International Journal of Language and Linguistics

2014; 2(3): 145-153

Published online April 20, 2014 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijll)
doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.13

An integrative model of grammar teaching:From

academic to communicative needs
Yahya Dkhissi
ChouaibDoukkaliUniversity, El Jadida, Morocco

Email address:
[email protected]

To cite this article:

Yahya Dkhissi. An Integrative Model of Grammar Teaching: From Academic to Communicative Needs. International Journal of
Language and Linguistics. Vol. 2, No. 3, 2014, pp. 145-153. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.13

Abstract: Language teaching has often raised the issue of students’ overall academic performance. This paper deals with
a foregrounding subject in language teaching namely grammar teaching. With regard to the critical situation of grammar
teaching in our English departments in Morocco, this paper is based on the assumption that formal grammar teaching does
not provide the expected output that the teaching-learning enterprise requires from both teachers and learners. Therefore,
the objective of this paper is to review the grammar teaching methods and find out the practical solutions for the following
problems: lack of coordination and consistency of methods, lack of communicative grammar text books, the difficulties in
students’ mastery of the English grammar even when students get plenty comprehensible input, and finally the teaching of
grammar according to syllabus not students’ needs. The paper concludes with a new model that engages students in a more
practical, comprehensible and useful method of grammar teaching: the Exploration, production and Integration Model.

Keywords: Grammar Teaching, Needs Analysis, Exploration, Integrative Model

1. Introduction
Grammar teaching has often been regarded as a structure (methodological) grammar translation method required
based formal activity. After the integration of several students to do the toughest tasks of translating sentences
sources and techniques, which are mainly based on into English based on grammar rules. Thus, students may
communicative activities, the teaching of grammar gained a end up constructing sentences that are grammatically
new insight. In the teaching of grammar, focus on form is correct but would be perceived as not interpretable or
often modified to a meaningful structured discourse. In 'unacceptable' by most native speakers (Howatt, 1984).
order to make a grammar lesson effective, beneficial, and In the 1940s and 50s the audio-lingual method was
interesting a teacher should use some well-developed, popularized by behavioural psychologists such as Skinner
interactive and fascinating techniques in the classroom. In and Watson. Teaching grammar was simply making
the present paper, the examples of such integrated sources students learn language habits through various drills and
and techniques -the use of the inductive approach along pattern practices (Brown, 1994). However, there were
with communication and problem solving activities- are problems with this method as there was no focus on "the
assumed to be mostly motivating for a successful grammar intentions, thinking, conscious planning and internal
teaching method. The approach advocates a more processes of the learner" (Stern, 1984, p.305).
integrative model of grammar teaching based on three basic In the 1970s and 80s the Communicative Approach
steps: Exploration, Production and Integration. propelled by sociolinguists was replaced the audio-lingual
method. This approach focuses on meaning rather than
1.1. Historical Background form (grammar rules) as it was believed that it is meaning
Not many Moroccan English teachers relish the thought which drives language acquisition and development. Ellis
of teaching grammar due to the complexity and (1994) noted in his review of research in the 1970s that
irregularities in the syntax of the English language. much of the Communicative L2 teaching focused on
Teachers often ask what exactly the best method to teach meaning only. The question teachers now often ask is
grammar is. In the early days of grammar teaching, the whether a return to grammar teaching is necessary. If so,
146 Yahya Dkhissi: An Integrative Model of Grammar Teaching: From Academic to Communicative Needs

