The document discusses various aspects of grammar and language instruction, focusing on descriptive and prescriptive grammar, phonology, morphology, and syntax. It highlights the advantages and disadvantages of different grammatical approaches and provides instructional strategies to improve language learning, particularly for English learners. Key recommendations include utilizing sound patterns and morphemes to aid comprehension and engaging students actively in their learning process.

1. Grammar and Language in
the Classroom
Renee Ashman
University of Phoenix
Tesol-573 –Valerie Roquemore

2. Types of Grammar
Descriptive
▪ Natural speaking and writing
of the native language.
▪ It focuses on describing the
native language as it is used.
▪ It does not suggest a right or
wrong way (Fromkin, J., et
al. 2014).
Prescriptive
▪ Teaches how to use the native
language.
▪ It instructs rules and forms to
sentences.
▪ Provides a standard for
learners to achieve (Fromkin,
J., et al 2014).

3. Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar
Descriptive
Grammar
Advantages:
Helps 2nd language learners sound
like native speakers.
Helps 2nd language learners to
communicate better with native
speakers.
Disadvantages: It is sometimes not
appropriate in formal circumstances
(Tamasi, S., et al., 2015).
Prescriptive
Grammar
Advantages:
Produces formal writers.
Provides rules to reduce confusion
(Tamasi, S., et al., 2015).
Disadvantages:
Not everyone adheres to the rules,
which can be confusing for English
learners.

4. Sound Patterns
▪ The subject of phonology includes components, such as phonemes,
phones, allophones, minimal pairs, minimal set, and phonotactics
(Sunimet.wordpress.com).
▪ Different languages have different sound patterns.
▪ One must have knowledge of language sound patterns to be able to easily
pronounce sounds in language (Sunimet.wordpress.com).
Sound patterns of language include a study on
phonology by Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle
(Sunimet.wordpress.com).

5. Phonology
Phonology is the study of how speech sounds form patterns
(Fromkin, J., et al, 2014).
Phonology entails:
• Sounds that are native or foreign
• Sound combinations that create words or non-words
• Phonetic features that are identifiable or necessary and
what are not.
• Adjustment of the pronunciation of words or derivatives

6. Phonology and Language
▪ A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that is associated to a meaning of
sounds in language (Fromkin, J. 2014).
 For example, the word pit has three phonemes, /p/, /i/, and /t/
(Lynch, M., 2021).
▪ Phonemes are made in the vocal tract by movement of the lips, teeth,
tongue, vocal cords and throat (Lynch, M., 2021).
▪ An allophone is the various ways a phoneme is spoken.
 For example, the phoneme /t/ may be pronounced as allophones /d/
or /t/ in the word water (Lynch, M., 2021).
▪ .
There are many speech sounds, but each language uses
some of all the possible sounds (Lynch, M., 2021).

7. Morphology
▪ A morpheme is a phoneme or group of phonemes that constitute a
meaning in language (Paris. et al, 2021).
 For example, boy is one morpheme. The word boys consists of two
morphemes, boy and s.
 Thus, a single phoneme can also be a morpheme if it embodies a
meaning.
 Boyish also consists of two morphemes, boy and ish.
 Words like ladder and hungry consist of only one morpheme.
 Morphemes that are not words on their own, like –ed, -ish, -s, -ness are
bound morphemes, meaning they are added to another morpheme to alter
meaning (Paris. et al, 2021).
Morphology is the study of base words and segments of
words (morphemes) that create and/or change meaning (Paris.
et al, 2021).

8. Morphology and Language
Morphemes in language instruction
• Parsing morphemes out of large words can help decode the meaning of
a word and help students recognize spelling patterns.
 For example, dendrochronology. Here the word is segmented into
morphemes, dendro – chrono- logy. The meanings of each
morpheme can now be applied respectively, tree, time, and study
of (Zoski, T, et al., 2018).
Using morphology to help language instruction aids students to
successfully decode, spell, and understand the meaning of difficult or
never-before-seen words (Zoski, T, et al., 2018). Studying and instruction
on morphemes also helps build students vocabulary and reading
comprehension (Zoski, T, et al., 2018).

