CES 3113 ENGLISH GRAMMAR

BAC. OF EDU (TESL)

Dr. Hjh Khatipah Abdul Ghani

1. What is Grammar?
2. Why should we teach Grammar?
3. Approaches and Methods
3.1 The deductive approach – rule-driven learning
3.2 The inductive approach – the rule-discovery path
3.3 The functional- notional approach
3.4 Teaching grammar in situational contexts
3.5 Teaching grammar through texts
3.6 Teaching grammar through stories
3.7 Teaching grammar through songs and rhymes
4. Teaching Techniques
5. Assessments
6. Lesson Plan Writing
 1.0 What is Grammar?
Some definitions

 Language user’s subconscious internal system

 Linguists’ attempt to codify or describe that system

Sounds of language • Phonology

Structure and form of words • Morphology
Arrangement of words into larger units • Syntax
Meanings of language • Semantics
Functions of language & its use in context • Pragmatics

“Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it works.” (David Crystal)

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  Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language; but in fact no
language has rules. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the
language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which
evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time.
What we call "grammar" is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.

▪ Grammar is the mental system of rules and categories that allows humans to form and interpret the words and
sentences of their language.
▪ Grammar adds meanings that are not easily inferable from the immediate context. The kinds of meanings realized by
grammar are principally:
i representational - that is, grammar enables us to use language to describe the world in terms of how, when
and where things happen. e.g. The sun set at 7.30. The children are playing in the garden.
ii interpersonal - that is, grammar facilitates the way we interact with other people when, for example, we
need to get things done using language.

e.g. There is a difference between:

- Tickets!
- Tickets, please.
- Can you show me your tickets?
- May I see your tickets?
- Would you mind if I had a look at your tickets?

In other words, grammar is used to fine-tune the meanings we wish to express.

Activity 1
1. Google search two different definitions of ‘grammar’ and reflect on the meanings according to your understanding.
 2.0 Why should we teach Grammar?

Why are there many arguments for putting grammar in the foreground in second language teaching?
Here are seven of them:

i The sentence-machine argument

Part of the process of language learning must be what is sometimes called item-learning — that is the memorisation of
individual items such as words and phrases. However, there is a limit to the number of items a person can both retain and
retrieve. Even travellers' phrase books have limited usefulness — good for a three-week holiday, but there comes a point
where we need to learn some patterns or rules to enable us to generate new sentences. That is to say, grammar. Grammar, is a
description of the regularities in a language, and knowledge of these regularities provides the learner with the means to
generate a potentially enormous number of original sentences. The number of possible new sentences is constrained only by
the vocabulary at the learner's command and his or her creativity. Grammar is a kind of 'sentence-making machine'. It follows
that the teaching of grammar offers the learner the means for potentially limitless linguistic creativity.

ii The fine-tuning argument

The purpose of grammar seems to be to allow for greater subtlety of meaning than a merely lexical system can cater for.
While it is possible to get a lot of communicative mileage out of simply stringing words and phrases together, there comes a
point where 'Me Tarzan, you Jane'-type language fails to deliver, both in terms of intelligibility and in terms of
appropriateness. This is particularly the case for written language, which generally needs to be more explicit than spoken
language. For example, the five sentences are likely to confuse the reader:

Activity 2:
 Identify the errors and correct them.
 Provide reasons why are the meaning of each sentence is ambiguous.
 Use your knowledge of the rules of grammar to justify.

 Last Monday night I was boring in my house.

 After speaking a lot time with him I thought that him attracted me.

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  We took a wrong plane and when I saw it was very later because the plane took up.
 Five years ago I would want to go to India but in that time anybody of my friends didn't want to go.

“The teaching of grammar, it is argued, serves as a corrective against the kind of ambiguity represented in these
examples”. Do you agree?

iii The fossilisation argument

It is possible for highly motivated learners with a particular aptitude for languages to achieve amazing levels of
proficiency without any formal study. But more often 'pick it up as you go along' learners reach a language plateau beyond
which it is very difficult to progress. To put it technically, their linguistic competence fossilises. Research suggests that
learners who receive no instruction seem to be at risk of fossilising sooner than those who do receive instruction.

iv The advance-organiser argument

Grammar instruction might also have a delayed effect. The researcher Richard Schmidt kept a diary of his experience
learning Portuguese in Brazil. Initially he had enrolled in formal language classes where there was a heavy emphasis on
grammar. When he subsequently left these classes to travel in Brazil his Portuguese made good progress, a fact he
attributed to the use he was making of it.

However, as he interacted naturally with Brazilians he was aware that certain features of the talk — certain grammatical
items seemed to catch his attention. He noticed them. It so happened that these items were also items he had studied
in his classes. What's more, being more noticeable, these items seemed to stick. Schmidt concluded that noticing is a
prerequisite for acquisition.

The grammar teaching he had received previously, while insufficient in itself to turn him into a fluent Portuguese speaker,
had primed him to notice what might otherwise have gone unnoticed, and hence had indirectly influenced his learning. It
had acted as a kind of advance organiser for his later acquisition of the language.
v The discrete item argument
Language seen from 'outside', can seem to be a gigantic, shapeless mass, presenting an insuperable challenge for the learner.
Because grammar consists of an apparently finite set of rules, it can help to reduce the apparent enormity of the language
learning task for both teachers and students. By tidying language up and organising it into neat categories (sometimes
called discrete items), grammarians make language digestible.
(A discrete item is any unit of the grammar system that is sufficiently narrowly defined to form the focus of a lesson or
an exercise: e.g. the present continuous, the definite article, possessive pronouns).

vi The rule-of-law argument

It follows from the discrete-item argument that, since grammar is a system of learnable rules, it lends itself to a view of
teaching and learning known as transmission. A transmission view sees the role of education as the transfer of a body of
knowledge (typically in the form of facts and rules) from those that have the knowledge to those that do not. Such a view is
typically associated with the kind of institutionalised learning where rules, order, and discipline are highly valued.