should grammar be taught implicitly or explicitly? learning, according to the different works in the field
Any decision that should be taken about the method to be related to materials development for language learning,
used for any curriculum be it grammar, writing, literature, recommends that course books should provide learners
culture or linguistics is supposed to take into consideration with more opportunities to acquire language features from
the classroom environment, teaching resources and frequent encounters with them during motivated exposure
methods of evaluation. This means that for the sorts of to language in use (Cunico, 2005; Islam, 2001; Maley,
analysis needed to deal with questions of the place of 2003). Different authors support this position from a variety
method in language-in-education policy a more finely of angles: Experiential learning theory claims that learners
grained typology is needed for at least part of the scope of gain most from apprehending from experience before
Kaplan and Baldauf’s model as illustrated in the following comprehending from analysis (Kolb, 1984).
policies: Comprehensible input theory states that acquisition is
Methods policy: policy statements dealing with facilitated by meaningful and motivated exposure to
questions of language teaching method; language in use (Krashen, 1989, 2004). Deep processing
Materials policy: policy statements dealing with theory also claims that meaningful encounters are
questions of textbooks and other resources for necessary to achieve the deep processing needed for
language learning; durable learning (Craik& Lockhart, 1972).. There is also
Curriculum policy: policy statements dealing with support for this position from Asian applied linguists (e.g.
the goals and content of language Learning. Masuhara, 2000, 2003; Mukundan, 2005a, 2005b;
Assessment policy: policy statements dealing with Renandya, 2005) who argue for a reduction in the number
what is to be assessed and how. of textbook activities involving explicit teaching of
The question that we need to start with in this framework language and an increase in opportunities for implicit
of Needs Analysis is as follows: Which grammar method, learning. Yet, for reasons of the present paper, I think that
which curriculum and for which students? the most effective way of acquiring language implicitly
from motivated exposure is through opportunities to reflect
1.1.1. Current Grammar Teaching Methods on language as a structural input in different academic tasks
The grammar teaching methods to be adopted in classes like writing, reading or article reviews.
are usually debatable. Some practitioners believe that
grammar is the focal academic subject of languages and 1.2. The Proposal: Exploration and Integration Insteadof
learners should be presented with explicit grammar courses. Explanation
Others, however, think that knowing the grammar doesn’t
necessarily lead to language mastery. They assume that Any focus on grammar explanation and the absence of
focusing on explicit grammar teaching produces any reference to meaning can be detrimental to language
unsuccessful language users. teaching and learning. Grammatical competence can be
helpful in producing accurate forms of language and acts in
1.1.2. Implicit Grammar Teaching monitoring its use. However, one can communicate more or
With regard to the pitfalls in the ongoing process of less a message with vocabulary items alone while it is
grammar teaching, some practitioners think that people can impossible to do so using grammar alone. This shows that
acquire language without any overt grammar instruction in grammar alone doesn’t make the language. In addition,
the same way children learn their mother tongue. language use can be tremendously affected by conscious
Conscious use of language forms are expected accordingly language usage as this may create a stressful environment.
to end up with high affective filter and consequently poor So a learner based approach that opts for contextualization
language proficiency and fluency. These teachers prefer of grammar teaching takes into consideration the
language use to language usage and focus on meaning appropriate use of language without the internalization of
rather than form. For language activities, they advance the the rules. A grammar-discovery approach involves then
use of contextualized and authentic language and do not providing learners with data to illustrate a particular
refer to rule based teaching. grammatical point and getting them to analyze it in order to
reach an awareness of how the feature works. Following
1.1.3. Explicit Grammar Teaching this line of thinking, students will be able to develop
The traditional view of language teaching which focuses analytical skills to understand and internalize and discover
on language forms presentation explains the grammar rules language rules. Therefore, grammar becomes content for
and practice through drilling, though the required effects exploration and communication.
are not obtained. Disaffected students who can produce In general, research indicates that a combination of form
correct forms on exercises and tests do consistently make and meaning may be the best teaching approach. A research
errors when they try to use the language in context. In other by Prabhu (cited by Beretta & Davis, 1985) showed that
words, students subject to this kind of teaching know a lot students who received meaning-based instruction did well
about the language. However, these students are unable to on the meaning-based test but poorly on a discrete-point
use the language itself appropriately in contextualized grammar test. Spada & Lightbown (1993) postulated that
situations for different reasons. In this respect, language "form focused instruction and corrective feedback within
 International Journal of Language and Linguistics 2014, 2(3): 145-153 147

