Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge

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Adult Literacy>Reading>Sentence Focus>Grammar & Punctuation   
Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge (e.g. of different sentence forms, types of word, verb tense, word order), along with own knowledge and experience, to predict meaning, try out plausible meanings, and to read and check for sense.

  • Understand that knowledge of sentence patterns and word order can help to predict unknown words and get meaning from text 
  • Understand that some sentence structures and types of word will occur more often in some types of text than others 
  • Understand that grammatical and semantic clues can be used alongside whole-text and word-level clues, to make sense of individual words and complete sentences 
  • Understand the terms tense, negative, adverb, pronoun, phrase.

Related Adult ESOL curriculum element: ESOL Rs/L1.1a Use implicit & explicit grammatical knowledge to predict meaning & check for sense

Example of application and level:

Read with understanding a variety of straightforward continuous texts encountered in their own life, e.g. a letter from their child's school, an insurance policy renewal.

Sample activities

  • Highlight imperatives, adverbs and adverbial phrases in an instructional text and discuss their effect, e.g. lift carefully; place the side panel at right angles to the front; lightly whisk for five minutes.
  • Investigate the use of negative verbs, e.g. in warning notices, small print conditions on insurance policies, and discuss their purpose.
  • Highlight verbs and identify tense in a narrative and a descriptive text. Compare findings with their teacher/other learners.
  • Annotate a persuasive text to indicate how the order of points is developed, by highlighting linking words and phrases, e.g. therefore, however, if, unless, because, finally, whatever, as a result of.
  • Compare sentence length and structures in a story written for a very young child with one for an older child. Discuss their findings and draw some conclusions.
  • When reading different types of text underline unknown/difficult words and phrases and discuss with partner how to use surrounding sentence, context, text- and word-level clues to interpret these, using a dictionary to check meanings where necessary, e.g.: [from an invitation to an Open Afternoon at a local school]
  • At 2.30pm the Mayor, Councillor Mrs Jane Brown, will be at the school to see the sculpture that has been made this term by our Artist in Residence, Mr Wayne Stockwell, working with the children.
  • We would like you to walk round the school to see the splendidly refurbished Literacy and Numeracy areas, which some of our parents have helped decorate, and look at displays of children’s work.

Source: Department for Education and Skills (2001) Adult Literacy core curriculum. London DfES.  

Brief descriptions of the main parts of a sentence to help understand the vocabulary of grammar.

Editor’s note
A very useful handout for students at several levels.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
English
Ws/L2.3
Ws/L1.2
Ws/E3.3
Ws/E3.2
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning

Predicting words from context in a text about youth clubs. It then opens up discussion for how they might help reduce youth crime.

Editor’s note: cloze exercise with opportunities for writing / commenting. With answer sheet.

Level
Level 1
Entry Level 3
English
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning

Cards to help students recognise what nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
They can then play the bingo game or use highlighter pens to identify the different parts of speech in a text.

Level
Entry Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
English
Rs/L2.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.1 Recognise & understand the organisational features & typical language of instructional texts

A worksheet that lists all of the most common word types and has space for the learners to enter their own description and their own examples.

To be completed over a number of weeks as each word type is covered and understood. The completed sheets can then be used as a revision tool / personal glossary.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
Entry Level 2
English
Rs/L2.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning

A clever grammar/vocabulary/spelling task that combines a cloze exercise with homophone practice. The text is about the Victorian era and is particularly suitable for students with an interest in history.

Level
Level 1
Entry Level 3
English
AL Ww/L1.1 Spell & use spelling strategies
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning
Homophones, homographs & confusables
Context
History, culture, museums, libraries

A simple exercise where students separate the words from the Wordle into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Level
Level 1
Entry Level 3
English
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.1 Recognise & understand the organisational features & typical language of instructional texts
General literacy / English

Nice selection of winter activities written for an E3-L2 Functional Skills group (best for E3-L1).
The main activities are a reading comprehension (about the history of poinsettias and how they came to be popular at Christmas time) and a cloze exercise based on an old Mexican religious legend. There are also some maths questions.

Level
Entry Level 3
Level 1
English
Rt/L1.3
AL Rt/L1.1 Understand continuous texts
Rt/E3.4
AL Rt/E3.1 Understand longer texts
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning
Context
History, culture, museums, libraries
Gardening & Horticulture

Detailed instructions on how to play this very funny and effective game. The literacy curriculum introduces adverbs at Level 1 but this game will be enjoyed at al levels and can be used to demonstrate verbs only at lower levels.

Level
Level 1
English
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge

This activity is in two parts.Firstly, learners should use the cards to match the words to their meanings. Next they should use the fill in worksheet to give an example for each one. Full instructions included.In addition to parts of speech it also includes synonym and homophone terms.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
Entry Level 2
English
Rw/L1.3
Rw/L1.2
Rs/L2.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning
Rs/E2.2 Use sentence structure to decipher and predict meaning

A card based activity to assess students’ knowledge of ‘parts of speech’. Very useful as a prompt for discussion and as a launching point for work on sentence structure.

Level
Entry Level 3
Level 1
English
Adult Literacy Rs/E3.2 Use implicit & explicit knowledge of word types/order to help with decoding/predicting meaning
Adult Literacy Rs/L1.1 Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge