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第一部分
The role of Grammar in English Language Teaching
Copyright: Julia Alexander - Beijing August 2006
1 Why do we teach grammar?
Changing reasons: Academic theories and applications change, but practice is slow to change. How much of what we used to do is still suitable in the communicative classroom? Grammar study began in Ancient Greece two and a half thousand years ago. The principle was to promote good style, grace and accuracy: a standard model of good usage. These days, the model is outdated, and the reasons have changed.
2 How did we teach grammar?
Till recently, grammar study and language learning were the same thing:
Phase One textbooks contained a series of Chapters, called ‘Lessons’, each with a grammatical heading. Grammar tables with notes, listing, for example, the whole of the verb have. Then, some exercises: single-sentences, fill-in-the-blanks. Then a text. The text was not graded. Teachers read the Lesson with the class, and commented on it: ‘grammar-translation’: based on talking about the language, not on using it. The aim was knowledge, not fluency. Very few learners became fluent.
Phase 2: From early 20th Century, - several attempts to simplify the reading texts. The teaching style did not change much. Pupils still studied lists and tables. They still filled in the blanks in single sentences. It was still ‘grammar-translation’. There was no attempt to teach language skills.
Phase 3: 1967, New Concept English appeared. New Concept English changed the way English was taught all over the world.
- It was the first course in which the method is included in the material.
- New language is presented piece by piece in easy stages and in context.
- Basing the lessons on graded texts allows the learner to listen, to pay attention, and to use the language immediately.
- Grammar is the control system, not the objective of the course. Many learners become fluent through this method.
Phase 3a: American linguistic politics in the 1970’s and 80’s: a side-alley: most US language teaching based on B.F. Skinner’s Behaviourism. Learners in language laboratories repeated pattern sentences. Noam Chomsky’s Aspects of a Theory of Syntax (1965) was picked up by language teachers, and Transformational Grammar, combined with language-laboratory drills, dominated US language teaching through the 70’s and into the 80’s: single sentences, learned in terms of form. No connected discourse, either between speakers, or across a sequence of sentences. The communicative value of language was ignored, and there was no skills development: raw grammar, without the commentary.
Phase 4: In Europe in 1970’s, applied linguists began to look at language as communication. The Council of Europe committee published The Threshold Level. It looked quite different from the syllabuses we knew: list of ‘language acts’ - what we do with language. It did have a list of structures and vocabulary, but they were a by-product of taking part in the various communicative acts. Complete reversal: Communication was now the master, and grammar was the servant.
Some problems with grading – no hierarchy of language functions. ‘No grammar’ means phrasebook English. Fluency requires us to operate the grammatical system. Also, no use being able to say things if you can’t understand the answer. Listening and reading are the essence of language learning, because we cannot control or predict what we will hear or read. We want to teach for communication, but we must not lose sight of good syllabus design and development of all four skills.
Phase Five: teachers, and the materials they use, fall into two categories:
- One group likes a ‘source book’ approach: lessons are based on a ‘theme’ or ‘topic’. Language structures are graded within the topic, but the grading is fairly flexible. Teachers take material from newspapers and radio programmes. Students meet a lot of material, and choose their own path through it. This can work - but it often means doing a lot of old-fashioned single-sentence exercises, so as to cover the grammar.
- The other group uses ‘the enriched structural syllabus’. This language syllabus is much the same as in New Concept English, but with some additions at the lower levels. As in New Concept English, lessons are partitioned into separate activities. Students expect to learn everything in the book.
Both approaches use ‘situationalised structure’. Language is presented in context, and there is a determined effort to develop the 4 skills in life-like uses. The principle is that we teach for communication. That is where we are now.
So why do we teach grammar, if we teach for communication?
In the past, the focus was on accuracy. Grammar was studied for its own sake. The focus now is on fluency, and grammar is the support system. Five reasons for teaching grammar:
- because it provides a short-cut to understanding.
- because we can’t avoid it.
- because we must.
- because the students expect us to.
- ‘Consciousness raising’.
How do we teach grammar?
Grammar provides the rationale – the why and how - of language.
- Relevance: Grammar practice books are still with us. Why are they so like the 1950’s grammars? – Because drills became unfashionable, and learners still need to practice low-level skills before they can take part in an open-ended conversation. Are these written grammar practice exercises more ‘communicative’ than oral drills? No. Are they as useful as oral drills? No.
- Clarity: serious problem in English Language Teaching with confusing and inaccurate rules. Two myths: one, that English has no grammar, and two, that English is full of exceptions. This is nonsense. English is as consistent as any other language. There are no exceptions. There are only larger and smaller categories.
