UNIT 3

WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

Grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a language.
Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of the
sentence. Thus a grammar is a description of the rules that govern how a language´s sentences
are formed. Grammar attempts to explain why the following sentences are acceptable:

We are not at home right now

Right now we are not at home

But why this one is not

Not we at right home now are
Nor this one:
We is not at home right now

The system of rules that cover the order of words in a sentence is called Syntax.
Syntax Rules disallow:
Not we at right home now are

The system of rules that cover the formation of words is called morphology:
Morphology rules disallow:
We is not at home right now
CORRECTION AND FEEDBACK

The question of what, when, and how to correct is often problematic. Experience will quickly
reveal that it is impossible to correct every error a student makes. Clearly, the teacher needs to
set proprieties. One priority is errors in the grammatical structures that are being taught at the
moment. These errors should be corrected immediately, as they occur.

Burt and Kiparsky, who maintain that comprehensibility is the criterion for identifying what needs
to be corrected. They suggest that ESL learner errors are hierarchical; that is, some errors make
a sentence more difficult to understand than others. They further divide errors into two broad
categories, global and local:

Global mistakes are those that violate rules involving the overall structure of a sentence, the
relation among constituent clauses or, in a simple sentence, the relations among major
constituents.

Local mistakes cause trouble in a particular constituent or in a clause of a complex sentence.

tifiers and distinction between gerunds and infinitives. For example, in (8a) below, John does
have some good idea, whereas (8b) is an insult.

8. a. John has a few good ideas.

b. John has few good ideas.

In (9a), John didn´t pay the rent. In (9b) he paid the rent, but forgot he had done so.

9. a. John forgot to pay the rent.

b. John forgot paying the rent

 To some other schema. There is a great deal of evidence that child language learning is quite
different from adult language learning. Adults learning English do not necessarily go through the
same stages of acquisition as children learning English as an L-1, and there is no reason we
should expect them to. Thus, sequencing ESL lessons to match the child acquisition order may
be needless for children and irrelevant for adults.

An argument could be made for teaching the language of basic social skills early on, such as
greetings, holding one´s place in a conversation, leave taking, and asking a native speaker for
assistance (“How do you say this is English?”) Such an approach would certainly give adult
learners a grasp of conversational English very quickly.

We are inclined to be conservative and follow the traditional structuralist syllabus, which
sequences structures so they “build” on each other. For example the simple tense of the verb to
be is taught before the present continuous, which requires the conjugated form of be, namely is,
am and are and a present participle (verb + ing). Despite this inclination, the bottom line
regarding sequencing is simply that the issues are exceedingly complex and far from resolved in
the current literature.

Few of us have the luxury (or perhaps we should say the burden) of sequencing an ESL program
from beginning to end. We are more often obliged to teach district -or school- prescribed
syllabuses, which usually are structurally based.
HOW TO PREPARE GRAMMAR LESSON

Planning involve

 Setting realistic goals

 deciding how to incorporate required materials (course textbooks and other materials

 Developing activities that will promote learning

 Students who are interested in, involved in and enjoy what they are studying tend to make
better progress and learn faster.

There are three elements in English lesson:

Engage
They are elements which are present in a language classroom to
help students to learn effectively.
Study

Activate

Engage. This is the point in a teaching sequence where teachers try to arouse the students
interest, thus involving their emotions. Some activities are: games, music, challenging
discussions, stimulating pictures, dramatic stories, and anecdotes.

Most people can remember lessons at school which were uninvolving and where they ‘switched
off’ from what was being taught them. Frequently, this was because they were bored, because
they were not emotionally engaged with was going on. Such lessons can be contrasted with
lessons where they were amused, moved, stimulated or challenged. It seems quite clear that
those lessons involved not only more ‘fun’, but also better learning.

Study. Study activities are those where the students are asked to focus in on language (or
information) and how it is constructed. They range from the study and practice of a single sound
to an investigation of how a writer achieves a particular effect in a long text.

Students can study in a variety of different styles: the teacher can explain grammar, they can
study language evidence to discover grammar for themselves, they can work in groups studying
a reading text or vocabulary. But whatever the style, study means any stage at which the
construction of language is the main focus.

