CORINA-LAVINIA DRUGAȘ TEACHING “THE ADJECTIVE IN CONTEXT” 2026 REFERAT ȘTIINȚIFIC Volumul Teaching Adjectives in Context reflectă experiența didactică a autoarei și preocuparea constantă pentru transformarea unor aspecte gramaticale complexe în conținuturi accesibile și ușor de aplicat la clasă. Corina Lavinia Drugaș propune o abordare echilibrată, care îmbină fundamentele teoretice cu exemple relevante și sugestii metodice, oferind o perspectivă coerentă asupra rolului adjectivului în limba engleză. Lucrarea pornește de la importanța competenței gramaticale în învățarea unei limbi străine și plasează studiul adjectivului în contextul actual al predării limbii engleze. Sunt analizate, într-o manieră clară și sistematică, principalele caracteristici ale adjectivelor, poziția acestora în enunț, gradele de comparație și particularitățile de utilizare care generează frecvent dificultăți pentru cursanți. Explicațiile sunt susținute de numeroase exemple, ceea ce facilitează înțelegerea regulilor și aplicarea lor în contexte autentice de comunicare. Dincolo de dimensiunea descriptivă, lucrarea se remarcă prin orientarea sa metodică. Autoarea nu se limitează la prezentarea regulilor, ci propune modalități concrete de predare și de exersare a acestora, oferind profesorilor sugestii care pot fi adaptate cu ușurință în activitatea de la clasă. Tocmai această legătură firească dintre teorie și practică conferă volumului utilitate și relevanță. Cartea se adresează atât celor care studiază limba engleză, cât și profesorilor interesați de o abordare clară și bine structurată a predării gramaticii. Prin echilibrul dintre rigoarea științifică și dimensiunea aplicativă, Teaching Adjectives in Context demonstrează că gramatica poate fi predată într-un mod accesibil, fără a pierde din precizie. Rezultatul este un volum bine construit, care oferă repere solide atât pentru înțelegerea adjectivului, cât și pentru valorificarea lui în practica didactică. Lect.univ.dr. Teodora Cernău 3 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Personal notes 7 The importance of English language in the context of globalization 9 The importance of grammar nowadays 11 CHAPTER I ADJECTIVE OVERVIEW Adjective patterns and features 13 Use and position of the adjectives 14 Order of the adjectives and possible difficulties 19 Degrees of comparison 21 CHAPTER II TEACHING THE ADJECTIVE IN CONTEXT III.1. Receptive skills in teaching the adjective 27 Effective Strategies for Teaching reading and listening 27 Reading and listening activities in English classes 32 III.2. Productive skills in teaching the adjective 41 Goals and Techniques for Teaching Speaking 41 Speaking Activities in English Classes 46 Why stories in the classroom? 57 Writing descriptive stories 59 III.3. Mistakes and Planning in the classroom 67 Teacher’s roles in teaching the adjective 67 Mistakes’ management and error correction 69 Lesson plans 73 CHAPTER III ORGANIZING CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 89 Pair Work and Group Work in the Practice of the adjective 89 Role-Playing– An Efficient Way to Practice and Produce the adjective appropriately 95 Assessment tasks 99 4 CONCLUSION 101 GLOSSARY REFERENCE 103 106 ANNEXES 108 5 A poem dedicated to children, teachers and parents: “Reaching children through teaching” By Corina-Lavinia Drugaș Children are special, unique. They make the world go round. They are passionate, innovative, creative, resourceful, and sensitive. They challenge us and thus, make us wonder and think. We must reach their souls, through love and tolerance, Make them repeat, record, reuse and there comes…the reward: a better world! 6 INTRODUCTION Personal Notes Grammar is an important part in developing the four skills we should acquire and it is difficult to separate grammar from vocabulary when producing language, a complex system that is used to describe the world we live in. On the other hand, grammar is an integral part of language, so that the more we can find out about how grammar is learnt and used, the better we will teach it. This book was written to help those that are interested in knowing how “the adjective” works and what role it plays in making descriptions of all kinds when preparing to certify the abilities of listening, reading, speaking and writing. Because adjectives can be classified in so many ways, it is a fact that students have difficulties in choosing the right order of the adjectives when having more than two as determiners of a noun, when choosing the right way of forming adjectives from other parts of speech or forming the comparative and the superlative degrees of comparison and especially when having to choose from a list of adequate adjectives in descriptions. Teaching any part of speech can not be done without practice through different types of exercises: gap-filling, matching and transformation tasks, error correction, manipulation of text, descriptive, narrative writing of essays that require the use of “the adjective”. This