Grammar

• Presented by :
1.Mr. Sivanathan A/L Tarusu
M20092000819

2. Sazlina Zuriati bt Samah

M20081000115
 5.1 Introduction: The role of grammar in
ELT

-recent years resurgence of interest in the role of grammar

growing concern about accuracy in learner’s languages has resulted in

a reassertion of the role of grammar in syllabus design

-1980’s experienced anti-grammar movement influenced primarily

by Krashen(1982)

idea that grammar can be acquired naturally from

meaningful input
 Questions
• What insights are available into the ways in which learners move
towards accurate production?

• Whether these insights hold implication for the usefulness of

grammar-based knowledge and grammar-based practice as part of
classroom methodology?

• In what ways are the relative value of focused and unfocused

activities might vary with such factors as the age, degree of
exposure to English and reasons for learning English of different
learners?
 Focus on
grammar
as a necessary
part of
classroom
language
teaching

How to
Integrate
Grammar Forms of
Teaching into Use practice
What precise Choice of Kind of
A communicative An inductive Appropriate
Form that Grammatical grammatical
Methodology Or For
Teaching structures Description
Which pays A deductive Different
Should take To present To use
Attention to approach Types
All aspect Of learners
Of communication
competence
 5.2 What do we know about the
learning of grammar

• Ideas about learning of grammar is influenced by the input

hypothesis and the notion of intake

– Input hypothesis and the notion of intake

– Krashen’s (1985) input hypothesis posits that language is

picked up or acquired

– Intakes refers to the ways in which learners process input and

assimilate language to their inter-language system
 Noticing

Learning Reasoning
Automatizing Of And
Grammar hypothesizing

Structuring
And
Restructuring
 Noticing
• Learners picked out specific features of a language and pay
attention to them.

• The notice items would be interpreted between form and

meaning and it become part of intake into learning process.

• Learners than analyse the forms in order to reason out how

they fit into their existing knowledge of language

•
 Reasoning and hypothesizing

Reasoning Analysing Translating Transfering

Deductively contrastively
- Apply rules - Compare L1 - At certain - Apply
to work out and work out stages, knowledge of
the meaning their translation one language
of what they similarities can be helpful to the
hear and strategy understanding
differences. or production
of another
 Structuring and Restructuring

The strategies described above is done when the

notice features in input and work on it in various
ways to structure and restructure their knowledge
in the language
Example, Lightbown and Spada ( 1999) give the stages of
acquisition for negation, which may differ slightly according to
the first language but which generally follow a sequence.
 Automatizing

• Learner who responses consistently in

conversation to a certain types of input,
the language involved has been automated.
 Limitation in using noticing, reasoning
and hypothesizing, structuring and
restructuring and automatizing

• Teacher should not think that the above way will

lead to successful teaching of grammar

• It needs to be qualified in various way

 First qualification is that the ways in which
these processes relate to one another is far
from clear.

• For example, Bastone(1996) makes a point about the

complexity of noticing. On the other hand it has been noted
(Eubank 1989; Ellis 1993a) that premature practice can
actually confuse rather than facilitate the intake of
grammatical features. This relates to the idea of readiness
for learning. Intake and eventual automatization will only
occur as and when students are ready.
 Second qualification is the relationships
between implicit and explicit knowledge
• Implicit grammatical knowledge is the intuitive knowledge of
grammar which develops in the same way as it does in young
children acquiring first language through natural process.

• Can develop without intervention from instruction in the

developmental sequence.

• Implicit knowledge develops naturally in the foreign language

classroom as the input are exposed to and the rate depend on
frequency.
 Role of explicit knowledge of grammar which
learners received from teachers and
textbooks

• First, explicit knowledge can help learners to appreciate the gap that
exists between the language which they and other students produce.

• Second, it has been suggested (Seliger 1979) that knowing a pedagogical

rule can help learners with the structuring process when they are ready to
internalize a grammatical rule.

• Third, Pica(1985) has argued cautiously that instruction has a selective

impact depending on the complexity of the grammatical structures in
question
 What is the implication?

• A degree of agreement among researchers, based on

extensive studies, that a focus on grammar and explicit
learning of rules can facilitate and speed up the grammar
acquisition process

• The issues demonstrated the complication in attempts to

devise procedures for the teaching of grammar.

• This debate brings into focus the need to acknowledge that,

there are other processes at work in language development
beside grammatical instruction and practice.
5.3 What information can help us in the
selection and presentation of grammar?

