'Teaching Grammar' in a Trinbagonian Context
One of our tasks as language teachers is developing Standard English competence among our students. Many teachers interpret this mandate as 'teaching grammar.'
Do you 'teach grammar'?
What is your definition of grammar?
What does current research say about teaching grammar?
How is this research helpful in our Trinbagonian context?
In our comments we critically examine and share websites, articles, books, views and strategies that we have found useful for our Trinbagonian classrooms.
Do you 'teach grammar'?
What is your definition of grammar?
What does current research say about teaching grammar?
How is this research helpful in our Trinbagonian context?
In our comments we critically examine and share websites, articles, books, views and strategies that we have found useful for our Trinbagonian classrooms.
posted by Cynthia James | 4:28 AM
9 Comments:
hello everyone,
i have been going through the urls on the teaching of grammer and i must say my knowledge continues to grow. At my school there are many problems in english language and grammar is no stranger to the problem area. i believe grammar to be the use of correct words in speaking and writing and when students apply the rules that they have learnt they sould not have any problems.
if only it were so easy in reality. the issue of grammar was made clearer to me by reading all the articles on the urls. the general idea involved grammar being taught directly and explicitly.both are indeed necessary for the implementation of grammar in the Trinbagonian classroom.
Teaching should be done in such a way that sufficient explicit knowledge about the language of writnig should be done. through this students are suppoed to become better students of grammar.the fowwing five effects of grammar is and should be utilised in all english classrooms:
1)students must understand how language works.
2)they must know and teachers are the ones to provide whatever detailed knowledge is required
students must notice this allows them to pay attention to grammatical features
3)students must discuss and here teachers should encourage
4)discussion to shape and challenge developing ideas of students.
5)students must investigate and here they explore and work out rules of grammar and see how useful it really is in their situation.
as an english teacher i do encourage the above but i believe at the end of the day it is the students responsibility to adhere to what they have learnt.
What is Standard English? What is grammar? Is a knowledge of what constitutes good grammar necessary for someone to become a proficient speaker of Standard English?
Grammar can be defined as the systematic study of a language –it embraces that aspect that deals with rules governing usage, syntax inflections, morphology and phonology.Noam Chomsky believed that children are born with a Universal Grammar-an innate capacity for acquiring certain concepts of grammar. Skinner feels that such knowledge is acquired by conditioning. Those who disagree with the latter feel that this cannot be so since even the types of mistakes young children make (e.g.cut-cutted) reflects an innate knowledge of certain rules.-knowledge which they certainly did not acquire from the significant others around them.
While a very young child may be proficient in the use of Standard English he lacks knowledge of the rules of grammar and is thus lacking in grammatical competence. All English teachers instruct in some of the aspects of grammar. However teaching grammar in isolation is a method which definitely has failed. Such a practice may favour some students but the majority of students fail to make that link :that interconnectedness in using that knowledge when they go on to essay writing aspect. The situation is even worse when it comes to speaking. Students fail to
internalise or” notice” the links thereby failing to apply the rules to speaking.
It has been felt that the way to go is adopting a more problem –based learning approach. Students can be given sentence structures which they study and then, by using these patterns, they can construct their own examples and in this way –deduce the rules. There is talk about collation where students can get that sense of how words g o together. Students need to be aware
of that sense of how words go together. Students need to be aware of lexical systems –they need to be able to see how language works in a way that they can internalise it so that it would become natural to use it in spontaneous speech.
In the Trinbagonian situation Creole is the language that most students speak and even within the Creole there exists a few variations .In teaching Standard English one would encounter some problems that would be encountered in the teaching of a second language. I believe that students should be taught that as much as we love Creole it is important that Standard English be spoken in the classroom as all their exams would be in Standard English. They also need to know that Creole has many limitations-word for instance-there exists a wider choice of words in Standard English: small-huge massive-colossal….C reole does not have that capacity. Students should be told that they live in a global village and Creole cannot be useful in this context. For job interviews the same applies
In the classroom teachers must encourage oral activities such as discussions debates, oral book reports and orations and role playing and students can be given extra marks for speaking up in class. Teachers must make on the spot corrections where necessary..