grammar work is structured into 3 chapters, such as: the 1st one presents an overview about the adjective such as: its patterns and fea- tures, its use and position, its types and particular problems and its degrees of comparison. The 2rd chapter represents the essence of this work as it is meant to cover the methodological aspects of teaching the adjective. This chapter intends to illus- trate the main techniques, strategies, steps and activities when it comes to ana- lysing the adjective in listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. A great amount of information is left to writing stories and essays as these are compul- sory to master when trying to obtain the writing skill certificate. Other important pages are dedicated to the teacher’s roles in the classroom, the mistakes’ man- agement seen as a crucial part in the learning process. 7 The 3th chapter is devoted to classroom organization in the process of learning the adjective; Pair work, group work and role-playing are detailed here as im- portant strategies of good practice of the adjective. In this chapter a number of assessment tasks, relevant for the subject of this paper, is also mentioned. They can be used as a basis for class discussion or for individual reflection and re- view. This book ends with the final conclusion and with my personal beliefs that the adjective plays a crucial part in the process of using English language accurately nowadays. 8 The Importance of English language in the context of Globalization Why is English language so important in the context of world-wide globalization nowadays? It is the language of England and has International Standard and we never know when we need to get in touch on International level. Children are taught and encouraged to learn English on starting levels. And accordingly, as they promote to the next levels there are schools where they study almost all the subjects in English. We use the Internet and find more than 90% of websites written and created in English. And even when we see some sites in other languages, they also give us the option to translate in English. All the research and studies we find, will be written and typed in English. All the information regarding each and everything contains English Language. With good understanding and communication in English, we can travel around the globe. We get assistance and help in English in every part of world. There are many reasons to learn English, whether it is for personal, study or work-related reasons. Here are some of them: Communicate with people English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. Throughout the world, when people of different nationalities want to communicate, they commonly use English language. That is why we like to call it “the language of communication”. Moreover, speaking English will enable us to contact people from all over the world and to travel more easily. English is commonly spoken throughout much of the world due to Great Britain’s expansion during the colonial age. People in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, parts of Africa, India, and many smaller island nations speak English. English is the commonly adopted second language in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Speaking English opens these countries and cultures up to us. Push our career forward All over the world, speaking English immediately opens up opportunities. Being able to communicate with foreign clients and business partners will provide us a more challenging position in our career. We will also have the option to apply for jobs 9 requiring English. That is why I believe that knowing English will make us bilingual and more employable in every country in the world. Get access to knowledge English is also internationally recognized as the language of science. Most of the knowledge related to computer or health is in English. Being able to use English in our researches will give us unlimited access to knowledge. Enjoy art like never before English lets us feel the culture of the world like no other language. Learning it will offer us the opportunity to do wonderful things. English is also considered the language of the Film industry and learning it means we will no longer have to rely on subtitles or dubbed versions. We will also be able to read books written by English speaking authors in their original version. Last but not least, music is much better if we can understand the meaning and my students definitely learn a lot of English because of listening to music. Moreover, English is an easy language to learn and to use. It is based on an alphabet and, compared to Asian languages, it can be learnt fairly quickly. So, learning another language isn't just about communication or professional purposes, it will also give us advantages we had never imagined. Learning English will open our job prospects, increase our standard of living and thus, it can change our life for the better. 10 Next >