Teaching Grammar

1. Teaching Grammar Lecture 3

2. In this lecture… • Review • BAD reasons for teaching grammar • The case against grammar • GOOD reasons for teaching grammar • The case for grammar • Assignment 1 • Grammar and methods • Assignment 2

3. Revision • Are these statements true or false? Correct them if they are false. Definition of grammar that teachers use is that grammar is a study of syntax and morphology of texts. Definition of grammar that teachers use is that grammar is a study of syntax and morphology of sentences. The horizontal axis refers to syntax and is fairly fixed. The slot-filling elements on the vertical axis can be put into chains. We cannot have something like: *I like love eat dogs Mary tomorrow now. Is this an error in syntax? *Everyone are here. Is instead of are – error in morphology

4. The more context we have the less grammar we need. All language learners talk like babies in the beginning (in terms of grammar used). If you understand all the words and all the grammar used by a speaker that means you will certainly understand the message. Grammar is connected to functions! (e.g. father and young man) There can be many forms for one function. e.g. Would you like a drink? Do you fancy a drink? How about a drink?... There is only one function for one form. e.g. Would you date Jack? (inquiry) Would you mind opening the window? (request) Contractions, passive and question tags are characteristics of spoken grammar. Passive is more common in written grammar. In creating grammar syllabuses, grading criteria refers to complexity, learnability and teachability of grammar items. Core grammar consists of items which are useful to all learners.

5. According to the natural order of language acquisition, students with different mother tongues acquire foreign language grammar in a different order. They follow the same order of acquisition (e.g. 3rd person singular.-s). Functional syllabuses became popular in the 2000s. In the 1970s, with the development of CLT. The following grammar rule is descriptive: Do not use possessive pronouns in front of nouns (e.g. *mine book). This is a prescriptive rule. Pedagogic rules are very elaborate. They are designed to be useful to students. Pedagogic rules are rules of form and rules of use. Rules of form are more difficult to explain than rules of use. It is easier to explain how Present Continuous is built than what it is used for. e.g. He is writing a book. (right now, around this time, in the future)

6. Why teach grammar? BAD reasons • It is there. • Personal anecdote from my (semi)professional tennis career  • Teaching grammar because it is there, in the course book. • It is tidy. • Grammar looks tidy, compared to the vast pit that is vocabulary. It is more easily systematized, organized and taught.

7. Why teach grammar? BAD reasons • It is testable. • Designing and administering tests that really measure overall progress is hard and time-consuming. • Grammar is a testing short cut, so teachers teach what is often tested (grammar) and test what is taught (grammar). • It is a security blanket. • Students like it because there are rules and learning a language seems less scary.

8. Why teach grammar? BAD reasons • It made me who I am. • The earlier generations valued grammar and teachers learned it laboriously as children, so it must be important. • You have to teach the whole system. • Every grammar point is not connected to all the other grammar points. • How much grammar do the students know from their mother tongue? What is important for them to know and what do I have time for?

9. Why teach grammar? BAD reasons • It demonstrates power. • Some students have better accents than their teachers, or know more words, but teachers know more about the full perfect progressive infinitive (to have been working). • Countries demonstrate power through their education system (students talking, moving about, expressing their views vs. students sitting in rows, doing grammar exercises, being corrected by the teacher).

10. The case against grammar • Knowing how to use a language, communicating • Students learn rules but cannot apply them (e.g. kuća, kuće, kući, kuću, kućo, kućom, kući). • CLT, the need to communicate, develop all skills: • The shallow-end-approach in CLT: you learn a language in order to use it (you learn grammar rules and apply them in life-like situations). • The deep-end-approach in CLT: you use a language in order to learn it (use the language in life-like situations and you will pick up the grammar. It is a waste of time to learn grammar explicitly).

11. The case against grammar • Natural Approach (Krashen, acquisition) • Learning is the result of formal instruction, acquisition is a natural process, languages are picked up, and it happens when the input is right and when the environment is stress free. • Success in a second language is due to acquisition, and learned knowledge cannot become acquired knowledge. • No grammar teaching allowed!

12. The case against grammar • The natural order (Noam Chomsky) • We are born with universal principles of grammar, an innate universal grammar (UG). • There are similarities to L1 and L2 acquisition (e.g. konj – konjovi – konji). • We should not follow the grammar syllabuses in course books, that is not the natural order. • We should not insist on immediate accuracy.

13. The case against grammar • Lexical chunks • They are in between words and sentences (e.g. if you ask me, how about…). • Students learn chinks, have a tool for communication. Later they analyze them in terms of grammar and this helps them learn. • Learner expectations • Adult students seek conversation classes.

14. Why teach grammar? GOOD reasons • Teaching little or no grammar is also bad (CLT, ‘70s, teachers were ignorant of the language structure). • Comprehensibility • Identify structures which could be very useful to your students and teach those – discrete items which can be covered in a lesson (e.g. main tenses, modals, asking questions…). • Acceptability • Serious mistakes can make you look bad, uneducated, stupid.

15. The case for grammar • It is a sentence-making-mechanism. • There is a limit to how many words/phrases you can learn. • With grammar you have limitless creativity to use those words/phrases. • Fine-tuning • *Last Monday night I was boring in my house. • Grammar helps correct ambiguity.

