Wu Heping

wuhpnet@gmail.com

Northwest Normal University

Kunming·2015

Teaching Grammar in the Post-method Era

Embrace grammar. NOW!

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CONTENTS

Meothods and Post-methods

Changing faces of grammar

Basic choices in grammar teaching

From Methods to Post

Methods

From Methods to Post-methods

Methods as the key notion in the history of language teaching

Methods as panacea: a cure-all remedy in language teaching

• Grammar translation• Direct method• Audiolingualism• Cognitive-code method• TPR (Total Physical Approach)• Functional-notional method• Communicative method• Lexical approach• Task-based, content-based, project-based• 疯狂英语，张思中教学法• ……

The Pendulum Metaphor

History of language teaching shows it swinging like a pendulum between extremes of method as teachers have searched for different solutions.

We have seen a pendulum swing in grammar teaching, from the well-established Grammar-Translation Method and its many variants, to pure meaning-based language teaching during the 1980s; and the pendulum is now on its return swing.

FORM MEANING

Two Broad Schools of ApproachesForm-based approaches Meaning-based approaches

Objectives Reading and translating literary works

Developing oral skills

Content Language forms and structures

Practical linguistic skills

Theorectical principles

Rationalism Naturalism

Schools of language teaching

Grammar translation method, audioligualism, cognitive code method,

Direct method, natural approach, communicative approach, task-based method

Break away from methods: the post-method era

Proposed by Kumaravadivelu in 1990s.

alternative methods vs ‘an alternative to method’

He suggests 10 macrostrategies as “an alternative to method”, based on which teachers can generate their own situation-specific, need-based microstrategies or classroom techniques.

“…in order to help our learners learn, it is not ‘the latest method’ that we need, but rather a fuller understanding of the language classroom and what goes on there.”

Changing faces of grammar teaching

The role of grammar Central role in language

• Grammar translation method: • Audiolingualism

• Imitation and repetition of mechanical sentence patterns

Beginning in 1970s, communicative L2 teaching was perceived as a departure from grammar in favor of focusing on the meaning only.

Recent years have seen a growing trend of reappraising the role of grammar in English language teaching.

What is grammar?

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

Rule-based theory

Usage-based theory

Rule-based theory of grammar

 

Grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language

Problems: Grammar is seen as static product that consists of forms that are

rule-governed, sentence-level, absolute, and constitute a closed system.

Students still can’t exchange information, express ideas or feelings, or develop social relationship in a second language.

Usage-based grammar

Usage-based theory of grammar Grammar is viewed as the cognitive organization

of one’s experience with language. （ Joan Bybee）

As users of language experience tokens of language use, they categorize them at varying degrees of abstractness.

Grammatical patterns emerge as we experience language while using it.

世界上本没有语法。用得人多了，也便成了语法。

Communicative definition of grammar

Grammar is a resource that

enables us:to get things done

to make choices

to express ourselves as individuals

to articulate our feelings and attitudes

--David Nunan

Grammar involves…(Larsen-Freeman)

FORM

How is it formed?

USE

When/Why is it used?

MEANING

What does it mean?

Relative Clause The teacher talks about a friend of hers who came from

another country.Since she is a foreigner she keeps asking questions about the things she sees at the market or food names that she hears of.The teacher tells the students that it may be tiring sometimes and asks for help...She then gives each pair a card with an authentic meal, object,place etc on it and tells them to define that object for her.For example. "Salep,is a drink that is made of milk and drunk only in winter in Turkey."

The students like this activity since its challenging, authentic and fun.Its worth to try ,just to see how hard they try and how amused they are by the idea of becoming tourist guides.

*You can also ask the pairs to define the word on their cards without mentioning the name of it,so that the rest of the class can guess as they read it aloud at the end...

Structure: relative clause Context: touring experience Function: giving definition

Basic choices in grammar teaching

Choices we make in grammar teaching

Form vs. Meaning

Knowledge vs. skills

Grammar vs. lexis

Explicit vs. implicit

Induction vs. deduction

Input vs. output

Form vs. Meaning01

Form approach to language

Bloomfield: ‘Mathematics’ is a ‘specially accurate form of speech’, indeed, ‘the best that language

can do’.

N. Chomsky: Chomsky proposes to construct a formalized

general theory of linguistic structure and to explore its foundations.

Meaning approach to language

Cognitive linguistics All linguistic forms do NOT have inherent form in

themselves, they act as clues activating the meanings that reside in our minds and brains.

Semantic structure reflects the mental categories which people have formed from their experience and understanding of the world.

Focus on form vs focus on formS (Michael Long)

Focus on form(FonF instruction)

Focus on forms(forms-focused

instruction)

The word form refers to language form in general;

Forms refers to discrete, isolated, specific language forms

Learners first engage in meaning; then explore some linguistic features.

Primary attention to form

Occasional shift of attention to form

Most attention to form

Focus on form(FonF instruction)

Focus on forms(forms-focused

instruction)

Triggered by perceived problems in comprehension or production

Pre-selected in the syllabus

Linguistic features are explored in contexts.

Forms are taught in isolation

Different Ways of focusing on form

“Focus on Form” is the grounding theory of Task-based teaching.

Ways of Focusing on form• Conscious reflection• Noticing the gap• Hypothesis formulation and testing• Recasting• Typographical (visual) input enhancement: manipulation of

italics, bolding, enlargement, underlining, colouring --I go to the school every day. --You go to the school? --Well, I go to school every day.

Information gap

Information gap (cont.)