the context of communicative interaction can contribute like using hand-outs could use the hand-outs to study a
positively to second language development in both the certain grammar task while another group who prefers
short and long term" (p.205). This is supported by Celce- spoken oral practice might prefer an explanation of any
Murcia, Dornyei and Thurrell (1997) who suggest that the item with a number of examples. Others however would
integration of form and meaning is gaining importance in require practice, though practising a grammatical structure
what they refer to as the 'principled communicative under controlled conditions does not seem to enable the
approach.' Musumeci (1997) went on further to say that learner to use the structure freely.
students should learn grammar explicitly but should also be
given the opportunity to practice them in communicative 2.2.4. Evaluation
authentic and simulated tasks. The new method of testing, the formative assessment as
well as a variety of types of assessment will enable the
teacher to evaluate the achievement and the degree of
2. Grammar Teaching success of a given teaching method.
2.1. The Rationale 2.2.5. Student’s Learning Style
While it is essential for learners to be able to manipulate Is the learner comfortable with the standard teaching
grammatical form, they also need to understand the techniques (logical charts, worksheets, exercises etc.)?
concept(s) expressed and the function(s) performed through Does the learner work better with note taking, hand-outs
a particular grammatical item. For Moroccan university and repeating exercises? Certainly, given the non-
students for which English is a foreign language, organization of delivery of subjects to teachers, we will end
knowledge of the rules is much needed. In this paper, I up with a class of learners with different learning styles.
stress the urgent need for some more successful methods Therefore, if you have a class of mixed learning styles then
and drills that promote the grammar class from abstractness you need to try to provide instruction using as many
to a more integrative subject. This paper will discuss a different methods as possible. Once you have answered
blended approach to teaching and reinforcing grammar. For these questions, you can more expertly approach the
each item of grammar 2 (a grammar based on teaching question of how you are going to provide the class with the
tenses and modal verbsand grammar 3 (a grammar based grammar they need. In other words, each class is going to
on teaching sentences, phrases and clauses), specific have different grammar needs and goals and it is up to the
teaching points will be highlighted. Classroom experience teacher to determine these goals and provide the means
and management such as immediate feedback and with which to meet them.
correction will also be discussed; as for motivation, it is 2.3. The Objective
mostly required since it depends largely on the teacher, the
method, the language activities, and the classroom situation. 2.3.1. A Pre-Course Needs Analysis
This puts heavy burden on the class teacher who is required The key to beginning a successful grammar course is to
to compensate and be creative in his teaching method in clearly establish the students' interests and motivations. As
order to build enough motivation for learning, and develop part of a preliminary grammar course, the teacher is
in every possible way the four skills of language: listening, expected to get the students talk about what they like with
reading, speaking and writing. an emphasis on usage of grammar in their studies, careers,
jobs, and communication. The list resulting from the needs
2.2. Background analysis may have prerequisites. We therefore need to
Given the confusing situation of the teaching methods decide with the students what their objectives for the
applied by grammar teachers at the Moroccan university, I coming course will be, for example: to develop their ability
believe that reaching a somewhat successful teaching of to discuss certain topics with more confidence, fluency,
grammar requires a specific care of the following factors: accuracy and awareness of relevant language.
With regard to these prerequisites, the research carried
2.2.1. Students’ Needs and Teachers’ Goals out aimed to make students’ feedback for some
The new pre-course needs analysis is important to know foregrounded questions the basic starting point. The issue
about his students’ needs and set his goals. that university students try to manifest in their studying the
course of grammar has usually been their desperate need to
2.2.2. Class Activities and Drills satisfy their academic needs.
Class activities will affect teachers’ pedagogical values Through a random selection, 36 university students from
in the sense that they will foster more practice in classes, the English department (semester4) were handed a
and more expose of students to real world. questionnaire as a pre-test needs analysis. The students
2.2.3. Learning Materials were asked to respond according to their general needs
The more learning resources are available, the easier it while studying grammar.
will be to employ different strategies when teaching a given 2.3.1.1. Needs Analysis (Survey Questionnaire)
grammatical item. For example, a group of students who Please order the following suggestions according to your
148 Yahya Dkhissi: An Integrative Model of Grammar Teaching: From Academic to Communicative Needs

