Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca
Centro de Idiomas, DIVISION DE ESTUDIOS DE POSGRADO
ENGLISH LANGUAGE READING PROGRAM: INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
Module 1: Grammar
Postgraduate Intermediate Reading program
Module 1:Grammar
The Grammar module is module 1, and the compulsory module, for the Postgraduate Intermediate Reading program. All students must complete this course, and pass the exams for this module, before they can complete the other readings for the Reading program.
Information about the teacher
My name is Maria Pinto. I am in Office 12 in the new Centro de Idiomas building.
Email:
Web page:
Course information
To successfully complete the Postgraduate Intermediate level Reading program, students must:
- Complete the activities and pass the exam for module 1 (this module). The pass grade is 6.0.
- Complete the readings and pass the exam forthree (3) other modules. The pass grade for each module is 6.0. [Note: Students can choose to complete the readings and present exams for more than four modules, if they so choose.]
Students can choose to complete all the modules in one semester, or to complete the modules over several semesters. When they have completed the packet of readings for each module, they must contact the course coordinator, Maria Pinto, to arrange to present the exam for that module.
There are no face-to-face classes for this course. Students are expected to download the packet of readings from Maria’s website, and work through them. Please visit Maria in her office, or send her an email if you have any questions or need help with the readings.
Please make sure Maria has an up-to-date, working email address for you, so that she can contact you when necessary!
Exam information
You need a promedio of 6.0 to successfully complete the Intermediate level course. To successfully complete the course, you must pass Module 1 (Grammar), and three (3) other modules. You must get a promedio of 6 (or more) out of 10 in each module to pass the course.
Exam for the Grammar module
The exam for the grammar module has three sections. Section 1 requires you to identify the verb tense. In Section 2, you will be asked to convert sentences from one tense or form to another. In Section 3, you will be asked to answer comprehension questions on a reading.
You will have one hour to complete the exam.
Exams for the other modules
Exams for the other modules consist of two readings, and three activities for each reading. The first reading uses informal language, while the second uses technical or formal English. There is one vocabulary and two comprehension activities for each reading.
When should I do the exam for this module?
Do the exam when you think you are ready to do it. You will have one hour to complete the exam.
When you have worked through the packet of readings, and feel that you are ready to do the exam, send Maria an email, stating which day, and at what time, you would like to do the exam. (You can write in English or Spanish.) Come to Maria’s office at the Centro de Idiomas on the appointed day, at the appointed time.
Table of Contents
Information about the teacher
Course information
Exam information
Part 1: Definitions
Day 1: Definition of terms and sentence word order
Definition of terms
Word order in sentences
Day 1 practice activities
Activity 1: Put the parts of these sentences into the correct columns.
Activity 2: Join the words in the examples together to make five sentences.
Day 2: Explanation of terms
Tenses
Forms
Verb forms
Day 2 practice activity
Activity 3: Tell me about yourself.
Part 2: Revision of Basic level grammar
Day 3: Revision of the past and present tenses
Rules of usage of past and present tenses
Day 3 practice activity
Activity 4: Which tense would you use?
Day 4: The grammar of the past and present tenses
Day 4 practice activity
Activity 5: What’s the correct verb tense and form? Write the answer.
Day 5: Past and present tenses in use
Example, using the verb to eat, of the past and present tenses
Day 5 practice activities
Activity 6: Change the sentence to the form and tense indicated.
Activity 7: Write the correct tense for each sentence.
Day 6: The future
Revision of the future with ‘will’, and with ‘(be) going to’
Day 6 practice activity
Activity 8: Complete the conversation using the future with ‘will’ OR with ‘(be) going to’.
Part 3: Intermediate level grammar
Day 7: The zero and first conditionals
The first conditional
The zero conditional
Day 7 practice activities
Activity 9: Put the words in order to make first conditional sentences.
Activity 10: Match the first clause with the second clause.
Day 8: The second and third conditionals
The second conditional: The unreal conditional
The third conditional: The impossible conditional
Day 8 practice activities
Activity 11: Write a second conditional sentence to comment on the following situations.
Activity 12: Complete the sentences with your own ideas.
Day 9: Reported speech
Tense changes in reported speech
Day 9 practice activity
Activity 13: Circle the correct option in the reported speech column.
Day 10: Other changes in reported speech
Word order changes in reported speech questions
Person, place, and time changes in reported speech
Day 10 practice activity
Activity 14: Complete the sentences using reported speech.
Day 11: The passive voice
Summary of verb tenses
Day 11 practice activities
Activity 15: Complete these passive voice sentences with the correct form of the verb ‘be’.
Activity 16: Convert the sentence. Write the missing form.
