GRAMMAR
Recommended Reading
Learning to Teach Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary SchoolChapter 7 'Teaching grammar and cultural awareness' (pp 142 - 172)
Understanding language principles and patterns undoubtedly plays a part in language learning. Without such an understanding the learner will be limited to set phrases and will not be able to adapt language to new circumstances.
Grammatical understanding is not an end in itself , but a means to help communication take place. It should not come first in the sequence of presenting new language. Grammatical understanding complements practice and reinforcement. It occurs for maximum benefit to the learners, as a stage after imitation and repetition practice.
Grammar in communicative teaching places the emphasis on meaning and less on form, where the language learnt is used for real tasks and not just to practice grammatical features. More practice and less explanation. Nothing is explained unless the pupils need to know about it for their immediate communicative needs.
The teacher therefore needs to organise and arrange the language in such a way that the grammatical pattern is illustrated to the learners (e.g. using colour, shape, size, font etc.).
The teacher could then go on to prompt learners to identify the pattern explicitly. In this way the learners are involved in actively discovering and expressing the patterns themselves. Thereby they will remember them better in order to re-apply them in new contexts.
Induction before deduction!
This approach raises the interesting question of how much explanation of grammatical patterns needs to be given and how much can be given in the TL?
Remember the circumstances are not the same as with a traditional school grammar course. You will need to think carefully about:-
i. how to present the language in a way which already illustrates the pattern to the learners
ii. what they need to know and what can be left out
iii. which terms are absolutely necessary and which are not
iv. exactly what you are going to present, elicit and explain
v. what exact words you will use to do the above
vi. how much information you think the pupils themselves will be able to deduce
vii. how you will ensure that the pupils have understood
viii. how much needs to be done in one lesson
ix. at what point you will decide that exploring and explaining the pattern is resulting in the meaning and the original purpose becoming lost or obscure (i.e. revisiting point ii. above)
You may be satisfied with the following three aims for your class: making your pupils:-
- aware of the pattern
- able to manipulate the pattern in other meaningful contexts
- able to re-use the language in other meaningful contexts
None of the above actually require any patterns or rules to be made explicit.
The emphasis on communication has sometimes led to the feeling that correctness is not important provided the message is conveyed. However, accurate use of the language plays an important role in clear communication of the message. Learners will benefit from paying attention to accuracy from an early stage of learning. A good understanding of structure is also central to success in listening and reading comprehension.
To be effective, the necessary training in the recognition and use of structure and grammar needs to be an integral part of the way in which the target language is taught and practised rather than the subject of theoretical exposition.
Pupils need to have an understanding of grammatical structures and some would argue that there is certainly a place for short explanations, using such grammatical terms as prove helpful. However, it is easy to over-estimate the value of either for many pupils, including the more able.
It is a great help if teachers use major structures frequently in familiar contexts and with known vocab. often starting months before learners are expected to use them.
Similarly, once a structure has been practiced in realistic situations, it is essential that consolidation takes place, not through formal expositions but through demonstrations which make a strong visual and aural impression and which require active responses.
For example, tenses can be shown using time charts and nouns grouped in genders with flash cards or realia. Such demonstrations can be carried out in the target language with brief explanations in Welsh or English to deal with confusing points. Pupils can summarise in Welsh or English if desired.
Words and phrases used to discuss structures are common useful words e.g. at the end; comes between; put it before; changes place; is spelt like this.
However, nothing stated above should prevent learners from spending as much time as possible on listening to, speaking, reading or writing the target language.
Faced with a variety of levels of ability the teacher must judge what best meets the needs of their pupils.
