English is an international language and significantly contributes to modern communication. In essence, proficiency in English greatly relies on how learners manage to understand its essential elements well. Grammar is one of the integral elements of English language as it contains major components, which determine individuals speech.
It is imperative to understand reading and writing, as they are integral elements of grammar. In this paper, I will base my discussion on the reflections of my first English teacher and compare the grammar approaches outlined by Derewianka and Tompkins et al.
I am a slow leaner and my teacher had difficulties in teaching me the basics of grammar. My teacher made us translate words from our native language to English and we could construct and deconstruct texts.
My teacher insisted on functional grammar, whereby, the use of language means understanding every word in a text, and how the word relates and affects all the other words in the text (Winch, Johnston, March, Ljungdahl, & Holliday, 2010).
For example, when the teacher narrated a story, we had to describe the orientation of the narrative, give a descriptive summary of the narrative, provide a life lesson, and express our feelings and thoughts about the narrative. I noticed that Derewiankas instructional techniques formed an important part of my grammar learning.
We had to understand the relationship between grammar and genre. Generally, Derewiankas teachings focused on functional grammar, where, grammar is taught in context at a whole text level. As suggested by both Derewianka and Tompkins, learning grammar is a continuing process, with each experience strengthening and improving consecutive learning process.
By the time I reached my third year of K-12 education, I could utter and write simple words. Thereafter, Tompkins et al. (2012) teachings of grammar started taking effect as my teacher employed them in teaching us grammar in a gradual learning process. After learning a series of words (nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives), I constructed a sentense.
I can remember learning the first word, eating, and after a series of transitions, I learned a simple sentence containing a process, a circumstance and a participant, John is eating.
I can remember my teacher using symbols to describe English words, we could directly translate a sentence from our native languages to English for a start, and with time, English became part of us. I saw myself graduate from mastering a simple sentence to mastering complex sentenses. Tompkins et al. (2012) focused on building the students knowledge about the components of language before applying it to whole texts.
In conclusion, it is noteworthy that both teachings insist on a gradual process of learning and the use of meta-language in building a robust foundation of English. Both teachings assert that the use of scaffolding, modeling, and simple progressive instructions enables slow learners to grasp elements of grammar.
Therefore, when teaching grammar, it is important to understand grasping level of students, application of functional grammar, as well as practical illustrations such as scaffolding to bring a clear understanding.
References
Anderson, J. (2006). Zooming in and zooming out: Putting grammar in context into context. English Journal, 95(5): 28-34.
Annandale, K., Bindon, R., Handley, K., Johnston, A., Lockett, L., & Lynch, P. (2004). First steps writing resource book. Melbourne, Vic: Rigby Heinemann.
Derewianka, B. (2011). A new grammar companion for teachers. Riverwood, NSW: Primary English Teachers Association.
Tompkins, G., Campbell, R., & Green, D. (2012). Literacy for the 21st century. A balanced approach. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Winch, G., Johnston, R.R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy: Reading, writing and childrens literature (4th ed.). South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.
Pre-nominal modifiers refer to the possessive pronouns, numbers, and a few other descriptive modifiers that come before the noun. According to Radden and Dirven (2007), pre-nominal modifiers mainly involve the characteristics and permanent qualities of pronouns and/or numbers. The authors also emphasize on the need to arrange pre-nominal modifiers in such a manner as to generate natural language.
In order to achieve fluent utterances, one needs to first determine the pre-nominal modifiers. The way modifiers are arranged before a noun affects both the fluency of generated utterances and the meaning as well (Shaw & Hatzivassiloglou, 1999; Malouf, 2000). When using pre-nominal modifiers, position is critical.
Fries (1940) notes that &position alone indicates modification and nouns are freely placed before others as modifiers&. each modifier tends to modify the unit immediately following&. (Fries 1940). The following is an example of a pre-nominal modifier from the journal is provided : One of my favorite novels is Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri.
Contextual assumption
Colston (1999) has defined contextual assumptions as the background knowledge shared by both the communicator and the interpreter (Ariel 2010). The extent to which we consider contextual assumptions depends on whether one is dealing with a direct speech or an indirect speech. Contextual assumptions influence the way we understand an utterance.
