GRAMMAR:LEARNING AND TEACHING
Bibliography
Azar, B. (2007). Grammar-Based Teaching: A Practitioner's Perspective. TESL-EJ. 11(2). pp. 1-12.
Brown, D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs: Hall Regents.
Butler-Tanaka, P. (1998). What do you understand by the term consciousness-raising? To what extent is a grammar-translation approach based on consciousness-raising? University of Birmingham. Retrieved fromhttp://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/cels/essays/secondlanguage/PaulBT2.pdf on July 18th, 2013.
Hinkel, E. & Fotos, S. (Eds.). (2002). New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classrooms.New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.
Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mathews, P. H. (1997). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prabhu, N. S. (1990). There Is No Best Method – Why?TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 2.http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3586897?uid=3738664&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102543797057 Retrieved on July 18th, 2013.
Pullum, G. K. (n. d.). Learnability. Available at http://www.kornai.com/MatLing/learn.pdf Retrieved on July 18th, 2013.
Richards, J., Platt, J., and Platt, H. (1992). Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics. Harlow: Longman
The Didactics of Grammar
Basic Principles of Grammar Teaching
Grammar Techniques
Explanation of grammar rules: There are presctive and descriptive rules.
Prescriptive rules: Indicates how things need to be done.
Descriptive rules: Indicates how things are actually done.
Pedagogic rule: Rules written by linguists. In pedagogic rules we can find Rules of form and Rules of use.
- Rules of form: indicates how grammar is shaped (how to form past perfect)
- Rules of use: Indicates how to use language depending on the context (the different situations to use past perfect)
Suggestions to give grammar explanations
- Brief and simple explanation. Use students' L1 if necessary.
- Use charts and other visuals.
- Illustrate with clea, unabiguous examples.
- Account for varying cognitive styles (analytical learners, holistic learners, etc.)
- Do not get yourself tied with exceptions.
- If you do not know something, do not risk to give false information.
Rules and explanation
Aspects to care about before explaining a rule:
- If it is a well constructed rule, it should:
- Truth. Be truth
- Limitation. Show clear limits on its usage.
- Clarity. Be clear.
- Simplicity. Should be simple.
- Familiarity. Use familiar concepts in the explanaition.
- Relevance. Should answer only those questions that the students need.
Other written text
Dialogues: Use to present different grammatical structures.
Maps and drawings: Can be used to present some grammatical structures as prepositional phrases, questions, imperatives, and structures as 'there is' and 'there are'.
Objects: Using realia is motivating as it gives a kinaesthetic dimension to our teaching.
Charts: Useful for presenting patterns, clarifying grammatical associations and presenting the verb system.
The A Factor: Appropriacy
ASPECTS TO CONSIDER IF AN ACTIVITY IS APPROPRIATE OR NOT.
- Age and levell of the learners.
- Group size.
- Structure of a group, say, monolingual or multilingual.
- Needs and interest of the group.
- Availability of resources and materials.
- Learners' previous experience and present expectations.
- Cultural factors.
- Educational context; public or private.
The E-Factor: Efficiency= economy, economy and efficacy
ECONOMY: Has to do wiht using the time wisely. In grammar 'the shorter the better'.
EASE: The time that teachers invest in planning the lesson should be shorter that the class time. 'The easier the activity is to set up, the better it is.'
EFFICACY: Could be seen through the attention it arises and through the understanding the learners show by elicitation or answering questions, and finally it can be seen on how memorable the activity is for learners.
Perspectives of Grammar
Skills: Learners need to practice in the classroom their language skills but they also need to improve their language knowledge to improve these skills.
Metaphor: Gives the learner power to generate a new set of meaning with familiar words.
Text Structure: works on cohesion and coherence.
Frequent words: It is important to highlight them for learners as they are very common.
Collocations: Word associations.
Lexical Phrases: Fixed phrases that behaive as lexical items. For example: 'as a matter of fact'
The grammar of class: It refers to the classification of words according to their grammatical behaviour: countable or uncountable nouns, bouble object verbs, etc.
The grammar of orientation: It is important to study the system of tenses and determiners since they give the reader/listener orientation, helping to identify the realation with time, place and identity. Example: 'My wife works in the garden most weekends.'
The grammar of structure: It is possible to offer powerful rules describing the structure of the English clause.
Conscious Raising and Grammar Learnability:
Conscious raising is an approach that helps learners to notice langugage features, then they can use those features to improve their acquisition of the language.
It is realted to learnability as if there is CR to identify mistakes (error corrections) then there would not be fossilization.
Theories of Grammar
Grammar as an Axiomatic System
Attempts to apply the rigor of mathematics to peculiar regularities of human language, as:
- Recursivity (A --> B C (A))
Grammar as Internalized System
It focuses on the process in the mind while communication is being used.
Scholars have long recognized that grammatical patterning reflects, however indirectly, a complex neurological system defined by the capacities and limitations of the human brain.
