Passive Voice

Good afternoon, if everybody is ready, I think we can begin now. First of all, let us introduce
ourselves. She is Mirta Campos and I am Natalia Cerbino. We are students of 1st year at
teacher’s training college. I am also teaching English at the primary school. Our talk today will
deal primarily with the teaching of passive voice in secondary school. We have divided our
presentation into three parts. We will begin by explaining the meaning, use and form of the
passive voice to communicate better. After that, we will contrast the Spanish passive
constructions versus the English Passive voice and in the last part we will suggest some
activities or techniques to teach this topic.

Most of us, sometime, have been confronted with the difficulty to produce English Passive
voice, particularly to reconcile meanings when translating sentences. For this reason, in this
first section, we will be explaining the concept of passive voice, we will introduce how it is
constructed in English and we will explore when it is commonly used, its main functions.
Passive voice is a sentence construction in which the object comes before the verb and
appears to receive the action and the subject becomes the performer of the same action
(computers are repaired by John). According to Sandra Palacios Palacios and Yalile Gimenez
Olivares, professors at the San José National University, there is only one way of constructing
the passive voice in English, which is by promotion. From an active sentence following the
subject+ verb+ object (SVO) pattern, promotion takes the object and positions it as the subject.
There are three main elements present in the formation of English Passive:

Subject (Receiver of the action) + Verb phrase (aux BE+ Past participle) + Agent (performer
of the action)

Let’s look at the following chart

Style Subject Verb Object Complement

Now that we have seen the definition of passive voice and how it is built up in English, let’s
outline its main functions. Let’s turn to the next chart and some examples

Emphasis on the action (not Obvious, unknown subject Active sentence with
the subject) subjects such as
“somebody”, “nobody”,
“someone”
More and more computers The thief was arrested two The bank was robbed
are sold every day hours ago

Moving on, let’s focus on the problem we generally find at the moment of translating some
English Passive voice sentences into Spanish. But before that it is important to pay attention to
the main differences between the passive in English and Spanish. Palacios Palacios Sandra and
her colleague sustain that our language has passive constructions whereas English passive
voice, only produced by promotion. However Spanish present three ways of forming them:
passive ser, passive estar and Passive se.
In a recent article, the scholar Demello states that Ser losses its semantic value when working
as an auxiliary in passive constructions. Therefore, its presence becomes more physical and
figurative than semantic. For these reasons researchers consider passive ser to be the closest
equivalent to the English passive voice, the true passive. It has the following pattern:

Subject (Receiver Of the action) + Verb phrase (aux. BE+past participle+ por + Agent (Prep.)
+ (Performer of the action)
The next sentence will show how the passive ser resembles to the English passive voice

Active sentence: El empleado cerró la puerta (The employee closed the door)

Passive sentence: La puerta fue cerrada por el empleado (The door was closed by the
employee)

The most remarkable difference is mainly in the verb phrase. In the Spanish passive form the
whole verb phrase must agree in gender and number with the subject whereas in English
gender agreement properties work differently. Only the subject will be changed, the verb
phrase remains the same. Let’s look another example

Spanish: Mi abuelo/a fue atacado/a por un perro

English: My grandfather/ grandmother was attacked by a dog

There is another passive construction that is formed by conjugating the verb estar and the past
participle of the main verb. This passive form is used when the focus is the final result of the
process and not the process itself (pasiva de estado) It differs from the English passive voice
and furthermore it is not usual to mention the agent. In the sentence, La nueva urbanización
está construida encima de una colina.(The new residential area is built on top of a hill) the
focus is on the final result of the initial process of "having built the residential area". If we were
instead focused on the process, we would use the traditional passive construction using ser,
for example: La nueva urbanización es construida/está siendo construida/fue construida
encima de una colina. (The new residential area is built/is being built/ was built on top of a
hill). In simple terms this means that the sentence “The new residential area is built on top of a
hill”, offers two possible translations in Spanish

The third and last form of passive in spanish is formed with se. This form is far from any English
form and the agent simply should not be mentioned.

