CHAPTER SEVEN task

Show your students individual and group techniques for revising their written drafts so as to present their ideas in forms which take into account the needs and expectations of their readers.

Suggestions

Language Experience Approach to Reading (and Writing) Carol N. Dixon and Denise Nessel

Alemany Press, 1983

With very little adaptation the Language Experience Approach may be used for teaching composing skills to b

process including pre-writing, writing, and revising.

Techniques in Teaching Writing (ED 107) Ann Raimes

Oxford University Press, 1983

Presents practical information relating to daily class e

Teaching grammar

ter begins by explaining the differences between grammar for native speakers and grammar for language learners. It continues with a description of the grammar aspects of the Grammar Translation t Method, Audiolingual Method, and Communicative Approach. It discusses the problem of the classroom. The chapter concludes with a description of reference grammars and an annotated bibliography of grammar exercise books and reference grammars.

ome de , terms, and differences

rammar as seen by the non-specialist

ative sp kers usually think of English grammar as a subject studied in school. Studying grammar teaches ou how t lk and write correctly. Note the word "correctly." You already know how to talk, having learned e langu s a toddler. And you had at least the rudiments of writing well in hand before you started tudying ar. The study of grammar was sort of an embellishment and refining of something you lready kn

large pa grammar for the native speaker is learning the names for elements of the language nouns, erbs, pre like-and learning how they work together in prepositional phrases, sentences, lauses, p on. This aspect of grammar can be compared to an anatomy class in which you muscles successfully since you were horn. Now you

ing w a actually do.

art speaker is fine tuning the language already used. Such things as in which you choose the correct form of "lie" or "lay," activities teaching you to use "whom" in the es, ti and eliminating dangling modifiers (e.g., "I saw an accident standing droo mpts to correct tiny mistakes in your use of the language.

s th marian

words and phrases are e language is parallel to a biologist's study f a nimal. What are the various organs in this organism? How do they work? What do they do?

approaches a language in the same way. Some of the are:

are the words, prefixes, suffixes, etc.?

ine to communicate such things as negatives, mething happened, etc.?

ements interact with one another? In what order do they occur in a phrase or sentence?

Gr FL/ESL context

age learner, learning the grammar of the language is closer to the ng ition than the non-professional native speaker's. The learner needs to know what the words of know how to combine these words to say what he later that in English the verb comes in the middle he end of the sentence as it does in Japanese:

r This is a book.

This chap Metho

sequencing and suggests ways to deal with grammar in d, Direc

learn how your muscles work. You've been using your are learn hat you nd your muscles

Another p exercises

of grammar for the native right plac or instruc on on identifying at my be m window"), are really atte

Grammar a seen by e linguist or gram

To a professional in the field of grammar-a linguist-grammar is the study of how arranged in the expression of thoughts and ideas. This study of th

o plant or a

How do they interact with one another? The linguist questions which a linguist might ask

What are the basic elements in this language? What How do the basic elements work? How do they comb questions, the relative time that so

How do the el

What combinations communicate what ideas?

ammar in an E

From the point of view of the langu li uist's pos

the language are and what they mean. He also needs to wants to say.

Example: A speaker of Japanese has to learn sooner or of the sentence rather than at t

English statement word orde

Literal translation of Japanese This a book is.

pproaches to teaching English, all textbooks, and all EFL/ESL teachers, deal one way or another with aching of English grammar as it is defined by linguists-the words of English and their combinations.

t thing for you to remember is that grammar in an EFL/ESL context is quite different from the rammar you knew and loved (or didn't love) in school.

rammar aspects of major approaches to language teaching

This section will give examples of textbooks written within the three broad categories of language-teaching approaches discussed in Chapter Two and show how grammar is dealt with in each approach. Each example is an excerpt showing only the grammar presentation aspects of the lesson. In all three examples the same grammar point is taught, the sentence pattern "This is a ___." You will he able to see the differences in the way the three approaches teach the same feature.

Traditional grammar translation method Description

The essence of this approach is that the grammar of the language is presented explicitly by rule (generally in the native language of the student), with example sentences in the target language. The student:

• learns this rule by studying the example sentences

• translates sentences exemplifying the rule into his language;

• translates sentences from his language into the target language.

Example

Figures 7.1-7.4 are taken from a textbook for Japanese junior high school students written within the Grammar Translation Method. The point to be taught, as mentioned before, is the sentence pattern "This is a ______ ." The student reads the explanation of the pattern in Japanese. Note the model sentence "This is a piano." (See Figure 7.1.) The student then studies the example sentences given in Figure 7.2, and practices the pattern by translating parallel sentences from Japanese (Figure 7.3). In Figure 7.4 there is further explanation of the grammatical structure of the sentence. As you can see, there is very little English used.

The discussion in the textbook, and in the classroom, is in Japanese.

Comments

tudents who have learned English well via this approach typically have the grammar of English down pat.

write it well. Such students are often weak, however, in the oral aspects of language. Their pronunciation tends to be difficult to understand, they have great difficulty understanding ative speakers, and their fluency is quite low. These last two problems tend to lessen if students are in an ips between the oral and written language. Fluency comes with practice in ny circumstances.

out England and the United States, and have led the abandonment of the Grammar Translation Method in EFL and ESL teaching. However, Grammar All a

the te

The importan g

G

;

S

In fact, they generally know much more English grammar than native speakers do. They can read English quite well and in many cases can

n

English-speaking environment for any length of time. The solid grounding in grammar and written English allows them to establish relationsh

a

Critics of the Grammar Translation approach point out that hearing and speaking a language are what language learning is all about, and if an approach doesn't allow the student active practice in hearing and speaking, there is something, dreadfully wrong with the approach. They also contend that learning all that grammar is a waste of time. Just as young children learn to speak a language without benefit of grammatical instruction, the language learner can do the same.

These criticisms have been pretty much accepted through to

Translation is extremely widespread in other countries, largely because it is the only approach that does not require the teacher to speak the target language well. Given the emergence of English as a world language, and the consequent great demand for English instruction in third world countries, it is inevitable that people

who know only a little English will find themselves teaching it. These teachers will naturally opt for a language teaching approach that puts the least pressure on their English abilities. The Grammar Translation Method meets their needs admirably and, in addition, is probably very familiar to them as the way in which

ey themselves learned the English they know.

th

Figure 7.1 From Grolier English Study Course for Junior High School Students. Grolier International, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by permission.

Figure 7.2 From Grolier English Study Course, Book 1. Grolier International, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by permission.

Figure 7.3 From Grolier English Study Course, Book 1. Grolier International, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by permission.

Figure 7.4 From Grolier English Study Course, Book 1. Grolier International, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by ermissi

p on.

Ramifications

The textbooks currently being published are almost all based on more modern approaches to language aching which do not involve a direct treatment of grammar. On the other hand, your students are highly

d and audiolingual method

oral rills and exercises. This practice is supposed to lead them to "internalize" the grammatical structure of the

d, so that the tudent is exposed to sentences of gradually increasing complexity. The native language of the student is

acher is expected to use only English.

is/that is a _____” is presented, along with the corresponding es/no questions and answers ("Is this/that a______ ? Yes, it is./No, it's not.") The format of the lessons is:

on of the model sentence;

• a series of oral drills which practice the model.

omments

who has learned English solely through this approach. It is an "ideal" approach in e sense that even those who espouse its principles augment it in the classroom with activities which are

igure 7.5 From English for Today, Book 1, edited by William R. Slager. McGraw-Hill Book Company,

nit I. DESCRIBING THINGS AND PEOPLE