. In Korea (up), where the day has only been a holiday since 1975 (up), there are parades (up), special excursions (up) and visits to movies and and museums (down). The down note completes the sentence. Reflecting their importance to the sentence, defining relative clauses are not separated out via changes in intonation. Ex. One day that has special meaning in Mexico is the day of the dead." NB: Non-defining relative clauses tend to be written more often than spoken, although you may hear them on news broadcasts, tests, etc.
Use examples from pronunciation stage to illustrate how non-defining relative pronoun clauses are set off with commas while defining relative pronoun clauses are not.
Give students ex. 2, P. 77 to complete individually. Check in pairs. Do just a few in the check as a class. Procedure for check: Elicit subject; Elicit the most important information about the subject; elicit the added information. GD through how to join them. For ex., is the subject a person or thing? Which pronoun do we use? Where does the comma go?
Divide up into pairs or groups, depending in how many souls we have. Give students an opener for a sentence such as "Glenn is a teacher . . . " instruct them to add one more piece of information using a relative pronoun. They can write whatever they like. Then turn that clause into a non-defining clause and ask them to complete the sentence. Share answers, and hilarity ensues.