ESL GRAMMAR SEQUENCE  
   SUGGESTED SEQUENCE FOR INTRODUCING THE GRAMMAR OF E NGLISH:
I. THE VERB "TO BE"
    (Topics for  visible, countable objects in the room. Students can (1) identify objects,
    (2) describe the colour and size.)
        A . Statements
              1. Identification: This is a book.
              2. Description: The book is red.
              3. Location: The book is on the table.
 
        B. Yes-No Questions
             1. Invert subject and verb: Is this a book?
             2. "It" as subject pronoun: Yes, it is.
 
       C. Negatives
            1.  "Not"- This is not a book
            2. Contractions: This isn't a book.
       D.   Wh- questions
            1. What's this? (Noun phrase answer)
            2. What colour is this? (Adjective answer)
            3. Where's the NOUN? (Locative answer)
      E. Plurals
           1. This/These and That/Those
           2. Pronunciation of plurals
               a) Voiceless final = voiceless /s/
               b) Voiced final      voiced /z/
               c) Syllabic /ez/ required of nouns ending with /s/, /z/, /s/, /z/, /ts/, /dz/:churches,classes.
 
       F. Other pronoun subjects: he, she, you, etc. (Topics: professions, work, jobs.)
 
      G. Possessive + noun: John's book
  
      H. Telling time & weather  Include variations in expressing time before and after the hour., 
           1.  ten to six vs. ten before six; five past four vs. five after four.   
           2. International time form
 
       I.   Non-count nouns: homework, information, milk, ink.
           1. Non-count nouns often classify a group of count nouns furniture/chair, sofa  
               equipment/computer, microscope,
           2. Topics: food, things found in different rooms in a house.
 
         J. Present continuous: be + -ing
            1.  Introduce verbs that can be either intransitive or transitive: study, read, bum.
             2.  Introduce statement, questions and negative forms
        K.   Planning future: present + be + going to: I am going to go to the beach tomorrow.
 
 II. HABITUAL (OR RECURRING) PRESENT: She drinks tea.
        A. Note third person singular "-s".
        B. Review voicing (I. E).
        C. Teach question and negative forms.
 
III. SIMPLE PAST
         A . Rules for pronunciation: /t/d/ed/
         B. Tense carried by "did" in questions and negative:
             1. He ran home.
             2. He did not run home.
             3. Did he run home?
 
IV. IRREGULAR VERBS
      A. Teach them in sets of similar formations:
           1. All three principal parts the same: quit quit quit
           2. Last two parts the same: have had had
           3.  All three parts different: go went gone
V. BEGIN TEACHING MODAL'S (and never stop!!     can, could, shall, should, may, might, ought.
        
VI. PASSIVE VOICE: be + past participle (third principal part)  The ball was hit by the boy
         A. Introduce, passive in all tenses.
         B.   Introduce statements, questions and negatives.
 
VII.   PERFECT TENSES
         A. Present perfect: I have seen that movie.
         B. Present perfect progressive: I have been studying English.
         C. Past perfect: I had heard of him before.
         D. Future perfect: I will have been here 2 years in May.
 
VIII. CLAUSES
         A.  Independent clauses
             1.  Simple sentences: She went to work.
             2. Compound sentence (two independent clauses joined by a coordinating
                 conjunction):  She went to work, and he went to the market.
          B.  Dependent clauses
                1. Complex sentences: independent+ dependent
                     a.  Relative clauses
                          i)   Who, whose, whom, which, that
                         ii)   Restrictive vs. non-restrictive
                     b.  Adverbial clauses
                          i) Time
                         ii) Place
                        iii) Reason
                        iv) Manner
                2. Compound-complex sentences
                3. Conditional clauses