In a situation whereby a negation has been used, a more complex contextual assumption is needed in order to facilitate understanding of the negation (Torra 1996). The following is an example of a contextual assumption from the journal: I enjoy reading novels about romance and thrillers because I am drawn to the suspense created by writing styles in thrillers and also the mystery .
In this example, we assume that the author is intrigued by reading romantic and thrilling novels on account of the suspense and mystery created by their writing styles. Although there could be another explanation, this one seems more potent.
Subordinating conjunction
Subordinating conjunctions is a term used in reference to conjunctions whose work is to link a dependent clause with an independent clause (Algeo 2010). The subordinate conjunction plays two crucial roles. To start with, subordinating conjuctions provide a much needed transition of ideas in a sentence. Also, subordinating conjunctions reduce the importance of one clause.
According to Algeo (2010), subordinating conjunctions enables the reader to both comprehend and differentiate the most important idea out of a set of two. In this case, the main clause contains the most significant idea.
On the other hand, a subordinate clause helps to introduce the less important idea into the sentence (Dryer 2005). the following sentence provides an example of a subordinating conjunction used in the journal provided: Additionally on Facebook I rarely use grammatically correct phrases as it is a social networking platform that does not require the users to be formal .
Exercise 2
Linguistic decisions are one set of decisions made by speakers who wish to express in natural language information given in a semantic representation (Daulos 1984). According to Herrera-Viedma et al. (2004), a linguistic decision is necessary in situations whereby the information can only be correctly assessed qualitatively, and not quantitatively.
For instance, we often use words and not numerical values while trying to qualify a phenomenon involving human perception. Chen and Hwanf (1992) note that a linguistic decision may be informed by various reasons for example, at times, it may be hard to quantify the information on account of its nature.
Therefore, the only way to state such information is to express it in linguistic terms. Levrat et al. (1997) observe that when assessing the design or comfort of a car, we can use such terms as medium , good , or bad . In other circumstances, however, we are less likely to state precise quantitative information due to its unavailability or on account of the high cost of its computation (Herrera-Viedma et al. 2004).
Therefore, we are more likely to tolerate an approximate value (for example, when assessing the speed of a car, we are likely to use such linguistic terms as slow , fast , or very fast .
Linguistic decisions involve such questions as the type of syntactic constructions/lexical items to choose (Radden & Dirven 2007), or the best way to cut the text into sentences and paragraphs from the journal entry provided, two linguistic decisions can be identified based on the order of information and the number of sentences used.
The first instance of a linguistic decision used by the author of the journal in question is provided in the following sentence: On the whole my writing depends on the situation and who I am writing to, for example if I am writing an essay, I would use Standard English and ensure my work has no errors. In this case, the writer opted to combine the two phrases in which the result and the act have been integrated into a complex sentence.
The writer also had the option of forming a text consisting of two sentences in which one describes the result, and the other one the act, as can be seen from the following sentence: On the whole my writing depends on the situation and who I am writing to.
If for example I am writing an essay, I would use Standard English to ensure my work has no errors . In this particular example, the writer has combined the phrases expressing the RESULT and the ACT to form a complex sentence.
An alternative formulation would have been to insert a semicolon as below: On the whole my writing depends on the situation and who I am writing to; if I am writing an essay I would use Standard English and ensure my work has no errors . In this case, the semicolon helps to connect the two closely related ideas.
The second linguistic decision that can be identified from this journal entails order of information. In this case, the writer decides whether the ACT should precede the RESULTS, or whether the RESULT should precede the ACT. Below is an example: I enjoy reading novels about romance and thrillers because I am drawn to the suspense created by writing styles in thrillers and also the mystery .
In the sentence above, the ACT (reading) comes before the RESULT (suspense/mystery). From this example, we get the impressions that the writer enjoys reading thrilling and romantic novels as he is attracted by the suspense and mystery of their writing styles.
An alternative format for the sentence would have been, the suspense and mystery created by writing styles of romantic and thrilling novels draws me to read them . However, in doing this, there is the risk of adding passive voice to the sentence.
