A standard way to introduce or practise a grammatical structure is by means of sentence combining drills. Look at the example below, taken from frenchteacher.net, which focuses on the meaning and form of present participles in French. Strictly speaking, in this case the exercise is about combining two clauses, not sentences. The exercise is a typical audiolingual one in style, based on the idea that by repeating the structure numerous times you are helping students to internalise it. “Internalise” in this context means embed it in long term memory, automatise, or help it to be “acquired”, ready to be used spontaneously in the future. Now, it’s very unlikely that an exercise of this type would achieve the aim of automatisation on its own, but by bringing the form and meaning to the attention of the learner, it should, in combination with comprehensible input featuring the structure’s use, along with other activities, more or less communicative, help students use the structure in a spontaneous or more rehearsed way in the future. It’s the type of exercise you may not choose to do with every class, since it requires a reasonable degree of prior knowledge and analysis.
There has been some research on sentence combining, both for L1 and L2 learning, but clear evidence for its success is hard to find when general proficiency or spontaneous talk is the focus. But that is not a reason to reject it as a technique. To quote that favourite saying “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.
The drill below could be done orally, in writing (or both) and prompts and responses could be translated. Students could be asked to make up their own. Drills like this are, of course, just one possible ingredient in the diet of comprehensible input.
I wonder if you use exercises like these. Do they help? Do students appreciate their usefulness? Or do you think they are dull and doomed to fail to meet their objective?
Exemples
En arrivant = on arriving/by arriving/while arriving
Je jouais au football quand je me suis fait mal au genou.
> Je me suis fait mal en jouant au football.
Je regardais la télé et parlais à ma femme.
> Je parlais à ma femme en regardant la télé.
1. Je faisais du ski quand je suis tombé.
2. J’entrais dans le salon quand j’ai vu ma mère.
3. Je regardais la télé quand j’ai réalisé que j’avais des devoirs à faire.
4. Je mangeais un caramel quand j’ai eu mal aux dents.
5. II allait au collège quand il a eu un accident de la route.
6. Il promenait le chien quand il a vu son vieil ami Paul.
7. Il préparait un repas quand il s’est coupé le doigt.
8. Elle jouait au rugby quand elle s’est fait mal au dos.
9. Elle mangeait son repas et écoutait la radio.
10. On a fini le dîner, puis on est sorti en ville.
11. Quand nous sommes arrivés à la gare, nous avons acheté un billet.
12. Je suis allé en ligne et j’ai cherché un DVD.
13. Tu as fait une recherche sur Google et tu as trouvé une solution.
14. Ils parlaient de la politique et ils ont eu une grande dispute.
15. Il a cherché dans le dictionnaire et il a trouvé la traduction.
16. On regardait un film au ciné et on mangeait du popcorn.
17. Je me promenais en ville quand j’ai rencontré un autre vieil ami.
18. Elle faisait du cheval quand elle est tombée.
19. Il attendait le train et lisait sa tablette.
20. Il a pris beaucoup de notes et a réussi à l’examen.
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