16. The case for grammar • Fossilization • Students reach the ‘language plateau’ and cannot progress. Their linguistic competence fossilizes. • If there is no grammar instruction, this happens sooner. • Advance organization • Students who were taught grammar notice these structures when exposed to language and this leads to quicker acquisition.

17. The case for grammar • The rule-of-law • Education is seen as transfer of knowledge (rules and facts) from teacher to students. • Rules and facts are features of grammar. • This is helpful with large classes of uninterested teenagers. • Learner expectations • Their previous learning was heavily based on grammar. • They are frustrated from trying to pick up the language and crave formal instruction.

18. Assignment1 • My L2 learning experience (grammar) • Due: Sunday, 30/10/2016 • Send by email (attachment) to teachinggrammar3@gmail.com Subject: Assignment 1- Name Surname, booklet number (year/number) by 11:59 pm Sunday, 30/10/2016 • Format: 1-2 pages;12-point Times New Roman font. • Line spacing: 1.5 • Indent the first line of every paragraph (5-7 spaces). • Margins: top and bottom 2.5cm left and right 2.5cm • Heading: 14-point bold Times New Roman, centred, separated from the text by a blank line

19. Grammar and methods • Grammar-Translation (similar to the approach used for teaching classical languages) • Instruction is given in the native language of the student. • There is little use of the target language. • Focus is on grammar, i.e. the form and inflection words. • There is early reading of classical texts. • A typical exercise is to translate the sentences from the target language into the mother tongue. • The students are unable to use the target language for communication. • The teacher does not have to be able to speak the target language. • Grammar heavy syllabus, lessons begin with giving grammar rules, then exercises in translation follow.

20. Grammar and methods • The Direct Method (a reaction to the Grammar-Translation method and its failure to produce students who can use the target language) • No use of mother tongue is allowed (the teacher does not have to know the students’ mother tongue). • Lessons begin with dialogs and anecdotes in modern conversational style. • Actions and pictures are used to make the meaning clear. • The teacher must be a native speaker, or have a native-like proficiency in the target language. • Grammar is learned inductively, not explicitly. • Literary texts are read for pleasure and are not analyzed grammatically.

21. Grammar and methods • Audiolingualism • Dominant in the USA in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. • Direct Method+ behavioral psychology (the assumption is that language is a habit formation). • Skills are sequenced (listening and speaking are taught first, reading and writing are taught later on). • Pronunciation is stressed from the beginning. • Great effort is made to prevent learner errors. • Language is often manipulated without regard to meaning or context, there are a lot of drills. • Grammar structures are sequenced and rules are taught inductively. • The drills are not labeled as grammar, but essentially they are.

22. Grammar and methods • Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) • The goal of language teaching is to make learners communicate in the target language. • Students work in groups or pairs, in order to communicate, negotiate meaning. • Students usually engage in role-play to use the target language in different social contexts. • Classroom materials are often authentic or reflect real-life situations. • Skills are integrated from the beginning (an activity might involve listening, speaking, reading, writing). • The teacher’s role is primarily to facilitate communication and only secondarily to correct errors. • Shallow-end version (some grammar, in the form of functions), deep-end version (no grammar instruction).

23. No grammar A lot of grammar Deep-end CLT Audiolingualism Direct Method Shallow-end CLT Grammar-Translation

24. Assignment 2 • Design material/activities typical of one of the methods reviewed. • Due: Sunday, 30/10/2016 • Send by email (attachment) to teachinggrammar3@gmail.com Subject: Assignment 2 - Name Surname, booklet number (year/number) by 11:59 pm Sunday, 30/10/2016 • Format: 1-2 pages;12-point Times New Roman font. • Line spacing: 1.5 • Margins: top and bottom 2.5cm left and right 2.5cm • Heading (the name of the method - level): 14-point bold Times New Roman, centred, separated from the text by a blank line

25. Instructions Grammar-Translation • Select a well-known work of literature in English. Single out a grammar point you will focus on. Explain it explicitly in the students mother tongue. Translate it with your students. • Design an exercise containing sentences with the learned grammar point to be translated (in both directions). The Direct Method • Choose a particular situation (at the bank, at the doctor’s) or a particular topic (holidays, weather) and write a short passage or a dialogue on the theme you have chosen. Explain how you will convey its meaning to students without using their native language. • Select a grammar point from the passage. Plan how you will get students to practise the grammar point. Write several examples that you can provide them with so that they can induce the rule themselves.

26. Instructions The Audio-Lingual Method • Prepare a dialogue to introduce your students to a sentence or subsentence pattern in L2. Explain how you will convey its meaning to students without using their native language. Make sure that it contains several examples of a certain grammar point so that students are led to induce the rules. • Prepare a series of drills (repetition, chain, single-slot substitution, transformation, question-and-answer) to give them some practice with the structure. CLT • Imagine that you are working with your students on the function of requesting information. The authentic material you have selected is a railroad timetable (you can make it up or choose something else). Design a communicative game or a problem-solving task in which the timetable/chosen material is used to give your students practice in requesting information. • Plan a role play to work on the same function.

27. You may use various sources (textbooks, workbooks, the Internet, etc.), but make sure that you acknowledge all of them (title/website, author(s)) and that you make your own contribution (adapt the material, design new exercises, provide explanations, etc.). PLAGIARISM