Presented By: Marine Milad, Ph.D. E303B: English Grammar in Context Unit 25: Putting Grammar into Educational Practice Presented By: Marine Milad, Ph.D.

Objectives In this unit, we will explore: a third type of grammar, known as a pedagogic grammar. what is formally taught in different contexts under the heading of the ‘grammar of English’ with reference to examples from real textbooks and classrooms. the ways in which students learn to engage with the grammar of texts

1. Descriptive Versus Pedagogic Grammar What is pedagogic grammar? A pedagogic grammar is one which has been adapted for teaching and learning purposes, not only for students and teachers of their own mother tongue, but also for students and teachers of English as a foreign language, or other languages.  A pedagogic grammar should contain many examples to allow the learner to work out the rules because simply presenting the rules is often confusing and does not help the learner to learn in an active way.

1. Descriptive Versus Pedagogic Grammar Sylvia Chalker mentions a number of points regarding pedagogic grammar: It will help non-native speakers to learn a foreign language, and/or help mother-tongue speakers to understand their own language It can be either for teachers or for learners, but it may be formulated differently in each case. It can be reference or for coursework (in either case it can be graded to meet the level of language knowledge of the particular user). It could be comprehensive, but it will be probably more modest in its aims. It could be tailored to particular learners and particular stages. It will draw attention to rules, thus combining prescription with description, but it will provide a range of examples.

1.1 Ways of teaching and learning grammar According to Batstone, there are three approaches to the teaching of grammar 1- grammar seen as a product 2- grammar seen as a process 3- grammar seen as a skill

1.1 Ways of teaching and learning grammar Grammar seen as a product: For Batstone, this approach takes a product perspective on grammar, with teaching structured round a careful specification of language forms. The teacher might spend a lesson or more concentrating on the past form which learners need. As Batstone argues, this approach involves learners in noticing new grammatical input and structuring their knowledge of the grammatical system. (focus on form)

1.1 Ways of teaching and learning grammar Grammar seen as a process: A process approach, on the other hand, engages learners in language use, formulating their own meanings in contexts over which they have considerable control, and in doing so, drawing on grammar as an ongoing resource. We want learners to take every opportunity to use their existing grammar, so the language is grammar rich. (randomness/fossilization) (focus on use)

1.1 Ways of teaching and learning grammar Grammar seen as a skill: seeing grammar as a skill essentially seeks to combine product with process, avoiding the dangers of grammar divorce from use (which tends to happen with a focus on product) and the dangers of randomness where the learning of grammar is left to chance. Batstone argues that the aim is to help learners make the leap from the control of grammar as product to the effective use of grammar as process. When we teach grammar as a skill, the learners are required to attend to grammar, while working on tasks which retain an emphasis on language use. Its aim is to help L2 make free use of the grammar forms in new and unspecified contexts.

1.2 Sources of data for pedagogic grammar The second important question is the source of the language data for a pedagogic grammar. It was traditionally the written mode of the language- and usually in its more formal styles- that formed the resource from which statements about grammar were made. More recently, there have been attempts to dress a balance between written and spoken sources in order to lay greater weight on spoken language data as a resource for developing pedagogic grammars. (See p. 69 in the Reader)

2. Grammar in the English Language Syllabus: New Orientations and new Resources Why do we need learning pathways or syllabuses in teaching grammar? Any grammar is a resource for understanding a particular language. It provides an organized and systematized bank of information about how a language works. This allows teachers and learners to construct what we might call pathways to learning about the resources, to acquire knowledge of the language which they can put to communicative use. Constructing such learning pathways through the grammar is what we call a syllabus.

2. Grammar in the English Language Syllabus: New Orientations and new Resources Why do we need learning pathways or syllabuses in teaching grammar? A syllabus is a route-map for teaching and learning. Syllabuses vary in their level of details, focus and approach. They display choices: what to include, what to omit, how to sequence and most of all what the units are that constitute the elements of the syllabus. Like grammar, both are products of selection: the richer the resources of language they draw on, the richer the grammar, and in turn, the richer the syllabus.

2. Grammar in the English Language Syllabus: New Orientations and new Resources Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) approach Vs. Illustration, Interaction, Induction (III). In combining the ideas of grammar as product, process and skill, McCarthy and Carter illustrate an alternative pattern to the traditional Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) approach, where the emphasis is on teachers identifying a particular grammatical form, presenting it to the learners, and then requiring the learners to practise the form without necessarily placing it in an authentic context of use. This alternative approach has been called Illustration, Interaction, Induction (III), by which they mean that the grammatical form is first located in authentic stretch of actual language, in writing or in speech, and learners are then helped by a process of interaction with the teacher or other learners to understand the form or the function, and so come to learn the grammatical form inductively. (See Reader pp. 69-71).

