Which statement is true about basic sentence patterns in relation to teaching?

• A. Recursion
• B. Prediction
• C. Lexicalization
• D. Semantics

Answer: (B)

Working with basic sentence patterns means teaching students to recognize and use standard, repeatable structures as building blocks for language. In this approach, prediction is a key teaching strategy: when you present a familiar frame—such as a simple subject–verb–object pattern or there/there be + noun—and ask learners to anticipate the missing element, they actively apply grammar, check word order, and choose appropriate vocabulary. This anticipation strengthens memory for the pattern, supports quicker retrieval, and makes producing correct sentences feel more automatic and less intimidating.

Recursion, while important in more advanced language, deals with embedding clauses to create longer sentences and isn’t a basic, everyday pattern that learners routinely predict at the outset. Lexicalization focuses on how words or fixed expressions become units, which is valuable for vocabulary development but doesn’t directly address using and predicting the recurring sentence frames themselves. Semantics concerns meaning, which is essential, but basic sentence patterns are specifically about form and structure learners can predict and reproduce in speech and writing.