To answer Marcy's query, I have used a number of 'tricks' from both
Noguchi and work by de Beaugrande to help students do things like find
subjects of sentences and test for sentencehood. Students have found
them very helpful. They have limitations, though. You must start out
working with simple material, do a lot of practice on simple material,
before moving on to longer and more-complex sentences.

Always test exercises yourself before using them in class. A bit of
'duh' advice, I suppose, but advice I learned to follow the hard way.

Some of the 'tricks': using tag questions to identify the subject of a
sentence; using the frame 'I am convinced that' to identify 'complete
sentences'; using tag and yes-no questions to help students find
auxiliary verbs and distinguish them from main verbs. I have a few more
tricks, of unknown source -- maybe mine, maybe somebody else's -- using
paraphrase with 'to' or 'for' to identify indirect objects, and
inserting 'to be' in front of object complements; paraphrasing present
participles as 'in the act/process of ____' vs. gerunds as 'the act of
____'. Again, you have to choose simple, straightforward examples at
first. Unfortunately, since I teach ten-week courses, I have not had the
opportunity to find out whether these tricks help students over the
longer term, and with more complicated sentences.

And of course, these tests only work with native speakers of English,
possibly only native speakers of standard English.

I don't actually teach all of Noguchi; I assign selected chapters that
contain less linguistic argument.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank  Oppenheimer
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