needs for grammar: with the usual basic grammar (Probably because
You would like to use Grammar for the sake of: the teacher has to find out what stage of development the
Accuracy and Fluency: 36% learners have reached before teaching a given item). Finally
Academic Achievement: 30% and most importantly, 82% of the class didn’t know how to
The improvement of various language skills: 25% write a good paragraph while responding to the questions.
The understanding of the British and American The structural organization of ideas and the coherence of
culture: 10% their paragraphs were terrible.In this respect, I can say that
all my expectations about my students’ level were to the
2.3.2. Set Short Term Objectives point. The majority of the class has problems in the
Given the data based feedback of our university students, grammar and almost all students have serious problems in
Grammar is positively taken to be a source of a structured writing effective, organized and well-structured paragraphs.
background for the overall academic achievement and In addition to writing problems, students also have
communication. Therefore, the need for such grammar difficulty with academic reading. In short, they have
should be comprehensible in terms of topics and current difficulty seeing beneath the surface of the words to the
affairs that tend to lend themselves to a great deal of complexity of the ideas expressed in complex language
discussion. It is important that the students don't feel that structures. In this respect, Mulroy (2003) forwards some
grammar or language input has been abandoned altogether. excellent arguments for the teaching of grammar to anyone
Although they may not want to follow a structural syllabus who uses language.
per se, there will be structural errors which repeatedly Sentences always have and always will consist of clauses
occur both in needs analysis and during the course and with subjects and predicatesand words that fall into classes
these will form the underlying framework for language fairly well described as verbs, nouns, adjectives,adverbs,
input. pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
Individuals who understand these concepts have a distinct
3. The Research advantage over others where the use of language is
involved—and that mean everywhere. (p. 118)
3.1. The Problem To show how the proposed method of integrative
Out of a small-scale research done recently, I found out grammar teaching can function and what students' attitude
that students’ academic needs are not satisfied. First, towards it will be, several lectures were conducted to
student’s language is in its average and most of the students’ seehow the method really works and what its potential is.
choice in studying grammar is because of good reasons like The subjects were some 68 Moroccan students who have
communication and better understanding of other subjects. previously experienced studying grammar in secondary
Students’ feedback has shown that 85% of the class has school and the university. The primary stage of the research
problems with verb tenses, the identification of mistakes has shown that mistakes are an integral part of their
and the breaking down the sentence into phrases and learning and that students have acquired some background
clauses. This output proves that students have problems knowledge but it is not systematized as shown in table (1):

Table 1: Students’ grammatical problems:

Grammar 2 (Tense, Modal Verbs) Grammmar 3 (sentences, phrases and clauses)

1. Tense shift 1. Wrong identification of fragments
2. Wrong tense or verb form 2. Comma Splice
3. Avoidance of mixed conditional types 3. Run on, fused sentence
4. Misuse of non-restrictive relative clauses 4. Dangling, misplaced modifier
5. Misuse of modals verb forms 5. Unawareness of noun clauses

3.2. The Procedure interaction (real world)

∗ To engage students in meaning-focused tasks
The analysis in this paper aims to foreground the ∗ To target consciousness-raising than formal
students’ grammatical problems and objectives with their teaching
various academic needs. Thus, the striking issue would be ∗ To enable the student to interact positively with all
to start with a diagnosis of actual problems students have educational inputs
and to look for the possible remedial process to overcome ∗ To promote usage of grammar rules in writings
those difficulties. ∗ To set up a comprehensive assessment based on
3.3. The objective exploration, practice and induction.
∗ To allow students to work in terms of an EPI
∗ To move from form to structure-discourse match (Exploration Practice Integration) Model.
∗ To connect grammar teaching to everyday
 International Journal of Language and Linguistics 2014, 2(3): 145-153 149

