A brief presentation about traditional and current methods of grammar teaching.

1. TEACHING GRAMMAR

2. Outline
What is grammar?
Why to teach grammar?
Why not to teach grammar?
Approaches to teaching grammar

3. What is Grammar?
“Grammar is the business of taking a language to
pieces, to see how it works.”
(David Crystal)

4. What is Grammar?
◦Language user’s subconscious internal system
◦Linguists’ attempt to describe that system through
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics,
pragmatics
◦The system of a language
◦Representational and interpersonal meanings

5. Why to teach grammar?
◦ The sentence-machine argument
Item learning  sentence making machine
◦ The fine-tuning argument
“Me Tarzan, you Jane”  delivers intelligibility, appropriacy, corrective
against ambiguity
◦ The fossilization argument
Without instruction, learners are at risk of fossilizing sooner.
◦ The advance-organizer argument
Delayed effect, enhances noticing

6. Why to teach grammar?
◦ The discrete item argument
Tidying language up, organizing  making it digestible
◦ The rule-of-law argument
A structured system to be taught and tested  motivate learners
◦ The learner expectations argument
Meets the expectations of learners

7. Why not to teach grammar?
◦ Krashen’s distinction between conscious learning and unconscious
acquisition of language
Language should be acquired through natural exposure, not learned through
formal instruction.
◦ Universal Grammar (UG)
UG is accessible to L2 learners, then L2 learning, like L1 learning, occurs mainly
through the interaction of UG principles with input (Cook, 1991; Dulay, Burt, &
Krashen, 1982; Schwartz, 1993; also see Goldschneider & DeKeyser, 2001)
Formal instruction was seen to be unnecessary.

8. Approaches
◦ The deductive approach – rule-driven learning
Presentation of a rule followed by examples
 Advantages of a deductive approach
Time-saving – quick and simple explanations – more time for practice & application
Acknowledges the role of cognitive processes (especially adult learners)
Confirms many students’ expectations about classroom learning
Teacher deals with language points as they come up.

9. Approaches
 Disadvantages of a deductive approach
Off-putting and frustrating for especially young learners (not enough
metalanguage knowledge)
Teacher centered & transmission style classroom – less student involvement
& interaction
Explanation is seldom memorable.
Learning a language is simply knowing the rules.

10. What makes a good rule?
◦ Truth
◦ Limitation
◦ Clarity
◦ Simplicity
◦ Familiarity
◦ Relevance

11. Example: (from Walker and Elsworth Grammar practice for Intermediate Students, Longman, 1986)

12. Approaches
◦ The inductive approach –rule discovery path
Advantages of an inductive approach
Discovering of rules fits better existing mental structures.
Mental effort ensures more cognitive depth  more memorability
Actively involved students rather than passive recipients, more attentive & motivated
Favors pattern-recognition and problem-solving abilities
Collaborative work enhances extra practice.
Self-reliance and learner autonomy

13. Approaches
 Disadvantages of an inductive approach
Time and energy consuming (sometimes at the expense of productive
practice)
Misunderstanding of the rules or producing wrong rules because of
elicitation
Too much work for teacher
Some areas of language are not easy to formulate rules.
Frustrates students who are used to traditional learning.

14. Example: (from New Wave 1, Longman 1998)

15. Discussion
Which approach do you prefer in your classes more? Why?

16. Current approaches
Focus on Forms & Focus on Form
◦ Focus on Forms
Pre-selection of specific features based on a linguistic syllabus
Intensive and systematic treatment of those features
Primary focus is on the form that is being targeted PPP.
◦ Focus on Form
Primary focus is on meaning
Attention to form arises out of meaning-centered activity derived from the performance of a
communicative task
Information gap task

17. Focus on Form
◦ Planned focus on form
involves the use of focused tasks that have been designed to elicit the use of a specific linguistic
form in the context of meaning-centered language use
Pre-determined
Similar to focus on forms?
Primary focus on meaning
learners are not made aware that a specific form is being targeted
◦ Incidental focus on form
Unfocused tasks
elicit general samples of the language rather than specific forms
many different forms are likely to be treated briefly rather than a single form addressed many
times

18. Rationale for focus on form
 Effectiveness of focus on forms reduced due to learners’ inability to
use the targeted structure spontaneously.
 The opportunity to engage in meaning-focused language use.
 The need to attend to form while engaged in meaning-focused
language use (Swain, 1995).
 Once having difficulty in simultaneously attending to meaning and
form, learners prioritize meaning over form.
 Teacher’s Role: to draw learners’ attention to form.

20. Current Approaches
◦ Processing Instruction (Communicative Approach)
Initial exposure to explicit construction  Input Proccessing Activities (Task)
More on understanding the target structure than production
Explicit focus on forms  Focus on Forms
To assist the learner in making form-meaning connections during Input
Processing (IP)  Focus on Form
Theory: Help learners to create form meaning connections in input and hence
process grammar for meaning (Lee & VanPatten, 1995).

21. Current Approaches
◦ Interactional Feedback
Negotiation and Modification Strategies (Repetitions, Clarification Requests,
Confirmation Checks)
Types of Negotiation  Meaning and Form
Aims to facilitate understanding
Implicitly or explicitly draw attention to grammatical forms.
Theory: Interactional strategies highlight linguistic or pragmatic problems, pushing
learners to modify their output.  Interaction Hypothesis
(Ellis, 1997, 2003 & Gass et al., 1998)

22. Current Approaches
◦ Textual Enhancement
The least explicit and intrusive method of focus on form.
Highlightining certain features by boldfacing, italicizing, CAPITALIZING.
Enhances perceptual saliency
Input Flood: Provision of numerous instances of linguistic forms in the input
Promotes noticing of grammatical forms  not suffcient for acquisition

23. Current Approaches
◦ Discourse-Based Approaches
Instruction is supported by extensive authentic, simplified discourse.
Corpus Analysis  Abundant examples of contextualized usage
End of the sentence-based approach
Top-down bottom-up approach
Macrostructures of the text as a whole (Discourse-analytic approach)
Function of the target structure (Micro-analytic Approach)

24. Current Approaches
◦ May or may not include explicit demonstration.
◦ Repeated meaning-focused exposure to input
◦ Present numerous forms of communicative context.
◦ Opportunities for output and practice
◦ Desingned to promote learner awareness of meaning form
relationships.
◦ Permit processing of the form to occur over time.