1. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
Grammatical system of language.
Members: Daniel Gallardo Pedreros.
Gerardo Valdivia Zavalla.
Teacher: Roxanna Correa.
Course: Methodology I.

2. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
Plotkin (1998) argued that “a language is a system, a functionally
determined, structured aggregate of elements”. A language system has three
subsystems: the lexical subsystem; the grammatical subsystem; the phonic
subsystem. Each subsystem has its own structural organization and is based on
the appropriate essence used in building its elements. In this essay our focus will
be the grammatical system of the language. First of all, we have to define what
grammar is. According to Plotkin (1998) the grammatical system's functions is to
arrange words in order to express thoughts to communicate an idea. In the same
way, Brown (2007) added that grammar is “the system of rules governing the
conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence”. The Longman
dictionary of contemporary English defines grammar as “the rules by which words
change their forms and are combined into sentences”. Harmer (1991) stated that
“grammar should be called the way in which words change themselves and group
together to make sentences”. In this essay the grammatical system of language
will be explained according to Nunan’s Organic approach, the inductive and
deductive approach and their advantages and disadvantages, how grammar
should be presented and taught, the three-dimensional grammar framework when
teaching grammar and some advices and strategies to teach grammar.
Nunan’s (1998) organic approach has five main points. The first is
“teaching language as a set of choices”, this points allows students to determine
which forms of the language they can use to give a piece of information according

3. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
to what they wish to convey. The second “providing opportunities for learners to
explore grammatical and discoursal relationships in exercising with easy tasks, but
also to challenge students to complete tasks with "real world" grammar and know
how this “real world” grammar works; the third main point that Nunan presents is
the idea of having a balanced diet of both types of texts. With this idea Nunan
expresses that it is important that the learners work with these two types of texts,
the non-authentic and the authentic texts. Both are important and the learners
should be able to choose which one they are going to use, but the ideal is that the
learner use it balanced and not one more than the other; the fourth point is that
“teaching language in ways that make form and function relationships transparent”
create pedagogical tasks in which learners structure and restructure their own
understanding of form, function and use relationships through inductive and
deductive tasks; the fifth is “encouraging learners to become active explorers of
language”, which means that teachers should encourage their students to be
responsible for their own learning, make them participate actively in the process of
learning grammar or a new content. Nunan (1998) suggests that this active
exploration should be characterized by an inductive approach of learning. So the
learning would be more profoundly stored and processed; the sixth is “encouraging
learners to explore relationships between grammar and discourse”, this point
emphasizes the link between grammar and discourse and that the grammatical
choices that the learners do depend on the context and intention they want to
obtain.

4. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
Nunan (1998) declared that the inductive approach should be
encouraged on learners because the learning would be stored and processed
deeply. Goner, Phillips and Walters (1995) stated that in the inductive approach the
students practice the language in context and they can realize the structure and
grammatical rules from the examples they were doing. As mentioned by Rivers and
Temperley (1978), in the inductive approach the teacher encourages students to
obtain the rules from the examples, so the teacher’s role is to provide meaningful
context to the students. On the other hand, Rivers ad Temperley (1978) proposed
that in the deductive approach the teacher presents the rules first, teacher dictates
the rules; in consequence students learn and apply the rules after they have
worked with the rules. The teacher is the center of the class and responsible for the
explanation of the new information.
Both, the deductive and inductive approaches have advantages and
disadvantages. Goner (1995) claimed that the deductive approach is less
appropriate for lower level language students, since it presents grammatical
structures that are complex in form and meaning for younger learners. The
advantages of the inductive approach are that students can focus on the use of the
language without being restrained by grammatical terminology and rules that can
reduce fluency. The inductive approach increase participation and the practice of
the target language inside the classroom. The inductive approach have had
success world widely, although its disadvantage is that sometimes for students
accustomed to more traditional styles of learning might seem complicated at first.

5. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
Goner (1995) indicated that understanding the advantages and disadvantages of
both approaches may help the teacher to vary and organize a lesson, in order to
keep classes motivating and interesting for the students.
In addition, how to teach grammar, Harmer (1991) exposed some
characteristics of a good presentation that will be mentioned: a good presentation
should be clear, there should not be any difficulties in understanding for learner; a
good presentation should be efficient, so that students can use the new language
as they wish; a good presentation should be lively and interesting, the teacher
should prepare lesson in order to maintain students interesting and engaged
during the whole presentation; a good presentation should be appropriate, the
teacher should not put so much information, the information should be simple and
brief; moreover a good presentation should be productive, the teacher should allow
students to make many sentences or questions with the new language, so they can
practice it as much as they want. On the same topic, Celce-Murcia and Hilles
(1988) presented the following structure of a grammar lesson, consisting of four
parts: presentation. The grammar structure is introduced inductively or deductively.
The teacher has to select the techniques and resources he or she is going to use,
depending on their students level and needs; focused practice, the learner
manipulates the structure so he can know it properly. The aim of this is to learn
how to use the form; the teacher should be convinced that most of the students are
able to use the form without mistakes, the teacher has to check the understanding
of the students; communicative practice, the learner practices the structure being

6. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
learned. There are some tasks that might be useful to implement, such as:
information gap, choice, feedback; Teaching feedback and correction, teacher
have to check if the learners understand what he or she taught and give them the
correct feedback in order to encourage them and engage them to continue with the
learning process.
The three-dimensional grammar framework when teaching grammar,
teachers have to make sure that form, function and use are taught clearly. There
are three dimensions of language that we must deal with: the form or structures
themselves, their semantics or meaning, and the pragmatic conditions governing
their use. The forms tell us how a particular grammar structure is constructed. In
the semantics, we deal with what a grammar structure means. Note that be
meaning can be lexical (a dictionary definition) or it can be grammatical. And
pragmatics, Levinson (1983) suggested that pragmatics deals with aspects of
meaning. Pragmatics is the study of the relations between language and context
that are grammaticalized or determined in the structure of a language.
There are many useful advices to take into account when teaching
grammar. One of those advices is that you should use brief and simple
explanations; students could understand the ideas easily if you do it and yo don´t
waste important time to continue with yor class; After that, another advice is to use
the mother tongue if you realize that the students are not understanding or cannot
follow the explanations in english; A third advice says thatyou could use charts and
other visuals whenever possible to graphically represent grammatical relationships.

7. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
This is important because sometimes grammar classes may be boring for some
students and charts and other visuals couls help to motivate them topay attention
to the class and to understand clearly what you want them to learn; Another avice
is to ilustrate with clear, unambiguous examples, making it easier to learners to
understand; A fifth advice is to take into account the different cognitive styles that
your students may have. You must know that not all the students learn in the same
way, so you must be able to prepareyour lessons in order to help all the students to
understant through their different ways of learning; Another advice is not to get tied
up in knots over so-called “exceptions” rules. When yo teach grammar it is
important to teach the normal applications and then the exceptions if the are. This
advice is given because there are many teachers that tend to start teaching the
exceptions and then the normal aplications making the students get confused
about the idea you want to express; Finally, the lastadvice is that if you don´t know
how to explain something, do not risk giving false information. As a teacher you
can forget something or just don´t know something. It is recommended to say that
you don´t know it, or say that you will find it and answer the next class instead of
giving false information.
The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC
(2003-2004) offered some strategies for Learning Grammar. The first is “relate
knowledge needs to learning goals”, about this point is important to recognize the
procedural and declarative knowledge to identify which goals students want to
achieve; the second “apply higher order thinking skills”, it is imperative to teach

8. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
students the way in which the language works, that would help them to create a
critical thinking and compare the language they know with the one they are
learning about; the third is “provide plentiful and appropriate language input”, is
important that students use procedural and declarative knowledge, since students
must be aware of the relationships that exist among use, meaning and form of the
grammatical rules; the forth strategy is “use predicting skills”, students should
predict according to the format of the text, this will allow them to anticipate the
forms and structures they will encounter in a given task; and fifth “limit
expectations for drills”, mechanical drills can help students memorize forms and
structures, but they do not develop the ability to use grammar correctly in oral and
written interactions, because these drills separate form from meaning and use.
Communicative drills persuade students to connect form, meaning, and use
because several correct answers are possible. In these communicative drills,
students provide their own content.

9. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
Conclusion
To conclude, Nunan (1998) suggested that grammar instruction would
be more effective in classrooms where: learners are exposed to authentic samples
of language. Tasks designed to make transparent the links between form,
meaning, and use. Learners are given opportunities to develop their own
understandings of the grammatical principles of English by progressively
structuring and restructuring the language through inductive learning. Learners
encounter target language items in an increasingly diverse and complex range of
linguistic and experiential environments. Balance between exercises that help
learners come to grips with grammatical forms, and tasks for exploring the use of
those forms. Some grammatical structures may be acquired in a linear way, but the
majority of structures are acquired in complex, non-linear ways. There are
advantages and disadvantages in the inductive and deductive approach and it is
necessary that the teacher make the right decision for student to achieve their
goal. The teacher must make a balanced use of the inductive and deductive
approach in order to make interesting and motivating the class. Harmer (1991) also
presents advices to take into account like: a good presentation should be clear,
and there should not be any difficulties in learning for the student. Harmer gives
those and more advices in order to guide the teacher to make the classes
interesting and motivating. If you are a teacher you must be aware about many
things at the time of prepare and make your classes. You must take into account
the ways in which the students learn, and the ways of making the classes

10. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
interesting and motivating for the students. In this essay have been shown different
views about the grammatical system and advices about how to teach grammar we
hope will be useful to improve your grammar lesson planning and your class
staging.

11. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I
References
Brown, D. (2007). Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language
pedagogy. Longman.
Goner, Phillips & Walters. 1995. Teaching practice handbook: Structures, grammar
and function. Heinemann, 129-138.
Harmer, J. (1991). The practice of English language teaching. London/New York.
Harmer, J. (1987). Teaching and learning grammar. London: Longman.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1991). Teaching grammar. Teaching English as a second or
foreign language, 2, 279-296.
Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Celce-Murcia, M., & Hilles, S. (1988). Techniques and Resources in Teaching
Grammar. Teaching Techniques in English as a Second Language. New
York: Oxford University Press.
National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC (n.d) Strategies for
learning grammar. The essentials of language teaching. Retrieved from:
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/grammar/stratgram.htm.
Rivers, W., & Temperley, M. (1978). A practical guide to the teaching of English as
a second or foreign language. Oxford university press, 110.

12. Universidad Católica de la Santísima concepción
English pedagogy
Methodology I