3.3.1.Teaching Grammar 2 in Situational Contexts daily activities. The organization of the course is based on
The objective of this course called Grammar 2 is to students’ cooperation in the on-going process within a sort
familiarize students with the basic grammatical items of the of teacher learner show. The movement from one
English Grammar. The syllabus is designed in a way to grammatical item to another is expected to be smooth and
satisfy students’ academic needs to understand and use the reference is made to a situation or event that students
different tenses and modal verbs in different contexts. The suggest in their examples. Accordingly, the combinations of
methodology adopted is based on drills based on a specific the grammatical items to different situations are proposed
choice of short texts in business, literature, linguistics or as in table2:
Table 2. Contextualized Grammatical Items.

Situation or Context Grammatical items

Write a narrative (about a past experience or historical event) Past tense
Give directions to a tourist to reach a given place, or Report daily schedules of students (in the class,
Present tense
exams/tests,lectures, etc.)
Express future career moves Future tense
Express hope regret about some experiencea medical review on a visit with a new doctor. Conditional tenses
Explain rules and regulations to someone, i.e. rules for the faculty cafeteria; doctor’s instructions to Modal verbs: Can Must Should would may
a sick patient, or give advice to a relative about his choice for the future need
Extend an invitation over the telephone to someone to come to a meeting, conference, party, Or
Verb Would like…Object
expressing preferences ( a questionnaire)
R React Exhibit a neutral position as in the discovery of somethingwrong in your office: use active
voice while stating a fact on the phone (oral communication) and the passive voicewhile writing a C A Active and passive
report, an e-mail or a memo.

not a Question of Paraphrasing.

3.3.2. Teaching Grammar 3 in terms of Expansion, It is an Effective Activity for TeachingParts of the
Rehabilitation and Transformation of Sentences Sentence, Sentence Structure, Paragraph
The major goal of teaching grammar 3 is to allow Structure,punctuation, transition and coherence. Students
students to recognize how language operates. Using phrases, must also use critical thinking skills to use and organize
clauses and sentences requires the implementation of some ideas and concepts. Sentence recombination exercises are
materials that makes the recognition of how language content based and can be easily constructed in advance by
operates a simplistic task for students. The new model the teacher or as a group activity with the students.
recommends some involvement and cooperation of the There are many variations on the paragraph or
layers of the teaching learning enterprise “student-teacher”. composition that students can create in this exercise.
The teacher‘s role is descriptive and explanatory; while that However, the efficiency of the method would be to explore
of the learner is studying the structure of English and students’ awareness of the basic types of sentences like: the
reacting grammatically to it. This reaction of students is simple sentence, the compound sentence, the complex
summarized in terms of expansion, rehabilitation and sentence and the compound complex sentence. This
transformation of sentences as in the following: categorization of sentences is based on the number of
A. Sentence Expansion: From simple to clauses and the type of conjunctions used: coordinate and
ComplexSentences correlative conjunctions for compound sentences, while
1 Take a basic sentence:We like to be connected. subordinate conjunctions are used with complex and
2 Expand on it: We like to be connected on line. compound complex sentences.
3 Expand again with additional information: We like C. Sentence Transformation
to be connected on line from time to time. The following sentence which requires the student’s
4 Combine two sentences: We like to be connected on integration to solve writing and meaning based problem.
line from time to time. Our use of internet should The student’s objective stems from his need to improve his
be careful.We like to be connected online from time language and the style that marks his better understanding
to time, so our use of internet should be wise. and expression of his idea:
5 Extend more/We like to be connected online from Unclear sentence:
time to time, so our use of internet should be wise Presumably, some students need some effective methods
otherwise it will be a waste of time of teaching grammar than being taught abstract rules_
6 Make substitutions to elaborate or link ideas:We like taught in some ways that are boring and impeding their
to be connected but carefully otherwise it will be a language use and academic achievement
waste of time vs.
7 Add information and construct a short narrative Much clearer:
around the sentences students have created: Presumably, some students need some effective methods
B. Sentence Rehabilitation,Sentence Recombination is of teaching grammar rather than being taught abstract
150 Yahya Dkhissi: An Integrative Model of Grammar Teaching: From Academic to Communicative Needs

