1. The 7Cs: A Pedagogical Framework for Grammar Teaching and Learning
Deak Kirkham
Milada Walkova
BALEAP 2019, Leeds

2. Today’s journey
Rationale: neither theory nor pedagogical resource: a pedagogical framework
A quick overview of the 7Cs
The 7Cs in action: the passive
Next steps: applications, implications, limitations

3. Rationale
Central question: What form might be a principled framework which underlies the teaching / learning of grammar take?
theories of grammar
pedagogical resources

4. Rationale
Grammar theory attempts to explain the human capacity for the ‘grammatical’ aspects of language
Generative Grammar (Chomsky 1956, 1965, 1995)
Systemic-Functional Grammar (Halliday 1985, 1994)
Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin 1996, 2005)
Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1995, Croft 2001, Ellis 2013)
Emergent grammar (Hopper 1998)

5. Rationale
Pedagogical resources attempt to support the learning / teaching of grammar
Hewings (2005): Advanced Grammar in Use (2nd ed)
Grammar as structures; presentation → exercises
Swan (2016): Practical English Usage (4th ed)
Grammar as structures; no exercises
Thornbury (1999): How to Teach Grammar and (2005): Uncovering Grammar
Teaching techniques

6. Rationale
7Cs is neither a grammar theory nor a a pedagogical resource per se
7Cs is a pedagogical conceptual framework for thinking about and doing the teaching / learning of grammar
practitioner-oriented

7. Overview
1. Categories
units of grammar, defined morpho-syntactically and semantically
word classes, e.g. noun, verb
phrases, e.g. noun phrase, adverb phrase
2. Components
broad sentence architecture
predicate, arguments (subject, object), adjuncts
types of clauses

8. Overview 3. Semantic Concepts semantic features semantic roles
definiteness, animacy…
4. Syntagmatic Combinations
various types of adjacent syntagmatic phenomena
chunks
grammatical collocations

9. Overview
5. Connections
relations between non-adjacent elements in a structure
e.g. choice of relative pronoun depends on the head, e.g. the boy with flowers who/*which is smiling
6. Correlations
systematic mappings between two (or more) structures
e.g. nominalisation <-> clause, e.g. my reliance on <-> I rely on

10. Overview
7. Contexts
pragmatic, information-structural, stylistic and contextual aspects of structure including contextual motivation for using certain forms
formality
rhetorical effect

11. 7Cs in Action: Passive voice
Categories
Components
Semantic Concepts
Syntagmatic Combinations
Connections
Correlations
Contexts
MW takes over here

12. Categories Transitivity: noun phrase auxiliary verb(s)
past participle of a lexical verb
regular or irregular
optional, variable, e.g. prepositional phrase
The essay
has to be
submitted
on Wednesday.
The plenary
was
given
by Professor Feringa.
Transitivity:
transitive verbs
intransitive verbs, e.g. *What was happened? 
copular verbs, e.g. *Mary was become a nurse.
ditransitive verbs, e.g. The students were allocated a new room. / A new room was allocated to the students.

13. Components Subject argument: NP Predicate: Be + past participle
Adjuncts: (adverbial) (by-PP)
^Other adverbials not part of the structure
Penicillin 
The student office
was discovered
was contacted
(by Alexander Fleming) (^in 1928).
(^promptly).
Subject argument: Clause Anticipatory it
Predicate:
Be + past participle
that
Postponed clause It
has been argued
7Cs is a suitable framework for teaching grammar.

14. Semantic concepts
up to 3 event participants, e.g. A new room was allocated to the students by the student office.
semantic roles:
Agent: It has been argued by a number of scholars that...
Cause: The financial crisis was caused by deregulation.
Experiencer: The course was enjoyed by the students.
Patient: The research subjects were tested...
Theme: Irrelevant data was discarded.

15. Syntagmatic combinations
passive: predicate
modal V
aux V
adverb BE
PAST PART
The disease
could
have 
been
eliminated.
Many articles on the topic
will 
yet be
written.
The theory
might
possibly
misinterpreted.

16. Connections transitivity of the main verb subject-verb agreement:
 An experiment was conducted to...
 Several experiments involving detection of DNA were conducted to...

17. Correlations construction example Active voice construction
The student office allocated a new room to the students.
Reduced participle clause
Contacted promptly, the student office dealt with the issue urgently. 
Nominalisations
The discovery of penicillin...
Inanimate subjects with active verbs
Table 1 shows the results of the analysis...

18. Contexts EAP: to make writing impersonal can be ambiguous:
The results are presented below.
can be ambiguous:
The research was based on Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning which was translated into the Slovak language.

19. Applications, implications and limitations
7Cs can be applied to a range of complex grammatical structures (but different Cs have varying degrees of relevance to a particular structure)
systematic
requires knowledge of metalanguage
teacher training implications
theoretical model that needs to be applied in practice