Grammar as Description
For linguist, a "Descriptive Grammar of a language' consyst of:
- Syntax
- Morphology
- Phonetics and phonology
- Semantic and/or lexis
In contrast with prescirptivist, descriptive grammarians often focus on nonstandard dialects.
Grammar as Prescription
Prescription makes possible the standarization of languages, which makes communications easier. Codified language simplifies the learning and teaching of a language.
Types of Grammar
Reference Grammar
According to Loos et. al. (2004) 'a reference grammar is a prose-like description of the major grammatical constructions in a language, illustrated with examples.'
It is designed to teach someone about the language and to give readers a reference tool for looking up specific details of the language.
Parts of a Reference Grammar
- Introduction
- Body
- Index
- Bibliography
- List of abreviations
Pedagogical Grammar
Odlin(1994:1) states that even though it could cover more areas 'pedagogical grammar usually denotes the types of grammatical analysis and instructions designed for the needs of second language students.'
The FOUR TYPES OF GRAMMAR has implications to teaching languages.
Theories of Grammar Instruction
Discourse-Based Approaches
- Grammar can be taught through the use of different types of texts (genres).
- The analysis of discourse includes determining the features of the English narrative in situations related to work, studies, family, and other social activities.
- Discourse analysis provides an authentic context for learning and using grammar.
- The research done in the field of discourse analysis can be used for communicative purposes.
Interaction for Grammar Learning
In real communication one needs to understand and be understood; therefore, comprehensible output is essential for successful communication to take place.
Interaction is then needed for learners to increase their output and this contributes to learner internalization of L2 knowledge.
Noticing and Consciousness Raising
- Consciousness implies 'see', 'notice', have a structure present even if one isn't able to use it yet.
- Awareness results from both instruction of forms and meaningful input of language form.
- Communicative input can be, in fact, 'nstructed grammar learning of L2 grammar'
- Having knowledge of grammatical structure developed through a formal instruction can make these structure more relevant and aplicable for learners and, thus, easier to internalize.
- There is a disticntion between two types of knowledge: explicit and/or declarative knowledge and implicit and/or procedural knowledge.
Focus on Form
It combines formal instructional and communicative language use.
It makes a distinction between:
- Explicit instruction on grammar forms.
- Meaning-focused use of form.
Learner must notice, then process the target grammar structure in purely communicative input.
Communicative Language Teaching and Humanistic Approaches
Were developed in the lates 1970s and 1980s as communicative activities designed to give learners positive feelings toward the instructional process so that language acquisition was facilitated.
Cognitive Approaches
- Grammar must be instructed.
- Achieving linguistic competence requieres learners to go through a mental process.
- Cognitive approaches of L2 teaching use Transformational and Generative grammar.
- Learners should construct new language on previous one.
- They use the traditional approach to teaching grammar.
- Cognitive approaches aim for learners to develop analytical linguistics skills.
- Noam Chomsky objected the assumption that language is a habit.
- He presented language as an innate generative process.
- This Process exists in the human brain.
- Chomky's vies of language is based on syntax.
- Universal Grammar underlies all languages.
- Distinction between the concepts of competence and performance.
Functional Approach
It is a system of categories based on communicative needs of the learner and proposed a syllabus based on communicative functions.
It appeared to be opposite to structural syllabus but it still be structureal since certain structures are often associated with specfic functions.
Structural Grammar / Descriptive Linguistic
Was created as a reaction to Traditional Grammar Instruction. It offers another framework for the description of language through three systems, phonology, morphology and syntax.
Important features to study PG
Expert Guidance
Detailed evidence, in professional literature, suggests that teacher can make a difference.
Elli (1990b) concludes that 'Learners who receive formal instruction outperform those who do not; that is, they learn more rapidly and they reach higher levels of ultimate achievement.'
Traditional Grammar Instruction
Some of its characteristics are still in use as:
- The 8 parts of speech:
- nouns
- verbs
- participles
- articles
- pronouns
- prepositions
- adverbs
- conjunctions
- Sometimes translation is used when teaching (could be to convey meaning)
- It is prescriptive
Fossilization
If students do not become capable analysts, their interlanguage competence will diverge from the target language grammar.
Learner Independece
Students have to become independent analyst of the target language if they are to deal with all the problems that their instructor lack time to cover in much detail.
Instructional Time
Time spent in a language course is only a fraction of what is needed to develop proficiency in a second language.
Field of Pedagogical Grammar
- Theories of grammar and how they explain the grammar construction.
- The Psychological construct that underline interlanguage of performance and competence.
- Teaching methods and approaches.
- Material for teaching grammar.
- Textbooks and dictionaries.
Relational Grammar
A therory of descriptive grammar in which syntactic operations (or relationships) rather that syntactic structures are used to define grammatical processes.
