Extension Exercises

Index | Chapter 8 - Verbs | Possible Answers

Comparing dictionaries

Use the following list of verbs or, if you prefer, write a list of your own.

Choose two or more dictionaries, preferably ones intended for learners. Look up these words and concentrate on the grammatical information that is provided.

1. How much information is given?
2. How clearly is this expressed? (For example, is a code used which refers the user to some other part of the book, or is the information included in or beside the entry?)
3. Which dictionary would you recommend to students who want information about the grammar of individual verbs?

Exploring English

Choose short extracts from different kinds of text, for example, from a novel, a newspaper article, an advertisement, an interview. Ask yourself the questions that occur on page 103 (Language in context) about these texts. To what extent can you generalise about how often we use different kinds of verb (for example, main v auxiliary; event v state; no object v object)?

Exploring how learners use language

1. Ask a class of learners at upper-intermediate or advanced level to study the language in a text that they have already read for general comprehension. Ask them to identify:
   • the verbs
   • the main verbs
   • the modal auxiliary verbs
   • other auxiliary verbs
   • state and event verbs
   • object and no-object verbs
2. How accurately are they able to do this?
3. Ask them whether they are conscious of these categories when they read or listen or express themselves in English. Do they think a conscious knowledge of these factors is:
   • useful?
   • not useful?
   • a hindrance?