Teaching the Grammar of Questions and Negations: An Innovative Approach

Dagmar Masár Machová, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Czech Republic, ID LLCE2017-114;      Abstract: This article presents an innovative approach to teaching English tenses, more precisely to teaching the grammar of questions and negative sentences. It describes, analyses and compares the innovative top-down approach with the traditional methods. It introduces the reader to the theoretical concept of the English predicate structure, on which the new approach is based. Consequently the paper explains how the theoretical approach may be beneficial in practice, i.e. in English language teaching. Compared to the traditional methods, the paper shows that the grammar of questions and negatives of all tense and aspect combinations can be explained using three simple rules. Finally, the paper lists the advantages and disadvantages of the method and suggests suitable target students.

Key words: grammar, tense, English, top-down method