Sentences are just the source of expressing our emotions. Now what exactly a sentence is, it is a group of words put in an order to give a meaningful result. For example if I say Ram working office an in. Does it make a sense? No, now if I say Ram is working in an office. That makes a sense.
There may be multiple ways to write a sentence while maintaining the rules of grammar, but younger students require a set structure for the simple sentences they learn. These youngsters certainly don’t need to learn how to express the same idea in active and passive voice until they’re older.
They develop fluency and variety in their own writing style. Students can explore sentence variety, length, parallelism, and other syntactic devices by comparing their sentences with sentences from other writers. They also discover the decisions writers make in revising for style and effect.
It’s important that young students recognize word order and sentence structure. As students get older and progress with English, it becomes more difficult to correct syntax problems.
When the structure is reinforced at a younger age, students will develop a natural inclination to use correct syntax.
Now let’s talk about the improvisation of the learning skills.
Writing a sentence with words that are out of order forces students to think about each word in a sentence rather than only memorizing an entire phrase without understanding the importance of structure. After repeating each word in a sentence individually, students should recognize where each belongs. Therefore, when presented with a jumbled sentence, students will know that something is wrong and attempt to correct it by putting the words in the correct order.
So as a teacher we can start at level one by giving jumbled word quizzes followed by simple and then complex sentences. This is at times a positive way to make the students study material interesting. See every day we speak at least 100,000 words and sentences simultaneously. So these quizzes will enhance the knowledge of the students and they’ll be more confident and comfortable to converse in English.
These activities can be used as a warm-up exercise to review previous lessons, or as an end-of-class review. It can also be used as a transitional exercise, depending on the length of the class. These syntax activities will add variety to class while reinforcing sentence structure that will benefit students as they progress.
When presented as a revising strategy, sentence-combining activities help students identify short, choppy sentences in their own writing, leading them to combine their ideas in more fluid and sophisticated ways. As students generate more complex sentences from shorter ones, they discover how the arrangement of phrases and clauses, for example, affects meaning and its impact on their readers.
The value of sentence combining is most evident as students recognize the effect of sentence variety (beginnings, lengths, complexities) in their own writing.
On the whole we can say sentence making will make us more close to the speaking skills like that of English natives or speakers.
- Attributed by Vandana Kakaria