Key Words Key to Language Learning

Posted by Marc Roberts May 7, 2007

I have been teaching advanced ESL writing classes for nearly a decade, and the one "trick" I share with my students which always (and I mean "always") guarantees them better grades on writing assignments is this: When you have finished writing your paper and taken it through all of the useful peer review and dialectical revision processes that make your ideas appear clear and organized to a reader, print out a copy of your paper and circle all of your verbs.

Invariable, more than 80% of the verbs used will be of an inactive nature: be, have, feel, appear, seem, etc; and while these verbs are useful and seve their own very practical purposes, by recommending to my students that they replace the majority of these verbs with "active" verbs that express more closely the meaning they intended, I have seen the marks they receive on written academic assignments increase considerably.

Of course, some professors will point out all flaws in ESL students' grammatical structure, including errors in article and preposition usage, but the change brought about by the replacement of forms of the verb "be" with other verbs that seem to bring a sentence alive can make a big difference in the perception of a student's overall writing ability.

As ESL instructors, I believe that we have a responsibility to make it clear to our students that the continuous strengthening of their word "power" will prove to be a significant part of their success in learning the English language.