Metaphor
Islamic Azad University - Takestan Branch
English Language Department
Master 's Research Proposal
Entitled:
The effect of Task-based Instruction and Content-based Instruction
On the comprehension and Production of Existential Constructions by Iranian EFL Learners
February 2012
Introduction
The acquisition and appropriate use of grammatical constructions have always been one of the significant dimensions of foreign language teaching. They have always been at the center of attention in any approach or method focusing on teaching and learning a foreign language.
Researchers are always concerned with finding a new way to help foreign language learners learn the rules of the second language better.
"Existential sentences" or existential constructions (ECs) a term coined by Jesperson (1924: p, 155), refer to sentences that assert or deny the existence of something. The term existential refers to a type of grammatical structure in English where the phrase starts with a dummy element –there- which ‘is put in the subject position and the subject is moved forward to a later position [to] . . . present the postponed subject and the rest of the sentence as new information’ (Greenbaum and Nelson 2002, 130). Persian learners have difficulty in learning these constructions due to the absence of similar constructions in their mother tongue (Karimi, Samiian, and Stilo 2008).
In English, Existential constructions lack real meaning. The following sentences have the same meaning:
1) a. Being late is unacceptable. (1) b. It is unacceptable to be late.)
(2) a. A green pen is on the table. (2) b. There is a green pen on the table.
The italicized subjects (there and it above) are known as expletive subjects. In expletive (existential) sentences, the phrase that would otherwise be the subject ( 'a green pen ' and 'being late ' above) are associate of the expletive. (Jenkins 1975). White (2003) emphasized that there and it are
English Language Department
Master 's Research Proposal
Entitled:
The effect of Task-based Instruction and Content-based Instruction
On the comprehension and Production of Existential Constructions by Iranian EFL Learners
February 2012
Introduction
The acquisition and appropriate use of grammatical constructions have always been one of the significant dimensions of foreign language teaching. They have always been at the center of attention in any approach or method focusing on teaching and learning a foreign language.
Researchers are always concerned with finding a new way to help foreign language learners learn the rules of the second language better.
"Existential sentences" or existential constructions (ECs) a term coined by Jesperson (1924: p, 155), refer to sentences that assert or deny the existence of something. The term existential refers to a type of grammatical structure in English where the phrase starts with a dummy element –there- which ‘is put in the subject position and the subject is moved forward to a later position [to] . . . present the postponed subject and the rest of the sentence as new information’ (Greenbaum and Nelson 2002, 130). Persian learners have difficulty in learning these constructions due to the absence of similar constructions in their mother tongue (Karimi, Samiian, and Stilo 2008).
In English, Existential constructions lack real meaning. The following sentences have the same meaning:
1) a. Being late is unacceptable. (1) b. It is unacceptable to be late.)
(2) a. A green pen is on the table. (2) b. There is a green pen on the table.
The italicized subjects (there and it above) are known as expletive subjects. In expletive (existential) sentences, the phrase that would otherwise be the subject ( 'a green pen ' and 'being late ' above) are associate of the expletive. (Jenkins 1975). White (2003) emphasized that there and it are
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