From the diary of an EFL teacher

Mubarak Abdessalami

“Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners”
John Holt
 Cause & Effect relationship for students with learning difficulties

First off, this paper doesn’t include learners with severe learning deficiencies like,
Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Auditory and Visual Processing Disorders, Non-verbal Learning
Disabilities, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is rather concerned with the
normal learners whose learning disorders are the direct effect of their easy access and
permanent connection to communication technology at the expense of their education;
which has negatively affected them.

Due to the prevalence and the imposing influence of technological devices and apps,
most learners show symptoms of lethargy and lack of concentration. They become less
interested in education, and this situation causes complicated learning problems and
disorders among the majority of the students today. They seem not to care about the cause
for being learners and they will surely have undesirable side effects for this attitude. It is sad,
but it is true.

To help them overcome their weakness and low efficiency, teachers endeavor to
make tasks easy for them, and try to teach them the way they can assimilate with the
minimum of effort. However, these efforts need permanent follow from the parents who
seem too much disconnected. As most of the students today are careless about their
schooling while they have to sit for the Baccalaureate exams, they often think about
cheating more than thinking about ways to improve their learning strategies. The teachers
are doing that for them, yet only very few of them show concern.

Learning disorder impacts comprehension among others. The learners can’t

distinguish cause from effect is one compound sentence or two separate ones to join them
together so as to make sense. They have difficulty understanding the syntax of sentences to
infer meaning, that’s why the relationship between cause and effect constitutes a major
hindrance for them. They are aware of the fact that they will be tested on cause and effect,
but recently, this generation of students is unable to assimilate the connection and how to
join two sentences that have this cause and effect rapport using the appropriate linking
words which are generally provided in the test or the exam papers.

The students are to be taught that if they are asked to join two sentences with cause
and effect relationship using linking words which require either a noun or a gerund like “due
to, owing to, because of, on account of, thanks to etc”, they can do it in a simpler way by
joining the sentences first with “because” then, change “because” with one of those linking
words followed by “the fact that” in order to avoid looking for the noun or the gerund, let’s
illustrate this

*/ Join the sentences with the words given

1. Leila didn’t go to school. Leila was sick (due to)

2. The match was cancelled. The weather was bad. (because of)

The first thing you have to care a lot about is to spot the sentence showing the cause. If it is
not obvious enough you can ask “why” questions to discover it.

- “Why was Leila sick?” This question can’t be answered as no information about it is
affordable; therefore, this is the cause. If you alternatively ask,
- “Why didn’t Leila go to school?” the answer is the cause, “she was sick”

M. Abdessalami 2
 Cause & Effect relationship for students with learning difficulties

1. Leila didn’t go to school . Leila was sick

Effect cause
So, why didn’t Leila go to school?
• Leila didn’t go school because she was sick.
• Because she was sick, Leila didn’t go to school.
• Because Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school.
• Leila didn’t go school as she was sick.
• As she was sick, Leila didn’t go to school.
• As Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school.
• Leila didn’t go school since she was sick.
• Since she was sick, Leila didn’t go to school.
• Since Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school.

Other linking words showing effect can also be used to join the sentences in one compound
sentence,
1. Leila didn’t go to school . Leila was sick
Effect cause

Leila was sick, so she didn’t go to school.

Leila was sick; therefore, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; for this reason, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; consequently, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; as a consequence, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; because of this, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; as a result, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; that’s why, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; thus, she didn’t go to school.
Leila was sick; hence, she didn’t go to school.