The need for rules, order and discipline is particularly acute in large classes of unruly and unmotivated teenagers - a
situation that many teachers of English are confronted with daily. In this sort of situation grammar offers the teacher a
structured system that can be taught and tested in methodical steps.

vii The learner expectations argument

Regardless of the theoretical and ideological arguments for or against grammar teaching, many learners come to language
classes with fairly fixed expectations as to what they will do there. These expectations may derive from previous classroom
experience of language learning. They may also derive from experience of classrooms in general where (traditionally, at least)
teaching is of the transmission kind mentioned above.

On the other hand, their expectations that teaching will be grammar-focused may stem from frustration experienced at trying
to pick up a second language in a non-classroom setting, such as through self-study, or through immersion in the target
language culture. Such students may have enrolled in language classes specifically to ensure that the learning experience is
made more efficient and systematic. The teacher who ignores this expectation by encouraging learners simply to experience
language is likely to frustrate and alienate them.

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Fill in the blanks with the best answer(s) using (either … or / neither …. nor )

1) In this game, you _____ win ____ lose. It depends on you.

2) ____ Sue ____ Sara will help you with your homework. They are both busy at the moment.
3) This is my offer. You ____ take it ____ leave it.
4) When I go to the restaurant, I order ____ fish ____ roast chicken. These are my favourite meals.
5) His father believed ____ his son ____ his friend. He thought that both were lying.
6) I need ____ your help ____ your compassion. I can perfectly handle my problems alone.
7) ____ Charly ____ Bella will write the report. Just ask one of them.
8) ____ you return the money you had stolen ____ I will call the police.
9) My mom can ____ reads ____ writes. She is illiterate.
10) You can use ____ this computer ____ the other one. Someone must fix them first.
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 3.0 GRAMMAR TEACHING APPROACHES

3.1 The Deductive Approach – rule driven learning

A deductive approach starts with the presentation of a rule and is followed by examples in which the rule is applied.
The grammar rule is presented and the learner engages with it through the study and manipulation of examples.

i. Advantages of a deductive approach

▪ It gets straight to the point, and can therefore be time-saving. Many rules — especially rules of form — can be more simply
and quickly explained than elicited from examples. This will allow more time for practice and application.
▪ It respects the intelligence and maturity of many - especially adult -students, and acknowledges the role of cognitive
processes in language acquisition.
▪ It confirms many students' expectations about classroom learning, particularly for those learners who have an analytical
learning style.
▪ It allows the teacher to deal with language points as they come up, rather than having to anticipate them and prepare for
them in advance.

ii. Disadvantages of a deductive approach:

▪ Starting the lesson with a grammar presentation may be off-putting for some students, especially younger ones. They may
not have sufficient metalanguage (i.e. language used to talk about language such as grammar terminology). Or they may
not be able to understand the concepts involved.
▪ Grammar explanation encourages a teacher-fronted, transmission-style classroom; teacher explanation is often
at the expense of student involvement and interaction.
▪ Explanation is seldom as memorable as other forms of presentation, such as demonstration.
▪ Such an approach encourages the belief that learning a language is simply a case of knowing the rules.
14
 What is a rule?
In the Longman Activity Dictionary, “rules of grammar” are categorized into three types.

▪ Prescriptive rule is a principle or order which guides behaviour, says how things are to be done etc, the usual way that
something happens

▪ Descriptive rules are primarily concerned with generalisations about what speakers of the language actually
do say than what they should do.

▪ Pedagogic rules are rules that make sense to learners and provide them with the means and confidence to generate
language with a reasonable chance of success. Pedagogic rules can be split up into rules of form and rules of use or
function.

 Examples of Prescriptive rules:

Do not use different to and never use different than. Always use different from.
Never use the passive when you can use the active.
Use shall for the first person and will for second and third persons.

 Examples of Descriptive rules:

You do not normally use the with proper nouns referring to people.
We use used to with the infinitive (used to do, used to smoke etc.) to say that something regularly happened in the past
but no longer happens.

 Pedagogic rules
Example for rule of form:
To form the past simple of regular verbs, add –ed to the infinitive.
Example of a rule of use:
The simple past tense is used to indicate past actions or states.

Many of the pros and cons of a rule-driven approach hinge on the quality of the actual rule explanation. This in turn
depends on how user-friendly the rule is. What makes a rule a good rule? Michael Swan, author of teachers' and
students' grammars, offers the following criteria:

 Truth:
Rules should be true. While truthfulness may need to be compromised in the interests of clarity and simplicity,
the rule must bear some resemblance to the reality it is describing.

Example is the distinction usually made between some and any, which goes something like:
 Use some+plural countable/uncountable noun in affirmative sentences.
 Use any+plural countable/uncountable noun in negative sentences and questions.

It still fails to explain:

Take any one you want.
I didn't like some of his books.
An explanation based on the difference in meaning between some and any might eliminate many of these
problems

 Limitation:

Rules should show clearly what the limits are on the use of a given form.
For example, to say simply that we use will to talk about the future is of little use to the learner since it doesn't show
how will is different from other
ways of talking about the future (e.g. going to
  Clarity:

Rules should be clear. Lack of clarity is often caused by ambiguity or obscure terminology. For example: 'Use will for
spontaneous decisions; use going
to for premeditated decisions.' To which a student responded, 'All my decisions are premeditated'.

 Simplicity:
Rules should be simple. Lack of simplicity is caused by overburdening the rule with subcategories and sub-sub-categories in
order to cover all
possible instances and account for all possible exceptions. There is a limit to the amount of exceptions a learner can
remember.

 Familiarity:
An explanation should try to make use of concepts already familiar to the learner. Few
learners have specialised knowledge of grammar, although they may well be familiar with
some basic terminology used to describe the grammar of their own language
(e.g. conditional, infinitive, gerund).

Most learners have a concept of tense (past, present, future), but will be less at home with concepts such as deontic and
epistemic modality, for example.

 Relevance:
A rule should answer only those questions that the student needs answered.
These questions may vary according to the mother tongue of the learner.
For example, Arabic speakers, who do not have an equivalent to the present perfect, may
need a different treatment of this form than, say,
French speakers, who have a similar structure to the English present perfect, but who use it slightly differently.
A lot depends on the teacher’s presentation of the rule. An effective rule presentation
will include the following features:

 It will be illustrated by an example.

