Grammar• Presented by : 1.Mr. Sivanathan A/L TarusuM20092000819

2. Sazlina Zuriati bt SamahM20081000115

5.1 Introduction: The role of grammar in ELT

-recent years resurgence of interest in the role of grammar

growing concern about accuracy in learner’s languages has resulted in a reassertion of the role of grammar in syllabus

design

-1980’s experienced anti-grammar movement influenced primarily by Krashen(1982)

idea that grammar can be acquired naturally from meaningful input

Questions

• What insights are available into the ways in which learners move towards accurate production?

• Whether these insights hold implication for the usefulness of grammar-based knowledge and grammar-based practice as part of classroom methodology?

• In what ways are the relative value of focused and unfocused activities might vary with such factors as the age, degree of exposure to English and reasons for learning English of different learners?

Focus on grammar

as a necessary part of

classroom language teaching

How toIntegrateGrammar

Teaching intoA communicative

MethodologyWhich paysAttention toAll aspect

Of communicationcompetence

What precise Form thatTeaching

Should take

Choice ofGrammatical structuresTo present

Kind of grammatical Description

To use

UseAn inductive

OrA deductiveapproach

Forms of practice

AppropriateFor

Different Types

Of learners

5.2 What do we know about the learning of grammar

• Ideas about learning of grammar is influenced by the input hypothesis and the notion of intake

– Input hypothesis and the notion of intake

– Krashen’s (1985) input hypothesis posits that language is picked up or acquired

– Intakes refers to the ways in which learners process input and assimilate language to their inter-language system

Automatizing

StructuringAnd

Restructuring

ReasoningAnd

hypothesizing

Noticing

LearningOf

Grammar

Noticing• Learners picked out specific features of a language and

pay attention to them.

• The notice items would be interpreted between form and meaning and it become part of intake into learning process.

• Learners than analyse the forms in order to reason out how they fit into their existing knowledge of language

•

Reasoning and hypothesizing

Reasoning Deductively- Apply rules to work out the meaning of what they hear

Analysing contrastively- Compare L1 and work out their similarities and differences.

Translating

- At certain stages, translation can be helpful strategy

Transfering

- Apply knowledge of one language to the understanding or production of another

Structuring and Restructuring

The strategies described above is done when the notice features in input and work on it in various ways to structure and restructure their knowledge in the language

Example, Lightbown and Spada ( 1999) give the stages of acquisition for negation, which may differ slightly according to the first language but which generally follow a sequence.

Automatizing

• Learner who responses consistently in conversation to a certain types of input, the language involved has been automated.

Limitation in using noticing, reasoning and hypothesizing,

structuring and restructuring and automatizing

• Teacher should not think that the above way will lead to successful teaching of grammar

• It needs to be qualified in various way

First qualification is that the ways in which these processes relate to one another is far

from clear.

• For example, Bastone(1996) makes a point about the complexity of noticing. On the other hand it has been noted (Eubank 1989; Ellis 1993a) that premature practice can actually confuse rather than facilitate the intake of grammatical features. This relates to the idea of readiness for learning. Intake and eventual automatization will only occur as and when students are ready.

Second qualification is the relationships between implicit and explicit knowledge

• Implicit grammatical knowledge is the intuitive knowledge of grammar which develops in the same way as it does in young children acquiring first language through natural process.

• Can develop without intervention from instruction in the developmental sequence.

• Implicit knowledge develops naturally in the foreign language classroom as the input are exposed to and the rate depend on frequency.

Role of explicit knowledge of grammar which learners received from teachers and

textbooks

• First, explicit knowledge can help learners to appreciate the gap that exists between the language which they and other students produce.

• Second, it has been suggested (Seliger 1979) that knowing a pedagogical rule can help learners with the structuring process when they are ready to internalize a grammatical rule.

• Third, Pica(1985) has argued cautiously that instruction has a selective impact depending on the complexity of the grammatical structures in question

What is the implication?

• A degree of agreement among researchers, based on extensive studies, that a focus on grammar and explicit learning of rules can facilitate and speed up the grammar acquisition process

• The issues demonstrated the complication in attempts to devise procedures for the teaching of grammar.

• This debate brings into focus the need to acknowledge that, there are other processes at work in language development beside grammatical instruction and practice.

5.3 What information can help us in the selection and presentation of

grammar?

• One central issue in ELT is the role linguistic description can play in the designing of classroom procedures and materials

• Teachers view is that it is difficult to teach a language without a knowledge of its function and structure

• There exist many description of above so teachers and textbook writers turn to pedagogical grammars for information about language system

Pedagogical grammar

• These derive language data from scientific descriptions of language

• The data selected and organized to the learning needs of students

• PG therefore, act as ‘filters’ or ‘interpreters’ between the detailed formal grammars of linguists and the classroom (Candlin 1973). This means it is structured according to the age and level of proficiency of the learners and in terms of their objectives for learning English.