I have always taught grammar by teaching the rule, giving examples and alot of follow up exercises because that was the way I was taught and after speaking to my colleagues, this is the general practice at my school. After reading the information on the urls, I have come to realize that there are alternative methods in teaching grammar that could produce meaningful results.
One strategy I read about was the 'grammar-discovery approach'. This is where students are given the text ( to listen or to read) that is illustrating a particular grammatical feature. Then they are to analyze it in order to arrive at an understanding of how the feature works.
The advantages:
- it is more motivating than the direct approach where they become active thinkers and discover for themselves HOW grammar works.
- develops analytical skills needed to wok on language autonomously.
This method aims to teach grammar by training students' NOTICING skills.
Another article explained the concept of NOTICING 'if students pay attention to the form and meaning of certain language structures in input, this will contribute to the internalization of the rule' (Batstone, 1996) and and how it can be implemented in the classroom.
In this article, Rod Ellis outlined 5 teaching activities to develop grammatical knowledge of a problematic feature. I will list these but the article goes into details about each one:
1. Listening to Comprehend:
2. Listening to notice
3. Understanding the grammar point
4. Checking
5. Trying it
The idea is to develop an awareness of grammar.
I found this particularly interesting simply because I have never taught grammar in this way. I looked at the sample lesson plan and tried the activities myself, and even though it takes time to prepare lessons like these, the rewards would be worth the time especially if students could actually 'notice' what is being taught.
Yes, I teach Grammar.
I think of grammar “loosely” as a description of what my students need to know about the way English works in order to use it competently and even effectively. I look to teachers of foreign languages. How do they successfully teach grammatical knowledge of their language? Thus, I think of grammar beyond the world of grammatical rules and even inclusive of text form knowledge, word study and punctuation.
Current research here advocates: 1.Lexical approach 2.Well-focused, explicit teaching of grammar integrated into the overall English curriculum that is developmentally taught and that provides text form knowledge 3.A scaffold process from the teacher’s provision of opportunities for students to notice the grammar item; to understanding it in terms of its form, meaning and use; to guided/shared try-outs of grammatical item which may include students given a text with incorrect usage of the grammar item to correct; to usage of grammar item in different situations 4.Teach the grammar for which students are developmentally ready and with which they can cope 5.The language teacher to aim at increasing declarative and procedural knowledge of grammar or Teachers to provide “consciousness-raising tasks” which facilitate the development of explicit knowledge at the level of analysis, and “practice tasks” that lead learners to higher levels of control of the grammar.
These ideas are very useful, I think, as they provide strategies for teachers/students to attain the goal of language competence in a holistic way (i.e. grammatical understanding within communicative competence) and stress the idea that drone, repetitive grammar exercises are not enough for students to achieve Standard English competence.
Before the reading various articles, I would say yes I teach grammar, that is, I teach rules of usage that help students competently express themselves in writing . I admit that most of the time students are given rules without really getting the chance to understand its concept and function. The norm is text book based instruction.
Children do not acquire the grammar rules at home, it is done at school and it is not necessarily reinforced in speech at home. A different language applies out of school. I often encounter students who know all the grammar rules but do not always use them in speech.
I’m not sure how useful this is for us in terms of grammar and speech. Using creole, which has a grammatical system, and standard English interchangeably seems the norm. we have students who know the grammar rules but use creole in speech more comfortably. Perhaps students face difficulty because of the infrequency of standard English grammar in their everyday lives.
Current research argues between the importance of teaching of grammar and others believe it should take a minor role in teaching language. There also has to be a way of using what students know implicitly and explicitly. They also advocate the use of curriculum that fits with the development of the student, hence allowing students to discover grammar. Other approaches include helping students to notice, then implement patterns in guided exercises as well as using grammar- discovery exercises.