 It will be short.
 Students’ understanding will be checked.
 Students will have an opportunity to personalize the rule.
 3.2 The inductive approach – the rule-discovery path

What are the advantages of encouraging learners to work rules out for themselves?

 Rules learners discover for themselves are more likely to fit their existing mental
a) structures than rules they have been presented with. This in turn will make the rules
b) more meaningful, memorable, and serviceable.

 The mental effort involved ensures a greater degree of cognitive depth which again, ensures greater memorability.

 Students are more actively involved in the learning process, rather than being simply passive recipients: they are therefore likely to be more
attentive and more motivated.

 It is an approach which favors pattern-recognition and problem-solving abilities which suggests that it is particularly suitable for learners
who like this kind of challenge.

 If the problem-solving is done collaboratively, and in the target language, learners get the opportunity for extra language practice.

 Working things out for themselves prepares students for greater self-reliance and is therefore conducive to learner autonomy.

The disadvantages of an inductive approach include:

 The time and energy spent in working out rules may mislead students into believing that rules are the objective of language learning, rather
than a means.

 The time taken to work out a rule may be at the expense of time spent in putting the rule to some sort of productive practice.

 Students may hypothesize the wrong rule, or their version of the rule may be either too broad or too narrow in its application: this is
especially a danger where there is no overt testing of their hypotheses, either through practice examples, or by eliciting an explicit statement
of the rule.

 It can place heavy demands on teachers in planning a lesson. They need to select and organize the data carefully so as to guide learners to an
accurate formulation of the rule, while also ensuring the data is intelligible.

 However carefully organized the data is, many language areas such as aspect and modality resist easy rule formulation. An inductive
approach frustrates students who, by dint of their personal learning style or their past learning experience (or both), would prefer simply to
be told the rule.

 Research findings into the relative benefits of deductive and inductive methods have been inconclusive. Short term gains for deductive
learning have been found, and there is some evidence to suggest that some kinds of language items are better 'given than 'discovered'.

 Moreover, when surveyed, most learners tend to prefer deductive presentations of grammar. Nevertheless, once exposed to inductive
approaches, there is often less resistance as the learners see the benefits of solving language problems themselves.

 Finally, the autonomy argument is not easily dismissed: the capacity to discern patterns and regularities in naturally occurring input would
seem to be an invaluable tool for self-directed learning, and one, therefore, that might usefully be developed in the classroom.
ACTVITIES IN THE INDUCTIVE APPROACH

Example 1

Generative situation:
The teacher sets up a situation in order to “generate” several example
sentences of a structure.
Example 2:

The principles of the guided discovery approach were originally intended

for self-instruction as part of the kind of programmes which were used in
language laboratories. They soon adopted for classroom use, and course
books promoting an inductive approach to language learning are now
more or less standard. An example of an inductive presentation of the
present simple from New Wave 1.
Teaching differences between past simple and present perfect Example 3

(Teacher writes the following three sets of sentences on the Minimal sentence pairs
board)
1a. I’ve seen all of Jim Jarmusch’s films. By presenting two sentences that are only different in one or two
b. I saw his latest film last month. particulars, the teacher is better able to focus the students’ attention on
exactly how the choice of form determines a difference in meaning.
2a. Since 1990, she’s worked for three different newspapers.
b. She worked for the Observer in 1996. The sentences should
• be lexically simple
3a. Have you ever been to Peru? • have fairly self-evident contexts
b. When were you in Peru?

Example 4
Generative situation:
The teacher sets up a situation in order to “generate” several example sentence
structures.
Example 5.
The principles of the guided discovery approach were originally intended
for self-instruction as part of the kind of programmes which were used in
language laboratories. They soon adopted for classroom use, and
course-books promoting an inductive approach to language learning are
now more or less standard. An example of an inductive presentation
of the present simple from New Wave 1
.

By getting straight to the point, the minimal pairs presentation combines

the best features of an explanation-driven approach and a discovery approach.
It is also relatively easy to plan and to set up. In terms of efficacy, it relies
heavily on the choice of sample sentences. More problematic still is the lack
of context, which can sometimes lead students to the wrong conclusions,
or, more frustratingly, to no conclusion at all.
3.3 Functional-Notional Approach
 History
In 1972, the British linguist D.A. Wilkins published a document that proposed a radical shift away from using the traditional concepts of
grammar and vocabulary to describe language to an analysis of the communicative meanings that learners would need in order to
express themselves and to understand effectively. This initial document was followed by his 1976 work Notional Syllabuses, which
showed how language could be categorized on the basis of notions such as quantity, location and time, and functions such as making
requests, making offers and apologising. Wilkins’ work was used by the Council of Europe in drawing up a communicative language
syllabus, which specified the communicative functions a learner would need in order to communicate effectively at a given level of
competence.

At the end of the 1970s, the first course-books to be based on functional syllabuses began to appear. Typically, they would be organised
on the basis of individual functions and the exponents needed to express these functions. For example, many course-books would begin
with the function of ‘introducing oneself’, perhaps followed by the function of ‘making requests’, with typical exponents being ‘Can I
….?’, "Could you ….?’, "Is it alright if I ….?’ and so on. These would often be practised in the form of communicative exercises
involving pair work, group work and role plays.

Features of Functional-Notional Approach

It is interesting to compare this approach with a grammatical syllabus. In a typical grammatical syllabus, structures using the word
‘would’ tend to appear in later stages of the syllabus, as they are held to be relatively complex (eg "If I knew the answer, I would tell
you"), whereas in a functional syllabus ‘would’ often appears at a very early stage due to its communicative significance in exponents
such as ‘Would you like ….?’, which is extremely common and of great communicative value even to beginners. The need to apply a
grammatical name or category to the structure is not considered important within the framework of a purely functional syllabus.
Finocchiaro, M. & Brumfit, C. The Functional-Notional Approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. (1983).

