English Grammar

Apa itu Grammar ?

Grammar harus dipahami terlebih dahulu untuk Anda yang mulai ingin memperdalam ilmu tata bahasa inggris dengan baik dan benar. Ada beberapa versi arti dari grammar baik dari kamus di dalam negeri maupun kamus atau literatur yang berasal dari luar negeri.

Pengertian grammar menurut wikipedia 

in English

 “grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the term to refer to orthographical rules, although usage books and style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and punctuation.”

in Indonesia

 “Tata bahasa adalah seperangkat aturan struktural yang mengatur komposisi klausa, frase, dan kata-kata dalam setiap bahasa alami yang diberikan. Istilah ini mengacu juga pada studi tentang aturan tersebut, dan bidang ini mencakup morfologi, sintaksis, dan fonologi, sering dilengkapi dengan fonetik, semantik, dan pragmatik. Ahli bahasa biasanya tidak menggunakan istilah untuk merujuk kepada aturan ortografis, meskipun penggunaan buku dan panduan gaya yang menyebut diri tata bahasa juga dapat merujuk pada ejaan dan tanda baca”

“Definisi Grammar” versi kamus john echols : Grammar : (kb) 1. Tata bahasa, 2. Buku tata bahasa.

Grammar menurut Oxford  learner’s pocket dictionary adalah : book that describes the rules for forming words and making sentences.

Dalam test TOEFL terdapat test grammar. Untuk lebih paham dan tau apa grammar yang sering di ujikan, berikut ada 8 grammar beserta contohnya.

  

1. Modal Verb

Modal Verb : Modal Verb terdiri dari can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must, dan ought to. Modal verb digunakan bersama kata kerja utama untuk mengekspresikan willingness (kemauan) atau ability (kemampuan), necessity (kebutuhan), dan possibility (kemungkinan). Pengertian dan kombinasi antara modal verb dan auxiliary lain dapat dilihat di Primary Auxiliary. 

Rumus Modal : S + Modal + V1 + O
contoh :    - I will go to school

                 - I will help you if you help yourself first.

2. Kalimat perintah atau permintaan (Imperative Sentences)

Kalimat perintah atau permintaan (Imperative Sentences) memberikan informasi atau insturksi kepada lawan bicara Anda untuk melakukan sesuatu. Perintah atau permintaan ini bisa merupakan suatu permohonan atau perintah. Kalimat jenis ini tidak menggunakan pokok kalimat namun langsung diawali dengan kata kerja nya dan diakhiri dengan tanda seru (!).

Rumus Kalimat Perintah : V1 + Objek/adverb,
contoh :  - Open the window!

               - Put the coin in the slot and press the red button!

3. Simple Present Tense 

Simple present tense adalah suatu bentuk kata kerja untuk menyatakan fakta, kebiasaan, dan kejadian yang terjadi pada saat sekarang ini. Bentuk kata kerja ini paling sering digunakan dalam bahasa Inggris.

Rumus Simple present : S + V1 + O
contoh : - We always play football everyday

              - She drives a car everyday.

4. Pasif Voice 

Passive voice adalah suatu grammatical construction (bentuk gramatikal) dimana subject pada sentence (kalimat) atau clause (klausa) tidak melakukan aksi, melainkan menerima aksi atau ditindaklanjuti (receiver of action) oleh agent lain (doer of action) baik disebutkan ataupun tidak.

Rumus Pasif Voice : S + to be (is,am,are) + V3
contoh : - The Ball is bought by me.

              - They were met by him yesterday.

5. Causative Verbs

Causative verbs adalah kata kerja yang digunakan untuk menunjukkan bahwa subject tidak bertanggungjawab langsung terhadap aksi yang terjadi melainkan seseorang atau sesuatu yang lain yang melakukan aksi tersebut.

Rumus Causative Verbs  : S + make/have + V1 + O
contoh : - They have me study hard.

              - Lala had her friend take her result test.

6. Conditional Sentence type 1

Conditional type 1 adalah conditional sentence yang digunakan ketika result / consequence (hasil) dari condition (syarat) memiliki kemungkinan untuk terwujud karena condition-nya realistik untuk dipenuhi di masa depan. 

Rumus Conditional Sentence tipe 1 : if + simple present, simple future
contoh : - If I have much money, I will go to Bali Island.

              -  If my father has much money, he will buy a new house.

