Uploaded on 1 June 2022
Stage 1: Present examples
Write these groups of sentences on the board.
Ask: “What do you notice about these sentences?”
Thabo plays football. He also plays volleyball.
Thabo plays football and he also plays volleyball.
I was sick. I still went to school.
I was sick but I still went to school.
You can read. You can draw a picture.
You can read or you can draw a picture.
To help learners, you could:
Underline the conjunctions and, but and or.
Ask: Are the two ideas of equal importance e.g. Are football and volleyball soccer both important to Thabo?
Now write these groups of words on the board.
Ask: “What do you notice about these sentences?”
She will sing and dance.
You can go up or down
Eat your meat with a knife and fork.
To help learners, you could:
Underline the words on either side of the conjunction e.g. sing, dance, up, down, knife, fork
Ask: Are the two words of equal importance e.g. are both sing and dance important?
Stage 2: Take feedback
Check understanding. Ask learners to give feedback on what they noticed from the examples. Some key points could include:
- Conjunctions are connecting words that join two or more sentences into a single sentence.
- They also join words, phrases or clauses.
- Co-ordinating conjunctions join two words, sentences or ideas of equal importance e.g. I was sick but I went to school; Eat your meat with a knife and fork.
- If it is joining two clauses the clauses need to make sense on their own e.g. Thabo plays football (clause 1) and he also plays volleyball. (clause 2)
Co-ordinating conjunctions are: FANBOYS
F: for (explains why something if happening, similar to because) e.g. I eat healthy food for I want to get strong.
A: and (joins two ideas) e.g. I like to read and I like to play.
N: nor (joins two negative ideas) e.g. My sister doesn’t like to read, nor does she like school.
B: but (introduces an opposite idea) e.g. I wanted to go to school but I was sick.
O: or (introduces a different idea) e.g. Would you like to play soccer or go to the beach?
Y: yet (shows contrast) e.g. I like eating apples, yet oranges are even better.
S: so (says there is a result) e.g. The bus didn’t come so we caught a taxi.
Stage 3: Use the grammar
Find the conjunctions
Give learners a piece of text from a story or course book. They underline all the words they think are conjunctions.
Choose the correct conjunction
Divide the class into teams of 2-4
Distribute seven cards to each team, and have them write one conjunction in large letters on each card.
Read two simple sentences aloud. Teams must hold up one card that contains a conjunction that can be used to combine those two simple sentences into one sentence.
For example, you could say: We like bananas. We like apples more. Learners hold up “but.”
Complete the story
Sit in a circle. The teacher gives a starting sentence. e.g. “The cat and the rat lived together in the same house but …..”
The learner on her right completes the sentence. They then add another sentence, but do not complete it. They end with a co-ordinating conjunction. e.g. “… but they did not like each other.” Get learners to keep adding sentences e.g. They had a car and …” “They didn’t want to go to the beach, nor ……” “The robber wanted to steal their money, yet ….” “They were tired, so …” etc. The story continues around the circle.
Remind learners to use as many co-ordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) as possible.