Reference List
Algeo, J 2006, British or American English? A Handbook of Word and Grammar Patterns, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK.
Ariel, M 2010, Defining Pragmatics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Colston, HL 1999. Not Good Is Bad, but Not Bad Is Not Good : An Analysis of Three Accounts of Negation Asymmetry, Discourse Processes, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 237-256.
Dryer, MS 2005, Order of adverbial subordinator and clause . In Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S.; Gil, David; Comrie, Bernard. The World Atlas of Language Structures, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Herrera-Viedma, E, Mata, F, Martinez, L & Chiclana, F 2004, A Consensus Support System Model For Group Decision-Making Problems With Multi-Granular Linguistic Preference Relations. Web.
Malouf, R 2000, The order of prenominal adjectives in natural language generation. Web.
Fries, CC 1940, American English Grammar, D. Appleton-Century Company, New York.
Levrat, L, Voisin, A, Bombardier, S & Bremont, J 1997, Subjective evaluation of car seat comfort with fuzzy set techniques, Internat. J. Intell. Systems, vol. 12, pp. 891913.
Radden & Dirven, RJ 2007, Cognitive English Grammar, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Philadelphia.
Grammar as an inseparable element of the language lesson is of significant importance for developing the communicative skills of the students. There have been many views on the very essence of grammar, but they all come down to the statement that it a set of rules helping put words together in some allowable order to make the speakers thought understood (Amogne 145). The role of grammar can be viewed from different perspectives. First of all, it can be investigated from the standpoint of oral communication, even though grammar is often ignored in this aspect. What is more crucial for the research is the role of grammar in the writing context whether it be formal or informal written communication.
Problem statement
The role of grammar instructions has long been neglected as the factor that influences the development of writing skills. Since recently, it has been acknowledged that it has a significant impact on writing because students are expected to follow certain rules or have a certain level of knowledge of grammatical instructions (Myhill et al. 78). What has long been ignored, however, is the role of teaching grammar in the writing context. It was not until recently that the concept of pedagogical content knowledge was included in the study curriculums, as they recognized that the level of teachers knowledge of grammar, besides other factors such as disposition to learning languages or whether the student is the native speaker of the language studied, also has a robust effect on developing students writing skills.
Research questions
The purpose of the research is to address numerous questions. They are:
What specific aspect of writing does grammar contribute?
How does sentence combining improve writing?
What is the role of a teacher in teaching grammar in the writing context?
Research method
The proposed research will be based on three methods literature analysis and investigating the teachers and the students perspectives on the role of grammar in developing writing skills. As part of the study regarding the literature analysis, the researcher will consider theoretical approaches to the teaching of grammar with the special focus made on the acknowledgment of the importance of grammar and including it in the writing curriculums (Myhill and Watson 45). Moreover, the study will focus on the empirical researches on the teaching of grammar with paying special attention to sentence combining as a tool for improving writing (Myhill and Watson 49). This step is essential for providing the theoretical background for the study.
The second part of the research will focus on the teachers perspectives on the teaching of grammar and its role in developing writing skills. The study will use a comparatively small and similar group of the participants, all being the teachers of the English language in schools and colleges. The researcher will exploit the purposeful sampling selecting the participants based on the level of their knowledge of grammar. This step is necessary to understand whether the perspective of the respondents will be truthful during the study. The additional criterion is the number of years of teaching experience (Jones et al. 1247).
The third part of the study will focus on the students perspective on the teaching of grammar and its role in developing writing skills. The research will again use a relatively small and similar group of participants with the only difference that they will not be tested to become a respondent. The criterion for choosing them is that they are the students of the teachers mentioned in the second part of the investigation.
Data collection method
The primary tools for data collection for the second and the third part of the study will be in-depth interviews with the teachers and tests written by the students. The objective of the study is to define whether the level of the teachers knowledge of grammar influences the level of the students writing skills.
