Introducing ESL Students to Relative Clauses

Here are a couple of ways to introduce a class of English language learners to relative clauses, which follow nouns and provide more information about or define them. ("Which" in the above sentence is an example of a relative pronoun at the beginning of such a clause.)

Lois Irene Wilson, is quoted in Bratt Paulston and Newton Bruder's 1976 book Teaching English as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures (p. 175-176) as recommending the following procedure for teaching relative clauses to English language students.

The first step involves the teacher writing a few related sentences on the board for students to read. An example might be writing: "The man and the woman like the rug at the store. The man and the woman decide to buy the rug. The man and the woman have money from their paychecks." The teacher then asks students questions to test for understanding, such as, "Who likes the rug?" and "Where is the rug?"

In the next step, the teacher puts the second and third sentences together. For example, "The man and the woman (The man and the woman have money from their paychecks.) decide to buy the rug." Then, "the man and the woman" in the parentheses is replaced by "who," and the parentheses are erased. Then the teacher again repeats the questions that test comprehension, and he or she also adds asking what the meaning of "who" is in the last sentence, and also what the two sentences are that were combined in the last sentence. Finally, the teacher gives examples of relative clauses being used in different places in the sentence, especially at the end. At this point, the teacher then explains the forms and functions of relative clauses.

Thomas Lavelle has written about teaching relative clauses as well. His two articles can be found here: http://bogglesworldesl.com/askthomas1.htm and http://bogglesworldesl.com/askthomas_relative_clause.htm. The first lesson revolves around understanding relative clauses, and the second focuses on using relative clauses in listening, reading and writing.

Students are first asked to create a chart with the following headings: "Noun, General Category of Noun, and Detailed Description of Noun; how it differs from other nouns in the Group." Lavelle recommends having students add "is a kind of" after the words listed in the "Noun" column. Then students add "that" or "which" after the column labeled "General Category of Noun." Lavelle also provides notes on when to use "that" or "which."

In his second lesson on relative clauses, Lavelle provides a couple of activity ideas which focus on listening for and using relative clauses in writing. Students are encouraged to produce an end product that uses relative clauses on their own. This contributes to their mastery of the concept by encouraging students' independent creativity and thinking.