This method of language teaching is categorized along with others under the rubric of a communicative approach. The method stresses a
means of organizing a language syllabus. The emphasis is on breaking down the global concept of language into units of analysis in
terms of communicative situations in which they are used.
 Explanation of specific terms:

- Notions are meaningful elements that may be expressed through nouns, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives
or adverbs.
- A notion is a concept, or idea: it may be quite specific, in which case it is virtually the same as vocabulary (dog, house, for example);
or it may be very general – time, size, emotion, movement – in which case it often overlaps with the concept of “topics”.
- A notion may be “time past”; this may include past tenses, phrases like a month ago, in 1990, last week, and utterances using
temporal clauses beginning with when….., before…., after…. and so on;

- A function is some kind of communicative act: it is the use of language to achieve a purpose, usually involving interaction
at least between two people. Examples would be suggesting, promising, apologizing, greeting, inviting.
“Inviting” may include phrases like “Would you like to….? I suggest…., How about…? Please…

Task: Have a look at the items listed in the box below. Can you sort them into separate lists of
notions and functions?
Notions and functions
location offer request
obligation promise spatial relations
advise the future food
threat crime instruction
apology the body remind
probability expressions of opinion
A situation may affect variations of language such as the use of dialects, the formality or informality of the language and
the mode of expression. Situation includes the following elements:
the persons taking part in the speech act
e place where the conversation occurs
- The time the speech act is taking place
topic or activity that is being discussed

Exponents are the language utterances or statements that stem from the function, the situation and the topic.

Code is the shared language of a community of speakers.

Code-switching is a change or switch in code during the speech act, which many theorists believe is purposeful behaviour to convey bonding,
language prestige or other elements of interpersonal relations between the speakers.

Functional Categories of Language

Mary Finocchiaro: The Functional-notional Approach: From Theory to Practice (1983, p. 6566) has placed the functional categories under five
headings as noted below: personal, interpersonal, directive, referential, and imaginative.

Personal
Clarifying or arranging one’s ideas; expressing one’s thoughts or feelings: love, joy, pleasure, happiness, surprise, likes, satisfaction,
dislikes, disappointment, distress, pain, anger, anguish, fear, anxiety, sorrow, frustration, annoyance at missed opportunities, moral,
intellectual and social concerns; and the everyday feelings of hunger, thirst, fatigue, sleepiness, cold, or warmth

Interpersonal
Enabling us to establish and maintain desirable social and working relationships:
 greetings and leave takings / introducing people to others
 identifying oneself to others / expressing joy at another’s success
 expressing concern for other people’s welfare / extending and accepting invitations
 refusing invitations politely or making alternative arrangements
 making appointments for meetings
 breaking appointments politely and arranging another mutually convenient time apologizing
 excusing oneself and accepting excuses for not meeting commitments indicating agreement or disagreement interrupting another
speaker politely
 changing an embarrassing subject
 receiving visitors and paying visits to others
 offering food or drinks and accepting or declining politely sharing wishes, hopes, desires, and problems.
 making promises and committing oneself to some action
 complimenting someone making excuses
 expressing and acknowledging gratitude

Directive
Attempting to influence the actions of others; accepting or refusing direction:
  making suggestions in which the speaker is included
 making requests; making suggestions
 refusing to accept a suggestion or a request but offering an alternative
 persuading someone to change his point of view
 requesting and granting permission
 asking for help and responding to a plea for help
 forbidding someone to do something; issuing a command
 giving and responding to instructions
 warning someone
 discouraging someone from pursuing a course of action
 establishing guidelines and deadlines for the completion of actions
 asking for directions or instructions

Referential
talking or reporting about things, actions, events, or people in the environment in the past or in the future; talking about language
 (what is termed the metalinguistic function: = talking or reporting about things, actions, events, or people in the environment in the
past or in the future
 identifying items or people in the classroom, the school the home, the community
 asking for a description of someone or something
 defining something or a language item or asking for a definition
 paraphrasing, summarizing, or translating (L1 to L2 or vice versa)
 explaining or asking for explanations of how something works
 comparing or contrasting things
 discussing possibilities, probabilities, or capabilities of doing something
 requesting or reporting facts about events or actions
 evaluating the results of an action or event

Imaginative
Discussions involving elements of creativity and artistic expression
  discussing a poem, a story, a piece of music, a play, a painting, a film, a TV program, etc.
 expanding ideas suggested by other or by a piece of literature or reading material
 creating rhymes, poetry, stories or plays
 recombining familiar dialogs or passages creatively
 suggesting original beginnings or endings to dialogs or stories
 solving problems or mysteries

Task: In the table shown below each column represents a different basis for selection of language: situation, function, vocabulary, etc. In each
row one of them is filled in; can you fill in some suggestions for the others?

Coordinating different language categories

Situations Topics Notions and Grammar Vocabulary
Functions
Getting to know
someone

Road accidents

Making requests

Future tense

farmer,
secretary, etc

FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
People who study and use a language are mainly interested in how they can do things with language --- how they can make meanings, get
attention to their problems and interests, influence their friends and colleagues and create a rich social life for themselves. They are only
interested in the grammatical structure of the language as a means to getting things done. A grammar which puts together the patterns of the
language and the things you can do with them is called a functional grammar.”
[COBUILD, 1990]

Objective
The main objective of a functional grammar is to explain language in terms of what people do with it, how they use the language to live. It tries
to do that by adopting more of a semantic and pragmatic orientation inside the grammar. It does not see semantics and pragmatics as extra
levels of organization but sees them as integral to the organization of the grammar.

Criticism

Order
Criticisms of functional approaches include the difficulty in deciding the order in which different functions should be presented. Is it more
important to be able to complain or to apologise, for example? Another problem lies in the wide range of grammatical structures needed to
manipulate basic functions at different levels of formality (for example, ‘Can I …...?’ as opposed to ‘Would you mind if I …...?"). In addition,
although it is possible to identify hundreds of functions and micro-functions, there are probably no more than ten fundamental communicative
functions that are expressed by a range of widely used exponents.
no structures syllabus
There is also the apparently random nature of the language used, which may frustrate learners used to the more analytical and "building-block"
approach that a grammatical syllabus can offer. Another apparent weakness is the question of what to do at higher levels. Is it simply a case of
learning more complex exponents for basic functions or is one required to seek out ever more obscure functions (complaining sarcastically, for
example)?