Part 4: Consolidation and exam preparation
The Grammar module exam
Section 1: Identifying verb tenses
Section 2: Sentence conversions
Section 3: Comprehension
Day 12: Grammar module exam practice
Reading 1: Stella McCartney (part 1)
Day 13: Grammar module exam practice
Reading 2: Stella McCartney (part 2)
Day 14: Grammar module exam practice
Reading 3: UNICEF (Part 1)
Day 15: Grammar module exam practice
Reading 4: UNICEF (Part 2)
Answers
Part 1: Definitions
Day 1: Definition of terms and sentence word order
Definition of terms
Terms / Definition / ExamplesAdjectives / Words that modify nouns / Pretty, big, old, angry, smelly, interesting, good
Adverbs / Words that modify verbs, or other adverbs / Interestingly, quickly, intelligently, well, badly, slowly
Conjunctions / Words that join two words, phrases, or clauses / And, but, because, so, either, or
Determiners / Words that show that the next word is a noun / A, an, the, this, that, my, your, his, her, one, many, a lot of, some
Prepositions / Words that come before a noun, and express a relationship between that noun and another word or part of the sentence / On, in, under, behind, before, in front of, beside, across from, next to, around
Pronouns / Words that replace nouns / I, he she, him, her, their, you, it, they, we, us.
Nouns / Words that name people, places, things or ideas / Susana, Robert, book, train, knife, bread, cheese
Verbs / Words that express an action or state / eat, play, read, hold, have, take, make, think, ask, feel, like
Word order in sentences
The most basic sentence structure in the English language is Subject + Verb. Sentences like I run. Mary drives. Kelly is reading. are complete sentences in the English language.
A more complex sentence, adds an Object or a Complement (something that answers the question “what” or gives more information). So we have sentences such as:
I run marathons.
Mary drives her car.
Kelly is reading a book.
[Note: We add an article before a singular noun, and an ‘s’ to form a plural noun. We use a possessive adjective (my, his, her, its, our, your, their) before a noun to show that this object belongs to that person or group.]
Sentences can be made longer and even more complex by adding more sections (the technical terms are phrases and clauses), each giving more information. These extra sections are usually joined on using prepositions and conjunctions.
I run marathons twice a yearfor fun.
Mary drives her car to workat 7 o’clockevery morning.
Kelly is reading her book and eating an apple.
We can also add more information to sentences by using adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives describe a noun (they define the type of noun), and adverbs define how something was done. The table below shows what the adjectives and adverbs do in a sentence by breaking them down into the questions they answer.
Sentence / Question the adjective or adverb answersI run short marathons. / What type of marathons do you run?
Mary drives her old car slowly to work. / 1) What type of car does Mary have?
2) How does Mary drive her car to work?
Kelly is reading a boring book and eating a big red juicy apple. / 1) What type of book is Mary reading?
2) What type of apple is Mary eating?
Understanding the word order in sentences helps us break sentences down into comprehensible sections.
Day 1 practice activities
Activity 1: Put the parts of these sentences into the correct columns.
Example: Susan lives in China.
Example: Environmental obstacles are found at all levels of society.
1. Gerald is a good friend.
2. David has been playing with the children since midday.
3. The wolf ran swiftly through the wood.
4. False-negativecasesare known to occur.
Noun / Verb / Adjective / AdverbSusan, China
obstacles, levels, society / Lives
are found / environmental, all
Conjunction / Determiner / Preposition / Pronoun
in
at, of
Activity 2: Join the words in the examples together to make five sentences.
Look at the examples given in the Definition of terms section on page 6. Join words to make sentences. Your sentences can be short or long.
Example: Susana is slowly eating bread and smelly cheese on the train.
Day 2: Explanation of terms
Tenses
When talking about grammar, the word ‘tense’ refers to the way the verb is conjugated, to locate the utterance in time. Tenses can be simple, continuous, perfect, or conditional, and in the present, past, or future.
Forms
The words ‘affirmative’, ‘negative’, ‘question (or interrogative)’, and ‘short answer’ are used to describe the four types of forms a spoken or written utterance can take. Here’s what they mean:
Affirmative / A sentence that states what happens, is happening, will happen.A sentence about feelings that does not use the negative form. (The sentence could talk about negative feelings.) / I am a student.
My parents have gone to Huatulco.
Kelly is studying Mandarin in China.
Kate likes chocolate and hates chips.
Negative / A sentence that states what has not happened or will not happen.
A sentence about feelings you do not feel. / The book isn’t in my bag.
Nelly hasn’t done her homework.
Kayla and Bob aren’t going to the cinema.
I don’t likedoing Maths homework.
Question / Interrogative / Asks for information or clarification / Did you do your homework?
Have you seen my book?
Where is Nina?
Are you going to the cinema?
Will you marry me?
Short answer / Responds to a question that starts with the auxiliary verb (or with the verb ‘be’ in the simple present tense).
Starts with Yes or No, and ends with the auxiliary verb.
Can be affirmative or negative. / Yes, I am.
Yes, she has.