Up to this point, the students don’t encounter serious problems; however, when they are
asked to join the sentences using other more formal linking words such as, “due to”, “owing
to” or “because of”, for instance, which require some modifications on the original sentence,
the learners endure hard times figuring out how to express the cause and effect relationship
accurately. Well, this needs some explanation

If the students need to improve their speaking and writing confidence, they need to
assimilate the relationship construction very well. What is special about these linking words
is that they require a noun or gerund, and here problems show up. Most of the EFL learners
have difficulty deriving the noun from the adjective although most of them can provide the
gerund but only if the two sentences to be linked have the same subject like in this situation:

Leila didn’t go to school. Leila was sick

Due to
Thanks to + noun
Because of
On account of
Owing to + gerund
As a result of

M. Abdessalami 3
 Cause & Effect relationship for students with learning difficulties

Normally, the noun should be derived from the adjective in the “cause” sentence (sick), and
the gerund comes from the verb (was) used in the same cause sentence, see this

Noun

- Due to
- Because of
- On account of (her) sickness, Leila didn’t go to school.
- Owing to
- As a result of

Gerund

- Due to
- Because of
- On account of (her) being sick, Leila didn’t go to school.
- Owing to
- As a result of

There is a third part solution if they face problems finding out the noun or the
gerund, and generally this is what happens. This is a tough situation for the learners with
learning difficulties albeit it is not really of great deal. This category of learners can still use
the same linking words but without bothering about the noun or the gerund, here is how.

When the students can join the sentences using “because”, they are almost there. It
becomes easy then to transform the sentence to be expressed using “due to” or any of the
above connectors,

Leila didn’t go to school because she was sick

The students would simply replace “because” with, “due to the fact that”

Leila didn’t go to school due to the fact that she was sick

This can be applied to the other linking words of the same type

Leila didn’t go to school because of the fact that she was sick
Leila didn’t go to school on account of the fact that she was sick
Leila didn’t go to school owing to the fact that she was sick
Leila didn’t go to school as a result of the fact that she was sick
Due to the fact that Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school
Because of the fact that Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school
On account of the fact that Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school
Owing to the fact that Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school
As a result of the fact that Leila was sick, she didn’t go to school

Now, let’s see what is particular about the second sentence

2. The football match was cancelled. The weather was bad. (because of)

M. Abdessalami 4
 Cause & Effect relationship for students with learning difficulties

The first thing they would notice is that the two sentences have different subjects, so even
for good students, the use of the gerund here is not applicable. Now, they have to see which
is the appropriate question seeking for the cause sentence here?

1. Why was the football match cancelled?

2. Why was the weather bad?*

The right question is number 1. The second is a very clumsy question that none of the
sentences above can answer, and no one else can either. Unfortunately, the students with
learning problems can inaccurately write,

The weather was bad because the football match was cancelled. *

This sentence has no logic at all except that it is a sort of a “high” hilarious utterance. It is
very funny, isn’t it?!

The only correct version, thus, is the following,

The football match was cancelled because the weather was bad.

The bad weather is the cause, that’s why the match was cancelled. Now as the students can
use “because” to join the sentences accurately, it becomes easy to move to the next step
and change the linking word “because” to “because of the fact that”, to have the work finally
done,

The football match was cancelled because the weather was bad.
The football match was cancelled because of the fact that the weather was bad.

Needles to say here, that good students can do it using the noun with “owing to”, but not
the gerund because the sentences have different subjects (the football match vs. the
weather).

o The football match was cancelled because of the bad weather.

o Because of the bad weather, the football match was cancelled.

Practice Time
*/ Rewrite the sentences using the words between brackets
1. The kid was audacious. The kid got a medal. [thanks to]
2. I couldn’t find my way to the cabin. It was foggy. [because of ]
3. The man can’t walk quickly. The man is old. [owing to]
4. The cat finds the way out. The cat is intelligent. [thanks to]
5. It was rainy. We stayed at home. [on account of]

1.
The first move is to look for the cause in question 1. How can I find out the cause? I need to
ask the question,
a. Why was the kid audacious? (There is nothing in the sentences telling why), but
b. Why did the kid get a medal? (That’s because he was audacious. Yes, the connection here
is logical and clear)

M. Abdessalami 5
 Cause & Effect relationship for students with learning difficulties

The kid got a medal because he was audacious.

As “because” equals “thanks to the fact that”, let’s swap the connectors.