Advantages
On the positive side, however, there is little doubt that functional approaches have contributed a great deal to the overall store of language
teaching methodology. Most new course-books contain some kind of functional syllabus alongside a focus on grammar and vocabulary, thus
providing learners with communicatively useful expressions in tandem with a structured syllabus with a clear sense of progression. In addition,
the focus on communication inherent in the practice of functional exponents has contributed greatly to communicative language teaching in
general. Finally, the idea that even beginners can be presented with exponents of high communicative value from the very start represents a
radical shift from the kind of approach that began with the present simple of the verb ‘to be’ in all its forms and focused almost entirely on
structure with little regard for actual communication in the target language.

Solutions to the tasks:

Functions are: offer, request, promise, advise, threat, instruction, apology, remind, expression of opinion. The rest are notions.

Coordi different language categories

Situations Topics Notions and Functions Grammar Vocabulary
Getting to know hobbies Inquiring, informing, Interrogative forms Swimming, sports, etc.
someone greeting Verb (e.g. enjoy + - ing

Reporting an accident Road accidents Time past Past tense Road, car, drive, etc.
Narrating
Describing
Shopping Clothes Making requests Modals Clothes,
Would, could, might Adjectives of colour, size,
etc.
Planning a holiday Travel, accommodation Future time Predicting Future tense Train, plane, etc.
suggesting Hotel, camping

Asking about or describing Professions Requesting information Yes/no questions farmer,

a profession Activities Describing activity Present tense secretary, etc
Equipment
3.4 Teaching Grammar in Situational Contexts
 Using a generative situation

The generative is a situation which the teacher sets up in the lesson in order to “generate” several example sentences of a structure.

Advantages:
A situational context permits presentation of a wide range of language items. The situation serves as a means of contextualising the language and
this helps clarify its meaning. At the same time the generated examples provide the learners with data for induction of the rules of form. Students
can be involved in the development of the presentation as well as in solving the grammar 'problem': this makes it less dry than a traditional
grammar explanation. Moreover, the situation, if well chosen, is likely to be more memorable than a simple explanation. All these factors suggest
that this approach rates high in terms of efficacy.

Disadvantages:
If students are in the wrong mind-set, they are unlikely to do the kind of cognitive work involved in the induction of grammar rules.
This kind of presentation also takes more time than an explanation. Time spent on presenting language is inevitably time spent at the expense of
language practice, and it is arguable that what most students need is not the presentation of rules but opportunities to practise them. Thus, the
generative situation loses points in terms of its economy. And it also requires a resourceful teacher who not only is able to conjure up situations that
generate several structurally identical sentences, but who has also the means (and the time) to prepare the necessary visual aids.

Example:
Teaching should have done using a generative situation

Step 1:
By means of a picture on the board (a drawing, photo, or picture cut from a magazine) the teacher introduces a character she calls Andy. She draws
a rough map of Australia, placing next to it a picture of a four-wheel drive vehicle. She elicits ideas as to how these pictures are connected,
establishing the situation that Andy has decided to drive across the Australian desert from the east to the west. She elicits the sort of preparations a
person would need to make for such a journey. Students suggest, for example, that Andy would need a map, a spare wheel, lots of water, a
travelling companion, food, a first aid kit, and so on. The teacher selects some of these ideas, and writes them in a column on the board, and one or
two ideas of her own:
To do this kind of journey, you should:

 take a map take water not travel alone advise the police
 not travel in the wet season

Step 2:
The teacher then explains that Andy made no preparations. He didn't take a map, he didn't take water, he travelled alone, etc. She asks the students
to imagine what happened. Using their ideas as well as her own, she constructs the following story:

Andy set off, got lost, got very thirsty, set off in search of help (leaving his vehicle behind), got trapped by sudden flood waters, etc. The police set
out in search of him but couldn't find him because he had abandoned his vehicle and left no note. The teacher checks these facts by asking one or
two students to recount them.

Step 3:
The teacher asks the class: Well, what do you think of Andy? eliciting answers like He was stupid. Teacher: Why? At this point, students may
venture sentences, like He must take a map. Having thus established the idea of disapproval of past actions, the teacher models the sentence: He
should have taken a map, repeating it two or three times. The students repeat the sentence in unison and then individually. The teacher reminds the
students of the concept of disapproval by asking Did he take a map? (No). Was that a good idea? (No) So ...? The students respond: He should have
taken a map. She then repeats this process using the example of travelling alone, eliciting, modelling, drilling, and concept-checking the sentence:
He shouldn't have travelled alone.

Further prompting elicits example sentences, such as:

 He should've taken water. He shouldn't have left his car.
 At strategic points, the teacher recaps the sentences that have been generated, using the words on the board as prompts. So far, nothing has
been written on the board.

Step 4:
The teacher then clears the board and writes up the following table:
 He should have taken water. shouldn’t have traveled
alone.

She asks students, working in pairs, to add further sentences about the situation t the table. Individual students read sentences aloud from the table.

Step 5:
The teacher then asks students to imagine the dialogue when the police finally find Andy. She writes the following exchange on the board:

 Police: You should have taken a map.

 Andy: I know I should. I didn’t think.

Students, working in pairs, continue writing the dialogue along the same lines, and then practice it aloud, taking it in turns to be the police officer
and

Situation or Context Points of Grammar

Follow a recipe or instructions from a boxed cake mix to bake a cake. Imperative verb form
Present continuous tense
Give directions to another person to get to a store, the post office, or a Present tense
bank using a map. Non-referential
Discuss plans for a class field trip to the zoo. Future tense
If-clauses
Conditional tense
Describe a past vacation, weekend, etc. Simple past tense
Question formation
Forms of verb to do
Word order in negation
Role play a shopping trip to buy a gift for a family member or friend. May, might
Collective nouns and quantifiers (any, some, several, etc.)