9. Syntax
The rules of syntax include the relationship of words, phrases, clauses
within a sentence and adhering to the correct sentence order (Fromkin, J.
et al, 2014).
Here are two examples of English rules of syntax (Fromkin, J. et al, 2014).
▪ The basic order of a sentences is subject noun, verb, and direct object.
 The girl (sn) ate (v) ice-cream (do).
▪ In English, the adjective is placed before the noun.
 The hungry (adj) girl (n) ate strawberry (adj) ice-cream (n).
Syntax is the knowledge of sentence structure and
meaning in a given language (Fromkin, J. et al, 2014)

10. Syntax and Learning
▪ The study of the arrangement and meaning of words are classified into
syntactic categories known as, phrasal, lexical, and functional categories
(Ryan, 2022).
▪ Phrasal categories consists of noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and
preposition phrases, such as, cat, the cat the hat, climbs, often climbs
(Ryan, 2022).
▪ Lexical categories are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction, and
other parts of a sentence (Ryan, 2022).
Each person innately adheres to rules of synax within
their own language (Fromkin, J., et al, 2014).

11. Syntax and Learning
Advantages
▪ Aids reading and language comprehension.
▪ Helps to understand the meaning of words
and their relationship to each other in a
sentence.
▪ Helps to understand word order.
▪ As language learners progress in
understanding rules of syntax, they can
freely create unique sentences.
▪ Explanations for grammatical rules can be
explained (Ryan, 2022).
Teaching Syntax to English Learners
Implications to teaching syntax to English learners
Disadvantages
▪ The written language is formal and is
different from conversational language
(Ryan, 2022).
▪ Students may lose confidence and become
embarrassed noting that syntactic language
is different than conversational language
(Ryan, 2022).
▪ The rules of syntax can be overwhelming.
▪ It can slow progress of the learner.

12. Instructional Strategies
A teaching strategy I use in my kindergarten class is to give all
possible sounds for letters that are introduced in a sing-song way.
For example. If the letter a is introduced, I would say /a/, /A/, /ah/.
Students would repeat phonemes and say them as they write. We
would review the letter/sounds a few times during the day, followed
by practice activities.
Later in the year, I would introduce phoneme ou in the same way,
teaching all four sounds as if they were bit by a mosquite. /ow/, /o/,
/oo/, /u/. The first sound is most often used, so we try that one first.

13. Instructional Strategies
My objective here is to teach that silent final e at the end of a word changes the
preceding short vowel to a long vowel or a (vowel that says its name).
I call it the Strongman E (Sanseri, W., 2010).
For example: the word: hop becomes hope
When I say, the strongman E. They students hold us their muscles and say, “The
vowel sound changes because of the E.”
I would show this on the board multiple times followed by many opportunities
to practice.
When students read, I can instruct them to notice Strongman e.

14. References
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., Hyam, N. (2014) An Introduction to Language, Wadworth.
Tomasi, S, Antieu, L. (2015) The Writing Center. Language and Linguistics.
http;//doiorg.argo.library.okstate.edu/10.4324/9780203154960
Linguistic Sunimet’s Blog. Sunimet.wordpress.com
Lynch, M., (2022) The Edvocator. The Differences between Phone, Phoneme, and an Allophone.
https://www.theedvocate.org
Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, and Johnson. (2021, January 4) Social Science. LibreTexts. Introduction to
Linguistics. http://www.socialsci.libretext.org
Ryan, (2022, April 4) English Raven. How Can Syntax Pose Problems Learning English?
http://www.englishraven.com
Sanseri, W. (2010, July 14), Spell to Write and Read. Back Home Industries.
Zoski, J., Nellenback, K., Erickson, K. (2018, January 30) Sage Journals. Using Morphological
Strategies to Help Adolescents Decode, Spell, and Comprehend Big Words in Science.
http;//doi.org/10.1177/1525740117752