Teaching Grammar

Prescriptive GrammarAn approach to grammar presents authoritative norms about the structure of a language and determines language use correct or incorrect, good or bad according to those

Teaching Grammar

Do Tuan Minh, M.A

Nguyen Huyen Minh, M.A English Department

CFL - VNU

violated, communication suffers (Nunan, 2003)

1 Take a look at the three examples below

(1) Everybody is ready now, aren’t

they?

(2) You’ve got a sister, have you?

(3) Someone has deliberately made

themselves homeless.

Are they grammatically correct? If not, how would you correct them?

Prescriptive Grammar

An approach to grammar presents authoritative norms about the

structure of a language and

determines language use correct or incorrect, good or bad according to those sets of rules

Descriptive Grammar

An approach to grammar looks at

how language is actually used by

native speakers and from that draws out the rules of language use

2 Compare these two sets of

Spoken & Written grammars

Written grammar

set A

Spoken grammar

set B

2 What difficulties would you

encounter if you are to include

spoken grammar in your

What to teach about grammar?

Form: how a particular structure is formed

through word or grammar

and the situation in which a

particular structure is used

1 Does English grammar teaching

at secondary schools embody

three dimensions discussed

earlier? Why / why not?

***

2 Which dimension among them receives most attention and

which one is often neglected? What might be the reasons?

***

Implicit and/or explicit

Explicit teaching

stating directly, usually at the

beginning of a particular activity,

what the grammar is

Implicit teaching

the learners are ‘led’ to discover the grammar for themselves through a series of guided steps

Advantages & Disadvantages

Explicit teaching

- it takes less time to prepare and

teach

- it makes learners feel more relaxed

- it is suitable even for weak learners

the target language in context

language and practicing it on its own

in a controlled way

the new language they have learnt

on their own without the teacher

in secondary schools in Vietnam?

clear and straightforward

helpful for novice teachers

2 What are some disadvantages of PPP?

learners’ previous knowledge is not checked

learners are not actively engaged

until production stage

teachers are the centre of the

teaching and learning process

Deep-end approach

out what learners don’t know

language

Practice & Production 2

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

it is more learner-centred

it is more interesting and motivating

as it involves students more

it helps teachers and learners realize what learners don’t know

it then creates a purpose for students

to learn the language

- it is difficult for novice teachers

Task-based approach

without specific attention on form

how task is done

on features of language form

Practicing grammar

Purpose

To get students to say the new

language accurately and fluently

Process

controlled practice  less controlled practice  free practice

Some types of practice exercises

Controlled practice

Repetition; substituation; single word prompt; picture promt

Less controlled practice

Information sheet; find someone

who…; mapped dialogue

Free practice

Principles of teaching grammar

1 Integrate both inductive and

deductive methods to your teaching

2 Use tasks that make clear the

relationship between grammatical

form and communicative function

3 Focus on the development of

procedural rather than declarative knowledge

terms

Q & A

Should we focus on pronunciation when teaching grammar?