Unit 6 Teaching Grammar Aims of the unit: The role of grammar in ELT Grammar presentation methods Grammar practice

7.1 The role of grammar in ELT The value of grammar in foreign language teaching has been a focus of debate for decades, and no conclusion is in sight. The answer to whether grammar should be taught and to what extent grammar should be taught depends on some variables in the language teaching /learning context, such as learner variables and instructional variables.

It is generally believed that Grammar teaching is less important for children than for adults; Grammar teaching is less important in listening and reading than in writing. Grammar teaching can be seen in most formal classroom language teaching.

7.2 Grammar presentation The deductive method The inductive method The guided discovery method Teaching grammar using listening as input The synthesis approach

Deductive method 演绎法 The deductive method relies on reasoning, analyzing and comparing. The teaching process is: Rules Examples Practice 1. The teacher writes an example on the board or draws attention to an example in the textbook.

Inductive method 归纳法 Examples Rules Practice    In the inductive method, the teacher induces the learners to realize grammar rules without any form of explicit (clear) explanation. Students will become evident to the grammar rules if they are given enough appropriate examples.

2. Then teacher explains the underlying rules regarding the forms and positions of certain structural words. The explanations are often done in the student’s native language and using grammatical terms. Sometimes, comparisons are made between the native language and the target language or between the newly presented structure and previously learned structures. 3. Finally the students practice applying the rule to produce sentences with given prompts.

as…as… Smart powerful kind funny lovely loyal

Guided Discovery Method 诱导发现法 It is similar to the inductive method in that the ss are induced to discover the rules by themselves but different in that the process of the discovery is carefully guided and assisted by the teacher and the rules are then elicited and are taught explicitly. context rules practice

Direct speech & indirect speech An old lady said , “my rooster laid an egg yesterday.” her had laid the day An old lady said rooster an egg before. Mr finger’s secret

Teaching grammar using listening as input Ellis(2002b) suggests the following procedures for teaching grammar using listening as input. (p.106)

Grammar teaching procedures learn grammar in the context语篇中感知语法 Inductive activity 归纳式教学活动 Deductive activity 演绎式教学活动 writing practice Listening practice Practice to consolidate 运用练习巩固 Oral practice Reading practice Pragmatic production语用层面的活动

Synthesis approach Pennington(2002) (p.107) proposes a synthesis approach to grammar pedagogy . Grammar teaching should be “collocational, constructive, contextual and contrastive”, which can serve as useful guidelines for teaching grammar. (PP.107-108)

In practice, the distinction between the deductive method and the inductive method is not always apparent.

My happiest days were those that I laid in the arm of a woman ..., who is my dear mother. My happiest days were those that I laid in the arm of a woman… who I can’t remember.

I will wear no clothes which will distinguish me from my fellowmen.

7.3 Grammar practice According to Ur, “practice may be defined as any kind of engaging with the language on the part of the learner, usually under the teacher supervision, whose primary objective is to consolidate learning” .(Ur, 1988:11) (p.108)

7.3.1 Ur predicts that the following 6 factors contribute to successful practice: Pre-learning. Learners benefit from clear perception and short-term memory of the new language. Volume and repetition. The more exposure to or production of language the learners have, the more likely they are to learn. Success-orientation. Practice is most effective when based on successful practice.

Heterogeneity. Practice should be able to elicit different sentences and generate different levels of answers from different learners. Teacher assistance. The teacher should provide suggestions, hints and prompts. Interest : an essential feature that is closely related to concentration

7.3.2 Two categories of practice Mechanical practice involves activities that are aimed at form accuracy. By doing mechanical practice, the students pay repeated attention to a key element in a structure. 7.3.2 Two categories of practice Substitution drills Mechanical practice Transformation drills Grammar practice Prompts: pictures, mimes, table, charts or chain words. Meaningful /communicative practice In meaningful practice the focus is on the production, comprehension or exchange of meaning though the students “keep an eye on” the way newly learned structures are used in the process. It usually comes after mechanical practice.

MRs Green has the largest house in town. green lawn Substitute the underlined part with the proper forms of the given words: MRs Green has the largest house in town. green lawn clean house pretty garden nice flowers It is believed the substitution drills that involve changes in forms are more effective than those in which ss simply replace the target part with another word.

Change the following sentences into the past tense using the adverbs in the brackets: We have English and math today. (yesterday, music and P.E) Yesterday we had music and P.E.

Look at the table below, rank the items on the left column according to the criteria listed on the top. cheap healthy tasty fattening important Beer water fruit cigarettes alcohol milk

using created situations: 1) past continuous what were they doing last night? 2) （have/has+been+Ved） who is the best detective? 3) “should+have+Ved” 4) there must be/ can’t be “touch and guess”.

Summary of Unit 7 Perhaps there will never be a solution to the debate on the value of teaching grammar, because language teaching and learning contexts vary so greatly. It should be noted that learning grammar itself is not the ultimate goal of learning English. The understanding of how to teach grammar is as controversial有争议的 as that of the value of teaching grammar. We believe that both mechanical practice and meaningful practice are necessary.

Some suggestions about teaching grammar Teach only those rules that are simple and typical. Teach useful and important grammar points. Teach grammar in context. Use visible instruments such as charts, tables, diagrams, maps, drawings, and realia (pl. of realis) to aid understanding; Avoid difficult grammatical terminologies as much as possible. Allow enough opportunities for practice. Live with the students’ mistakes and errors.

Homework What are the major types of grammar presentation methods? What are the major types of grammar practice activities?

观看教学片断，回答下面问题： 1.教师在导入部分采用了几个步骤？这几个步骤的教学目的是什么？ 2.录像中的语法教学方式与传统的语法教学方式有什么不同？ 3.教师是如何引导学生发现语法规则的？ 4.教师在总结语法规则后，采用了几个层次的活动帮助学生练习和运用所学语法？ 5.从这些活动的结果看，教师使用的语法学习方式是否有效？

Thank You !