Other considerations in selection of materials

• One is to do with changing approaches to the description of English

• Contemporary ELT has been much influenced by development in language description which see language as more than a formal system

• These development view grammar from three main perspectives

Grammar

As

Meaning

Grammar

In

Discourse

Grammar

And

Style

Grammar as meaning• Linguistic meaning covers a great deal more than reports of

events in the real world. It express….. Our attitudes … towards the person we are speaking to, how we feel about the reliability of our message, how we situate ourselves in the events we report, and many other things that make our messages not merely a recital of facts but a complex of facts and comments. (Bolinger 1977:4)

• In the above context, ‘linguistic meaning’ covers lexis as well

• Intonation also influence the intention of speakers

• So, teachers need to consider all this when designing material for teaching.

Grammar in discourse- In this perspective, it is presented within the context of the

debate and its developing discourse- This perspective is devoted in A Communicative Grammar of

English (Leech and Svartvik 1975) - They present six ways of organizing connection which can

be exemplified as below

Linking Signals Linking Constructions

General purpose links

Substitution and omission

Presenting and focusing information

Order and emphasis

Problem of looking at grammar in discourse

• Spoken discourse in practice simply uses the rules of grammar as it wishes and do not conform to the idealized forms of grammar book.

• Another problem is discourse does not keep to conventional meaning especially when using irony.

• There is also problem in the area of pragmatics and the way we interpret the meaning of spoken or written language from the word spoken, the forms used, the context of the discourse and the situation in which it occurs.

Grammar and Style

• The different style that exist in English language should be considered by teacher when designing materials.

• We should describe grammar as a separate formal system but link it to social use and to its functioning within discourse.

Principles in Teaching Principles in Teaching GrammarGrammar

Principles in Teaching Principles in Teaching GrammarGrammar

1.1. Readiness to learn :Readiness to learn :- Teachers cannot expect students to Teachers cannot expect students to

acquire grammatical structures until they acquire grammatical structures until they are ready to do soare ready to do so

- Determined by the complexity of Determined by the complexity of processing involved processing involved

2.2. Amount of time it takes Amount of time it takes to learn new to learn new structures varies among students as they structures varies among students as they link forms to functions and their stylistics link forms to functions and their stylistics useuse

3. Process is not lockstep one, with progressive and complete mastery structures in sequence

• As interlanguage system develop and restructuring occurs , learners may make errors – teachers wait for accuracy to return

4. Learners able to learn inductively – draw on their knowledge of English and other languages

Presentation of grammar to learners can facilitate learning:i. Provide input for noticing language formsii. Aid students to see difference between their own output and

accurate forms of Englishiii. Present high-frequency grammatical items explicitly to speed

up learningiv. Provide information about communicative use of language

structures v. Give information implicitly through exposure to examples

and explicitly through instruction of stylistic variation of language form

Presenting Grammar1. Contextualizing grammar• In relation to three perspectives – grammar in meaning,

grammar in discourse and grammar and style• Example : • Contexts in which grammar is embedded need to be

useful and appropriate to learner needs • Grammar becomes generative and students can

transfer to relevant situations• Contexts created through visuals, dialogue and text; for

example a spoken dialogue which is relevant to students’ personal lives

2. Order of presentation• Forms of item to teach and in what order, which forms

to leave for recycling stages

3. Use of terminology• Degree to which grammar terminology is useful

in the presentation• Metalanguage useful for advanced learners –

discuss errors in writing• Terminology for analytical learners OR simply

guide students to see the patterns4. Degree of explicitness• Deductive or inductive approach• Mostly inductive – discovery learning • Theoretical support from Rutherford (1987) –

role of ‘grammar consciousness raising’• Consciousness-raising tasks – students try to

formulate rules about English through meaningful negotiations

• Give students sufficient examples so that they can work out grammar rule that is operating

• Persuade students to use their cognitive abilities and give them confidence about using discovery learning

• CR reasserts role of metalinguistic activity in language learning in a different way from deductive approach

• CR helps learners to develop grammatical competence in a way which fit culture of communicative classroom

5. Linking grammar and vocabulary• Patterns in English language which words typically

occur • Consider presenting these to students

Practising Grammar• Widely prevailing approach in teaching grammar –

present grammatical structure to learners, ask them to practise in controlled activities and set up freer activities for students to produce target form – Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP)

• Teachers correction is important during presentation and practice – self-correction and peer correction encouraged

• During production – non-intervention during attempt to produce – feedback afterwards

• Production stage – better to provide controlled practice and then to unfocused communicative activities within wider syllabus

• Controlled practice stage – include variety activities - conscious focus on form which address the range of purposes

• Good because students provide extensive input for each other and more chances to notice the structure

• Students tend to pay attention to syntax• Practice contribute to implicit grammar

knowledge by providing frequent occurrence of particular form for students to notice

• Extensive exposure enable students to test hypotheses of the forms, gain explicit knowledge about language forms and use rule accurately and automatically in production

• Grammatical knowledge does not develop separately from other types of knowledge in acquisition process – another type is lexical knowledge

• Students grammaticize – apply their knowledge of grammar by choosing what to add to words to create meaning

