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Connecting Words
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17 thoughts on “Connecting Words”
because, before, although, as soon as, when
during, in order to
who, which, if
“What happened was that as our kids in DPS got older with TPRS/CI, we all realized kind of together that we had created writing monsters.”
We create monsters with CI. Actually in my upper level classes I don’t really know what to do because the students have outpaced my ability to teach.
even if, today, tomorrow, yesterday, and then (if that’s a different word from plain old then), is about to
You remember our lists of transition words in Spanish and French. It is here:
https://benslavic.com/blog/15088/
And here’s the Spanish one from Drew:
a href=”https://benslavic.com/blog/transitional-phrases-as-writing-tools/”>https://benslavic.com/blog/transitional-phrases-as-writing-tools/
Drew’s is perfect. For advanced students. We need a list that is simple, since most of us have in terms of numbers a lot more level one and two kids than upper level kids. If we made posters of Drew’s entire list, that would be too much clutter on the wall for me. But it is a truly great list.
“Drew’s is perfect. For advanced students. We need a list that is simple…”
Having just looked at Drew’s list, the problem is that it is too so exhaustive. But if we were to pare it down to a bare bones list and then build back up from there for each level we would have a helpful “connector curriculum.”
Paul mentioned doing this with adjectives and adverbs. Remember post “If You Target Verbs”? He had an 8-wk curriculum with past tense and tpr verbs. He explained, “They need to be paired with high frequency adjectives and adverbs. Just pick 12 & 6 respectively and work them in over the first month.” In the second year of his multilevel courses he “did not differentiate except to give them about 20-25% different vocab than they had the year previous.” So we want to do the same thing for connecting words.
How about starting with Blaine’s stories. I just went through his vocab list for “Look I Can Talk” and found he only gave the first seven for target structures. The rest of them were combed from the first three stories of “Look I Can Talk More.” I was going to look at the “Look I Can Talk” stories, but I do not have a copy at home. (There is a parenthetical explanation of function including to see if there is any repetition of functions. Simplicity is attained by focusing on difference in meaning; advanced students are ready for nuanced synonymity.)
1. ahora — now (tying to the present)
2. ya — now, already (establishing previousness)
3. después — afterwards (following)
4. por fin — finally (concluding)
5. también — also (adding)
6. después de un rato — after a while (following)
7. todavía — still (establishing continuance)
8. después de jugar — after playing (following)
9. porque — because (causing)
10. para (comprar) — in order (to buy) (establishing purpose)
11. siempre — always (habitualizing)
12. así que so, and so, thus (resulting)
13. sólo — only limiting/reducing
14. cuando — when (establishing co-occurence completed action)
15. mientras — while (establishing co-occurence with continuous action)
16. pero— but (contrasting)
Another expression he used was “ya no — no longer” (ceasing).
…if we were to pare it down to a bare bones list and then build back up from there for each level….
I would want two posters of connecting words. One simple for levels one and two. Then I would have Drew’s entire lists up on the walls as posters in levels three and four. I wouldn’t want four levels of posters, or even three. Too busy.
The simple one might be just a bit bigger than your excellent list, Sean. Maybe 20 words tops. But which words?
Anybody want to take what we have here so far in these comments and make a simple poster?
Those are excellent points Sean. I had forgotten about what Paul said. Of course, we are thinking of doing that same thing all year from what Eric said, right?
I have a very short, simple list posted because my students are all like year 1 or 2 of high school. I have: While/when, and then…, although, but, now, after/later, before, if, because, therefore/so. 10.
I keep them posted with the Question Words because generally I’m the one using them.
Ben,
what a nice timing! I just finished my transition word posters (I have two) and gave it to have it laminated.
Here it goes:
d’abord: First
au début : in the beginning
en premier: at first
Après: after
puis: then
ensuite: then
Enfin: finally
finalement: finally
en conclusion: in conclusion
Donc: therefore
soudain: suddenly
tout à coup: all of a sudden
avant: before
après: after
à mon avis: in my opinion
second poster
de plus: moreover
ainsi: in this way
cependant: yet
néanmoins: however,nonetheless
surtout: especially
quant à: as for
pourtant: though, however
tandis que: whereas, while
alors que: even though
en tout cas: in any case
selon/d’après: according to
même si: even if
malgré: despite
par contre: in contrast
d’ailleurs: for that matter
au lieu de : instead of
This is why READING is so important…connectors are the glue of narratives.
In her first year Spanish curriculum text, “¡Cuéntame más!” Carol Gaab has the following connector words, listed below in order from chapter 1 to chapter 7:
again – otra vez
behind – detrás de
underneath – debajo de
close to – cerca de
for ‘three hours’ – durante ‘tres horas’
also/too – también
all/whole – todo
still – todavía
on top of – encima de
yourself – tú mismo
the most – (la) el más
therefore – por eso
upon ‘arriving’ – al ‘llegar’
I certainly also like to use “but” and “instead of” during PQA.
Here’s mine (French), but it’s quite long. I ask the students to choose the ones they use most often in English, and make their own personal lists to work from.
https://docs.google.com/a/pittsfield.net/document/d/1_1-ZHHSoCfGhChqC92nv84T3Xp73Z592COGk9o1IXRk/edit
I like your list Kelly, even if it’s long. I may create a third poster and add some of the words that weren’t on my list.
Thanks for sharing.
I am absolutely allergic to lists of connecting words because of my experience with French students. They have it hammered into them from an early age that they must use connecting words in their writing. I was teaching university students preparing for an English degree, students with a good level in English, and found that they began every sentence with a “link word”, which very often didn’t mean what they thought it meant and the result was gibberish. It’s my own private war, but I always told students that asked for “link words” that the most useful ones were “and”, “so” and “but”. My quarrel with lists was that they would memorize the words but were not always certain about the meanings. When a student asked me, how do you say “cependant”, I replied “however” and found that they would remember and use the word correctly when it was a response to their own question. It’s all about context. A list of words has no context.