The passive se is always formed using the third person singular or third person plural of a verb.
If whatever you're talking about is singular, the verb is singular; if the whatever you're talking
about is plural, the verb is plural.

se + third person (singular/plural) verb + (singular/plural) noun

Se compran muebles usados.

In order to illustrate the lack of correspondence of se and English passive voice

In table 1, for the sentence “Aquí se alquilan habitaciones” there is no english syntactic
equivalent. What English does is to rebuild the sentence and fix it to its closest structure,
“rooms are rented here” (las habitaciones son alquiladas aquí) to solve the grammatical
and semantic conflicts. In table 2, the second sentence, “Aquí se alquila habitaciones” se
behaves as an impersonal, indefinite subject. In a one-to-one translation, it would say
“here one rents rooms” (Aquí uno alquila habitaciones). Once more, since this does not
sound right to English the most accepted translation will be, “rooms are rented here” (las
habitaciones son alquiladas aquí) or “rooms for rent” (habitaciones para alquilar)

How are teachers supposed to deal with these situations when explaining to foreign
language learners the passive voice in English? As Sandra and Yalile concluded students
normally like to have one- to-one translations, but as we previously analysed such claim
is not always possible. According to Mahinda Cooray our teachers still teach the passive
voice by means of the conversion exercise, following the usual method of the school
grammar. This method of teaching is based on certain misconceptions: They are (1 ) that
the passive construction is a mere transposition of the active voice , which is taken to be
the natural form , and it is so formed in order to bring the object of the transitive verb or
verb-group into front position , giving it thereby prominence over the active agent ; (2 )
that active and passive sentences are under all circumstances interchangeable. For this
reason, the organic approach proposed by Dr, Esam Ahmed Abdulrahim from the
university of Mosul appears as one interesting alternative to teach this topic. Teaching
English grammar out of context to EFL students is thought to hinder its successful
learning. Thus, teaching them the Passive Voice, for example, in context through the
Organic Approach (O.A) is believed to make its learning a success (grammar in context).
Instead of viewing grammar as a static system of arbitrary rules, EFL students should see
it as “a rational, dynamic system that is comprised of structures characterized by the
three dimensions of form, meaning, and use” (Larsen-Freeman,1997:1). This is so
because the grammatical rules of a language alone do not inform us of what to say. They,
in fact, inform us of how to respond correctly in the realm of the structural system of a
language only. Thus, EFL students must realize the communicative resource of grammar
for themselves (inductively). To do so, their grammatical materials and approach must be
designed to involve them in problem-solving tasks which focus the students’ attention on
the effective use of their grammatical knowledge. Such grammatical materials should
invite EFL students to understand and produce linguistic forms as a part of purposeful
activity, not just as an exercise in language practice.
Other methods by Tanju Deveci
a) The Grammar Translation Method: In this method, which focuses heavily on grammar
teaching through translation activities, accuracy is given the priority and lessons are more
reading and writing skills oriented with little attention given to speaking and listening
skills (Griffiths and Parr, 2001). Regarding the Passive Voice, learner mistakes on meaning
and form can be avoided by constantly referring to students' native tongue to ensure the
meaning. In this way, possible L1 and L2 disagreements can be prevented. In the case of
newspaper headlines and signs with reduction in the Passive Voice, students may be
asked to make translations from their mother tongues into English or vice versa.
b) The Audio-lingual Approach: This approach is based on the idea that languages are
primarily learned through habit formation and therefore puts a heavy emphasis on
memorization of phrases. For this to happen effectively, the teacher is to teach structures
one at a time using drills (Zafar, 2008). In this method, students' pronunciation mistakes
on past participle, understanding of 'been' not as 'being', and contractions in the Passive
Voice can be avoided strictly. However, students who do not really see the written form
may never be clear if they have mastered the meaning and function. For intermediate
students, simple passive sentences can be initially presented to the students orally, and
they can be asked to repeat them several times. After they master the sentence,
substitution drills can be done. Then the teacher can put some of these sentences in a