rules_ that are boring and impeding their language use and grammar teaching. Is it a question of implicit or explicit
academic achievement grammar teaching or just a question of the materials and the
The plausible approach to this process of sentence context where grammar is taught? Shall we focus
transformation is based on the type of error correction and instruction and expect a surface corrective feedback from
the student’s responsibility to overcome the problem. students? Should we re-examine the course book and
Occasionally, learners may need some explanations for redesign it in a way that might make grammar a flexible
certain grammatical structures. In fact, the combination of academic subject and a positive tool for learning? These are
different approaches will certainly satisfy different learning some of the questions and issues that are supposed to have
styles. We also urge the adoption of the competency-based been the main concern of theoreticians and practitioners as
approach which constitutes the main theoretical framework well and therefore need some answers.
within which the teacher has to proceed when teaching
grammar.Nunan states that:
The concept of competency-based education (CBE) has
been brought in to ESL from the field of adult education
where it is used to specify the skills needed by adults to
function in today’s society in areas such as communication,
problem-solving and interpersonal relationship, and
computation, In ESL a competency is a task-oriented goal
written in terms of behavioral objectives… It is not what
the students know about Language, but what they do with
the language. (Nunan 1988: 34)
The objective underlying students’ involvement in the Figure 1. Students’ grammar difficulties.
make-up of sentences requires from the teacher to engage
new methods of comprehension and usage of a structured
English language, correlate conscious-raising to better
usage, combine assessment with team spirit and encourage
learners to practice auto-learning and self-assessment.
Innovations in method of language teaching, however,
often fail to reflect the complexity of change in language
teaching in that they fail to give adequate attention to the
context in which a language is being taught. In particular,
teacher characteristics such as level of professional learning
and level of language proficiency and cultural dimensions
such as expected learning and teaching styles, learner and
teacher roles, expected outcomes of language learning and Figure 2. Academic influence of grammar.
patterns of classroom interaction may have practical and
positive impact on the learning teaching enterprise. Students’ feedback shows that the need for grammar in
their academic progress at the university relies on the link
3.4. Results and Implications
they find between grammar and other related subjects
Given the various methods adopted, we would like to namely writing reading and translation. So the
check some of the issues raised and try to find out a communicative issue is not a direct need but a peripheral
plausible framework of grammar teaching. For this reason, issue that they don’t deem important. However, the
a questionnaire was handed out to students about different objective we need to achieve is to make our students able to
items that we consider basic for the ongoing research monitor their competency-based skills. Fluency and
project. The students belong to the English department, accuracy, we believe, are two ingredients that make up a
university of El Jadida, Morocco. The results have shown practical and more integrated learner of the language.
that 74 % have no problem in grammar while 24 % Accordingly, the present paper aims to underline the
admitted to have serious problems in their grammar difficulty and find out the plausible solution for a practical
learning. Concerning the teaching issue, more than 44 % use of the language in different social and interpersonal
consider the teacher and the method used to teach grammar interactions.
to be the source of the problem; while 27 % think that A major implication of the findings above is that students
grammar is a complex subject of study. 77 % of students care about grammar as an academic subject and not as a
consider writing to be directly monitored by their grammar powerful tool to implement their language use. Students are
in comparison to 6.81 % for literature and 9.10 % for also expected to be the passive recipients of a rigid content
translation. where their involvement does not change anything in the
With respect to these results, we would like to inquire teaching-learning enterprise. Being rule based, grammar is
about which method would give us the required effects of given a status to be a restricted domain of work or analysis
 International Journal of Language and Linguistics 2014, 2(3): 145-153 151

