However, even teachers who eschew implicit language analysis for their students— that is, those who favor teaching communication by having students communicate with no focus on form whatsoever—would be well served by their having a working knowledge of grammar. | Chapter 10 Negation 199 Functional Negatives We conclude this use section of the chapter by pointing out that just as words need not be marked affixally in order to convey negativity cf. Jespersen s inherent negatives so too can positive statements and questions have negative meaning depending on the discourse context. Joe Did you ace the final Ray Ray Are you kidding I m lucky I passed In other words although the question and statement in Ray s response are formally positive they function as Conclusion This chapter provides an introduction to the negative system in English. As you no doubt can tell because of the many words and structures that arc included in the system you will encounter the topic of negation repeatedly in the chapters that follow. Students will need a great deal of practice with the form of the negative which in our experience represents their greatest long-term challenge. Teaching Suggestions I. Form. When students are first learning to place the negative particle not in its correct position in sentences it is useful for them to practice unscrambling sentences with auxiliary verbs and the copula be. Write 12 to 15 sentences. Put one word of each sentence on a card or slip of paper. JEAN-GUY MAY NOT BE GOING TO FRANCE NEXT SUMMER ENGINEER BUDI IS NOT AN NORIKO HAS NOT VISITED CANADA Shuffle the cards for each sentence and give three sets of shuffled cards to each small group of students. The students task is to unscramble each of the three sentences and put them in grammatical order. When the groups are finished they should mix the cards for each sentence again and swap cards with another group. The procedure should be repeated several times so that each group gets to practice unscrambling at least 12 sentences. Afterwards you can ask the students to make their observations concerning the placement of the not in sentences with auxiliary or be verbs. 2. Use. Tell students the sentences they made are accurate but an English speaker .
