1. Teaching Grammar
LLT 307

2. Communicative Competence (i.e., the goal of CLT)
Grammatical/Linguistic Competence
Sociolinguistic Competence
Strategic Competence
Discourse Competence
Communicative Competence
Grammar knowledge is needed for the other areas of CC. You do not want to sounds stupid, incompetent and unknowledgeable.
Strategic is using what you know to find what you do know.
Register informal and formal form
Need to know context of speaking
Discuss grammar as a skill, not just the ruels and FORM of a language
Is grammar knowledge needed for the other areas of CC? (Pre-Reading Q4) Why?
(Pre-reading Q2) What are some concepts/practices you associate with CLT. How will (did) this chapter will bridge them with grammar?

3. Two Types of Grammar Instruction
Structure-Based Instruction
Focus on the language (grammar)
Structures presented in easy-to-difficult sequence
Errors corrected; accuracy over message
Learner not surrounded by L2
Limited contact with proficient speakers (T only)
Limited contact with different types of discourse
Pressure to speak/write correctly
Most common type of discourse: IRE
Initiation: Teacher asks a question
Response: Student answers
Evaluation: Teacher evaluates the answer
Communication-Based Instruction
Communicative, content- and/or task-based
Focus: interaction, conversation, and L2 use
Input made comprehensible: realia, gestures, etc.
Errors not corrected; meaning over form
More time for speaking because of group/pair work
Limited contact with proficient speakers (teacher only), but a lot of contact with other learners (student-student interaction)
Different types of discourse through authentic materials and role-play
(Only) implicit feedback through negotiation of meaning and clarification requests
Two types of instruction
Structure based is focus on language
Communicative based is focus on task
Think of as a contimuim between these two extremes. Do you really want to be at both extrmems? A little bit of both is necessary
1. What do these two types of L2 classrooms look like?
2. Which one of these more closely resembles your classroom language learning experiences? (Pre-Reading Q1)
3. Which one, in your opinion, handles grammar more effectively?
Structure-Based
Communication-Based

4. Three Scenarios Questions: What tasks are used?
What is the focus of each episode? Exchange of information or language?
How does the teacher respond to errors?

5. Approaches to Grammar Instruction
Focus on meaning
Focus on formS
Focus on form
Meaning is meaning based instruction
Focus on forms is the structure based instruction
Focus on form is the middle. Gives attention to both.

6. What Constitutes Grammatical “Form”?
Morphosyntax
Woof
Woofs
Woofed
Woofing
Had woofed
………
Pre-reading Q3?
Reading Q2?
Post-Reading Q2?

7. Focus on FormS: Characteristics
Teaching of linguistic forms is paramount
Language is taught as an end in itself
Activities
Dialogue memorization
Repetition drills
Substitution drills
Transformation drills
Example:
Grammar translation
Theoretical support: Behaviorism
What is lacking in this type of instruction according to Larsen-Freeman?
(Reading Q1) At the end of p. 251, L-F writes, …grammar is about much more than form… What does she mean by that? In other words, why is this form-only view of grammar and grammar instruction incomplete?

8. Focus on Meaning: Characteristics
Learners’ attention is not drawn explicitly to linguistic forms
Learners only need comprehensible input in a low-stress environment
Examples
Purely communicative instruction
Content-based instruction
Theoretical support/claims (Krashen, Truscott)
Second language learning is the same as first language learning (e.g., Krashen, 1981)
Maximum exposure to authentic materials is essential
Language can only be acquired, not learned
Language acquisition is subconscious
Acquisition leads to implicit knowledge and learning leads to explicit knowledge
EC is not helpful and may be harmful to learners (Truscott, 1996, 1999)

9. Focus on Form
Linguistic forms must be taught, but in the context of meaningful, task-based commucation
Exposure to language forms is insufficient (i.e., L2A is not the same as L1A
Language features learned in mechanical drills are hard to retrieve in real-life situations
Negotiated interaction (Gass, 2003)
Facilitates comprehension of input
Raises learner’s awareness of the gap between his/her own production and the correct form
Affords opportunities for output (production) (Loewen, 2004)

10. Negotiated Interaction
NNS: Why they want to sell to the house?
NS: Why do they want to sell the house?
NNS: Why do they want to sell the house?
(later on)
NNS: Why does he want to wash the window before he goes to work?
(and)
NNS: Why he ah why does he want to call the painter?
(Philp, 2003)

11. Research Findings
After years of immersion, learners still had serious problems in linguistic accuracy (Swain, 1985)
Lack of attention to form
Interaction with attention to linguistic form is more effective than interaction alone (Gass & Mackey, 2007).
Focus-on-form instruction is more effective than focus-on-formS instruction (Norris & Ortega, 2000)

12. In a nutshell… Focus on formS
Linguistic forms are taught removed from context and as an “object”
Focus on meaning
Linguistic forms are not attended to
Focus on form
Primary emphasis is on meaning, but attention is also given to form as needed
Structure-Based
Communication-Based
Focus on Form
Focus on FormS
Focus on Meaning

13. Identify whether the provided scenarios should be labeled focus on form, focus on formS, or focus on meaning.

14. Types of Focus on Form Planned versus incidental
Planned: intensive attention to preselected forms.
Incidental: attention distributed to a variety of forms in response to sporadic linguistic problems
Preemptive versus reactive
Preemptive: raising the learner’s metalinguistic awareness (followed by carefully designed tasks that address a particular target form)
Reactive
Online: providing feedback while students are engaged in a communicative activity
Offline: providing feedback after a communicative activity correcting errors and pointing out how the target form was used in context.

15. Grammar Tasks According to Focus-on-Form
Meaning is primary; accuracy is secondary (but not absent or considered unimportant).
There is a communication problem of some type to solve.
The task has some relationship to real-world events (i.e., it is meaningful and contextualized).
The use of a/the/some target structure(s) is indispensible for the completion of the task.
(Sound familiar?)

17. Design a Task
Choose one of the following English structures (or a different language and/or structure) and design a focus-on-form task by applying what you have learned.
Comparatives/superlatives
Present/past progressive (was/were doing something)
Direct and/or indirect object pronouns