GRAMMAR

TEACHING GRAMMARBy: Alma Lorena Sánchez Escobar

Some questions to reflect?

(1) Do you like teaching grammar? (2) Do you think grammar is the most important thing to learn in English?(3) What is the most difficult part of teaching English grammar?(4) What is the best way to teach grammar?(5) Do you have a favorite grammar book? (6) Why do you think the benefits of teaching grammar are?

What is grammar?

Grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in language. Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of sentence. Thus a grammar is adescription of the rules that govern how language´s sentences are formed. Grammar attempts to explain why sentences are acceptable. (Thornbury, 2002).

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What is grammar?

Grammar is conventionally seen as the study of syntax and morphology of sentences. Put another way, it is the study of linguistic chains and slots. It is the study both of the way words are chained together in a particular order, and also of what kinds of words can slot into anyone link in the chain. (Thornbury, 2002).

What does teaching grammar mean?

It means enabling language students to use linguistic form accurately, meaningfully and appropriately. (Lasser-Freeman, 2001).

Tabbert (1984)

Tabbert (1984)

Warriner

Why to teach grammar? According to...

Richards (2002)

Emery (1978)

Krahnke (1985)

Why to teach grammar? According to...

Benefits of teaching grammar.

Grammar Framework

Explaining the grammar framework

Grammar and meaning

Grammar communicates meanings. meaning of a very precise kind.For example: We are at home right now, please leave your message after the beep. The sentence is grammatically well-formed but it doesn't make sense in this context. The form the speaker has chosen doesn't convey the exact meaning the speaker requires.

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Grammar and function

When we process language we are not only trying to make sense of the 'words and the grammar; we are also trying to infer the speaker's (or writer's) intention, or, to put it another way, the function of what they are saying or writing.

GRAMMAR METHODS

TRANSLATION

NATURAL

DIRECT

AUDIOLINGUALISM

GRAMMAR APROACHES

DEDUCTIVE

INDUCTIVE

DEDUCTIVE APPROACH

INDUCTIVE APPROACH

Task-based applied to Grammar (Celse-Murcia,1987)

PRE-TASK

TASK

POST TASK

Make learning grammar fun.

Be systematic.

Remember the purpose of teaching grammar.

PRINCIPLES TO TEACH GRAMMAR

Build up your own subject knowledge .

Teach grammar in context.

Read aloud and discuss how authors use grammar

THANKS!

REFERENCES

• Thornbury, Scot (2002). How to Teach Grammar. England: Pearson Education. available at: https://jonturnerhct.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/how-to-teach-grammar-scott-thornbury.pdf
• Celse-Murcia, et al (1987).Tecniques and Resources in Teacjing Grammar. Oxford: OUP. Available at: https://archive.org/details/teaching-grammar-techniques-and-resources-in/page/n1/mode/2up

Example

FATHER: Do you drink? YOUNG MAN: No, thanks, I'm cool. FATHER; I'm not offering, I'm asking IF you drink, Do you think I'd offer alcohol to teenage drivers taking my daughter out?Why did the young man misunderstand the father's question, misconstruing a request for information as an offer? Was it the words he didn't understand? Or the grammar? Or both? Clearly not. What he misunderstood was the father's intended meaning, He misunderstood the function of the question,

Communicative Practice

Communicative practice, in which the learner engages in communicative activities to practice the structure being learned. According to Morrow and Johnson (1981), a communicative task incorporates the actual processes of communication; the more of these features an exercise incorporates, the more communicative it is.

To be an effective language user, learners should study grammar because grammar skills will help learners to organize words and messages and make them meaningful. Knowing more about grammar will enable learners to build better sentences in speaking and writing performances. A good knowledge of grammar helps learners to make sentences clear enough to understand. Improper use of grammar will not convey meaningful messages.

What is morphology?

• The system of rules that cover the formation of words.

We is not at home right now. Not we right home now are.

PRESENTATION

Presentation, in which we introduce the grammar structure, either inductively or deductively. There are a variety of techniques and resources that can be used during this step. Selection should be made according to teacher strengths, student preferences, and the nature of the structure.

What is it?

e approach starts with the presentatioll of a rule and is followed by examples in which the rule is applied

FOCUSED PRACTICE

Focused practice, in which the learner manipulates the structure in question while all other variables are held constant. The purpose of this step is to allow the learner to gain control of the form without the added pressure and distraction of trying to use the form for communication. The teacher should not proceed to the next phase until most students have mastered at least the form of the structure.

Teacher feedback and correction

Although this is usually considered a final step, it must take place throughout the lesson. We also feel that a teacher’s correction strategy should probably change according to the phase of the lesson. For example, during the second part of the lesson, correction should be predominantly straightforward and immediate.

To establish an effective communication, learners need grammar skills; therefore, without grammar, speech get meaningless. Grammar is an essential aspect to communicate effectively Moreover, grammar simply is creating wellorganized reading and writing performances. John Warriner supporting this idea writes: "The chief usefulness of grammar is that it provides a convenient and, indeed, as English is taught today, an almost indispensable set of terms to use in talking about language.

Grammar will give learners the competence how to combine words to form sentences. To create fully-developed sentences, grammar knowledge is indispensable. With little understanding of how language functions, learners cannot develop their language skills. ―Just as there are careful and effective drivers who do not know what makes a car run, so there are those who, through practice and skillful observation, have become satisfactory, even effective, writers with very little understanding of the mechanics of the language. But it follows that the more you know about the form and function of the parts that make up the larger unit, the sentence, the better equipped you are to recognize and to construct well-formed sentences....‖ (Emery, et al, 1978, p. 1)

Language acquisition without grammar will be confusing. Learners will fail to use the language correctly without grammar skills. People now agree that grammar is too important to be ignored, and that without a good knowledge of grammar, learners‘ language development will be severely constrained.

Tabbert stresses the importance of grammar simply as: It is frequently pointed out that students confuse lie and lay, do not choose who and whom correctly, say infer instead of imply, mismatch subjects and verbs, mix up pronoun reference. use double negatives, etc., and that these mistakes are evidence of their need to study grammar‖ (Tabbert, 1984, p.39)

Grammar instruction should not be ignored. About grammar teaching, Krahnke (1985, p.598) suggests that ―much of the effort spent arguing against the teaching of grammar might be better spent on convincing true believers in grammar instruction that grammar has a newly defined but useful role to play in language teaching and in showing them what it is. For a better language improvement, grammar plays a crucial role.

What is it?

An inductive approach starts with some examples from which rule is inferred.

What is syntax?

• The system of rules that conver the order of words in a sentence:

Not we right home now are.