Answer information questions: Name, address, phone number, etc. Present tense of verb to be
Possessive adjectives
Tell someone how to find an object in your kitchen. Locative prepositions
Modal verbs (can, may, should)
Fill out a medical history form. Then role play a medical interview on a Present perfect tense
visit with a new doctor. Present perfect progressive

Make a daily weather report Forms of verb to be

Idiomatic expressions
Report daily schedules of people (in the class, buses in the city, airline Habitual present
schedules, trains, etc.) Personal pronouns
Demonstrative adjectives
Extend an invitation over the telephone to someone to come to a party Would like…Object-Verb word order
 Interrogative pronouns
Explain rules and regulations to someone, i.e. rules for the school Modal verbs: Can, must, should, ought to
cafeteria; doctor’s instructions to a sick patient Adverbs of time & frequency

Report a historical or actual past event and discuss conditions under which Past conditional and past perfect tenses
a different outcome might have resulted If clauses

React to the burglary of your house or apartment in the presence of Present perfect tense
another person upon discovery (active voice) and in making a police Contrast between active and passive voice
report (passive voice) Direct and indirect object

3.5 Teaching Grammar through texts

If learners are to achieve a functional command of a second language, they will need to be able to understand and produce not just isolated
sentences, but whole texts in that language. Language is context which is to say that an utterance becomes fully intelligible only when it is placed in
its context.

Course-book texts tend to be specially tailored for ease of understanding and so as to display specific features of grammar. This often gives them a
slightly unreal air, as in this example:
 Contrasting Present Progressive – “Going to” Future)


This is Mr West. He has a bag in his left hand. Where is he standing? He

is standing at the door of his house. What is Mr West going to do? He is
going to put his hand into his pocket. He is going to take a key out of his
pocket. He is going to put the key into the lock.

(from Hornby, A.S. Oxford Progressive English Course, Oxford

University Press,1954)

Advocates of authentic texts argue that not only are such specially written EFL texts uninteresting - and therefore unmotivating - but they
misrepresent the way the language is used in real-life contexts. On the other hand, the problems associated with authentic texts cannot be wished
away, either, as any teacher who has attempted to use a dense newspaper article with low level students will have discovered. The linguistic load of
unfamiliar vocabulary and syntactic complexity can make such texts impenetrable, and ultimately very demotivating.

A compromise position is to take authentic texts, and to simplify them in ways which retain their genuine flavour. This is the approach generally
adopted by coursebook writers nowadays. Another alternative is to write classroom texts, but to make them more engaging than the example quoted
above. In fact, with only the slightest change, the text about Mr West could be made somewhat more attention-grabbing:
This is Mr West. He has a bag in his left hand. Where is he standing? He is standing at the door of his house. What is Mr West going to do? He is
going to put his hand into his pocket. He is going to take a gun out of his pocket. He is going to point the gun at...

The implications of this context-sensitive view of language on grammar teaching are that:
• Grammar is best taught and practised in context.
• This means using whole texts as contexts for grammar teaching.

Advantages of using texts:

o They provide co-textual information, allowing learners to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar grammatical items from the co-text.
o If the texts are authentic they can show how the item is used in real communication.
o As well as grammar input, texts provide vocabulary input, skills practice, and exposure to features of text organisation.
o Their use in the classroom is good preparation for independent study.
o If the texts come from the students themselves, they may be more engaging and their language features therefore more memorable.

Disadvantages
o The difficulty of the text, especially an authentic one, may mean that some of the above advantages are lost.
o The alternative - to use simplified texts - may give a misleading impression as to how the language item is naturally used, again defeating the
purpose of using texts.
o Not all texts will be of equal interest to students.
o Students who want quick answers to simple questions may consider the use of texts to be the 'scenic route' to language awareness, and would
prefer a quicker, more direct route instead.
o
No single method of grammar presentation is going to be appropriate for all grammar items, nor for all learners, nor for all learning contexts. A lot
will also depend on the kind of practice opportunities that the teacher provides. In the next chapter we will look at a range of practice types.
 3.6 Teaching Grammar through stories
Everyone loves a story. Stories can be used for both eliciting and illustrating grammar points. The former employs inductive reasoning, while the
latter requires deductive thought, and it is useful to include both approaches in lesson planning. In addition, a well-told story is the perfect context
for a structure-discourse match, but the technique can also be used effectively for a structure-social factor match. Storytelling is one of these
extremely versatile techniques, and once you get the hang of it, it can be a convenient and natural grammar teaching tool. You may even find that it
is the technique that holds students' attention best, as well as the one they enjoy most.

Grammar points can be contexualized in stories that are absorbing and just plain fun if they are selected with the interest of the class in mind, are
told with a high degree of energy, and involve the students. Students can help create stories and impersonate characters in them. Students will certainly
appreciate and respond to your efforts to include them in the storytelling process, but they will also enjoy learning about you through your stories.

Stories should last from one to five minutes, and the more exaggerated and bizarre they are, the more likely students will remember the teaching points they
illustrate.
Storytelling is traditional in almost all cultures. We can tap into that tradition for a very portable resource and a convenient and flexible technique for teaching
any phase of a grammar lesson. A story provides a realistic context for presenting grammar points and holds and focuses students’ attention in a way that no
other technique can. Although some teachers are better at telling stories than others, almost any of us can tell stories with energy and interest. Students naturally
like to listen to stories, and most are remembered long after the lesson is over.
 3.7 Teaching grammar through songs and rhymes
Songs
Since the meaning is an important device in teaching grammar, it is important to contextualize any grammar point. Songs are one of the most
enchanting and culturally rich resources that can easily be used in language classrooms. Songs offer a change from routine classroom activities.
They are precious resources to develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They can also be used to teach a variety of
language items such as sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, adjectives, and adverbs. Learning English through songs also
provides a non-threatening atmosphere for students, who usually are tense when speaking English in a formal classroom setting.

Songs also give new insights into the target culture. They are the means through which cultural themes are presented effectively. Since they provide
authentic texts, they are motivating. Prosodic features of the language such as stress, rhythm, intonation are presented through songs, thus through
using them the language which is cut up into a series of structural points becomes a whole again.

There are many advantages of using songs in the classroom. Through using contemporary popular songs, which are already familiar to teenagers,
the teacher can meet the challenges of the teenage needs in the classroom. Since songs are highly memorable and motivating, in many forms they
may constitute a powerful subculture with their own rituals. Furthermore, through using traditional folk songs the base of the learner’s knowledge
of the target culture can be broadened.