The kid got a medal thanks to the fact that he was audacious

As for good students, it could also be done this way since the sentences have the same
subject “the kid”,

a. The kid got a medal thanks to (his) being audacious.

b. The kid got a medal thanks to (his) audacity.
c. Thanks to (his) audacity, the kid got a reward.
d. Thanks to (his) being audacious, the kid got a reward.

2.
The first move is always the same. It is to look for the cause among the two provided
sentences so as to connect them to show the cause and effect relationship. Therefore, I
need to ask the question,

a. Why couldn’t I find my way to the cabin? That’s because it was foggy.

I couldn’t find my way to the cabin because it was foggy.

I couldn’t find my way to the cabin as it was foggy.
I couldn’t find my way to the cabin since it was foggy.
Because it was foggy, I couldn’t find my way to the cabin.
As it was foggy, I couldn’t find my way to the cabin.
Since it was foggy, I couldn’t find my way to the cabin.

As “because, since or as” equal “thanks to the fact that”, let’s make connections.
I couldn’t find my way to the cabin because of the fact that it was foggy.

Good students could join the sentences differently,

a. I couldn’t find my way to the cabin because of the fog.
b. Because of the fog, I couldn’t find my way to the cabin.

They wouldn’t use the gerund here because they can see that they have two different
subjects, “I” and “it”.

Once the technique is well assimilated those redundant first steps could now be skipped,

3.
- The man can’t walk quickly. The man is old. [owing to]
The man can’t walk quickly because he is old.
The man can’t walk quickly owing to the fact that he is old.
+ Owing to old age, the man can’t walk quickly.
+ The man can’t walk quickly owing to old age.
+ Owing to (his) being old, the man can’t walk quickly.
+ The man can’t walk quickly owing to (his) being old.

4.
- The cat finds the way out. The cat is intelligent. [thanks to]

M. Abdessalami 6
 Cause & Effect relationship for students with learning difficulties

The cat finds the way out because it is intelligent.

The cat finds the way out thanks to the fact that it is intelligent.
+ The cat finds the way out thanks to (its) intelligence.
+ The cat finds the way out thanks to (its) being intelligent.
+ Thanks to (its) intelligence, the cat finds the way out.
+ Thanks to (its) being intelligent, the cat finds the way out.

5.
- It was rainy. We stayed at home. [on account of]
We stayed at home because it was rainy.
We stayed at home on account of the fact that it was rainy.
+ We stayed at home on account of the rain.
+ On account of the rain, we stayed at home.

The transformation of this sentence using the gerund is impossible because there are two
different subjects, notably, “I” and “it”.

More Practice
True to life issues can be engaging and beneficial for the learners to be interested;
hence, more accurate and fluent. A well chosen topic for discussion will be a good reason for
the learners to practice what they have learnt like,

Why do some students fail in school?

- Some students fail in school because they don’t revise their lessons regularly.
- As they don’t pay attention, some students fail in school.
- Due to the poor management of their time, students fail at school.
- Students fail at school because of the excessive use of social network sites
- Because of laziness, some students fail in exams.
- Students fail at school owing to their lack of self-confidence.
- Since students are not interested in schooling, they fail.
- Students fail in school as a result of problems with teachers.
- Some students cheat on exams; consequently, they fail in school.
- Some students take drugs; as a result, they fail in school.
- Some students are not supervised at home; as a consequence, they fail in school.

Of course there are slight differences in the choice and use of those linking words, but at this
stage those differences aren’t really harmful to the meaning. Anyway, this sort of
brainstorming will entice the learners to start a cause and effect essay writing on the topic.
And this needs some more guidance.

All in all, the inefficiency of the students with learning deficiencies does not only
concern cause and effect relationships, but also other connections such as concession and
contrast. Most students today are not willing to study for a variety of reasons or often with
no obvious reason, but those who come to school for any reason have the right to be
assisted to like learning and to do good at school, and this is mostly the teacher’s mission. I
wish you all the best of luck.

(/-_-)\

M. Abdessalami 7