Delphi module

3.3
Grammar and methodology

In this section we look at the different ways grammar is represented in the classroom.

Before considering the influence of methodology on grammar, we will take an opportunity to reflect on your attitudes to teaching grammar, and to how you teach structure.

Activity 4

Read the statements below, and grade them 1-5, where 1 means 'I disagree strongly' and 5 means 'I agree strongly'.
The most important thing to learn in a language is the grammar.
If students are communicating meaningfully, they will learn the grammar automatically.
If you learn the grammar, the words will take care of themselves.
Learners should be encouraged to formulate their own grammar rules.
Students learn language well if the teacher explains the grammar.
The study of grammar should only take up a small amount of class time.
The teacher should explain the grammar before asking the students to use it in communication.
Studying the grammar of a language is not enough to build good communication skills.
A large amount of classroom time should be spent on studying grammar.
Meaningful communication is more important than accurate use of language structures.
Now click on 'Commentary' for feedback.

Activity 5

Answer these questions in terms of what you actually do in your language classroom.

Do you teach grammar in any formal manner?
Yes ____ Got to question 4 and ff.
No ____ Go to questions 2 and 3; then take a rest.
How do your learners acquire structural aspects of language?
Do you think your learners are more/less accurate than those who have more formal grammar lessons? Why?
Does your textbook have a grammatical syllabus?
Yes ____ Go to question 6, 7 and ff.
No ____ Go to question 5; then take a rest.
How do you choose the items of grammar that you teach?
Do you teach grammar items in the order your textbook presents them?
Do you teach grammar
1. at the beginning of the lesson?
2. during the lesson?
3. at the end of the lesson?
Do you
1. give learners a rule and expect them to practise sentences based on it?
2. give learners some texts and expect them to 'find' the grammar patterns?
3. give grammar content based on your students' errors?
Why do you teach grammar?
1. because it helps learners to communicate meaning
2. because it makes students use more accurate language
3. because learners expect it
4. because it helps students to pass the exam.
Does your department use examinations based on
1. grammar items?
2. oral fluency skills?
3. knowledge/comprehension of written texts?
4. ability to communicate?

After you have completed the activity, click on 'Commentary' for feedback.

The way we teach grammar is tied essentially to the approaches, methods, and techniques we use in the classroom. In this section, we will look at how grammar is treated in three traditional approaches, Grammar-Translation, Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP) and Audiolingualism (ALM), and three modern approaches, Consciousness-raising (C-R), Task-based Learning (TBL), and what I will call Protogrammar (protogrammar is not a methodology in itself, but does give important insights into psychological representations of grammar in the mind, and should therefore be an important influence on how grammar is represented in the different methodologies).

We will look at these methodologies in terms of teaching approach, and of how grammar is treated. In terms of teaching, the approach will be either:

deductive, where learners are given rules and then asked to practise these rules in sentence-based drills or exercises; or
inductive, where, although the textbook is organized into lists of structures, there is no explicit teaching of rules, and learners are expected to somehow acquire rules subconsciously after extensive practice of model grammar patterns.

In terms of grammar, there are three possible positions:

A focus on forms (FOFS) (Long, 1991; Long and Robinson, 1998), where the syllabus consists of a list of structures predetermined and present in the textbook;
A focus on form (FOF) (Long, 1991; Long and Robinson, 1998), where there is no linguistic syllabus, and the grammar focus is on structures that appear in the input or are produced by learners during task completion, or during classroom interaction; or
A 'zero' position, where there is no focus on grammar, and learners are expected to acquire structure subconsciously.