In consequence, if selected properly and adopted carefully, a teacher should benefit from songs in all phases of teaching grammar. Songs may both
be used for the presentation or the practice phase of the grammar lesson. They may encourage extensive and intensive listening, and inspire
creativity and use of imagination in a relaxed classroom atmosphere. While selecting a song the teacher should take the age, interests of the learners
and the language being used in the song into consideration. To enhance learner commitment, it is also beneficial to allow learners to take part in the
selection of the songs.
 Teaching Procedure

There are various ways of using songs in the classroom. The level of the students, the interests and the age of the learners, the grammar point to be
studied, and the song itself have determinant roles on the procedure. Apart from them, it mainly depends on the creativity of the teacher.
At the primary level of singing the song, the prosodic features of the language is emphasized. At the higher levels, where the practice of grammar
points is at the foreground, songs can be used with several techniques. Some examples of these techniques are:

• Gap fills or close texts

• Focus questions
• True-false statements
• Put these lines into the correct sequence
• Dictation
• Add a final verse
• Circle the antonyms/synonyms of the given words
• Discuss

A teacher's selection of a technique or a set of techniques should be based on his or her objectives for the classroom. After deciding the grammar
point to be studied, and the song and the techniques to be used, the teacher should prepare an effective lesson plan. Since songs are listening
activities, it is advisable to present them as a listening lesson, but of course it is necessary to integrate all the skills in the process in order to achieve
successful teaching.

When regarding a lesson plan, as a pre-listening activity, the theme, the title, or the history of the song can be discussed. By directing the students
toward specific areas, problem vocabulary items can be picked up in advance. Before listening to the song, it is also beneficial to let the students
know which grammar points should be studied. At this stage, pictures may also be used to introduce the theme of the song. In the listening stage,
some of the techniques listed above can be used, but among them gap filling is the most widely used technique. Through such gaps, the vocabulary,
grammar, or pronunciation are highlighted. This stage can be developed by the teacher according to the needs of the students and the grammar point
to be studied.

In the follow-up, integrated skills can be used to complete the overall course structure. Since many songs are on themes for which it is easy to find
related reading texts, it may lead the learner to read a text about the singer or the theme. Besides, many songs give a chance for a written reaction of
some kind. Opinion questions may lead the learner to write about his own thoughts or reflections. Some songs deal with a theme that can be re-
exploited through role plays. Acting may add enthusiasm to the learning process. Finally, some songs deal with themes, which can lead to guided
discussion. By leading the students into a discussion, the grammar point could be practiced orally and, in a way, naturally.

Exploitation of songs for grammatical structures can be illustrated through several examples. For present tense 'Let It Be' by the Beatles, for past
tense 'Yesterday' by the Beatles, for present progressive 'Sailing' by Rod Stewart, for present perfect 'Nothing Compares to You' by Sinead
Occonor, for past perfect 'Last Night I Had...' by Simon and Garfunkel, for modals 'Blowing in the Wind' by Bob Dylan, and for conditionals 'El
Condor Pasa' by Simon and Garfunkel can be used. However, it should be kept in mind that songs, which provide frequent repetitions, or tell a
story, or provide comments about life, or introduce cultural themes are the effective ones, since they provide authentic and meaningful material.

Poems
Poems, like songs, contextualize a grammar lesson effectively. Since poetry is often spoken, repeated, dealt with, and considered, it acts as an
effective tool for practicing a specific grammatical structure. Through repeating and considering the poem, the grammatical structures become more
deeply internalized. Thus, poetry not only provides a rewarding resource for structured practice of grammar, but also a proper basis for review. If a
poem that exemplifies a particular structure is also a good poem, it engages the eye, the ear and the tongue simultaneously while also stimulating
and moving us; this polymorphic effect makes poetry easier to memorize than other things for many students.

Like songs, poems exaggerate the rhythmic nature of the language. Thus it is an important aspect to be taught, since English is a syllable timed
language with stressed syllables being spoken at roughly equal time pauses, even in everyday speech. Similar to songs, poems have an enormous
linguistic value as they provide authenticity and cultural views. A poem's capacity to comfort the reader or the listener also increases its
effectiveness as a teaching resource. Once a poem or song has been learned, they stay in the minds of the students for the rest of their lives, with all
the rhythms, grammatical features and vocabulary.

Poems may bring the use of creativity and the rhythm into the language classroom, though they may also bring some difficulties. Poems are not
constructed in a simple way and syntactically they are at a higher level than prose, thus it might be very difficult for a foreign language learner to
comprehend them completely.

There are three main barriers for literature including poetry. They are linguistic, cultural, and intellectual barriers. Linguistic difficulties are the
problems caused by the syntax or the lexicon of the poem. Cultural difficulties include imagery, tone, and allusion. At the intellectual level, the
students should be intellectual and mature enough to understand the theme of the poem. These difficulties could be easily removed if the teacher
provides a poem which is syntactically and thematically appropriate to the level, age and the interests of the students. Thus, by removing or
minimizing the potential problems, poetry can provide an enormously rich, enjoyable and authentic context for foreign language learners.

In the selection of a poem, the teacher should first consider the grammatical structure to be presented, practiced, or reviewed, then the level and the
age of the students, next the theme and the length of the poem and its appropriateness to the classroom objectives. It is advisable to select a poem
from 20th century poets. As older poems often provide a more difficult lexicon and syntax, and as they reflect some old-fashioned ideas, it is more
convenient to use contemporary poems than older ones. Poems, which reflect cultural themes, universal features, humanistic values, or emotional
aspects, will be more relevant to the foreign language learners. Finally, through taking the classroom objectives into consideration, a teacher should
effectively benefit from poems as teaching aids.
 Teaching Procedure

At the teaching stage of a poem, it is not advisable to talk about the meaning of the poem in advance. Since they offer a reading and listening
activity, poems could be presented through a reading plan. At the pre-reading stage, students might be motivated through some enthusiastic talks
about poetry or the poet. Some necessary vocabulary can also be handled at this stage. At the reading stage, in order to create images and stress the
prosodic features, the teacher may want the students to close their eyes while he/she is reading the poem. After the poem has been read at least
twice, it is better to elicit the primary responses of the students about the poem. Next, after distributing the poem to students, students may be asked
to read it either loudly or silently. In order to practice the determined grammar point, students may be asked to paraphrase the poem. Through
transforming the verse into prose students get acquainted with the structure.