The process of data collection will comprise of four stages. The first phase will be the test for the teachers aimed at defining whether they will be truthful respondents during the study. The teacher will be provided with the abstract from Pride and Prejudice and a set of questions concerning it. They will center on word classes, sentence structure, the function of the word in the sentence, etc. (Myhill et al. 81). The objective of the test is to discover the level of pedagogical content knowledge.
The second stage of the research will include in-depth interviews with the teachers. They will be separated into two parts. First, what the respondents think about the role of grammar teaching in writing. This part should be their reflections on the topic. In the second part of the in-depth interviews, the research will ask the teachers about what they think grammar teaching is with special attention to the use of grammatical terminology (Watson 4).
Finally, the students will be asked to write a narrative passage with a focus on grammar and style. To avoid bias, first, the topics will not include the questions that imply answers pointing out the gender, and, second, all papers will be anonymous (Amogne 147). The only criterion for selecting the students is that they attend the teachers classes.
Data analysis
The data analysis will comprise of few steps. First of all, the researcher will check the preliminary tests of the teachers and develop charts with the results, the most typical right and wrong answers, and the average result of the test. This step will help determine the level of pedagogical content knowledge that will later be used for discovering the correlation and whether there is a relation between the teaching experience and the answers.
The second step of data analysis will include studying the in-depth interviews. The objective of this phase is to find whether there are some trends in the teachers answers. Based on this action, the researcher will make up a list of all similar responses and define what are the most frequently met perspectives on the role of teaching grammar in developing writing skills.
The next stage is analyzing the writing skills of the students. The focus will be made on the grammar and style mistakes. The researcher will as well develop a chart of the most typical mistakes. What is crucial about this stage is trying to find out whether there is a correlation between the writing skills of the students and their teachers knowledge of grammar. The pollster will try to detect the similar mistakes made by the students and the teachers in the tests they passed prior to in-depth interviews. The task here is to determine whether the students of the teachers who showed better results in the tests and used more grammatical terms in the interviews are higher than of those whose teachers results were lower. The researcher will focus on developing a chart representing the results by pointing out individual discrepancies if such is detected.
Works Cited
Among, Dawit. The Effect of Communicative Grammar on Journalism Students Writing Skills. Journal of Media and Communication Studies 6.9 (2014): 144-149. Print.
Jones, Susan, Debra Myhill and Trevor Bailey. Grammar for Writing? An Investigation of the Effects of Contextualized Grammar teaching on Students Writing. Reading and Writing 26.8 (2013): 1241-1263. Print.
Myhill, Debra and Annabel Watson. The Role of Grammar in the Writing Curriculum: A Review of the Literature. Child Language Teaching and Therapy 30.1 (2014): 41-62. Print.
Myhill, Debra, Susan Jones and Annabel Watson. Grammar Matters: How Teachers Grammatical Knowledge Impacts on the Teaching of Writing. Teaching and Teacher Education 36. (2013): 77-91. Print.
Watson, Annabel Mary. Conceptualizations of Grammar Teaching: L1 English Teachers Beliefs about Teaching Grammar for Writing. Language Awareness 24.1 (2013): 1-14. Print.
The mode of use, the language of the user, the level of the user and the aims of use are the main factors that determine the fall of grammar into four basic types: pedagogical grammar, reference grammar, theoretical grammar, and teach-yourself grammar. The current paper focuses on the first two types of grammar with the purpose to find key distinctions between them and illustrate how the two types of grammar would deal with prepositions and prepositional phrases.
Starting with the definition of the two types of grammar under consideration we should say that, going by Terence Odlin (1994)
Main text
Although it could cover more areas, the term pedagogical grammar usually denotes the types of grammatical analysis and instruction designed for the needs of second language students. The unique character of this analysis and instruction may be difficult to see without also seeing how pedagogical grammar is related to other conceptions of grammar [&] grammar as prescription, grammar as description, grammar as internalized system, and grammar as an axiomatic system (p.1)
David Little calls the concept of pedagogical grammar a slippery one. He claims that it stands to denote
Pedagogical process the explicit treatment of elements of the target language system as (part of ) language teaching methodology;
pedagogical content reference sources of one kind or another that present information about the target language system; and
combinations of process and content (Odlin, 1994, p. 99)
As far as the definition of the reference grammar is concerned The Glossary of Linguistic Terms edited by Eugene E. Loos defines it as a prose-like description of the major grammatical constructions in a language, illustrated with examples. (LinguaLinksLibrary, 2004)
Depending on the organization and the intended users reference grammar is divided into two types which are as follows.