and requires specific drills to fulfil the accuracy poems were used to review and reinforce grammar rules the
requirement of language. students should have 'learnt' while in school. This was
With respect to the theoretical framework, grammar deemed necessary as most of the students have limited to
teaching is not a unique task but a combination of different average English proficiency.
tasks, materials, methods and assessment procedures. The
variety of views advanced under the explicit teaching 4.3. The Proposal: An Integrative Model (EPI)
method agrees on the efficiency of the contextualized 4.3.1. Methodology
grammar teaching. The movement from students’ The proposed model (EPI) is based on an Exploration,
apprehension from experience before comprehending from Practice and Integration. These items fall into the teaching
analysis is an interesting issue in that it allows a meaningful of grammar 2 and 3 at the university level. This proposal
structural input for students. Also, the contextualized does not disregard the teaching of grammar rules and forms
exposure to language within a principled communicative of language with regard to their foregrounding role in
approach is a helpful issue for the present proposal. enhancing the basic structural input. However, this model
However, the present paper has shown the credibility of provides a more comprehensible and efficient method
integration not only as a method but as a process where the based on exploration of the input, practice of the rules and
integration of the materials, the resources and even integration of all interactive and comprehensible tools for
assessment are involved. the teaching of grammar and language. This model might
Starting with the needs analysis, we could come over the become more interactive according to the following
intricate issue that may combine the teacher’s method with teaching-learning activities:
the learner’s academic and communicative needs. 1 Start stating the academic and communicative
Exploration is the background to the student within a objectives of the lesson.
practical communicative atmosphere of learning will 2 Explore Students’ awareness of the basic items like
hopefully integrate the student, the teacher and the method, the sentence, phrase, clause, fragment, appositive,
all as one. Accordingly, a movement from form to structure- compound, complex, modifier etc. that will be
discourse match where grammar teaching is linked to real needed to introduce, explain, or practice the new
world context will ensure students’ engagement in meaning- item. Many methodologists recommend that
focused tasks. Additionally, the findings have shown that practice work be preceded by a presentation stage
targeting consciousness-raising will have the instant effect to ensure that the learners have a clear idea about
expected. As for assessment, the new model (EPI) allows what the targeted structure consists of.
the student to be aware of his mistakes and therefore his 3 Motivate the teaching of structures by showing how
feedback towards errors will be integrative and they are needed in real-life communication.
communicative, given that he will be in charge of Noticing forms of grammatical structures is a
correction as well. prerequisite for students’ awareness of the language
To make the above findings more useful for our readers system.
and students, we will try to provide a proposal for grammar 4 Engage the students in varied guided comparisons
teaching and some remedies for an overall better or selection of grammatical structures and ask them
performance in the teaching and learning of a to identify the new concept or the problem. (Note
foregrounding academic subject like grammar. that it is assumed by Ellis that whereas practice is
primarily behavioural, consciousness-raising is
4. Proposal and Remedial Work essentially concept forming in orientation).
5 Write two of the students’ proposed structures on
4.1. The Present Survey the board. Underline the new structure and use
diagrams to involve them in the illustration of the
The present paper is based on a small-scale attempt to relationship of the structure to other words and/or
find the answer. Because of time constraints, I have parts of the sentence.
regrettably not been able to check all original sources, so 6 Have the students use the structure with
my conclusions must be treated with caution; but I think the communicative expressions and familiar or new
overall conclusions are sufficiently robust and merit serious topics. Provide opportunities for more group work
consideration: and peer interaction then a practical follow-up activity.
4.2. The Teaching Situation 4.3.2. The proposed Grammar Activities
The program designed for our students at Chouaib The common teaching strategies that tend to develop
Doukkali University is actually not a proficiency course grammar activities tend to develop the kind of automatic
designed for university leavers who wish to enrol in any control of grammatical structures that will enable learners
kind of teacher training. Instead, the syllabus designed for to use them productively and spontaneously. It is common
grammar2/3 targets the promotion of the four language to distinguish a number of different types of practice
skills especially writing. In the writing class, a series of activities -mechanical practice, contextualisedpractice, and
152 Yahya Dkhissi: An Integrative Model of Grammar Teaching: From Academic to Communicative Needs