Word Grammar
A theory of language structure which holds that grammatical knowledge is largely a body (or network) of knwoledge about words.
Universal Grammar
The system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and considered to be innate.
Transformational Grammar
A therory of grammar that accounts for the constructions of a language by linguistic transformations and phrases structures.
Traditional Grammar
The collection of prescritive rules and concepts about the structure of a language. We say that traditional grammar is prescriptive because it focuses on the distiction between what some people do with language and what they ought to do with it, according to a pre-stablished standard.
Theoretical Grammar
The study of the essential components of any human language
Performance Grammar
A description of the syntax of English as it is actually used by speakers in dialogues. It centers attention in language production.
Mental Grammar
The generative grammar stored in the brain that allows speaker to produce language that other speakers can understand. "All humans are born with the capacity for constructing a Mental Grammar." This is called Language Faculty.
Generative Grammar
Also known as tranformational-generative grammar or TG. It is a grammar (or set of rules) that indicates the structure and interpretation of sentences which native speakers of a language accept as belonging to the language.
Comparative Grammar
Is the analysis and comparison of the grammatical structure of related languages. It stablishes the relationship among all languages.
Grammar and the ELT Methodology
Task Based Learning (TBL): Approaches grammar through recognition of the valua of focus on form. Task involves the use of the 4 macro skills to carry out communicative tasks.
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): Based on the believe that Communicative Competence is more than just having knowledge of language. Two schools...
Deep-end school: Learners learn to communicate by communicating and grammar must not be taught at all. Language is acquired not taught. Sillabi based on task that imitated real-life like situations.
Shallow-end school: grammar is indispensable to master language. The purpose for learning a language is to use it. Sillabi based on grammar presented in functional labels:asking, apology, etc.
Natural Approach: Humans have the inner capacity to acquire the language effortless. Learners must be exposed to lots of comprehensible input. Grammar's role is secondary.
Subtopic
Audiologualism: Founded on behaviorism, the sillabi consist of a list of sentence patterns.
Direct Method: Claims to be natural, emphasizes oral skills, sillabi based on grammar but it is not taught explicitly.
Grammar Translation Method: Grammar is the core of the lesson. Sillabi are based on grammar points.
Argument againts teaching grammar
Learner's expectation argument (2): Learners want to put their knowledge to work, use it.
Lexical chunks argument: It states that many of the language that young learners pick up are learned as chunks and later unpacked into tehir components parts.
Natural order argument: Krashen's acquisition/learning hypothesis suggests there is a natural orden of acquisition of grammatical items. Chomshy argues there is an innate Universal Grammar.
Acquisition argument: If first language is learned without formal instruction, it should work for a second language learning.
Communication argument: Grammatical knowledge is just a small part of Communicative Compentence, which is formed by knowing how to use grammar and vocabulary to achieve communicative goals.
Knowledge-How Argument: Expresses that having the knowledge (knowing grammar) does not mean you can speak the language. You need to do it (practice it).
Resons for teaching grammar
Learner expectations argument: Learners spect to learn in a systematic form.
The rule-of law argument: Since grammar is a set of learnable rules, it lend itself to a view of teaching and learning known as transmission
Discrete item argument: As grammar seems to be a finite set of rules, it helpd the learning and teaching of a language.
Advance-organiser argument: Grammar has a delayed effect. By learning grammar, learners can notice some language features by themselves and learn them.
Fossilization argument:"Learners with no formal learning get to certain learning poit from where it is very difficult to make any progress.
Fine-tuning argument: Grammar serves against ambiguity
Sentence machine argument: By learning grammar, L2 learners can generate new sentences based on this grammar, limited only for their command of the language.
Grammar's Role in ELT
Grammar's role in ELT in terms of
Needs and goals: Clarity of messages is alwasys important, therefore grammar is important.
Style (register): If a formal style is being used then correct grammar is required.
Language Skills: Grammar teaching method depends on the skill to be taught.
Educational background: Use simplier explaniations for low academic background L2 learners.
Profociency level: Explicit grammar for intermediate and advance level. Short descriptions for beginners.
Age: Using different terminology for kids, teenagers and adults.
Combination of competences
Brown (2007:79) argues that in ordern to achieve communicative cometence language learners need to develop a combination of competencies:
- Organizational competence (grammatical and discourse)
- Pragmatic competence (funcional and sociolinguistics)
- Strategic competence
- Psychomotor skills
Organizational Competence
Language use: Refers to the communicative meaning of a language
One use of third conditional is to express regrets.
Language Usage: Rules for making language.
The usage of third conditional is:
If + Past perfect + would + present perfect
Grammar's Definition
Grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a language. Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of the sentences. Thus grammar is a description of the rules that govern how language's sentences are formed.
MEANING: Grammars communicate meaning. Sentences need to make sence
MORPHOLOGY: Rules that cover the formation of words
SYNTAX: Rules that cover the order of words