Intended Users:
Native speakers who want to understand their mother language better;
Linguists who strive for information on the language that they use for comparative purposes.
Organization:
Based on the forms that the readers make use of, but do not realize their significance to the grammar as a whole.
Based on a universal outline form that helps the reader to make comparisons between the language under analysis and other languages.
Examples to illustrate this distinction are the sections of the definite and indefinite articles in the English language. In the first type of the reference grammar for English speakers there might be sections on the and a, in the second ones the and a may be treated in a section on identifiability (LinguaLinksLibrary, 2004)
Comparison between the two types of grammar under consideration can be done according to the following principles:
Purpose of use a reference grammar serves as a reference tool when seeking specific details of the language, the aim of a pedagogical grammar is to teach students how to use a language;
Organization a reference grammar is organized according to universal structural categories, whereas organization of a pedagogical grammar is based on the principles of usefulness and ease of learning;
Composition chapters that a reference grammar consists of are longer than a pedagogical grammar has, the latter is characterized by short and brief grammatical explanations; a reference grammar chapters provide an explanation and one or several examples of every issue mentioned, a pedagogical grammar focuses on exercises that encourage the reader to practice and internalize the material learned;
Target audience a reference grammar is intended for those who see language as a universal phenomenon and want to know how this or that particular language correlates with the universal understanding of human language, a pedagogical grammar has a broader target audience it is designed for everyone who is interested in learning a language.
Below follows the demonstration of how prepositions and prepositional phrases may be treated through grammatical and pedagogical perspectives.
Grammatically, there exists the following classification of prepositions:
Simple at, through, from, without;
Compound into, onto;
Complex as well as, according to, in favor of.
Prepositions do not stand alone, they need a complement:
Noun, pronoun at dawn, after you;
Other parts of speech by then, in short;
Followed by ing clause Do not be ashamed of asking questions, this will enlarge your knowledge significantly; followed by wh- clause For what we are about to meet is to exchange our knowledge.
Prepositions generally introduce prepositional phrases that look like: preposition + optional modifiers + noun, pronoun or gerund: at home, according to us, in the overcrowded bus.
Some prepositions may also function as subordinate conjunctions: after, as, before, since and until.
Pedagogical grammar will focus on the following characteristic of prepositions.
Meaning:
Space and time at;
Cause and purpose for;
Agent and instrument by, with;
The versatile of.
Conclusion
If reference grammar focuses on more theoretical basis of the problem of prepositions and prepositional phrases, pedagogical grammar will suggest more exercises to practice the knowledge acquired.
Thus, we analyzed the difference between reference grammar and pedagogical grammar. The distinction is obvious if various principles are applied. Some examples of how two types of grammar treat prepositions and prepositional phrases were given. We are inclined to believe that both types of grammar along with those that this paper did not touch upon are equally important for students and teachers who deal with languages.
References
LinguaLinksLibrary. (2004). What is a reference grammar? Web.
Odlin, T. (1994). Perspectives on pedagogical grammar (Cambridge applied linguistics). Cambridge University Press.
Grammar is important in the lives of individuals, primarily for communication purposes. With the correct usage of grammar, one is in a position to express himself or herself. Grammar can either be prescriptive and descriptive grammar. The structure of a language as used by writers and speakers defines descriptive grammar. On the other hand, the structure of a language as people think it should be used defines prescriptive grammar (Bickley, 2001, p.4). Certain rules are applicable for each of the two categories of grammar. There are certain rules that are used in each case and there are certain institutions that regulate the use of languages. For example, the Academie Francaise which is a French institution that safeguards the French language, its richness and heritage.