- Accurate information is simple information. When we find that our explanations are not simple, we must look deeper, until we get at the truth.
What do we teach?
There are 2 aspects of content: Topics, and Sequencing.
There are 16 topics. They are:
1 Nouns
2 Articles
3 Pronouns
4 Quantity
5 Adjectives
6 Adverbs
7 Prepositions and adverb particles
8 Verbs, verb tenses, imperatives
9 Be, Have, Do
10 Modal auxiliaries and related verbs
11 The passive and the causative
12 Questions, answers, negatives
13 Conditional sentences
14 Direct and Indirect speech
15 The infinitive and the –ing form
16 The sentence
Some important facts:
1 The sentence: English grammar is expressed through word order. The rules of word order are extremely rigid.
- We don’t separate a verb from its object. I passed the money across the table – (Not I passed across the table the money.)
- Every sentence must have a subject. It’s very hot today, (Not Is very hot today.)
- Some verbs, such as like, want, have and enjoy, always have an object:
Do you like this? – Yes, I like it. (Not, Yes, I like.)
2 Nouns: A noun may be a single word, such as lesson, or teacher. But it may be made up of than one word. When it is, the first word limits or defines the second word; and the first word is always singular in form. Compound nouns are just nouns. They should be treated as single words, since they are ‘the exact name’ for something. There is no gain for the student in learning the meanings of each element in a compound noun, as if they were separate vocabulary items:
- adjective + noun; adjective + noun + noun; noun + noun + noun; gerund + noun; noun + gerund: noun + noun. These combinations are sometimes written as one word, sometimes two, sometimes hyphenated – but they are still one ‘word’, ‘the name of the thing’, and the first element is a noun, not an adjective. The best way to learn these is in context. Categories will emerge in the student’s consciousness over time.
3 The article
We use the article in English to express two notions: defining and classifying:
Every use of a/an, the and ‘zero’ belongs to one of these categories.
A/an classifies a singular countable noun. ‘Zero’ classifies a plural countable noun, and an uncountable noun.
The defines a singular countable noun, a plural countable noun, ‘a quantity/an amount of’ an uncountable noun.
(The plural of a/an = ‘more than one of that class’ is some. It refers to quantity.)
4 Pronouns: English pronouns change according to number, case and gender: I, me, mine, you, yours, he, him, his, she, her, hers, we, us, ours, they, them, theirs, who, whom. It is of the first importance to teach pronouns in context, not in lists.
- a pronoun stands in place of a noun. Students should be trained to identify which noun.
4 Quantity
- Countable and uncountable nouns govern the use of quantifiers. We use some/any/a lot with plural countable nouns (apples) and with uncountable nouns (bread).
- We use (a) few and (not) many only with plural countables. We use (a) little and (not) much only with uncountables.
- We use all and both with plural countables: (all the people, both children, they all, they both).
- We use each and every with singular countables. Each means ‘separately’: each child, each one; every means ‘all together’: Every moment was different.
- We use other with plural countables: There are other possibilities.
We use another with singular countables: another place.
5 Adjectives
- An adjective describes the person, thing, etc. that a noun or pronoun refers to. We use an adjective in front of the noun it describes (Those are big cabbages); or it comes after the verb and describe the subject of the sentence. (Those cabbages are big).
- We can’t use an adjective as if it were a noun: She’s young. She’s a young woman; NOT He’s a young.
- We often use the + adjective to refer to ‘the group as a whole’: These things are popular with the young.
- We prefer to describe a person’s nationality with an adjective rather than a noun: A Chinese friend told me …. NOT A Chinese told me ….
- We use adjective complements after the verbs be, seem and become. We also use them after a wide number of other verbs. These verbs have their first ‘dictionary meaning’ when the following word is not an adjective, (get a new job – ‘obtain’); but with an adjective complement, their underlying meaning is always either be or become, and the adjective describes the subject of the verb:
= ‘be/seem’: appear capable, hang free, look good, feel right, taste horrible, smell bad;
= ‘become’: break free, cut loose, get tired, fall ill, grow old, turn red, set fair, run clear.
- There is an extension of this category with adjectives used after a verb + object. In these examples, the verb contains a causative idea (‘make it become’), and the adjective describes the object: cut (it) fine/close/short; find (it) hard/easy; get it right/wrong; make (it) good; see (it) clear; sell (it) cheap; wear (it) long/short/tight/thin.
- Most adjectives are ‘gradable’: we can intensify them with very and we can weaken them with slightly. Some adjectives are ‘ungradable’: they refer to absolute states, e.g. unique, pregnant, dead. We cannot normally use very or slightly with ungradable adjectives. We can emphasise them with an –ly adverb that means ‘completely’.
