Teaching Grammar
Grammar is central
to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the more difficult
aspects of language to teach well.
Many people,
including language teachers, hear the word "grammar" and think of a
fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. They associate "good"
grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in writing
and in formal oral presentations, and "bad" or "no" grammar
with the language used in everyday conversation or used by speakers of nonprestige
forms.
Language teachers
who adopt this definition focus on grammar as a set of forms and rules. They
teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on
them. This results in bored, disaffected students who can produce correct forms
on exercises and tests, but consistently make errors when they try to use the
language in context.
Other language
teachers, influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between
language learning and language acquisition, tend not to teach grammar at all.
Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar
instruction, they expect students to learn their second language the same way.
They assume that students will absorb grammar rules as they hear, read, and use
the language in communication activities. This approach does not allow students
to use one of the major tools they have as learners: their active understanding
of what grammar is and how it works in the language they already know.
The communicative
competence model balances these extremes. The model recognizes that overt
grammar instruction helps students acquire the language more efficiently, but
it incorporates grammar teaching and learning into the larger context of
teaching students to use the language. Instructors using this model teach
students the grammar they need to know to accomplish defined communication
tasks.
Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar
The goal of grammar instruction is
to enable students to carry out their communication purposes.
This goal has three
implications:
- Students need overt instruction that connects grammar points with larger communication contexts.
- Students do not need to master every aspect of each grammar point, only those that are relevant to the immediate communication task.
- Error correction is not always the instructor's first responsibility.
Overt Grammar Instruction:
Adult students
appreciate and benefit from direct instruction that allows them to apply
critical thinking skills to language learning. Instructors can take advantage
of this by providing explanations that give students a descriptive
understanding (declarative knowledge) of each point of grammar.
·
Teach the grammar point in the target language
or the students' first language or both. The goal is to facilitate
understanding.
·
Limit the time you devote to grammar
explanations to 10 minutes, especially for lower level students whose ability
to sustain attention can be limited.
·
Present grammar points in written and oral ways
to address the needs of students with different learning styles.
An important part
of grammar instruction is providing examples. Teachers need to plan their
examples carefully around two basic principles:
·
Be sure the examples are accurate and
appropriate. They must present the language appropriately, be culturally
appropriate for the setting in which they are used, and be to the point of the
lesson.
·
Use the examples as teaching tools. Focus
examples on a particular theme or topic so that students have more contact with
specific information and vocabulary.
Relevance of
Grammar Instruction:
In the
communicative competence model, the purpose of learning grammar is to learn the
language of which the grammar is a part. Instructors therefore teach grammar
forms and structures in relation to meaning and use for the specific
communication tasks that students need to complete.
Compare the
traditional model and the communicative competence model for teaching the
English past tense:
Traditional:
grammar for grammar's sake
·
Teach the regular -ed form with its two
pronunciation variants
·
Teach the doubling rule for verbs that end in d
(for example, wed-wedded)
·
Hand out a list of irregular verbs that students
must memorize
·
Do pattern practice drills for -ed
·
Do substitution drills for irregular verbs
Communicative
competence: grammar for communication's sake
·
Distribute two short narratives about recent
experiences or events, each one to half of the class
·
Teach the regular -ed form, using verbs that
occur in the texts as examples. Teach the pronunciation and doubling rules if
those forms occur in the texts.
·
Teach the irregular verbs that occur in the
texts.
·
Students read the narratives, ask questions
about points they don't understand.
·
Students work in pairs in which one member has
read Story A and the other Story B. Students interview one another; using the
information from the interview, they then write up or orally repeat the story
they have not read.
Error
Correction:
At all proficiency
levels, learners produce language that is not exactly the language used by
native speakers. Some of the differences are grammatical, while others involve
vocabulary selection and mistakes in the selection of language appropriate for
different contexts.
In responding to
student communication, teachers need to be careful not to focus on error
correction to the detriment of communication and confidence building. Teachers
need to let students know when they are making errors so that they can work on
improving. Teachers also need to build students' confidence in their ability to
use the language by focusing on the content of their communication rather than
the grammatical form.
Teachers can use
error correction to support language acquisition, and avoid using it in ways
that undermine students' desire to communicate in the language, by taking cues
from context.
·
When students are doing structured output
activities that focus on development of new language skills, use error
correction to guide them.
