1. II. Teaching Grammar

5. There are two types of grammar: descriptive grammar and generative grammar: a/ descriptive grammar: is defined as a grammar which « provides a precise account of usage », and is often contrasted with prescriptive grammar which « attempts to establish rules or the correct use of language in society ». (Dictionary of Languge and Languages, 1992: 159). In other words, prescriptive grammar prescribes the rules of how educated people « ought to »speak and write , whereas descriptive grammar describes the knowledge people must have in order to speak and understand the language. b/ Generative Grammar: is a grammar which defines « the set of grammatical sentences in a language. Chomsky(1966) advocates that sentences are not learned by imitation and repetition, but « generated » from the learner’s underlying « competence . » Grammar pracice activities should then involve meaningful language use, and learners should be encouraged « to use their innate and creative abilities to drive and make explicit the underlying grammatical rules of the language » (Richards, 1986,60).

6. What approach to adopt for the teaching of Grammar? The approach suggested for the teaching of grammar is the iductive approach , which means that the teacher has to proceed from examples, contextualized and rich in content, to help the learner induce himself/herself the rules of the structure. By experiencing authentic language discourse, learners will discover the grammar they need to understand and communicate. It is a context-based and problem-driven approach, well-suited to hypothesis testing and to competency-based approach. However, the adoption of the inductive approach has to be corroborated from time to time by some explanations of certain grammatical structures. In fact, the combination of both approaches will certainly satisfy different learning styles.

8. 1/ What to correct? Correcting Grammar Errors:

9. It is impossible to correct every error. This is very likely to demotivate learners. Teachers, therefore, should set priorities , e.g.: -The grammatical structure focused on at the moment is the one to be primarily corrected; - Comprehensibility : errors are hierarchical, that is to say, more or less important:

10. a/ Global Errors : these are the important ones in the sentence that cause a lot of problems to the whole passage; b/Local Errors : these errors cause trouble within a limited sphere, eg. W.O. (=word order)/ missing things out, such as articles, verbs, etc. e.g.: « English language use much people »: 1-Much people use English language. 2-The English language uses many people. Which is closer to the correct sentence? Which category of errors is it? - Ungarmmatical Forms should also be corrected and never taught,e.g.: « He …………. the parcel last night. » a-bringed c-brung b-brought d-broughted. NB : Students should be trained in: -locating and recognizing errors in speech and in writing , then - correcting them ( self / peer correction); - justifying their corrections as far as possible.

11. 2-When to correct Grammar Errors?

12. -when dealing with remedial correction, errors should be corrected immediately and spontaneously ; -corrections that interfere with a communicative activity should be deferred so as not to interrupt the interlocutor’s interest and motivation . In this case, the teacher jots down these errors to be remedied later on = those errors that are common to most learners (e.g. in a problem-solving activity while students are called upon to carry out correcting these errors under their teacher’s guidance.) NB : In correcting students’ grammar written work, it’s advisable that teachers use a code they familiarize their students with at the very beginning of the school year , e.g.: P (=preposition) Ts (=tense) V (=verb) W.O. (=word order) Art (=artcle) Pr (=pronoun), etc.

14. A-Bibliography: -Alexander.L.G.(1993).Longman Advanced Grammar: Reference and Practice. Essex. Longman. -Allwright and Bailey.(1991). Focus on the language classroom: an introduction to Classroom research for language teachers. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. -Dubin and Olcshtain(1986). Course Design: developing programmes and mate -rials for language learning. New directions in language teaching. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. B- Webliography: WWW.impactserries.com/ grammar / becoming.html (Oct . 5th 2006). WWW.eslpartyland.com /teachers/ nov / grammar.htlm (Oct.5th 2006) WWW.esl.about.com / cs / teachingtechnique /a/a teachergrammar.htm(Oct.11th 2006) WWW.Gabrielatos.com / Minding Our Ps.htm. 2006(Nov.18th 2006).