There are other institutions that have been formed to regulate certain languages so that writers and speakers can use them in an effective way. Such institutions determine the standards of acceptable grammar and vocabulary that can be used in the language. They also add new words to the language, in effect helping it. Consequently, this adds meaning to the language. In addition to adding new words and meanings, such institutions also help in adding new definitions to existing words. These institutions make all words in a language available to the speakers and writes of a language. This gives the speakers and writers choices of words, thereby enabling them to express themselves with clarity.
Institutions that moderate the use of grammar in a certain language are worthwhile because they provide the structure of a language as it should be used. This means that a specific language can have different structures that are meant to give the same meaning but there is only one structure that is accepted to be grammatically correct. For example, there are certain words that a descriptive language accepts to be a noun and a verb at the same time. Prescriptive language confirms whether such words can be used only as a noun or a verb or can be used in both cases. If it is possible for a word to be used both as a noun and as a verb, these institutions show instances when the word should be used as a noun and when to be used as a verb (Crystal, 2000, p.47).
Society benefits from institutions that regulate the use of a language in that the institution educates them on how to structure a language so that it is grammatically acceptable. The books that such institutions provide are meant to benefit individuals in the society where the language is used. Teachers use such books to guide students on the correct use of grammar (Lowth, 2002, para.2). This helps individuals in the society to express themselves in the correct manner when writing or speaking in the language.
These institutions have many advantages to society but they can prevent the development of informal writing in the society. There are certain languages that develop in society as individuals interact. These institutions will mostly refute these languages as unacceptable.
By defining the structure of a language that is grammatically accepted, these institutions help in preserving a language. Adding new meanings to existing word while still maintaining previous definitions helps in maintaining the heritage of the language. The institutions ensure that the structure of the language that was used and acceptable many years ago is still in existence.
Reference
Bickley, A. T. (2001). Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar in Language Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crystal, D. (2000). Words on Words: Quotations about Language and Languages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lowth, R. (2002). Descriptive versus Prescriptive Grammar. Web.
Grammar as an inseparable element of the language lesson is of significant importance for developing the communicative skills of the students. There have been many views on the very essence of grammar, but they all come down to the statement that it a set of rules helping put words together in some allowable order to make the speakers thought understood (Amogne 145). The role of grammar can be viewed from different perspectives. First of all, it can be investigated from the standpoint of oral communication, even though grammar is often ignored in this aspect. What is more crucial for the research is the role of grammar in the writing context whether it be formal or informal written communication.
Problem statement
The role of grammar instructions has long been neglected as the factor that influences the development of writing skills. Since recently, it has been acknowledged that it has a significant impact on writing because students are expected to follow certain rules or have a certain level of knowledge of grammatical instructions (Myhill et al. 78). What has long been ignored, however, is the role of teaching grammar in the writing context. It was not until recently that the concept of pedagogical content knowledge was included in the study curriculums, as they recognized that the level of teachers knowledge of grammar, besides other factors such as disposition to learning languages or whether the student is the native speaker of the language studied, also has a robust effect on developing students writing skills.
Research questions
The purpose of the research is to address numerous questions. They are:
What specific aspect of writing does grammar contribute?
How does sentence combining improve writing?
What is the role of a teacher in teaching grammar in the writing context?
Research method
The proposed research will be based on three methods literature analysis and investigating the teachers and the students perspectives on the role of grammar in developing writing skills. As part of the study regarding the literature analysis, the researcher will consider theoretical approaches to the teaching of grammar with the special focus made on the acknowledgment of the importance of grammar and including it in the writing curriculums (Myhill and Watson 45). Moreover, the study will focus on the empirical researches on the teaching of grammar with paying special attention to sentence combining as a tool for improving writing (Myhill and Watson 49). This step is essential for providing the theoretical background for the study.
The second part of the research will focus on the teachers perspectives on the teaching of grammar and its role in developing writing skills. The study will use a comparatively small and similar group of the participants, all being the teachers of the English language in schools and colleges. The researcher will exploit the purposeful sampling selecting the participants based on the level of their knowledge of grammar. This step is necessary to understand whether the perspective of the respondents will be truthful during the study. The additional criterion is the number of years of teaching experience (Jones et al. 1247).