·
Example:
·
Student (in class): I buy a new car yesterday.
·
Teacher: You bought a new car yesterday.
Remember, the past tense of buy is bought.
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When students are engaged in communicative
activities, correct errors only if they interfere with comprehensibility.
Respond using correct forms, but without stressing them.
·
Example:
·
Student (greeting teacher) : I buy a new car
yesterday!
·
Teacher: You bought a new car? That's exciting!
What kind?
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Strategies for Learning Grammar
Language teachers
and language learners are often frustrated by the disconnect between knowing
the rules of grammar and being able to apply those rules automatically in
listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This disconnect reflects a separation
between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge.
·
Declarative knowledge is knowledge about
something. Declarative knowledge enables a student to describe a rule of
grammar and apply it in pattern practice drills.
·
Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do
something. Procedural knowledge enables a student to apply a rule of grammar in
communication.
For example,
declarative knowledge is what you have when you read and understand the
instructions for programming the DVD player. Procedural knowledge is what you
demonstrate when you program the DVD player.
Procedural
knowledge does not translate automatically into declarative knowledge; many
native speakers can use their language clearly and correctly without being able
to state the rules of its grammar. Likewise, declarative knowledge does not
translate automatically into procedural knowledge; students may be able to
state a grammar rule, but consistently fail to apply the rule when speaking or
writing.
To address the
declarative knowledge/procedural knowledge dichotomy, teachers and students can
apply several strategies.
1. Relate
knowledge needs to learning goals.
Identify the
relationship of declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge to student goals
for learning the language. Students who plan to use the language exclusively
for reading journal articles need to focus more on the declarative knowledge of
grammar and discourse structures that will help them understand those texts.
Students who plan to live in-country need to focus more on the procedural
knowledge that will help them manage day to day oral and written interactions.
2. Apply higher order thinking skills.
Recognize that
development of declarative knowledge can accelerate development of procedural
knowledge. Teaching students how the language works and giving them
opportunities to compare it with other languages they know allows them to draw
on critical thinking and analytical skills. These processes can support the
development of the innate understanding that characterizes procedural
knowledge.
3. Provide plentiful, appropriate language input.
Understand that
students develop both procedural and declarative knowledge on the basis of the
input they receive. This input includes both finely tuned input that requires
students to pay attention to the relationships among form, meaning, and use for
a specific grammar rule, and roughly tuned input that allows students to
encounter the grammar rule in a variety of contexts. (For more on input, see
Teaching Goals and Methods.)
4. Use predicting skills.
Discourse analyst
Douglas Biber has demonstrated that different communication types can be
characterized by the clusters of linguistic features that are common to those
types. Verb tense and aspect, sentence length and structure, and larger
discourse patterns all may contribute to the distinctive profile of a given
communication type. For example, a history textbook and a newspaper article in
English both use past tense verbs almost exclusively. However, the newspaper
article will use short sentences and a discourse pattern that alternates
between subjects or perspectives. The history textbook will use complex
sentences and will follow a timeline in its discourse structure. Awareness of
these features allows students to anticipate the forms and structures they will
encounter in a given communication task.
5. Limit expectations for drills.
·
Mechanical drills in which students substitute
pronouns for nouns or alternate the person, number, or tense of verbs can help
students memorize irregular forms and challenging structures. However, students
do not develop the ability to use grammar correctly in oral and written
interactions by doing mechanical drills, because these drills separate form
from meaning and use. The content of the prompt and the response is set in
advance; the student only has to supply the correct grammatical form, and can
do that without really needing to understand or communicate anything. The main
lesson that students learn from doing these drills is: Grammar is boring.
·
Communicative drills encourage students to
connect form, meaning, and use because multiple correct responses are possible.
In communicative drills, students respond to a prompt using the grammar point
under consideration, but providing their own content. For example, to practice
questions and answers in the past tense in English, teacher and students can
ask and answer questions about activities the previous evening. The drill is
communicative because none of the content is set in advance:
Teacher: Did you go
to the library last night?
Student 1: No, I
didn’t. I went to the movies. (to Student 2): Did you read chapter 3?
Student 2: Yes, I
read chapter 3, but I didn’t understand it. (to Student 3): Did you understand
chapter 3?
Student 3: I
didn’t read chapter 3. I went to the movies with Student 1.