Using passive voice
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What is passive voice for? | page 4 of 4 |
Teaching implications
Many coursebooks and grammar books attempt to explain the use of passive voice along the lines of: "We use passive voice when we are more interested in the person or thing affected by the action than in the doer of the action." This is probably too vague to be of much use to most learners. It is not really clear what "more interested in" means. It is true that passive voice clauses with verbs describing actions are often "about" the person or thing affected by the action. However, the more important information is very often near the end of the clause, and may consist of the action itself or the doer of the action, eg he was shot; he was shot by the police, or some other piece of information, eg he was shot by accident; he was shot in the chest / in Discovery Bay.
It is in fact quite hard to come up with a simple generalisation about how passive
voice is used that would be useful for students. In order for students to develop the
ability to choose appropriately between active and passive voice, they need to develop a
feeling for how such choices contribute to the flow of information in a text. This means
looking at (and practising) active and passive voice clauses in context. For further
information about this, see 
Using passive voice: Passive voice
in context.
If you would like to see a teaching activity for Secondary 1 - 2 which raises students'
awareness of passive voice, click on 
NEWS REPORTING.
Teaching implications
