ACTIVE VOICE – PASSIVE VOICE TRANSFORMATION WITH MOODLE. INTRODUCING GRAMMAR ASPECTS OF PASSIVIZATION ON THE E-LEARNING PLATFORM
Ioana-Claudia HOREA, Rodica BOGDAN
Department of International Business, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania
bogdan_r_30@yahoo.com
Abstract: Passivization or Active to Passive Voice transformation is extensively used in professional communication, as the formal register of the language implies a somewhat more distant tackling of subjects. At this level, collocutors are more likely to be interested in communicating that a certain activity has been performed and there now is a concrete result of it (hence using a Passive construction), instead of stressing who performed that particular action (which is the straightforward implication of the Active Voice structures). Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP), as professional communication devices, witness multiple instances of Passive Voice constructions. Thus, there is a clear need of having such structures analysed and practised with our students in economics, during their language classes. The already well known and quite widely used Moodle platform is, as we have shown in previous studies as well, a helpful instrument in teaching and practising languages. It facilitates quick and permanent access to study materials and to rehearsal pages with schematised info designed in an appealing layout. It is also a useful working device for the students’ practice, allowing creation of exercises and tests that shall, by provision of appropriate feedback and related explanations for each case in particular, ensure instant “correction” of tests and provision of customised results for all students taking the said assignments. If in previous articles we exemplified our experience with Moodle in vocabulary introduction, in teaching elements of communication or in practising the grammar aspect of Reported speech, this study will put forward examples of tests and assignments concerning Active and Passive Voice. The exercises created by the authors can be used either during classes or set for individual practice at any time the teacher considers. Obviously, the basic condition is the instructors’ and students’ access to internet and to a Moodle platform – or similar – and to a common course pages within it, so as the examples given here may be of help and good use to other language teachers and learners.
Keywords: Passive Voice; Active Voice; LSP; language learning; Moodle tools.