communicative practice. Exploratory practice consists of curriculum, it is very helpful to connect students and make
various types of controlled activities where students are them participants and moderators of the whole design. The
provided with sufficient data to work on as a background to student will accordingly understand the method, the process
explore the rules of the item to be taught. Contextualised and the objectives of the course. The grounding of these
practice is still controlled, but involves an attempt to incremental factors in students’ grammar course is probably
encourage learners to relate form to meaning by showing a prerequisite to attain the objectives of the proposed
how structures are used in real-life situations. Com- Exploration, Practice and Integration model.
municative practice entails various kinds of `gap' activities
which require the learners to engage in authentic 5. Conclusion
communication while at the same time `keeping an eye on
the structures that are being manipulated in the process. The teaching of grammar is by far, the most challenging
The proposed grammar activities might be summarized as task any Moroccan teacher may face in his/her daily
follows: classroom. Many do not wish to teach grammar explicitly,
1 Explore student’s background knowledge of the but they are keenly aware that students need an
grammar item to be covered, including form, understanding of the rules to achieve fluency as well as
meaning, and use, and then describe them through a accuracy. The formal syllabus in place in Moroccan
handful of examples. ( grammatical input) universities is improvised by teachers of grammar focusing
2 Provide oral or written input ( eg, reading selection) on form and disregarding the gist of meaning through
that addresses the topic and review the point of communicative activities. Unfortunately, many students do
grammar, using examples from the material not have adequate English proficiency to excel in their
(comprehensible input) studies. One possible solution is thus, the blended or
3 Have students to practice the grammar point in integrated approach to grammar teaching where there is a
communicative drills that focus on the topic focus on the form but the activity is meaning and context
(grammatical output) based. The module of language and grammar study should
4 Have students do a communicative task on the topic be correlated with the improvement of students' writings,
(communicative output) reading, communication and involvement in different
academic tasks. It is to be noted that grammar is a
4.3.3. Needs Analysis Objectives and Curriculum Design foregrounding subject that targets the promotion of the
With respect to the integrative model and the grammar different types of language input. The needs analysis has
activities proposed, the student is supposed to be the focal shown that students are aware of their academic and
participant to benefit from the teaching process. However, interactive needs. These needs should in a way be taken
students are different in each class and so are their learning into consideration by teachers to set the appropriate goals.
styles and needs. For this reason, identifying the linguistic, Given students’ enthusiasm to learn the English language
communicative and discourse features of the curriculum and about it, I suggest that grammar teachers should make
that need to be taught to a particular group of students reference to writing and linguistics as they are the closest
indexes the starting point for the integrative grammar subjects to grammar. Fragments or run-on sentences are
syllabus. An objective expectation of students’ progress however still persistent in students’ writings, the fact which
should take, while designing the syllabus, the following incorporates the role of the teacher and the learner in one
suggestions into consideration. enterprise called “Integration”. The mistakes made may
− A flexible lesson plan should be designed in a way suggest a lack of concern for accuracy, perhaps an indirect
to be changed once a given communicative or effect of the communicative approach. In any case, the
academic need arises. students found grammar class more challenging and
− A flexible error correction should be performed to interesting as evident from their feedback and that is in
motivate the learner to ask for more exemplification itself a major success to breaking the traditional view of
and more meaningful practice. grammar classes as dull and immensely structured.
− A practical and purposeful assessment should
involve different types of practice to foster the
objective needs and the real pitfalls of students’
overall performance.
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