2.3.2 The Grammatical Structures Frequently Found in the TOEIC Questions
Let us now take a closer look at the type of TOEIC questions that fell into the category
‘none of the above,’ since this proved to be the largest category in the second formatted
table (see Table 2). The information about the grammar applicable to these questions is,
simply, not explicitly put forth in the explanatory notes in the three textbook series
examined in this study. So, the question is: How, then, can students acquire this level of
knowledge about English grammar?
237
The authors propose a new grammatical point of view that incorporates ‘sentence
structure’ and ‘phrase structure.’ First, consider as an example the following TOEIC
sample question of error recognition, in which the sentence structure itself is the target of
question.
Sample 3. The copying machine that is located in the office on the basement floor.
A
B
C
D
Crucial to being able to recognize the error in this sample is the knowledge of the subject-
predicate relation, which is a key property of a sentence. Such knowledge allows the
examinee to notice that the error is the existence of the word that, which is incorrectly
placed between the subject and the main predicate of the sentence, thus preventing the
establishment of the relation between the two. Since an examinee must know about this
in order to recognize the error, it is imperative to address the subject-predicate relation in
some noticeable way in classroom grammar instruction. (See Section 3 for pedagogical
suggestions.) But in the examination of the high school textbooks, it was noted that the
texts only briefly touched upon the relation between the subject and the predicate at the
very beginning of introducing the notions of S, V, O, C, and M (modifier) (see 2.1).
The category ‘none of the above’ also includes questions concerning ‘phrase
structure.’ Two types of phrase structure were frequently noted in this study: (1) a noun
phrase (hereafter, NP) and (2) a verb phrase (hereafter, VP). Before studying the sample
questions, it is helpful to review the meaning of ‘phrase’ and ‘phrase structure.’ A
‘phrase’ (or ‘constituent’) is roughly defined as a unit of grammar that when combined
with other phrases can form a sentence.7 There are two important aspects of this: (a) a
sentence consists of phrases, and (b) a phrase has its own internal structure. Furthermore,
it follows that a sentence made up of phrases has its own internal structure and is not just
a random sequence of words arranged in accordance with the word-order rule specified
for any given language.
Words can be grouped into a unit known as a phrase and these units can be built into
a larger unit which has come to be known as a sentence. The idea that a sentence consists
of different kinds of phrases is related to the teaching concept that the structure of a
238
sentence (as just briefly mentioned) consists of a subject phrase and a predicate phrase,
both of which usually consist of an NP and a VP. TOEIC questions that include these two
phrases (NP and VP) appear to be the most frequently occurring feature of grammar in
the TOEIC and this is the reason that so many TOEIC sentences fell into the category
‘none of the above.’
Because of the frequency of phrases in the TOEIC questions and therefore their
relative importance, we next examined the way the concept of phrase structure functions
in the TOEIC question sentences. Again, let us consider the same example that was
presented earlier, and is repeated here:
Sample 4. Most hotels offer many
tours.
(A) organize (B) organizer (C) organized (D) organizationally
The answer is a certain adjective, and knowing that is linked to the knowledge of the
structure of an NP where an adjective may appear between a determiner and a noun. Even
if high school textbook grammar teaches that an adjective may be placed immediately
before a noun, after an article, and so forth, how can a student figure out where to place it
when the very position of the adjective is left blank in the question sentence? Knowledge
about how to use adjectives does not automatically lead in a straightforward way to the
answer of that type of question. And this type of question appears most frequently when
compared with other questions concerning the other grammar features and structures.
Another example question that involves the structure of a VP is shown below:
Sample 5. Some packing materials are
recycled.
(A) easy (B) ease (C) easily (D) easier
The answer is a certain adverb. It is taught that an adverb may be placed between an
auxiliary verb and a main verb. Since the very position is left blank, in order to choose
the correct answer, it is important to have a working knowledge about the unit of
grammar that is made up of the core verb and the words that surround it, i.e., the VP.
239
Other than the three grammatical structures that have been discussed (the subject-
predicate relation, the structure of an NP, and the structure of a VP), the ‘none of the
above’ category includes two more grammatical features and structures: (1) the structure
of a prepositional phrase (hereafter, PP) and (2) subject-predicate agreement. A third
table was formatted, based on these considerations, and the ‘none of the above’ category
was re-configured into the five new subcategories (see Table 3).
