Instruction of complex sentence structures is of utmost importance for young children as well as older students. A child’s knowledge of complex sentence structures observed through oral language use and listening comprehension proficiency is directly related to reading comprehension (Kamhi & Catts, 2012; Scott & Balthazar, 2015).
Why are Complex Sentences Important?
As children grow and develop language, their academic expectations and demands increase with every year. The language they are exposed to in conversations, lectures, curriculum sources, as well as independently selected literature, generally continues to become more complex. Their ability to process more complex forms of language is crucial for proficiency in school, higher-level learning, and later occupational success. Likewise, students’ ability to produce sophisticated language forms reflects their knowledge and mastery of content learning and occupational competency.
What are Complex Sentences?
One type of complex sentence form has a subordinate conjunction. This type of sentence includes an independent clause (a sentence that can stand alone) and a dependent clause (a sentence fragment that supports the independent clause). For example, since is the subordinate conjunction in the sentence “I went to the store to buy a cake since it was my sister’s birthday”, “I went to the store to buy a cake” is the independent clause, while “it was my sister’s birthday” is the dependent clause. These clauses are combined with a subordinating conjunction to indicate the relationship of the clauses. Subordinating conjunctions have many purposes. They can indicate time, cause/effect, comparison, concession, reason/purpose, and condition. In the sentence above, the subordinating conjunction “since” suggests a reason for the action.
For the purpose of this article, subordinating conjunctions that indicate time relationships and reason/purpose are addressed. These relationships are of utmost importance in regard to functional and academic purposes. For young children, this may take the form of sequencing, daily routines, developing narrative skills, and others. For older students, this may include understanding and explaining scientific processes, historical events, etc. As Communication Community states, “The ability to sequence events and comprehend information in a chronological fashion is crucial for the development of solid literacy skills.” Communication Community further states “it is important that children recognize and learn these sequences for understanding higher-level language functions.”
How to Teach Complex Sentence Structures?
As Speech-Language Pathologists, we recognize that this language sophistication often requires explicit teaching of complex sentence structures. This is especially true for those with language impairments, as syntactical deficits are often present in this population. Therefore, I have created complex sentence worksheets that include exercises for teaching complex sentences in a printable format. The complex sentence exercises begin with basic sequencing, cause/effect, and then move to ordering dependent and independent clauses. The student is encouraged through mediated learning and metacognitive strategy suggestions, to develop, speak, and write complex sentences.
For the full 77-page resource, you can purchase it in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. A video of the printable resource is below.
Other related information you may be interested in:
Complex Sentence Exercises – How to Engage Students
Why Teach Comlex Sentence Structure?
Go Enjoy the Day!
References:
1. Kamhi A, Catts HW. Language and reading disabilities. 3. Boston, MA: Pearson; 2012. [Google Scholar]
2. Cheryl M. Scott, Ph.D., CCC-SLP and Catherine Balthazar, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. The Role of Complex Sentence Knowledge in Children with Reading and Writing Difficulties. Perspect Lang Lit. 2013 Summer; 39(3): 18–30. PubMed Central March 2015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373700/
3. Communication Community blog, 2024, https://www.communicationcommunity.com/sequencing-cards/
