Teaching Adjectival Clauses

Language learners are always short on vocabulary.　This is in fact true of native speakers too. Unless we are very clever, and have a very large vocabularly, we lack just the right word for each occasion. This is especially true of English which, lacking kanji or other agglutinative building blocks, means that the first two thousand words are as difficult as the next, and the next, and the next....In Japanese one can learn two thousand Kanji characters and read pretty much anything printed today.

So English speakers, even native English speakers are always at a loss for words. And even Japanese learners too. I was always lacking words. There are many words that simply don't translate. And there are many words that one simply does not know.

For example if I don't know the word funnel in Japanese and I want to borrow one, what do I do? I would say (in Japanese)

Please would you lend me a thing, that is made of plastic or metal, that we use for pouring a liquid into a small hole, that is conical (or if I can't say conical) that is bigger at one end that it is at the other, that is round.

The good, or bad, thing about Japanese is that all these adjectival clauses "that is XYZ," "that we XYZ" go before the noun just like adjectives. Once one gets the hang of putting the clauses before the noun, speaking Japanese becomes so much easier. It no longer matters if you don't have a big vocabulary. You can use simple words to explain difficult things.

But once again, everything is back to front. Inside a back to front sentence, one has to add a back to front adjectival clause. This creates great fear and frustration.

I give my students practice in doing this mainly by guessing games.

E.g. guess a food.
Is it a food that we eat at Christmas?
Is it a food that we eat with our hands?
Is it a food that is cooked in a frying pan?

I also emphasise that many words can't be translated into English. I give my students a list of Japanes things. I then ask them to guess Japanese cultural artifacts.

Here is a list of Japanese cultural artificats that Japanese students will understand. Here is a list of questions about them, giving students practice in using adjectival clauses. I encourage them to make up adjectival clauses of their own, and to answer the questions using the form
No it is isn't a food that we eat at Christmas.

How I Teach English

First of all I teach my students that fear of non-meaning (Heine), and a little bit of practice is the problem and not knowledge of English at all.

I demonstrate that it is fear is the problem by have them do Tamori's language impersonation act. The students all agree that impersonating a language is even more difficult than speaking English. If knowledge were the problem it should be easy to impersonate a language, because there is no right or wrong, no need to know any words at all. I get them to realise that English is not difficult but scary.

I write the structure of English on the board and demonstrate to them that it is backwards.
主語⇒助動詞⇒動詞⇒名詞⇒副詞（時間・場・やり方）
Subject⇒auxiliary⇒verb⇒nouns⇒adjectives (time, place, and way of doing)
E.g.
I can speak English today, in this classroom, quickly
You will speak English well, in this class, at the end of term

I demonstrate to them that this is essentially the same as Japanese except backwards.
副詞（時間・場・やり方）⇒名詞⇒動詞⇒助動詞
adjectives⇒nouns⇒verb⇒auxiliary
E.g.
今日教室で早く 英語を 話(はな） せる（ことができる）

I tell them that there is no difficulty to English other than speaking backwards and the pit of non-meaning that one is required to jump into, briefly.

I put the structure of interrogative setences on the board too.

I say that all we are here to do is to practice these two forms. That is pretty much the end of my explanations. The rest of the time I am just forcing them to make the sentences.

The textbook I use used to be called "English for students," because it contains 60 short texts that students might say. The problem was that the students would read the textbook in the class, because English is scary.

I emphasise that the title of the textbook is now "English for Spies." The texts provide a "cover". I tell them to imagine that they are being interrogated by a North Korean policeman. Don't look at your cover (the textbook) otherwise you will be shot. The contents of the book are completely irrelevant. All that matters is that you speak English (in sentences). Lie, bluff, make mistakes.

I make my students ask follow up questions after every question using the interrogative form that is on the board.

I prevent my students from speaking Japanese at all.

I find if they do this, I find that they sweat, fluster, and experience panic, but get good quite quickly.