BasicRelationship:Subject-verbAgreementUnit7Thescenarioofinstructionprovidedasfollowsisdesignedjustforreference.Theteacherissupposedtocombineillustratingthefocusedpointswithdoingthegivenexercisesintheunit.Unit7Classroomteachingiscompletelypresupposedonpre-readingthetextbeforeclass.I.Lead-inWhatissubject-verbagreement?Thesubjectandthefiniteverbinaclauseagreeinpersonandnumber.ApluralsubjecttakesapluralverbAsingularsubjecttakesasingularverb.

WhatdoyouknowaboutEnglishsubject-verbagreement?Giveexamplesofsubject-verbagreementfromthetext.Lookatthesentencestakenfromthetext:

Theinitialneedle-pokepartofdonatingbloodiseasyandtypicallytakeslessthan15minutes.(singularsubject,singularverbs)

Thetestingandprocessingstepstakeapproximatelythreedaystocomplete.

(pluralsubject,pluralverb)Haveyouevercomeacrossanyspecialcasesofsubject-verbagreementthatconfuseyou?Giveexamplesofspecialcasesofsubject-verbagreementfromthetext:Thecollectionbagsareunpackedandsortedbasedonthetimethebloodwas

donated.Theblooddonationcenterstaffplacesyourcollectionbaginacoolerwiththeothersuntilthedonationscanbetakenfortestingandprocessing;notethatthestaffwillalsosetasideatubeofyourbloodforadditionaltesting.Theydothiswitheverydonor.Explainthesubject-verbagreementinthesetwocases.Inthisunitwewilllearnhowtousesubject-verbagreementaccuratelyandappropriatelyinwriting.

I.Lead-inActivatingknowledgemeansmakinggrammarknowledge

lyinginthemindsofstudentsstartworking.II.ActivatingKnowledgeInthesimplepresenttense,alexicalverbinflectsbyadding-sor-esattheendoftheverbwhenitisusedwitha3rdpersonsingularsubject.Otherformsofsubjectdonotrequiretheverbtoinflect.

Theprimaryverbsbe,haveanddoaredifferentfromlexicalverbsinsubject-verbagreement.Becanserveasalinkverbandanauxiliaryofaspectandvoice.Beisexceptionalintwoaspects.(1)ItistheonlyverbinEnglishthathasthreeinflectionalformsofthepresent:am;

is;andare.(2)ItistheonlyverbinEnglishthathasthesubject-verbagreementinthepast:wasandwere.Havefunctionsasatransitiveverbandanauxiliaryofaspect.Its3rdpersonsingularformishasDoisalsousedbothasatransitiveverbandanauxiliary.Its3rdpersonsingularformisdoes(/d?z/).II.ActivatingKnowledgeSomespecialcasesofsubject-verbagreementSubject-verbagreementbymeaningAlsonotionalconcord.Thenumberofthesubjectisdeterminedbythenotionofnumberimpliedinthecontextratherthantheformofthesubjectnounphrase.Subject-verbagreementbyproximityAlsotheprincipleofproximity.Whenthesubjectconsistsoftwoormorenounphraseslinkedbycoordinatingconjunctions,theverbmayprefertoagreewiththeonethatisclosertoit.Therearealsosomespecialcasesinwhichthesubject-verbagreementisconventional.II.ActivatingKnowledgeApplyingknowledgemeansdoingyourwritingpracticebasedontheknowledgeyouhaveacquired.TaskOneTheprimaryverbsbe,haveanddoaretobeusedcorrectlyandappropriatelyintheirrespectivecasesofsubject-verbagreement.Notethattheinflectionsofthethreeprimaryverbsinsubject-verbagreementareirregular.III.ApplyingKnowledgeTaskTwoAparticiplephraseisconsideredassingularandtakesasingularverb.Anounclauseisconsideredassingularandtakesasingularverb.Contextualinformationisimportantindeterminingthenumberofthesubjectinsomespecialcases.III.ApplyingKnowledgeTaskThreeAsingularsubjecttakesasingularverb;apluralsubjecttakesapluralverb.Iftheheadwordofarelativeclauseisthesubjectofthisrelativeclause,thesubject-verbagreementshouldcomplywiththenumberoftheheadword.Forexample:…examsthatarefivedistantyearsaway.…referstosomeoneontheautismspectrumwhopossessesextraordinaryskills…

III.ApplyingKnowledgeIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingWritingthroughexperiencingandreadingmeansinvolvingstudentsinwritingpracticebasedontheirpersonalexperienceandwhattheyhavelearnedfromthetext.RewritinginvolvesstudentsinwritingashortpassagebasedonTextAwiththewordsandexpressionsgiven.StudentsneedtoreadTextAmorecarefullyandgetageneralideaofhowthedonatedbloodisprocessedafterbeingcollectedandthenwriteasummaryfollowingtheinstruction.Studentsshouldthinkabouthowtoorganizethecontentinalogicalway,includinghowtopresentthetopicsentence,howtoleadtoaconcludingsentence,andwhatgoesinbetween,etc.inordertoachievecoherenceinthewriting.Subject-verbagreementshouldalwaysbeappliedcorrectlyandappropriately.IV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingWritingThroughExperiencingandReadingGuidedwriting:writeashortessaytodescribeyourownexperienceofblooddonationortellthestoryofbloodororgandonationbysomeoneelse.Studentsshoulddevelopapieceofwritingoftheirown,followingthesameprocessofwritingasinthepreviousrewritingtask:presentingthetopicsentence,organizingthecontentcoherentlyanddrawingtheconclusion.A