Structures

The word “structures” is most often used to talk about language syllabuses. Until not so many decades ago, language teaching was based on the assumption that students first needed to master particular language frames – the structures. The assumption was that once they had mastered these, they could subsequently learn to “fill the gaps” in structurally correct stretches of language.

To many teachers, a structural syllabus is synonymous with mastering the tense system of the English verb. This is surprising, for to most linguists the English verb has only two tenses – Present Simple and Past Simple. Chalker (1984), for example, in the introduction of her Current English Grammar, writes as follows:

“Once one accepts that the English verb system is binary, and that will and shall are just two of the modals, the whole verbal system and its meaning appears much neater and more understandable”.

(Michael Lewis. The lexical approach. HeinleCengage. 2002. Adapted)