Table 3 Reclassification of ‘None of the Above’ in Table 2 for the TOEIC Test Questions
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
Total
Reclassification of ‘None of the Above’
Structure of NP
Structure of VP
Subject-Predicate Relation
Structure of PP
Agreement
Number of Lines
181
96
78
39
16
410
Ratio (%)
24.4
13.0
10.5
5.3
2.2
55.3
The results of the survey that were summarized in Result 2 are, accordingly, revised in
Result 3 below:
Result 3: The grammatical structures that frequently appear in TOEIC questions in
Part VI and VII correspond to the structure of an NP (24.4%), the structure of a VP
(13.0%), the structure of a PP (10.7%),8 subject-predicate relations (10.5%), and adverbs
(6.5%).
It is evident by now that students who are exposed mainly to the material covered by
textbooks may find it difficult to apply their explicit knowledge of English grammar to
the sentence questions that appear on TOEIC tests. This would bear out the opinions of
many English teachers who, based on their teaching experience (Taniguchi, 1998;
Tsuzuki, 2003), believe that to place great importance on the sentence patterns is not as
240
beneficial as expected when improvement in communicative proficiency is the students’
major concern. Based on the results of this survey, the challenge becomes how to make
the best use of the concepts of sentence structure and phrase structure in the classroom.
3. Pedagogical Implications
The concept of phrase structures as discussed in the previous subsection and the
importance of introducing it in the classroom is not entirely new to English teachers in
Japan. For example, in Kanatani (ed.) (1994), it is argued that understanding the notion of
ku (‘phrase’) or matomari (‘coherent syntactic unit’) should be regarded as a basis of
Japanese junior-high school students’ English ability. Moreover, it is pointed out that
students tend to have difficulty understanding phrase structures; for example, it is
especially difficult for them to grasp the relation between a phrase and its post-modifier.
For example, in the single phrase ‘a book on the desk,’ it is difficult to understand the
grammatical relationship between the head noun (‘book’) and the prepositional phrase
modifying it (‘on the desk’). It is clear that Japanese students’ high school English
textbooks do not prepare them for these types of grammatical structures, and it may be
that they are not addressed at all. It is also clear that these grammatical structures do
appear on TOEIC tests. To bridge that gap, we have devised a method which does not
require the memorization of phrase structure rules and regulations.
While some educators propose an inductive process in grammar learning is essential
(Seliger, 1975), others advocate for a deductive approach (Shaffer, 1989). We believe
that what Corder (1973) claimed more than thirty years ago might well be true: that it is
most effective to use a combination of both inductive and deductive approaches. We use
both as a basis for the suggested instruction outlined in this section.
2.3.2 The Grammatical Structures Frequently Found in the TOEIC Questions
Let us now take a closer look at the type of TOEIC questions that fell into the category
‘none of the above,’ since this proved to be the largest category in the second formatted
table (see Table 2). The information about the grammar applicable to these questions is,
simply, not explicitly put forth in the explanatory notes in the three textbook series
examined in this study. So, the question is: How, then, can students acquire this level of
knowledge about English grammar?
237
The authors propose a new grammatical point of view that incorporates ‘sentence
structure’ and ‘phrase structure.’ First, consider as an example the following TOEIC
sample question of error recognition, in which the sentence structure itself is the target of
question.
Sample 3. The copying machine that is located in the office on the basement floor.
A
B
C
D
Crucial to being able to recognize the error in this sample is the knowledge of the subject-
predicate relation, which is a key property of a sentence. Such knowledge allows the
examinee to notice that the error is the existence of the word that, which is incorrectly
placed between the subject and the main predicate of the sentence, thus preventing the
establishment of the relation between the two. Since an examinee must know about this
in order to recognize the error, it is imperative to address the subject-predicate relation in
some noticeable way in classroom grammar instruction. (See Section 3 for pedagogical
suggestions.) But in the examination of the high school textbooks, it was noted that the
texts only briefly touched upon the relation between the subject and the predicate at the
very beginning of introducing the notions of S, V, O, C, and M (modifier) (see 2.1).
The category ‘none of the above’ also includes questions concerning ‘phrase
structure.’ Two types of phrase structure were frequently noted in this study: (1) a noun
phrase (hereafter, NP) and (2) a verb phrase (hereafter, VP). Before studying the sample
questions, it is helpful to review the meaning of ‘phrase’ and ‘phrase structure.’ A
‘phrase’ (or ‘constituent’) is roughly defined as a unit of grammar that when combined
with other phrases can form a sentence.7 There are two important aspects of this: (a) a
sentence consists of phrases, and (b) a phrase has its own internal structure. Furthermore,
it follows that a sentence made up of phrases has its own internal structure and is not just
a random sequence of words arranged in accordance with the word-order rule specified
for any given language.