No, we don’t.
No, they haven’t.
Verb forms
English verbs can be conjugated in five different ways. We form different verb tenses, and affirmative, negative, and question forms by using the verb form alone, or combining it with an auxiliary verb. The five different verb forms in English are:
Imperative / Simple present affirmative (third person singular) / Simple past affirmative / Present participle (Gerund or verb+ing) / Past participleto do / (he/she/it) does / did / doing / done
to have / (he/she/it) has / had / having / had
to eat / (he/she/it) eats / ate / eating / eaten
to study / (he/she/it) studies / studied / studying / studied
Day 2 practice activity
Activity 3: Tell me about yourself.
1. Write five affirmative sentences about events in your life.
Example: I was born in 1972. I have three sisters. I like reading books. …
2. Write three negative sentences about events in your life.
Example: I don’t live in Acatlima. I haven’t been to Egypt. I don’t like horror movies. …
3. Write three questions you like to ask people when you meet them for the first time. (Do not use the example questions!)
Example: What is your name? Where are you from? What are you studying? …
4. Answer the questions with (truthful) short answers.
Example: Is this explanation easy? –Yes, it is. …
1. Are you from Huajuapan?2. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
3. Have you ever eaten tlayudas?
4. Are you going to watch a movie tonight?
5. Can you speak Mixteco?
Part 2: Revision of Basic level grammar
Day 3: Revision of the past and present tenses
In this section, we revise the tenses that were presented in the Basic level Reading course, and add the Past perfect tense.
Rules of usage of past and present tenses
Past / PresentSimple / PAST SIMPLE
To talk about events that started and finished in the past. (e.g. I walked home yesterday. We went to the movies last Friday.) / PRESENT SIMPLE
To talk about things that are generally true (We have Science class on Tuesdays. The sky is blue.)
To talk about habits and everyday routines (I get up at 6am every day. I phone my mum in the evenings.)
Continuous / PAST CONTINUOUS
To talk about what was happening at a particular point of time in the past (usually because the action was interrupted by another action). (e.g. I was watching TV when I heard about the accident. My boyfriend was kissing my best friend when I walked into the room.) / PRESENT CONTINUOUS
To talk about what is happening right now. (I am reading about grammar. My grandfather is sitting in a chair. Kayla and her little brother are fighting.)
Perfect / PAST PERFECT
(This tense is not taught at the Basic level.)
To talk about events that occurred in the past, before other things that happened in the past. (I felt very tired yesterday because I hadn’t slept much the night before.)
To talk about events that occurred in the past, before another date in the past. (By 2011, Mexico had been independent for 200 years.) / PRESENT PERFECT
To talk about events that occurred in an (unspecified) past. (I have climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. Caitlin and Paul have lived in Chile. José has had three wives.)
To talk about events that started in the past, but are still true now, specifyingduration using ‘for’ or ‘since’. (Julia has lived in Tlaxiaco since 2005. Patrick and Ben have worked together for four years.)
Day 3 practice activity
Activity 4: Which tense would you use?
Example: You are talking about a movie you saw last night. / Past simple tense1. You are telling someone about things you have done.
2. You are talking about what you are doing now.
3. You are talking about what you do everyday.
4. You are talking about what you wore to your friend’s wedding, last week.
5. You are talking about what your boy/girlfriend had done to you while you were still dating that made you break up with him/her.
Day 4: The grammar of the past and present tenses
Let’s look at the grammar of the six tenses. The table below summarizes the grammar forms. Use the table to check which auxiliary verb to use, when to use the auxiliary verb, and what other changes (if any) you have to make to the verb when using this form.
Past / PresentSimple / PAST SIMPLE
Auxiliary verb ‘do’ did
Auxiliary verb used in negative, question and short answer forms.
Verb changes to the simple past affirmative form (add ‘ed’ to regular verbs, memorize irregular verb forms) in affirmative sentences. / PRESENT SIMPLE
Auxiliary verb ‘do’ do / does
Auxiliary verb used in negative, question and short answer forms.
Verb changes to the simple present affirmative form (add ‘s’ to the third person singular) in affirmative sentences.
Continuous / PAST CONTINUOUS
Auxiliary verb ‘be’ was / were
Auxiliary verb used with all forms.
Main verb changes to the verb+ing form. / PRESENT CONTINUOUS
Auxiliary verb ‘be’ am / is / are
Auxiliary verb used with all forms.
Main verb changes to the verb+ing form.
Perfect / PAST PERFECT
Auxiliary verb ‘have’ had
Auxiliary verb used with all forms.
Main verb changes to the past participle form. / PRESENT PERFECT
Auxiliary verb ‘have’ have / has
Auxiliary verb used with all forms.
Main verb changes to the past participle form.
Day 4 practice activity
Activity 5: What’s the correct verb tense and form? Write the answer.
Tense = simple past, past continuous, etc