Suggested Answers
Grammar
For some of these questions you will have your own ideas and suggestions. If you
would like to discuss any of these, you can leave a message in the Forum, join in
the scheduled live chats or look at the transcripts from previous sessions.
Part 1
The case for grammar from How to Teach Grammar by Scott Thornbury, Pearson
education 1999.
In your own words (and as economically as possible) explain the following terms as they
are used in the extract:
Advance organiser: grammar teaching means that when you then come across the
grammar later you notice it because you have been primed.
Discrete item: because language is so huge and complex it helps to separate it out into
little bits (discrete items) which can then be sequenced for optimal learning.
Fine-tuning: grammar teaching helps students to refine their language so that they can do
away with the ambiguity which sloppy language use creates.
Fossilisation: students who pick up languages as they go along reach a point where they
cant get any further. Grammar instruction helps them get beyond this.
Learner expectations: based, especially, on past learning experience, students expect
systematic formal grammar instruction.
Rule of law: some students feel very comfortable in a word where rules, order and
discipline are transmitted by the teacher.
The sentence-making machine: learning grammar rules means that students can then
create an infinite number of sentences by using different vocabulary; grammar structures
are language generators.
Sentence-making machine
Fine-tuning
Fossilisation
Advance-organiser
Discrete item
Rule of law
Learner expectation
Knowledge how
Communication
Acquisition
Natural order
Lexical chunks
Learner expectations
Suggested by
PPP
Not sure
ARC
Jim Scrivener
OHE
Michael Lewis
III
ESA
economy
The E-Factor
The A-Factor
(Efficiency)
(Appropriacy)
ease
efficiency
Age
level
size of group
mono/multilingual
learners interest
materials and resources
previous learning
experience
cultural factors
educational context
What do you understand by the following terms? What is their relevance to the rule of
nurture?
The rule of nurture suggests conditions for successful language learning. These conditions
are:
Input: it should engage the students.
Output: there should be enough output to help students develop accuracy and fluency.
Feedback: at least some of the students attention should be directed at form through
feedback.
Motivation: the lesson content should be motivating enough to make students pay attention
to input, output and feedback
Students as teachers
Part 7
Extract from Creative grammar Practice by Gnter Gerngross and Herbert Puchta.
Pilgrims Longman resource Books. Longman. 1992.
True or false?
a False. The authors say that some students do like explicit rules, but that evidence
suggests this is not true for all of them. Many younger learners (and adults too) prefer a
more holistic approach.
b True.
c True. The work of Michael grinder, especially, shows that different stduents prefer
visual, auditory or kinesthetic stimuli and they all need to be catered for at different times.
d False. On the contrary, memorable texts (which are often funny, full of metaphor etc)
help students to remember the language in them.
e False. The authors do not say there always has to be a slient time, though they point
out that their students have always commented favourably on a time to get in touch with
their poetic selves before starting reading.
g True. Good reading aloud needs teacher-led rehearsal.
h False. Errors are unavoidable when students write. However, in the editing stage
students are keen to write as accurately as possible.
i False. Students can edit each others texts. The teacher will also have to decide
whether to corret everything or whether to be more gentle and just point out problems.
j True. It means finding ways of getting grammar points really stuck into the stduents
minds.
Without looking back at the extract, how would you describe the authors approach to
grammar practice in your own words?
Possible description: the authors believe that a holistic approach to grammar, based on the
students meeting and recreating texts, before writing and sharing their own, is appropriate.
They emphasise the need top cater for different learning styles and suggest the need for
memorable texts. The techniques they put forward (including reading aloud etc) are
designed to anchor the language in the students brains. They stress the role of correction
as an editing (rather than a judging) tool.
Dependence on the
teacher
Ready-made context
Decontextualised
sentences
Recycling language
Self-reliant learners
Complicated rules
Memorising
Students coming to
terms with real
language
The occasional
lesson
In a short paragraph (and without looking back at the article, explain, in your own words,
what the author means by a textual approach to grammar
Suggested paragraph: The author says that an alternative to the teacher giving out madeup grammar examples (which encourages dependence upon the teacher), is an approach
based on texts. Texts give students context for their learning, and if we encourage them to
look through the texts, noticing language features for themselves (with our
encouragement) they will not only really see how language works, but also develop selfreliance. We can give them tasks to help them understand what they find and memorise it.