Hi friend!
This post is a quick overview of conjunctions and why they're important for language comprehension and expression.
A conjunction is a word that connects parts of a sentence together.
There are several kinds of conjunctions:
Coordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions
Conjunctive adverbs
Conjunctions affect several different types of speech goals. Here are some examples:
🌟 Utterance expansion. Conjunctions make sentences longer and more complex, making them a key component of working on utterance expansion goals.
🌟 Responding to wh- questions (e.g. Why did the house break? The house broke because....)
🌟 Formulating compound sentences
🌟 Formulating complex sentences
🌟 Retelling stories, narrative generation
🌟 Summarizing
COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
A coordinating conjunction is a word that combines two words, phrases or sentences.
Using coordinating conjunctions:
helps to present information succinctly
supports summarizing skills
makes what you say less choppy
shows relationships between thoughts, ideas, actions, people
Coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. You can remember these (and help your students to remember them) with the acronym FANBOYS.
For - explains why
And - to make two similar points, to connect two items
Nor - to make two similar negative points
But - to show contrast
Or - to provide an alternative
Yet - to show contrast in spite of something
So - to show the result of something, to explain or give a reason for something
SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
A subordinating conjunction is a word or phrase that combines one independent clause and one dependent clause.
Using subordinating conjunctions:
provide an explanation
communicates time
gives more information about the sentences main idea
provides a cause and effect relationship
changes the time and place of 2 clauses
There are many subordinating conjunctions: after, although, as, as if, because, before, how, if, since, than, though, unless, until, when, where and while.
correlative CONJUNCTIONS
Correlative conjunctions are conjunctions used to illustrate how two words or phrases within a sentence relate to each other.
Correlative conjunctions always come in pairs. Here are some common ones:
CONJUNCTIve adverbs
Conjunctive adverbs are transition words or phrases. Conjunctive adverbs are also called connective adverbs or linking adverbs.
Here are some common conjunctive adverbs and their purposes or uses:
Addition - additionally, also, besides, furthermore, moreover
Consequence - consequently, accordingly, therefore, thus
Comparison - alternatively, similarly, likewise
Contrast - if not, however, nevertheless, otherwise, conversely
Emphasis - certainly, definitely, indeed, of course, naturally
Clarification - for example, for instance, namely, i.e., notably
If you're looking for ideas on how you can target conjunctions using books in literacy-based therapy sessions, check out this blog post.
Hope that helps! 😊