• One central issue in ELT is the role linguistic description

can play in the designing of classroom procedures and
materials

• Teachers view is that it is difficult to teach a language

without a knowledge of its function and structure

• There exist many description of above so teachers and

textbook writers turn to pedagogical grammars for
information about language system
 Pedagogical grammar

• These derive language data from scientific descriptions of

language

• The data selected and organized to the learning needs of

students

• PG therefore, act as ‘filters’ or ‘interpreters’ between the

detailed formal grammars of linguists and the classroom
(Candlin 1973). This means it is structured according to the
age and level of proficiency of the learners and in terms of
their objectives for learning English.
 Other considerations in selection of
materials

• One is to do with changing approaches to the description of

English

• Contemporary ELT has been much influenced by

development in language description which see language as
more than a formal system

• These development view grammar from three main

perspectives
Grammar Grammar

And As

Style Meaning

Grammar

In

Discourse
 Grammar as meaning
• Linguistic meaning covers a great deal more than reports of events in
the real world. It express….. Our attitudes … towards the person we
are speaking to, how we feel about the reliability of our message, how
we situate ourselves in the events we report, and many other things
that make our messages not merely a recital of facts but a complex of
facts and comments. (Bolinger 1977:4)

• In the above context, ‘linguistic meaning’ covers lexis as well

• Intonation also influence the intention of speakers

• So, teachers need to consider all this when designing material for
teaching.
 Grammar in discourse
- In this perspective, it is presented within the context of the
debate and its developing discourse
- This perspective is devoted in A Communicative Grammar of
English (Leech and Svartvik 1975)
- They present six ways of organizing connection which can be
exemplified as below

Linking Signals Linking General purpose

Constructions links

Substitution and Presenting and Order and

omission focusing emphasis
information
 Problem of looking at grammar in discourse
• Spoken discourse in practice simply uses the rules of
grammar as it wishes and do not conform to the idealized
forms of grammar book.

• Another problem is discourse does not keep to conventional

meaning especially when using irony.

• There is also problem in the area of pragmatics and the way

we interpret the meaning of spoken or written language
from the word spoken, the forms used, the context of the
discourse and the situation in which it occurs.
 Grammar and Style
• The different style that exist in English language
should be considered by teacher when designing
materials.