- There is a class of adjectives beginning with a- that mean ‘in a state of being ….’ that are always predicative: awake, asleep, afraid, alone, etc. are ungradable. We can intensify them with –ly adverbs that mean ‘completely’, but otherwise, they do not normally combine with intensifiers or adverbs of degree.
5 Adverbs
Placing adverbs correctly in the sentence is a matter of identifying what kind of adverb they are – that is, which word or words they are modifying, and thus precisely what they mean.
There are 10 classes of adverb. 6 of them usually add to (‘modify’) the meaning of the verb: manner (how?), place (where?), time (when?), duration (how long?), frequency (how often?), degree (to what extent?). The other 4 classes modify other words in the sentence: intensifiers (strengthen the meaning of adjectives – very good, very well - prepositional phrases – completely out of order - and other adverbs – terribly quickly); focus (draw attention, usually to the next word in the sentence – it was only yesterday – though also, too and as well come after the word or words they modify); viewpoint (sometimes called ‘sentence adverbs’, express the speaker’s attitude to what he/she is saying – Honestly, you surprise me); connectives (show the relationship between one phrase or clause and another – because, as a result).
6 Prepositions and adverb particles
We use different prepositions for direction and position:
- to school/at school; to bed/in bed
- into the box/in the box
We say at a place or event for the normal purpose associated with that location: at home, at the airport, at a party. We say in an area or space for no specified purpose: in the house, in China, in Oxford Street.
We use different prepositions to refer to time:
- at an exact time: at 7 o’clock; at night; at breakfast time
- on days of the week/dates: on Monday; on 3rd November
- in periods of time: parts of the day/months/seasons/years/centuries: in the morning, in May, in 2006, in spring, in the last century
- We use phrasal verbs wherever possible, in preference to single word verbs. There are 4 types of phrasal verb. Not all phrasal verbs are idiomatic, though many of them are:
- Type 1: verb + preposition (transitive) – lend something to someone
- Type 2: verb + particle (transitive) – put something on
- Type 3: verb + particle (intransitive) – (idiomatic) – chip in, turn off
- Type 4: verb + particle + preposition – (idiomatic) – get down to (work)
7 Verbs and Verb Tenses
- Simple and progressive verb forms are used in different ways. Many verbs have simple and progressive forms:
I often listen to music. (simple tense: ‘habit’)
I’m listening to the radio. (progressive tense: action going on now)
- some verbs have different simple and progressive meanings:
I think I’ll go by bus. (simple: ‘that’s my belief’)
Don’t talk to me now. I’m thinking. (progressive: ‘using my brain’)
- Some verbs can never be used in a progressive tense because they refer to involuntary states, not to deliberate actions.
Most parents love their children. (Not are loving)
- There is only one rule for the Present Perfect – we use it for actions that began in the past and continue into the present.
- In Indirect Speech, the tense of the verb and the time references reflect the speaker’s point of view.
- The Active and the Passive lead lives of their own..
- Modal verbs have two main uses:
i) In their first use, they express ideas like ability, necessity and permission, and they refer to present or future. I must go now/tomorrow.
To refer to the past, we have to use another verb: I had to go at the end of that week.
ii) In their second use, all of them except shall express varying degrees of certainty and uncertainty, and they have only 2 forms:
She must be here. She must have been here.
Sequencing:
Q. When do we teach grammar?
A. When it is appropriate.
Q. When is it appropriate?
A. When it assists the students to make connections with what they already know.
Q. Why is this important?
A. Because grammatical understanding is a process of putting words into categories: singular, plural, uncountable, attributive, predicative, past, present, future, stative, dynamic, general reference, specific reference, classifying, defining. The understanding of these categories is built up slowly. Grammatical insights develop slowly, along with the language items the student has learned. One thing is essential: students must be able to classify what we ask them to learn in relation to what they already know. ‘He must take knowledge with him who would bring knowledge home.’ (Dr. Samuel Johnson)
It is pointless to teach everything the students need to know about a grammatical category at once. It is the wrong kind of learning. It belongs to the ‘talking about language’, the ‘grammar translation’ tradition.
Teaching grammar for communication means giving enough information about the items of study so that the student sees that there is a pattern, and what that pattern is. That’s it. The process of giving that information should always be subordinate to the process of getting students to do things with language.
Washback
We should not allow the patterns of exam papers to take over what we do in the classroom. Teaching and testing are 2 different activities altogether. True, have to live with the realities of exam requirements. We can try to influence the examiners, to make the exams less separate from real language use. And we can allocate a small proportion of our contact time with the students to specific exam preparation, while making our language teaching as lucid as possible.
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