Activate. This element describes exercises and activities which are designed to get the students
using language as freely and communicatively as they can. The objective for the students is not
to focus on language construction and/or practice specific bits of language (grammar patterns,
particular vocabulary items or functions) but for them to use all and any language which may be
appropriate for a given situation or topic.
 Some activities are: role-plays, advertisement design, debate, discussions, describe and draw,
story and poem writing/reading/telling, and group writing.

THE GRAMMAR LESSON

Without grammar, words hang together without any real meaning or sense. In order to be able to
speak a language to some degree of proficiency and to be able to say what we really want to say,
we need to have some grammatical knowledge.

By teaching grammar we not only give our students the means to express themselves, but we
also fulfil their expectations of what learning a foreign language involves. Fortunately, nowadays
with the emphasis on a communicative approach and a wealth of stimulating resources, teaching
grammar does not necessarily mean endless conjugation of verbs or grammar translation.

 Which approach?
 Presentation, practice and production (PPP) Presentation
 Presentation
 Practice
 Production

Which approach?
There are two main approaches to teach grammar. These are the deductive and the inductive
approach.

 A deductive approach is when the rule is presented and the language is produced based on the
rule. (The teacher gives the rule.)

 An inductive approach is when the rule is inferred through some form of guided discovery. (The
teacher gives the students a means to discover the rule for themselves.)

Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. The deductive approach is
undoubtedly time saving and allows more time for practicing the language items thus making it an
effective approach with lower level students. The inductive approach, is often more beneficial to
students who already have a base in the language as it encourages them to work things out for
themselves based on their existing knowledge.

Presentation, practice and production (PPP)

A deductive approach often fits into a lesson structure known as PPP (Presentation, Practice,
and Production). The teacher presents the target language and then gives students the
opportunity to practice it through very controlled activities. The final stage of the lesson gives the
students the opportunity to practice the target language in free activities which bring in other
language elements.
 In a 60-minute lesson each stage would last approximately 20 minutes. This model works well as
it can be used for most isolated grammatical items. It also allows the teacher to time each stage
of the lesson fairly accurately and to anticipate and be prepared for the problems students may
encounter. It is less workable at higher levels when students need to compare and contrast
several grammatical items at the same time and when their linguistic abilities are far less uniform.

Presentation
In this stage the teacher presents the new language in a meaningful context. I find that building
up stories on the board, using realia or flashcards and miming are fun ways to present the
language. For example, the teacher can present the 2nd conditional with draw a picture of herself
(himself) with thought bubbles of lots of money, a sports car, a big house and a world map.

 Teacher asks to the students what I’m thinking about and then introduces the target language.

"If I had a lot of money, I would buy a sports car and a big house."

 Practice and drill the sentence orally before writing it on the board (positive, negative, question
and short answer).
 Focus on form by asking the students questions. E.g. “What do we use after 'if'?" and on
meaning by asking the students questions to check that they have understood the concept (E.g.
“Do you have lots of money?" No. "What are you doing?" Imagining.)

 When the teacher is satisfied that his or her students understand the form and the meaning, he or
she moves on to the practice stage of the lesson. During this stage of the lesson it is important to
correct phonological and grammatical mistakes.

Practice
There are numerous activities which can be used for this stage including gap fill exercises,
substitution drills, sentence transformations, split sentences, picture, dictations, class
questionnaires, reordering sentences and matching sentences to pictures.

 It is important that the activities are fairly controlled at this stage as students have only just met
the new language. Many students' books and workbooks have exercises and activities which can
be used at this stage.

 When teaching the 2nd conditional, teacher could use split sentences as a controlled practice
activity. She or He gives to the students lots of sentence halves and in pair; they try and match
the beginnings and ends of the sentences.
Example: "If I won the lottery," …. "I'd travel around the world."

*At this stage it’s quite important that the activity is controlled so that the focus is almost entirely
on the new grammar structure. A good way to do this is to put learners in groups or pairs to work
on the activity while you monitor and give feedback. After this, do a similar activity on the board
 so that all of the class is involved. You could make this into a game or a speaking activity, i.e.
make it more communicative but still very controlled.

Production
Again there are numerous activities for this stage and what you choose will depend on the
language you are teaching and on the level of your students. However, information gaps, role
plays, interviews, simulations, find someone who, spot the differences between two pictures,
picture cues, problem solving, personalization activities and board games are all meaningful
activities which give students the opportunity to practice the language more freely.

 It is important to monitor and make a note of any errors so that you can build in class feedback
and error analysis at the end of the lesson.