dialogue and have the students memorize it to a role-play when they are ready.
c) The Deductive Method: Gollin (1998) explains that in this method the teacher starts
with a concept rule. Then he provides examples as proof of the concept rule. Then he
shows examples and non-examples, which do not show essential characteristics of the
concept rule. After this, the students are asked to categorize the examples or non-
examples by explaining why they do or do not fit the concept rule. As seen, this method
would put emphasis on possible student mistakes about the Passive Voice. For a review
activity the following can be done with upper-intermediate students: Teacher reminds
students of the Passive Voice rule and gives various passive sentences in various tenses.
Then he asks them the concept rule again. This time he gives them another non-example
sentence such as one in present perfect continuous tense. Then, he gives out several
examples and non-examples which contain tenses, intransitive or stative verbs, some
prepositional verbs, specific transitive verbs such as 'have' or reflexive verbs. They are
asked to categorize them by justifying their choices.
d) Inductive Method: Nunan (1999) states that inductive method is based on inductive
reasoning, which encourages learners to apply a general rule to other individual
instances. In this method, learners discover rules through analysis of examples. The
teacher who adopts this method provides examples which have the same concept and
concept rule in common. However, the concept rule is not explicitly stated. Students will
attempt to find it through the examples near the end of the lesson. The teacher, through
questioning of the students, elicits characteristics of the concept rule. Through these
exercises, students should begin to understand the common concept found in all of the
examples. Then he shows the students examples and non-examples of the same concept.
Students must categorize the examples or non-examples by explaining why do or do not
fit the concept rule they are discovering. This method places emphasis on the things
mentioned in deductive method. However, the students are more active in learning the
concept rules. In an advanced class, the teacher can show students passive sentences in
different tenses. By asking students questions, teacher elicits the rule 'to be + past
participle' for the Passive Voice. This time he gives them one future progressive and
perfect progressive sentence in active voice asking them if these could be made into the
Passive Voice. After trying, students learn that this is not possible. He does the same
thing with intransitive, stative, prepositional and reflexive verbs. Finally, he gives out
different examples containing example and non-examples and they categorize them by
justifying their answers.
e) The Guided Discovery Strategy: This strategy shares common grounds with inductive
approach and aims to get the learners to explore a problem or a situation in context to
formulate conclusions. In doing so, learners are actively involved in the learning process.
In this strategy, the meaning of P.V. and function can also be stressed by having students
think about the meaning of the structure. With the formulation part, teacher can help
them discover form and punctuation rules. With an intermediate class, the following
presentation could be done. Role-play of a crime can be acted out in class putting stress
on the action rather than the doer. Teacher elicits sentences passive sentences from
students with some help if necessary. In this stage, he concentrates on the meaning and
function. Then, he elicits the formula with the aim of focusing on form. Following this, he
gives out a newspaper article about a natural disaster and asks the students to fill in the
blanks using the Active or Passive voice.
f) Communicative Approach: Harmer (1991) states that communicative approach
involves students in activities which give them both the desire to communicate and a
purpose which involves them in a varied use of language. It emphasizes both meaning
and function. Students learn languages in a way that necessities communication between
students. Students' native language is tolerated in certain stages, but it is not used as a
teaching tool. Mistakes on form are tolerated to a certain degree. With an advanced class
for a practice purpose, the teacher can ask students to conduct a survey using English
only. They need to gather information on demographics such as gender, nationality, age
and occupation as well as information on their focused research topic such as reading
habits or awareness of environmental issues. After collating the responses they have
gathered, they can be asked to write up a report which outlines their main findings. They
are asked to use the Passive Voice frequently to give their writing an impersonal feeling
This brings us to the end of our presentation today.