Words can be grouped into a unit known as a phrase and these units can be built into
a larger unit which has come to be known as a sentence. The idea that a sentence consists
of different kinds of phrases is related to the teaching concept that the structure of a
238
sentence (as just briefly mentioned) consists of a subject phrase and a predicate phrase,
both of which usually consist of an NP and a VP. TOEIC questions that include these two
phrases (NP and VP) appear to be the most frequently occurring feature of grammar in
the TOEIC and this is the reason that so many TOEIC sentences fell into the category
‘none of the above.’
Because of the frequency of phrases in the TOEIC questions and therefore their
relative importance, we next examined the way the concept of phrase structure functions
in the TOEIC question sentences. Again, let us consider the same example that was
presented earlier, and is repeated here:
Sample 4. Most hotels offer many
tours.
(A) organize (B) organizer (C) organized (D) organizationally
The answer is a certain adjective, and knowing that is linked to the knowledge of the
structure of an NP where an adjective may appear between a determiner and a noun. Even
if high school textbook grammar teaches that an adjective may be placed immediately
before a noun, after an article, and so forth, how can a student figure out where to place it
when the very position of the adjective is left blank in the question sentence? Knowledge
about how to use adjectives does not automatically lead in a straightforward way to the
answer of that type of question. And this type of question appears most frequently when
compared with other questions concerning the other grammar features and structures.
Another example question that involves the structure of a VP is shown below:
Sample 5. Some packing materials are
recycled.
(A) easy (B) ease (C) easily (D) easier
The answer is a certain adverb. It is taught that an adverb may be placed between an
auxiliary verb and a main verb. Since the very position is left blank, in order to choose
the correct answer, it is important to have a working knowledge about the unit of
grammar that is made up of the core verb and the words that surround it, i.e., the VP.
239
Other than the three grammatical structures that have been discussed (the subject-
predicate relation, the structure of an NP, and the structure of a VP), the ‘none of the
above’ category includes two more grammatical features and structures: (1) the structure
of a prepositional phrase (hereafter, PP) and (2) subject-predicate agreement. A third
table was formatted, based on these considerations, and the ‘none of the above’ category
was re-configured into the five new subcategories (see Table 3).
Table 3 Reclassification of ‘None of the Above’ in Table 2 for the TOEIC Test Questions
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
Total
Reclassification of ‘None of the Above’
Structure of NP
Structure of VP
Subject-Predicate Relation
Structure of PP
Agreement
Number of Lines
181
96
78
39
16
410
Ratio (%)
24.4
13.0
10.5
5.3
2.2
55.3
The results of the survey that were summarized in Result 2 are, accordingly, revised in
Result 3 below:
Result 3: The grammatical structures that frequently appear in TOEIC questions in
Part VI and VII correspond to the structure of an NP (24.4%), the structure of a VP
(13.0%), the structure of a PP (10.7%),8 subject-predicate relations (10.5%), and adverbs
(6.5%).
It is evident by now that students who are exposed mainly to the material covered by
textbooks may find it difficult to apply their explicit knowledge of English grammar to
the sentence questions that appear on TOEIC tests. This would bear out the opinions of
many English teachers who, based on their teaching experience (Taniguchi, 1998;
Tsuzuki, 2003), believe that to place great importance on the sentence patterns is not as
240
beneficial as expected when improvement in communicative proficiency is the students’
major concern. Based on the results of this survey, the challenge becomes how to make
the best use of the concepts of sentence structure and phrase structure in the classroom.
3. Pedagogical Implications
The concept of phrase structures as discussed in the previous subsection and the
importance of introducing it in the classroom is not entirely new to English teachers in
Japan. For example, in Kanatani (ed.) (1994), it is argued that understanding the notion of
ku (‘phrase’) or matomari (‘coherent syntactic unit’) should be regarded as a basis of
Japanese junior-high school students’ English ability. Moreover, it is pointed out that
students tend to have difficulty understanding phrase structures; for example, it is
especially difficult for them to grasp the relation between a phrase and its post-modifier.
For example, in the single phrase ‘a book on the desk,’ it is difficult to understand the
grammatical relationship between the head noun (‘book’) and the prepositional phrase
modifying it (‘on the desk’). It is clear that Japanese students’ high school English
textbooks do not prepare them for these types of grammatical structures, and it may be
that they are not addressed at all. It is also clear that these grammatical structures do
appear on TOEIC tests. To bridge that gap, we have devised a method which does not
require the memorization of phrase structure rules and regulations.
While some educators propose an inductive process in grammar learning is essential
(Seliger, 1975), others advocate for a deductive approach (Shaffer, 1989). We believe
that what Corder (1973) claimed more than thirty years ago might well be true: that it is
most effective to use a combination of both inductive and deductive approaches. We use
both as a basis for the suggested instruction outlined in this section.
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