Skill vs. Knowledge02

Kowledge Philosophy Psychology Biology Literature Linguistics Geology

Skill Driving Skiing Cooking Fishing Dancing Bungee jumping

‘Grammar can be productively regarded as a fifth skill, not only as an area of knowledge.’

‘It is a process for which we need a verb–something like grammaring.’

Grammaring:The fifth skill

Grammar vs. lexis03

Grammar-lexis dichotomy

Language was generally conceived as a grammar-lexis dichotomy with grammar ‘rules’ on the one hand and ‘lists’ of individual words on the other.

Words and rules were thought to be represented and processed differently in the human mind.

• Rules are “learned” while lists of words are memorized.

• Referred to as “Rule/list fallacy” by Langacker.

Dichotomy vs. Continuum

The grammar-lexis dichotomy has been discarded and replaced by a more realistic conception of language as a continuum from simple units to more conplex ones.

H.A.K. Halliday: Lexicogrammar.

--interdependence of, and continuity between

vocabulary (lexis) and syntax (grammar).

A. Goldberg: Construction grammar

knowledge of a language is based on

a collection of "form and function pairings“

R. Hudson: Word grammar.

Grammatical knowledge is largely

a body (or network) of knowledge

about words.

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The lexical approach: the role of chunking

Developed by Michael Lewis in the early 1990s.

Lexis is the basis of language Language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not

lexicalised grammar. The grammar/vocabulary dichotomy is invalid; much

language consists of multi-words 'chunks'. Collocation is used as an organizing principle. Successful language is a wider concept than accurate

language.

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Lexical chunks

'prefabricated phrases‘

'lexical phrases‘

'formulaic language‘

'frozen and semi-frozen phrases‘

'lexical chunks'

'collocations any pair or group of words which is commonly found together, or in

close proximity.

04/15/2023 40

Lexical chunks

The principles of the Lexical Approach have [been

around] since Michael Lewis published 'The

Lexical Approach' [10 years ago]. [It seems,

however, that] many teachers and researchers

do not [have a clear idea of] what the Lexical

Approach actually [looks like] [in practice]

04/15/2023 41

Two types of lexical chunks

Lexical chunks (not collocations) by the way

up to now

upside down

If I were you

a long way off

out of my mind

combines a lexical content word and a grammar function word.

Lexical chunks Collocations totally convinced

strong accent

terrible accident

sense of humour

sounds exciting

brings good luck

a pair of lexical content words commonly found together

04/15/2023 42

It felt like

Were simply being respectful

Have a good point

It is not only …. Even…

Very close to each other.

Many differences between

Cause a lot of embarrassment

Experience cultural shock

Table manners /classroom behaviour

Take sb. by surprise

Accept the tips

Explicit vs. implicit04

Implicit knowledge is language knowledge that learners possess intuitively but are not able to put into words; 

Explicit knowledge is language knowledge that learners possess and are also able to verbalize.

H.H.Stern: Explicit-implicit is one the three dilemmas in language teaching.

Interface hypothesis: Can explicitknowledge become implicit?

S. Krashen: no interface: Implicit learning leads to acquisition while explicit

knowledge can only function as “monitors”.

R. Ellis: weak interface position Explicit language knowledge can become implicit to some

extent, but that these are limited by various developmental

factors.

R. DeKeyser: Strong interface position Explicit language knowledge can always become

implicit language knowledge, and that such

knowledge becomes implicit through repeated practice.

One evening in late 1972, my father George Latham was driving across town to collect my sister from a party. A white car passed him in the lane to his left, and then slowed to turn. My father saw a flash and then there was a big explosion. The white car, with its four passengers, was on fire. A drunk driver had crashed into it from behind.

Immediately, Dad stopped the car and ran back to the scene of the accident. The driver, a woman, jumped from the car. Some men pulled two of her daughters out, just as the fire began to reach the engine. A third little girl, an eleven-year-old, was screaming in the back seat. She couldn't undo her seat-belt. One of the men shouted that he couldn't open her door. "It's hopeless," somebody said, as everyone moved back. The little girl was going to burn to death right in front of them.

My Dad and the Burning Car

2. a. Work with a partner. Read the first paragraph of George’s story.

One evening in late 1972, my father was driving across town to collect my sister from a party. A white car passed him in the lane to his left, and then slowed to turn. My father saw a flash and then there was a big explosion. The white car, with its four passengers, was on fire. A drunk driver had crashed into it from behind.

b. Look at the underlined phrases in 2a above. What is the difference between them? Why?

e. Read the third paragraph below. Underline any examples of ‘a or an + noun’. Circle any examples of ‘the + noun’.

My father heard all this and saw all this. He ran to the car and reached through the open door on the other side. He pulled the child across the seat and out of the car, through the flames. He turned and walked out of the fire just as the back window of the car exploded. Within moments, the whole car was on fire. People gathered around the little girl. My hero dad just walked back to his car and drove on, thinking only about picking up his own daughter.

f. Which paragraph has the most examples of ‘a + noun’? Why?

Inductive vs deductive05

Two broad approaches to grammar teaching

Inductive approach From examples to rules Students “discover” the rules Learner-centred Time consuming More beneficial to higher level

students

• Observing• Discovering• Discussing• Putting to use

Sts engaged with meaning and use of language

Deductive approach From rules to examples

Students “accept” the rule

Teacher centred

Time saving

Effective among lower level students.

• Explanation• Understanding• Practising• Using

Devoid of language meaning and use

A teacher’s responsibility is his response ability!

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