7. Conditional Sentence type 2

Conditional type 2 adalah conditional sentence yang digunakan ketika result / consequence (hasil) dari condition (syarat) tidak memiliki atau hanya sedikit kemungkinan untuk terwujud karena condition-nya tidak mungkin dipenuhi dimasa sekarang (present unreal situation) atau condition-nya sulit untuk dipenuhi di masa depan (unlikely to happen).

Rumus Conditional Sentence tipe 2 : if + simple past, past future
contoh : - If I had a car, I would give him money

              - If I found her address, I would send her an invitation

8. Conditional Sentence type 3

Conditional type 3 adalah conditional sentence yang digunakan ketika result / consequence (hasil) dari condition (syarat) tidak ada kemungkinan untuk terwujud karena condition-nya harus sudah dipenuhi di masa lalu.

  

Rumus Conditional Sentence tipe 3 : if + past perfect, past future perfect
contoh : - If I had had money, I would have bought a house

              - If I had found her address, I would have sent her an invitation.

source : -www.wordsmile.com 

             -wikipedia

TOEFL Strategies for Listening Section

TOEFL listening section, tests the ability of a student, especially a non-native English speaker, to understand spoken English (accentuated) in educational setting. Listening is an important skill to understand the concepts and ideas. Only when the concepts are understood completely it becomes a lighter task to score in the listening section of TOEFL test. In order to develop the listening skills for TOEFL, there are certain set of listening strategies or steps. They are explained in detail given below.

Requirements for TOEFL Listening Strategy

Listening strategies for TOEFL aims at providing each and every minute detail that are required to respond to all the questions within the given time in this section. Responding to the questions in time is very important because, it will help TOEFL candidates to save time, which they might spend on, one specific part of the test section.

There are certain steps in strategies that would help in managing time in each part of listening test section (recordings). There are some basic requirements for listening skills which serves the steps in TOEFL listening strategies as detailed below:

• Basic Comprehension

When students listen to a recorded lecture or a conversation, they should understand the central or main idea in it. Then they should skim the recording for key points, important facts, purpose and the relevant details that connects the key points.

• Practical Understanding

It may also be called as “pragmatic understanding” where the meaning of a word should be taken, according to the context. Students are needed to find the intended meaning of the speaker i.e. from his point of view. A wide range of vocabulary is necessary for this process because, the recordings in listening test are usually from academic background. Practical understanding also becomes a must to find the purpose of a lecture or a conversation.

•  Relate Ideas given in multiple information sources

Relating ideas is the final state where the key points and the important facts are compared to find the relationship between them. This method would initially lead to construct an argument. Then a string of supportive and non supportive elements are categorized and as a result the causes for the events are traced. This is where a student would end up identifying the conclusion which is expressed indirectly.

•  Inference

Inference is to find the implied conclusion in recordings from the author’s point of view. The conclusion might be implied or expressed indirectly anywhere in the passage.

These are the basic requirements necessary, in each part of the strategy of listening section, which consists of two recorded lectures and one long conversation. These fundamentals are to be followed, in the following few preparatory steps.

Strategies in Preparation

• Spoken English From Various Sources And Accents

There are variations between the accents of English. It is the best to listen to English from various sources like television, music, radio etc. And also it is good to listen to the native speakers of English with different pronunciation and dialect. By doing this students would be able to improve their listening skills and also they will get used to different kinds of accents. It will be helpful very much if they listen to academic passages or conversations.

• Making Notes

While listening to a recording, notes should be jot down. These notes would help you to remember the important points given by speaker. The reason is also that, during the test you will be given only one chance to listen to a passage. Note making will help you to remember the details and the clues effectively.

• Main Idea

The main idea of a passage should be identified in a recording, as a first task while taking notes. Main idea of a lecture is usually given in the introductory part. The other details would be given in the rest of a lecture. Once the main idea is found it becomes a lighter task to find the purpose of the speaker.

• Pointer Words, Important Facts And Relationship Between The Facts

The pointer words may be defined as signal words or clues, given by the speaker. These keywords should be collected along with important facts and events. This should be done in order to compare them and identify the relationship between them. In turn this would give you the cause of the events.

• Summary of Observation

Give a summary of the recording which was listened, using the notes that are taken down. During this process, only important facts, relevant details, main idea and the key facts are covered. This is a good time saving technique, to prevent going through the notes again and again.

• Building your Vocabulary

Above all it is also important to build a student’s vocabulary, to find the meaning of a word, according to the context of the speaker. Students should get familiar with the words which they consider as new ones and practice them in their everyday life.