• Many teachers see the most practical approach is an eclectic one – mix and match depend on learners

Designing Grammar Component of a Course

• Appropriate selection of grammatical items – based on two types of linguistic comparison

• Learners native language and target language – contrastive analysis – popular in 1960s and 1970s

• Learners interlanguage and target language – error analysis• Contrastive analysis - Method of predicting difficulty for

students - fallen into disfavour because it is not possible to formulate scales of difficulty for learners from various language backgrounds

• Error analysis - provide teachers with insights into main problem which learners have with English

• For beginner and elementary students, grammatical component of syllabus is selected and sequenced on the basis of what is simple or complex to learn

• Main basis of ELT course design for many years – selection and sequence of grammar by using CA, EA or what is perceived as simple

• Criticisms:1.Grammatical dimension should be the major

organizing principle in the type of syllabus which sets item to be taught eg if we are concerned with language as communication, our primary focus – purpose for which language is being used and choose the forms to express those purposes

- e.g – current courses for students at intermediate level and above specify list of functions and then select from various forms according to needs or proficiency level of students

• Advantage – it makes language dimension subservient rather than dominant over needs of learners

• Problem- assume students have acquired working knowledge of English grammar

2. Notions of simple and complex and sequence of grammatical items presented to learners on the basis of this criterion

• Our concern – why learners fail to learn items presented and extensively practised in classroom

• Research – relationship between amount of mental processing needed to perceive and produce a new rule and its learnability

• Learnability determine the order grammatical items learned : Eg the third person singular –s in the simple present which learners acquire quite late. Explanation – its use is decided by the person and number of the noun phrase which has just been spoken

• Natural order hypothesis- language rules acquired according to predictable sequence and sequence remains the same whether or not classroom learning is involved

• Both children and adults acquiring second language in natural settings acquire grammatical morphemes in similar kind of development sequence

• Issue – could a syllabus simply follow the natural order?

• Classroom factors complicate the situation for example to set up classroom interaction, some structures such as questions forms need to be taught early on

• Syllabuses based on grammatical notion of simplicity and complexity

• Problem – learners may pass through the same developmental stages but they do not proceed at the same rate and groups of learners will be heterogeneous in terms of language proficiency

3. The need to provide learner-centered teaching- Students acquire grammatical system according to their own

internal syllabus• Teachers should pay less attention to structuring learning

through imposing external syllabus• Teachers pay more attention to facilitating learning by creating

classroom environment which is rich in varied input and provide learners with opportunity to acquire language by performing a range of learning tasks – main concern is with process learning

How to Suit Approach to Learners’ Needs

• Learners response depend on their individual cognitive style

• The analytical type may prefer dealing with grammar formally while the global learner might prefer experiential learning through classroom communication

• Teachers use different approaches and provide variety of access to grammar to cater for different learning styles – accompany by learners training which encouraged learners to extend their styles by pointing out advantages of different activity types

• Celce Murcia – useful set of six variables to guide teachers in appropriate focus on form

- The rule – the more factors teachers identify in the left side of the gird, the less important it is to focus on form; the more factors teachers identify on the right, the more important the grammatical focus

- With regard to learner variables, the question is to find a suitable approach – materials for high school students at the beginning level are different than adult students who are literate and well-educated

- For adult learners, they can be encouraged to think about the strategies they use for learning grammar, self – help strategies and self-correction

- Useful activity in self-help strategies – introduce students to appropriate grammar reference material

- Consider the needs of specific group of learners, their reasons for learning English and factors of individual differences such as age and educational background

Conclusion • A complex of insights from field SLA which provide description

and explanation of processes learners acquire English grammar

• These insights suggest a framework to support the building of classroom procedures

• A number of approaches are appropriate in context of communicative language teaching

• Currently finding new and better ways of developing learners grammatical competence

• Sensible teachers choose eclectically from approaches available , in line with learners needs and cater to different individual styles – room for variety

• Teachers carry out observation to discover what students prefer and what is used

• Learners will apply themselves better to task of learning when they feel positive about approaches used

Presenting GrammarPresent Perfect Tense:1. She has attended the class regularly. 2. You haven’t forgotten my birthday again, have you?3. I haven’t been to Paris for four years.4. Have you had your dinner yet?5. Oh no, they’ve just scored another goal!6. The management has decided to make 30 staff redundant.

Which of these shows habit in a period leading up to the present time and which shows indefinite events in a period leading up to the present time? Which show attitude as part of meaning? Which functions as a complaint and which as an invitation? Which is formal and which is informal?

The context will clarify all these questions.

Variables relevant to focus on form (Celce-Murcia

1993:294)Less Important

Focus on Form

More Important

Learner variables

Age Children Adolescents Adults

Proficiency level Beginning Intermediate Advanced

Educational background

Preliterate, no formal education

Semiliterate, some formal education

Literate, well -educated

Instructional variables

Skill Listening, reading

Speaking Writing

Register Informal Consultative Formal

Need / use Survival communication

Vocational Professional