After easing the grammar and understanding the vocabulary, students get an idea about the theme of the poem. Reading the paraphrased poem
reinforces the grammatical structure under consideration. Asking questions about context may follow the reading. Through asking Wh- questions,
providing additional information about the culture, and asking students to share their experience with the subject matter, the cultural content of the
poem becomes more real and vivid. Words, pictures, and shared experiences can eliminate the gap that is created by different cultures, as no one
can deny that poems cannot always evoke the same sounds, sights, smells, and associations for both native speakers and foreign language learners.
After discussing the surface content of the poem, students may again asked to close their eyes and visualize the poem while listening to it.
As a follow-up activity a discussion may be held. After reviewing the plot of the poem and providing adequate artful questions, the students will
eventually discover the deeper meaning of the poem. As being a facilitator, a teacher should always avoid telling the meaning. After each student
grasps his or her own meaning, it is proper to discuss the depth of the poem. In this procedure, the teacher's aim is to support the students in their
attempts to understand the poem and make it relevant to their lives. Once they have understood it and perceived its relevance, they will have no
objection to practicing the poem or even memorizing it, for it will have become special for them. At the follow-up stage, providing the determined
structure, students may also be asked to write a poem about anything they want. In such a procedure the four skills are effectively integrated to
practice or present any grammar point.

Since every class is different, teachers should creativity determine the teaching procedure. It is not advisable to apply one procedure too strictly. A
teacher should adopt the activities according to the needs of the learners. However, it might not be very useful to use poems for young students or
for beginners. Instead of poems, using nursery rhymes or songs would be more helpful since they provide more joyful and easier contexts. From
pre-intermediate to advanced levels, it is really beneficial to use either songs or poems. Several poems can be adopted from contemporary poem
books. The poems of the W.H. Auden, Robert Frost,
Stanley Kunitz, Delmore Schwartz, W.D. Snodgrass, Theodore Roethke, Gary Snyder, Richard Wilbur, and Robert Lowell, etc. are suggested for
the language teachers who want to use poems in their grammar lessons.
Some rules for teaching grammar
What conclusions are to be drawn about the teaching of grammar? Here are some rules of thumb:

The Rule of Context:

 Teach grammar in context. If you have to take an item out of context in order to draw attention to it, ensure that it is re-contextualized as
soon as possible. Similarly, teach grammatical forms in association with their meanings. The choice of one grammatical form over another
is always determined by the meaning the speaker or writer wishes to convey.

The Rule of Use:

 Teach grammar in order to facilitate the learners' comprehension and production of real language, rather than as an end in itself. Always
provide opportunities for learners to put the grammar to some communicative use.

The Rule of Economy:

 To fulfill the rule of use, be economical. This means economising on presentation time in order to provide maximum practice time. With
grammar, a little can go a long way.

The Rule of Relevance:

 Teach only the grammar that students have problems with. This means, start off by finding out what they already know. And don't assume
that the grammar of English is a wholly different system from the learner's mother tongue. Exploit the common ground.

The Rule of Nurture:

 Teaching doesn't necessarily cause learning - not in any direct way. Instead of teaching grammar, therefore, try to provide the right
conditions for grammar learning.

The Rule of Appropriacy:

 Interpret all the above rules according to the level, needs, interests, expectations and learning styles of the students. This may mean giving a
lot of prominence to grammar, or it may mean never actually teaching grammar at all - in any up-front way. But either way, it is your
responsibility as a teacher to know your grammar inside out.
Some conditions

The Rule of Nurture argues for providing the conditions for grammar learning. What are these conditions? If the answer to this much disputed
question could be reduced to a handful of essentials, they would probably be these:
• The input learners get: will it be presented in such a way that the learners are likely to engage with it, thus ensuring a reasonable chance of
it becoming intake?

• Their output: will it be of sufficient quantity and/or quality to ensure that they have opportunities to develop both accuracy and fluency?

• The feedback they get:

will it be of the type and quantity to ensure that some of their attention is directed at form?

• Their motivation: will the content and design of the lesson be such that learners are motivated to attend to the input, produce optimal output, and
take account of the feedback? Here are six teacher “confessions”. Which rule did the teacher break, in each case?

1. I explained it and drilled it - and still they made mistakes. So I explained it and drilled it again.
2. I taught my business class the present perfect continuous using a fairy tale.
3. I presented the rules of adverb order, and then we did some exercises in the book. Tomorrow I'm going to do the second conditional.
4. They don't have any problems with the past tense, but I'm going to teach it again because it's in the book.
5. I gave them five sentences in different tenses and asked them to work out the difference. Then we did some sentence gap-fill exercises.
6. The presentation took about 40 minutes. That left me ten minutes for the role play.

What’s wrong with the following example?

Lesson: How not to teach the past perfect

Step 1
The teacher introduces the lesson by telling the class that they are going to have a grammar lesson. He writes on the board 'past perfect'. He then
explains the rules of formation and use of the past perfect (as in he had worked...), including how the past perfect is used to refer to a time anterior
to an established past reference, and how the past perfect is also used in reported speech to transform direct speech instances of the past simple and
the present perfect. He also points out that the past perfect functions in conditional clauses to refer to hypothetical past time (as in If I had known
you were coming...).

Step 2
He asks if the class understands, and then distributes an exercise, which involves converting past simple and present perfect structures into the past
perfect, as:

I went to the beach → I had gone to the beach.

She has seen the movie → She had seen the movie.

The students work on this individually and then take turns to read their answers out aloud. The teacher corrects any errors.

Step 3
In the remaining ten minutes of the lesson, the teacher sets up a game of “Hangman”, the vocabulary game in which the class are allowed several
guesses at the gapped-out letters.

1. The rule of Nurture

2. The rule of Appropriacy
3. The rule of Use
4. The rule of relevance
5. The rule of Context
6. The rule of Economy