Teaching of Focus Structures in English

Abstract

English permits certain non-prototypical sentence forms that have focusing or foregrounding effect. Focus structures place certain elements of the basic version of the sentence in different positions in order to make them more prominent. Due to the widespread usage of them, EFL/ESL teachers should be familiar with the grammar of these structures and how they are usually used, the points learners have difficulty with, and the necessary pedagogical implications for teaching these structures. However, the problems that ESL/EFL students have while using English focus structures have not been widely investigated. Thus, this paper firstly looks into the cleft sentences, formed through movement of constituents and other changes, and the sentences with fronting and left-dislocation involving only movement. Then, studies which reveal a clearer picture of learners' problems with these structures are presented. Finally, some activities are designed in order to show how focus structures can be handled in language learning classroom.