The methods of grammar discovery and noticing were particularly interesting because I don’t think I taught this way before. Most of my students do not have a problem grasping and understanding rules quickly. However I think if I tried these approaches it might make the rules more meaningful and less forgettable. I now realize that there is a lot more to the teaching of grammar. To teach grammar the difficulties involved in learning it must be understood firstly
I found the URLs on Teaching Grammar to be interesting, informative and helpful. It would indeed be helpful in my Curriculum Study since teaching grammar is essential in developing Standard English competency in students. In addition, as the article “Why should Grammar be taught?” indicates, teaching grammar is especially important in developing and contributing to writing skills.
In this article, “Why should Grammar be taught?” it was also argued that one of the justifications for grammar teaching is that it promotes better language skills. The URLs were also helpful in suggesting different strategies, for teaching grammar, that teachers can adopt. For example, Noticing, which focuses on Implicit and Explicit grammar, was proven to be a helpful strategy in teaching grammar.After looking at the URLs I have come to realize that there are alternative methods in teaching grammar that could produce meaningful results for students and teachers likewise.
To me, grammar refers to the structure or rules governing a language, eg. tense, parts of speech or subject/verb agreement. In my school many students have problems with language and grammar in their speech and writing. I visited the urls and found some interesting concepts on the teaching of grammar.
The research shows that when teachers help students to "notice" or recognize grammatical rules in their instruction, students are better able to understand and internalize the rules, and spot them in reading and listening. Also, students who have explicit grammar instruction, use grammar a lot more accurately than those who don't.
When I am teaching grammar, I usually tell the students the rule, then give them exercises to assess their understanding and usage of the particular rule. Rod Ellis' article, "Making an Impact: Teaching Grammar Through Awareness Raising", suggests that teachers not use direct instruction, which is telling students the rule,(and what I have been doing.)
Instead, they should use the "grammar discovery approach", in which teachers provide students with text to illustrate a particular grammatical feature, then let them analyze text in order to understand how the feature works.This requires students to be active thinkers, which interests them as they have to discover how rules work themselves. I found this approach quite interesting, and would try it in class ot see what impact it would have on the students.
I see "noticing" as being effective in our Trinbagonian context. Many students speak mainly creole, as they are exposed to it at home, and it is only in school that they hear Standard English being used. These students were taught grammar in primary school, but because of lack of use or reinforcement, rules are forgotten. Helping students "notice" and internalize rules would certainly improve their language competence.
My understanding of grammar is that it is the body of rules which govern how a language is structured and used. The important thing however is that these rules are and have been subject to change over time for different languages. Therefore it becomes difficult to dictate fixed rules and the teacher of language must be current with issues of language change,language death and language development.
What i found to be of interest was that many sites focused on grammar looked at it with reference to TESOL and TEFL. In order to understand a language that is different a language learner has to understand the grammar that governs that target language. The reality in our Trinbagonian context is that for many of our students, learning Standard English is in fact learning a Second language (L2). The gramatical rules which govern their first language (L1), Creole, are different to the rules which govern the L2, Standard English.
Many students still struggle with learning Standard English because they are not aware that they are infact learning a different language, especially those students who are strong Creole speakers. I realise that my approach to teaching grammar must focus on identifying where my students are in their language development and then start from there.
Many student enter secondary school having received an inadequate introduction to grammar ang language learning at primary school. Very often this is because most primary school teachers may not have fully understood the elements of English Grammar themselves far less, how to really teach them to students.
One useful perspective on grammar that I have come across is:
Grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a language.
The explanation goes on to say: "Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of the sentence." However "an exclusive focus on sentences, rather than on texts or on words, risks under-equipping the learner for real language use."
By now I think that most teachers are aware that all languages have grammars and that idiom, for example is an important aspect of grammar. Yet, our approach to teaching grammar is governed by a sense of inadequacy, especially with regard to the grammar of the English language.
First, we tend to go by the rules we were taught and also teach in the ways we were taught. Second, most of us don't really know much about the various grammars we speak and their inter-relationships. Thus the tendency is to gravitate toward hastily put-together, formulaic grammar books, which have become fixated in rules, worksheets and drill.
This discussion is just a beginning in the exploration of grammar teaching. Let's continue to exchange URLs and books that give us information to enhance our classroom practice.
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