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Unit 6

The document discusses the complexities of teaching grammar in foreign language education, emphasizing that understanding grammar rules is distinct from the ability to apply them in communication. It highlights the importance of meaningful practice and interaction over explicit rule presentation, and suggests various engaging methods for teaching grammar, such as using songs, games, and storytelling. Additionally, it outlines the organization of content around topics and situations, and defines notions and functions in language learning.

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Keyla Titichoca Daza
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10 views5 pages

Unit 6

The document discusses the complexities of teaching grammar in foreign language education, emphasizing that understanding grammar rules is distinct from the ability to apply them in communication. It highlights the importance of meaningful practice and interaction over explicit rule presentation, and suggests various engaging methods for teaching grammar, such as using songs, games, and storytelling. Additionally, it outlines the organization of content around topics and situations, and defines notions and functions in language learning.

Uploaded by

Keyla Titichoca Daza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIT 6: TEACHING GRAMMAR AND

TOPICS: situations, notions,


functions
Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the
more difficult aspects of language to teach well. Of course, teachers know correct
grammar rules, but it is one thing to know them, and another thing to effectively teach
them, and transmit them so that students not only understand the rules, but also
apply them correctly.

Teaching grammar in an EFL setting is quite different from teaching grammar t native
speakers..

6.1. THE CURRENT VIEW ON THE ROLE OF GRAMMAR

Following a wave of studies of the relationship between language learning and


grammar instruction, it is nowadays possible to formulate rather specific expectations
regarding the function of grammatical rule in foreign language teaching.

First of all, we must recognize the irony of the explicit presentation of the rule: the
learner ends up learning what he or she has been taught, that is information about
language, expressed as a sentence explaining some principle which governs the use
of the given forms. Technically, this is an observation, a thought expressing a
regularity in the grammatical system, but not the ability to behave communicatively
according to this observation.

For example, if we explain to the learner that the third person singular of the verb in
the simple present tense must have either the -s or -es ending, the learner will
understand and learn this principle as an idea expressed in a sentence, but not as
the ability to implement the principle in the act of speaking. In order to accomplish the
latter, the learner must have numerous, if not endless, opportunities to practise the
use of third person singular simple present sentences in meaningful contexts.

Observing language to notice regularities in the use of forms as in linguistic


description is a cognitive operation not to be mis-taken for the act of producing an
utterance in the same language as a communicative operation. Unfortunately, the
two aspects used to be regarded as if they had been one and the same operation:
grammar rules used to be erroneously identified with the material for producing
utterances. It is now recognized that they possess their distinct specificity and that
each of them taps different and specialized knowledge sources in our mind.

Grammar rules are fed by metalinguistic or metalingual knowledge which comes


from reasoning, while speech production - by largely automatized procedural
knowledge which comes from practice. Explicit rule presentation cannot function as
a substitute for communicative language practice, but it can provide the learner with
useful guidance about the forms to make communicative language practice more
effective.

It does not matter whether we emphasize the inductive or deductive strategy for
rule presentation, as long as the illustrative material is meaningful and there are
plenty of opportunities for communicative practice distributed in time.
For these reasons, the explicit teaching of grammar cannot be expected to provide
the learner with the key to language. The key to foreign language learning is its use
in meaningful practice and interaction.

Considering the communicative goals of foreign language teaching, rule presentation


and learning is no longer a leading activity, the core of a teaching method. Instead, its
status is reduced to one of many form-focused techniques of 'teaching grammar' and
fostering accuracy with the function to intensify the benefits of communicative
language practice. Additionally, there are two important conditions attached to this
limited use of explicit rule presentation:

● The learner must be cognitively ready to deal with the abstract information
about language, which is to say, be at least at the developmental stage of
formal operations, around the age of 12-14; and

● The rule must be relevant to the learner, i.e. refer to utterances in the
discourse of communication.

6.2. GRAMMATICAL TERMS

● The sentence is a set of words standing on their own as a sense unit, it


conclusion marked by a full stop or equivalent (question mark, exclamation
mark). In man languages sentences begin with a capital letter, and include a
verb.