2.1 Some principles of syllabus design What are some principles of syllabus design offered By Collins Cobuild English Course? Some principles of innovative syllabus design as offered by Jane and Dave Willis in a course for learning English called Collins Cobuild English Course, are the following: People learn language most effectively by using language to do things. A focus on accuracy is vital. Learners need time to think about the language they are using. Exposure to a wide variety of spoken and written English is essential if learners are to gain mastery of English. Grammar is learned rather than taught. Learners need strategies for organising what they have learnt – they need rules, patterns and categories.

2.1 Some principles of syllabus design We can summarise the above principles by saying that there is a need for the language drawn on by the course books to be authentic, rich in its variety and contextualized; so that words and structures appear in context of use, not in isolation. Learning should be inductive; that is, rather than just practicing patterns, learners should be actively involved in discovering the patterns of grammar and vocabulary. In other words, teaching syllabuses needs to be Rich, Real and Revealing.

2.2 Lexical Syllabuses New orientations towards teaching grammar could be identified. They share the characteristics we identified above. These are: Lexical syllabuses: Deriving lexicogrammatical patterns from the lexical and grammatical environments (i.e. collocation and colligation) in which words typically occur. (Reader p. 91)

2.3 Corpus-based Syllabuses Deriving grammar and vocabulary learning from the richly contextualized language resources provided by a corpus. This approach offers a way of studying particular grammatical features of the language in general (not merely features of particular words) by bringing together groups of associated words and phrases. (Reader pp. 92-97)

2.4 Text-based Syllabuses Situating grammar and vocabulary learning in the analysis of different types of texts. Text- based syllabus design is based on an approach to teaching language which involves: (Feez, 1998) Teaching explicitly about the structures and grammatical features of spoken and written texts. Linking spoken and written texts to the social and cultural contexts of their use. Designing units of work which focus on developing skills in relation to whole texts.

2.4 Text-based Syllabuses One important feature of a text-based syllabus is that texts do not occur in isolation. They typically occur in sequences, associated with sets of linked actions or events and resulting in identifiable text-types.

2.5 Grammar and language Learning What does ‘consciousness raising’ refer to in second language acquisition? What are its advantages if any? In short, learners are involved in what is called consciousness–raising, what Rod Ellis calls ‘attempts to make learners aware of the existence of specific linguistic features in the target language’. The following conclusions are the advantages of this kind of consciousness: Properly –sequenced, controlled, conscious attention to target structures. Learning can be more effective if learners are required to process the structure without having automatically to produce it. Activities should be sequenced so that students first respond to the meaning of the structure through content-based tasks, and then are encouraged to raise their consciousness to notice the form and function of the target structure. Identifying the nature of the grammar to be taught and tested is a major issue in teaching a language

3. Grammar in the English Medium Classroom: some case studies Three case studies are presented in the Course Reading Booklet (pp. 72-83) that exemplify different ways of teaching grammar. Teachers in these studies teach grammar explicitly but within the systemic functional grammar framework. They produced positive effects both on students' performance and motivation level.

4. Grammar and Testing Grammar Pauline Rea-Dickins provides a useful summary: in term of linguistic explanation, we perceive a changed perspective on the nature of grammar {in language test} which moved form a traditional view reflected in the question: 'What do these forms mean?' to a structural view: 'Is this the correct form of the past tense?' To one in which the question is: How are these meanings expressed? Significantly, she goes on to report that, despite a move towards greater concern with communicative function in testing, the practice of grammar testing reflects a concept of grammar which remains ‘relatively little changed’. Moreover, the testing of grammar has begun to move towards the testing of messages and language functions rather than exclusively focusing on language forms

4. Grammar and Testing Grammar What possible reasons are there for grammar testing not match the developments in the approached describing grammar? Dickins also provides reasons why grammar testing seems not to have matched the developments in the approached describing grammar and creating pedagogic grammars. Some possible reasons are the following: Syllabuses do not emphasize the central place of grammar in making meaning in context. It is too difficult to construct imaginative test items which reflect the contextualization of grammar that we have been emphasizing. The different meanings some grammatical structures have in context make it difficult to obtain single right answers in any test.

4. Grammar and Testing Grammar What possible reasons are there for grammar testing not match the developments in the approached describing grammar? More open-ended test items are just too difficult to score consistently. It depends on what we mean by grammar. Grammar could mean sentences to some people, or the ways sentences connect together cohesively, or the structure of whole texts. For some people grammar even includes things like spelling and punctuation. Whose grammar are we testing? Is it the grammar of the so-called ‘native’ speakers of the language, or is it the grammar of the speakers (and writers) of the different varieties of the language in question? This is especially the case with a global language like English, which is now in regular and effective use around the world, mainly by so-called ‘non-native’ speakers.