The steps and the requirements in TOEFL strategies for listening section, which are elaborated above should be followed and practiced to manage time while taking up the test. The most important part in listening section is to concentrate on the subject of the speaker, and a student does not have to be distracted by the accent.

 

       These are the others tips and strategy in TOEFL Listening Section :

TOEFL iBT Listening section is delivered immediately after the Reading section. The Listening section of TOEFL iBT measures your ability to understand spoken English in academic settings. In TOEFL iBT the listening is done for 3 major purposes:

1. Listening for basic comprehension.
2. Listening for pragmatic understanding.
3. To connect and combine ideas presented in multiple information sources.

Each part of the Listening section (2 or 3 parts) consists of 1 long conversation and two lectures. The test takers hear each lecture or conversation only once. Lectures and conversations are 3-5 minutes long. During the listening the time is not running. The allotted time of 10 minutes for each part is only for answering the questions.

Preparation Strategies

      Listen to spoken English from multiple sources as much as possible. Listen to English spoken movies and English spoken TV channels, listen to the radio and as many other listening sources as you may find. It would be better if your passages are academic or close to what is in TOEFL iBT. The more you practice listening, the better listener you will become.

Listen for the main idea. It is usually found at the beginning of the listening passages, while the details are dispersed throughout the lecture. The main idea will give you understanding of what the conversation/lecture is about. Then you may listen for details.

Learn to find how the ideas are presented in the listening passage. Some of the main relations between ideas include cause/effect, compare/contrast, and steps in a process.

Learn to listen for signal words that indicate different part of the passage - introduction, major steps, examples, conclusions, etc.

         Build your vocabulary. While listening, try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from context. It is very important since there is a big chance to come across words you don't know at the real test. Then, you should guess their meaning. Write down every word you don't know and include it in your wordlist. Try to memorize it and use it in your speaking and writing. Flashcards could be a great way to improve your vocabulary.

Listen to conversations or lectures with variety of accents. In TOEFL iBT Listening section there is a variety of accents and pronunciations. For this reason, you should practice listening to a people with different accents and pronunciation patterns.

          Practice note-taking. Note-taking is allowed during all sections of TOEFL iBT. Effective note-taking may highly improve your performance. It is almost impossible to memorize all clues and details provided in the Listening section. Moreover, you can hear the passages ONLY ONCE. Therefore, to answer the questions you have to rely on what you remember from the passage and your notes. See also our Effective Note-Taking Strategies.

Summarize in writing what you have heard, using your notes. Thus, you will learn to find the purpose and main idea of the listening, and also the most important details. You will also learn to take and use notes. It also helps in improving your writing skills.

Familiarize yourself with the type of questions in TOEFL iBT. Make sure that during the preparation you learn what answers are required by the different types of question. Some questions may ask you to provide two answers, others to click in a chart box. If you are familiar with the question types, you may save important time.

At the exam strategies

       Forget about the Reading section. Now it is time to fully concentrate on the Listening section.

The clock is ticking only when you are answering the questions and not when you are listening to the passages. So, when you listen, forget about the clock.

Prepare for note-taking. Before the section starts, write down the words 'main idea', 'major points', and 'important details'. Under which word you will place your notes from the listening passage.

Do not be distracted by the speaker's accent, speaking style and delivery. Focus on the content and flow of information the speaker(s) deliver.

         Listen to find clues that will help you understand what the speaker's purpose, attitude and degree of certainty is. Listen for words that show relationship between ideas.

Pay attention to the visual materials. Some of the visual materials in the Listening section bring important information. Blackboards show important words or phrases that are discussed during the lecture. Illustrations and graphics support the information presented in the lecture. They are available only when the lecturer refers to them.

Answering is different. In the Listening section you may not return to the previous questions to correct your answers. Nevertheless, you have to confirm twice that you want to move to the next question. First, when you provide your answer you have to press the NEXT button. After pressing the NEXT button you may alter you answer. To move to the next question you have to press OK button. Sometimes test takers forget this and lose important time. Please, set your mind that you have to press two buttons.

         Take a guess. There is no penalty for an incorrect answer in TOEFL iBT. It doesn't bring any points. If you see you are running out of time, just take a guess and mark answers for all remaining questions. There is 25 % chance to guess the right answer.

  

and these are the source : 

 

·         http://www.studyabroad18.com/articles/toefl-strategies-for-listening-section.php

·         http://i-courses.org/listening-tips