All Things Linguistic

Here’s a cool method for practising making syntax trees that I just learned about. Unfortunately, it’s too late for me to use this semester, but maybe next time.

From RebeccaJacksonPGCAP:

I want to give the students a fun and memorable introduction to starting to build the most basic of trees. How will I go about doing this? Pinching Gerry’s idea, I’ve purchased a big ball of string, and a pack of cheap, colourful card. I’ll put the students into groups, and give them a ‘syntax kit’ each. […]
The syntax kit will consist of lengths of string that they can use to make the branches of these syntax trees. The card will be cut into rectangles with small labels on for the grammatical parts of speech (adj, N, V etc) and some of the rectangles will also have node names on, such as VP for ‘verb phrase’. The idea is that the students can come down to the big floor space at the front of the room and work in groups to construct and compare syntax trees.

This is what a syntax kit looks like.

And, feedback from the students:

The students asked if they could be taught this way for the remainder of the course! They then asked me to scrap the string and change the string for sticks or straws as the string kept twisting and curling up. So, I’m going to buy some straws.

More details in the original post. I think this would be pretty interesting. Maybe one could use smaller cards and toothpicks or something to make it easier to fit on top of a desk, for those of us who teach in smallish spaces. For a harder version, the students could have to label the nodes themselves instead of getting pre-written cards.

The great thing about the near-ubiquity of cellphones/smartphones these days is that instead of writing down the results of a physical task like this (or even whiteboard notes), students can just take a picture to refer to later.