TeachingEnglish
Punctuation in English
Submitted by Liliana Rodriguez on 22 September, 2008 - 03:02
Hello there,
I would like to write about a concern that I had with a today's class. In Spanish, that is the student's native language, he said that usually we use the punctuation to have moments of breathing while we read something. I know that in English there are some rules that people must follow but I haven't read in all my sources about this.
In English usually we use the commas, periods, semi colons, colons, dashes to write in an appropiate way, but in Spanish usually is different with the commas.
What do you think about this? Do you think that punctuation was made only for having some moments of breathing and I have to avoid using the rules?
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Hello everybody,
I would like to add something more... How do you explain punctuation when you are teaching to learners that their first language is not English?
Liliana
Liliana Rodriguez Vega
"I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it... The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on."
S
Hi Liliana,
Even when we speak we don't necessarily stop a sentence just because we want to breathe.Punctuation is used in order to express the intended meaning in a more precise and effective way.For example we pause to give emphasis, to question, to add,to explain,to paraphrase and so on.Moreover, a written text would be illegible without punctuation.
Katerina
I think punctuation was indeed created to provide a moment to breath which ultimately helps you pronounce the next word better.
It is very critical to educate your students about the basics of punctuation. From your question, I feel that you are confusing the rate of speech with punctuation. The average speed at which a person should speak varies between 140 - 160 words per minute. If the rate of speech is less, there is every chance that the speaker will not be able to hold the attention of the listener. If the rate of speech is more, then it becomes very difficult for the listener to understand the message. The vital point during the communication process is whether the speaker is able to get across his thoughts or ideas in the way he wants his listeners to understand.
The basic rules of punctuation should be explained in a simple and interesting or humorous way to your students. A full stop or period marks the end of a sentence. A comma is used to differentiate two different thoughts. A comma if not properly placed can altogether alter the meaning of a sentence. Let us take a statement.
The judge said, "Hang him, not release him"
The judge said, "Hang him not, release him"
A question takes the place of a period at the end of a sentence when you expect a reply from the other person.
A colon or a comma is used when you want to list down a number of things.
Inverted commas are used when you want to quote the exact words of the speaker
It's important to focus on simple practical guidelines as to how to use punctuation. Here's a collection of resources, starting with the use of colons: http://englishlanguage.eslreading.org/grammar/grammar/colons.html
With regard to Spanish speaking learners I would say the golden rule is: write shorter sentences using an average of two clauses and a maximum of three. This will help eliminate many common errors in comma use etc.
Punctuations serve to give you time to breath but they can also change the context and thus meaning of a sentence. I can't think of an example but there are situations were a sentence would have a different meaning if a comma is removed.
Yes, one famous UK example (From Lynne Truss, the author) is the title of the book: Eats, shoots & leaves.
ie re a panda that enters a bar and it:
eats, shoots and leaves.
or
eats shoots and leaves.
with of course very different meanings. There are no doubt many, many more examples in the book (and one just on punctuation; The Zero Tolerance approach to Punctuation-hooray for Wikipedia).
I'm unsure if this addresses the original question but of course applying new knowledge on this topic is best for writing. Personally, I would like to find more examples of teaching punctuation as it is very imporatnt in English for Academic Purposes I believe.
Thankfully some of the main grammar books cover punctuation.