• We should describe grammar as a separate formal

system but link it to social use and to its
functioning within discourse.
 Principles
Principles in
in Teaching
Teaching Grammar
Grammar
1. Readiness to learn :
- Teachers cannot expect students to acquire
grammatical structures until they are ready
to do so
- Determined by the complexity of processing
involved
2. Amount of time it takes to learn new
structures varies among students as they
link forms to functions and their stylistics
use
3. Process is not lockstep one, with progressive and complete
mastery structures in sequence
• As interlanguage system develop and restructuring occurs ,
learners may make errors – teachers wait for accuracy to return
4. Learners able to learn inductively – draw on their knowledge of
English and other languages
Presentation of grammar to learners can facilitate learning:
i. Provide input for noticing language forms
ii. Aid students to see difference between their own output and
accurate forms of English
iii. Present high-frequency grammatical items explicitly to speed up
learning
iv. Provide information about communicative use of language
structures
v. Give information implicitly through exposure to examples and
explicitly through instruction of stylistic variation of language form
 Presenting Grammar
1. Contextualizing grammar
• In relation to three perspectives – grammar in meaning,
grammar in discourse and grammar and style
• Example :
• Contexts in which grammar is embedded need to be useful
and appropriate to learner needs
• Grammar becomes generative and students can transfer to
relevant situations
• Contexts created through visuals, dialogue and text; for
example a spoken dialogue which is relevant to students’
personal lives
2. Order of presentation
• Forms of item to teach and in what order, which forms to
leave for recycling stages
3. Use of terminology
• Degree to which grammar terminology is useful in
the presentation
• Metalanguage useful for advanced learners –
discuss errors in writing
• Terminology for analytical learners OR simply guide
students to see the patterns
4. Degree of explicitness
• Deductive or inductive approach
• Mostly inductive – discovery learning
• Theoretical support from Rutherford (1987) – role
of ‘grammar consciousness raising’
• Consciousness-raising tasks – students try to
formulate rules about English through meaningful
negotiations
• Give students sufficient examples so that they can
work out grammar rule that is operating
• Persuade students to use their cognitive abilities and
give them confidence about using discovery learning
• CR reasserts role of metalinguistic activity in
language learning in a different way from deductive
approach
• CR helps learners to develop grammatical competence
in a way which fit culture of communicative classroom
5. Linking grammar and vocabulary
• Patterns in English language which words typically
occur
• Consider presenting these to students
 Practising Grammar
• Widely prevailing approach in teaching grammar – present
grammatical structure to learners, ask them to practise in
controlled activities and set up freer activities for students
to produce target form – Presentation-Practice-Production
(PPP)
• Teachers correction is important during presentation and
practice – self-correction and peer correction encouraged
• During production – non-intervention during attempt to
produce – feedback afterwards
• Production stage – better to provide controlled practice and
then to unfocused communicative activities within wider
syllabus
• Controlled practice stage – include variety activities -
conscious focus on form which address the range of purposes
• Good because students provide extensive input for each
other and more chances to notice the structure
• Students tend to pay attention to syntax
• Practice contribute to implicit grammar knowledge
by providing frequent occurrence of particular
form for students to notice
• Extensive exposure enable students to test
hypotheses of the forms, gain explicit knowledge
about language forms and use rule accurately and
automatically in production
• Grammatical knowledge does not develop separately
from other types of knowledge in acquisition
process – another type is lexical knowledge
• Students grammaticize – apply their knowledge of
grammar by choosing what to add to words to
create meaning
• Many teachers see the most practical approach is
an eclectic one – mix and match depend on learners
Designing Grammar Component of
a Course
• Appropriate selection of grammatical items – based on two types
of linguistic comparison
• Learners native language and target language – contrastive
analysis – popular in 1960s and 1970s
• Learners interlanguage and target language – error analysis
• Contrastive analysis - Method of predicting difficulty for
students - fallen into disfavour because it is not possible to
formulate scales of difficulty for learners from various language
backgrounds
• Error analysis - provide teachers with insights into main problem
which learners have with English
• For beginner and elementary students, grammatical component
of syllabus is selected and sequenced on the basis of what is
simple or complex to learn
• Main basis of ELT course design for many years – selection and
sequence of grammar by using CA, EA or what is perceived as
simple
• Criticisms:
1. Grammatical dimension should be the major
organizing principle in the type of syllabus which
sets item to be taught eg if we are concerned with
language as communication, our primary focus –
purpose for which language is being used and choose
the forms to express those purposes
- e.g – current courses for students at intermediate
level and above specify list of functions and then
select from various forms according to needs or
proficiency level of students
• Advantage – it makes language dimension
subservient rather than dominant over needs of
learners
• Problem- assume students have acquired working
knowledge of English grammar
2. Notions of simple and complex and sequence of grammatical
items presented to learners on the basis of this criterion
• Our concern – why learners fail to learn items presented and
extensively practised in classroom
• Research – relationship between amount of mental processing
needed to perceive and produce a new rule and its learnability
• Learnability determine the order grammatical items learned :
Eg the third person singular –s in the simple present which
learners acquire quite late. Explanation – its use is decided by
the person and number of the noun phrase which has just been
spoken
• Natural order hypothesis- language rules acquired according to
predictable sequence and sequence remains the same whether or
not classroom learning is involved
• Both children and adults acquiring second language in natural
settings acquire grammatical morphemes in similar kind of
development sequence
• Issue – could a syllabus simply follow the natural order?
• Classroom factors complicate the situation for example to set
up classroom interaction, some structures such as questions
forms need to be taught early on
• Syllabuses based on grammatical notion of simplicity and
complexity
• Problem – learners may pass through the same developmental
stages but they do not proceed at the same rate and groups of
learners will be heterogeneous in terms of language proficiency
3. The need to provide learner-centered teaching
- Students acquire grammatical system according to their own
internal syllabus
• Teachers should pay less attention to structuring learning
through imposing external syllabus
• Teachers pay more attention to facilitating learning by creating
classroom environment which is rich in varied input and provide
learners with opportunity to acquire language by performing a
range of learning tasks – main concern is with process learning
How to Suit Approach to
Learners’ Needs
• Learners response depend on their individual cognitive
style
• The analytical type may prefer dealing with grammar
formally while the global learner might prefer
experiential learning through classroom communication
• Teachers use different approaches and provide
variety of access to grammar to cater for different
learning styles – accompany by learners training which
encouraged learners to extend their styles by pointing
out advantages of different activity types
• Celce Murcia – useful set of six variables to guide
teachers in appropriate focus on form
- The rule – the more factors teachers identify in the left
side of the gird, the less important it is to focus on form;
the more factors teachers identify on the right, the more
important the grammatical focus
- With regard to learner variables, the question is to find a
suitable approach – materials for high school students at
the beginning level are different than adult students who
are literate and well-educated
- For adult learners, they can be encouraged to think about
the strategies they use for learning grammar, self – help
strategies and self-correction
- Useful activity in self-help strategies – introduce students
to appropriate grammar reference material
- Consider the needs of specific group of learners, their
reasons for learning English and factors of individual
differences such as age and educational background
 Conclusion
• A complex of insights from field SLA which provide description
and explanation of processes learners acquire English grammar
• These insights suggest a framework to support the building of
classroom procedures
• A number of approaches are appropriate in context of
communicative language teaching
• Currently finding new and better ways of developing learners
grammatical competence
• Sensible teachers choose eclectically from approaches available ,
in line with learners needs and cater to different individual styles
– room for variety
• Teachers carry out observation to discover what students prefer
and what is used
• Learners will apply themselves better to task of learning when
they feel positive about approaches used
 Presenting Grammar
Present Perfect Tense:
1. She has attended the class regularly.
2. You haven’t forgotten my birthday again, have you?
3. I haven’t been to Paris for four years.
4. Have you had your dinner yet?
5. Oh no, they’ve just scored another goal!
6. The management has decided to make 30 staff redundant.

Which of these shows habit in a period leading up to the

present time and which shows indefinite events in a period
leading up to the present time? Which show attitude as part of
meaning? Which functions as a complaint and which as an
invitation? Which is formal and which is informal?
The context will clarify all these questions.
 Variables relevant to focus on
form (Celce-Murcia 1993:294)
Less Focus on Form More Important
Important
Learner variables
Age Children Adolescents Adults
Proficiency level Beginning Intermediate Advanced
Educational Preliterate, no Semiliterate, Literate, well
background formal some formal -educated
education education
Instructional
variables
Skill Listening, Speaking Writing
reading
Register Informal Consultative Formal
Need / use Survival Vocational Professional
communication