Example
The boy has been playing video games since the morning,

● The clause is a kind of mini-sentence: a set of words which make a sense


unit, but may not be concluded by a full stop. A sentence may have two or
more clauses

Example
(She left because it was late and she was tired.) or only one (She was tired.).

● The phrase is a shorter unit within the clause, of one or more words, but
fulfilling the same sort of function as a single word. A verb phrase, for
example, functions the same way as a single-word verb, a noun phrase like a
one-word noun or pronoun.

Example
was going, a long table.

● The word is the minimum normally separable form: in writing, it appears as a


stretch of letters with a space either side.
6.3. HOW TO TEACH GRAMMAR

As a teacher, we should explain about the grammar itself first. Then, also give
formulas, an example, how to use the grammar. The teacher also should have some
interest methods to teach about grammar because some students usually feel that
grammar is a boring thing. So, the solution of that problem is using fun and interest
methods such as:

6.3.1. Using songs

Music is a great way of getting students to learn. Get the students to sing along, and
then write up the lyrics on the board. Get them then to sing it together, getting the
tune into their head. After this, one can then quiz them on what tenses or
grammatical points are in the actual text.

6.3.2. Make it into game


There is no doubt that playing games will make learning a lot easier. Both adults and
children love these. Perhaps even make it into a competition. This will often get the
students motivated to get the answers right and therefore allow them to learn much
faster. By turning it into a competition, everyone will become a lot more active and a
lot of fun can be had by everyone.

6.3.3. Tell a story


Another way to make grammar a little easier to digest is to teach it in the form of
storytelling. Perhaps get the students to form a ―story stick‖ where by everyone
contributes a line to the overall story. If there are any grammar mistakes in this, then
leave it until the end. When the entire story is finished and written out on the board,
get a student to come up to it and make the appropriate corrections. With
participation from the class, have the entire text corrected. Ask the students
questions as to why certain tenses are the way they are. Having something to focus
on like this, will keep the students‘ attention and therefore allow for the understanding
of grammatical structures to sink in a lot easier.

6.4. TOPICS AND SITUATIONS

The content to be taught in topic is organized round a common topic. Example of


topics is ―The School, ―The Park, ―The Zoo, etc. The content to be taught in
situations is organized round situations: these are topics integrated into some kind o
communicative event. Examples of situations are ―Describing the school‖, ―Tell
about the park‖, etc. Topics and situations are more difficult to teach than isolated
items, in that they involve whole discourse, with longer and more complicated
language structures. However, the learner is immediately engaged with language that
expresses meanings in context and which is seen as more interesting and clearly
relevant for communicative purpose.

Some ideas for presentation of new topics or situations


● Write the name of the topic in the middle of the board and invite the class to
brainstorm all the associated words they can think of.
● Write the name of the topic in the middle of the board and ask the class what
they know about it and/or what they would like to know.
● Describe a communicative situation and characters and invite the class to
suggest orally what the characters will say.
● Give the title of a text and invite the class to write down sentences or
expressions they expect will occur within it.
● Define briefly the opening event and characters in a communicative situation
and ask the class to imagine what will happen next
● Present a recorded dialogue and ask the class to tell you where they think it is
taking place and who the characters are.
● Present a text and ask for an appropriate title.
● Express your own, or someone else‘s, opinions about a topic and invite
discussion.
● Teach a selection of words and expressions and ask the class what they think
the situation or topic is.

6.5. NOTIONS AND FUNCTIONS

Notions is a concept or idea: it may be a quite specific, in which case is virtually the
same as vocabulary (e.g. cat, school, zoo); or it may be very general (e.g. time, size,
emotion), in which case it often there is a correlation with the concept of ―topic‖.

A function is some kind of communicative act. It is the use of language to achieve


purpose, usually involving interaction between at least two people such as
suggesting, promising, greeting, apologizing, etc.

6.6. COORDINATING DIFFERENT LANGUAGE CATEGORIES

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