The third part of the study will focus on the students perspective on the teaching of grammar and its role in developing writing skills. The research will again use a relatively small and similar group of participants with the only difference that they will not be tested to become a respondent. The criterion for choosing them is that they are the students of the teachers mentioned in the second part of the investigation.
Data collection method
The primary tools for data collection for the second and the third part of the study will be in-depth interviews with the teachers and tests written by the students. The objective of the study is to define whether the level of the teachers knowledge of grammar influences the level of the students writing skills.
The process of data collection will comprise of four stages. The first phase will be the test for the teachers aimed at defining whether they will be truthful respondents during the study. The teacher will be provided with the abstract from Pride and Prejudice and a set of questions concerning it. They will center on word classes, sentence structure, the function of the word in the sentence, etc. (Myhill et al. 81). The objective of the test is to discover the level of pedagogical content knowledge.
The second stage of the research will include in-depth interviews with the teachers. They will be separated into two parts. First, what the respondents think about the role of grammar teaching in writing. This part should be their reflections on the topic. In the second part of the in-depth interviews, the research will ask the teachers about what they think grammar teaching is with special attention to the use of grammatical terminology (Watson 4).
Finally, the students will be asked to write a narrative passage with a focus on grammar and style. To avoid bias, first, the topics will not include the questions that imply answers pointing out the gender, and, second, all papers will be anonymous (Amogne 147). The only criterion for selecting the students is that they attend the teachers classes.
Data analysis
The data analysis will comprise of few steps. First of all, the researcher will check the preliminary tests of the teachers and develop charts with the results, the most typical right and wrong answers, and the average result of the test. This step will help determine the level of pedagogical content knowledge that will later be used for discovering the correlation and whether there is a relation between the teaching experience and the answers.
The second step of data analysis will include studying the in-depth interviews. The objective of this phase is to find whether there are some trends in the teachers answers. Based on this action, the researcher will make up a list of all similar responses and define what are the most frequently met perspectives on the role of teaching grammar in developing writing skills.
The next stage is analyzing the writing skills of the students. The focus will be made on the grammar and style mistakes. The researcher will as well develop a chart of the most typical mistakes. What is crucial about this stage is trying to find out whether there is a correlation between the writing skills of the students and their teachers knowledge of grammar. The pollster will try to detect the similar mistakes made by the students and the teachers in the tests they passed prior to in-depth interviews. The task here is to determine whether the students of the teachers who showed better results in the tests and used more grammatical terms in the interviews are higher than of those whose teachers results were lower. The researcher will focus on developing a chart representing the results by pointing out individual discrepancies if such is detected.
Works Cited
Among, Dawit. The Effect of Communicative Grammar on Journalism Students Writing Skills. Journal of Media and Communication Studies 6.9 (2014): 144-149. Print.
Jones, Susan, Debra Myhill and Trevor Bailey. Grammar for Writing? An Investigation of the Effects of Contextualized Grammar teaching on Students Writing. Reading and Writing 26.8 (2013): 1241-1263. Print.
Myhill, Debra and Annabel Watson. The Role of Grammar in the Writing Curriculum: A Review of the Literature. Child Language Teaching and Therapy 30.1 (2014): 41-62. Print.
Myhill, Debra, Susan Jones and Annabel Watson. Grammar Matters: How Teachers Grammatical Knowledge Impacts on the Teaching of Writing. Teaching and Teacher Education 36. (2013): 77-91. Print.
Watson, Annabel Mary. Conceptualizations of Grammar Teaching: L1 English Teachers Beliefs about Teaching Grammar for Writing. Language Awareness 24.1 (2013): 1-14. Print.
The mode of use, the language of the user, the level of the user and the aims of use are the main factors that determine the fall of grammar into four basic types: pedagogical grammar, reference grammar, theoretical grammar, and teach-yourself grammar. The current paper focuses on the first two types of grammar with the purpose to find key distinctions between them and illustrate how the two types of grammar would deal with prepositions and prepositional phrases.
Starting with the definition of the two types of grammar under consideration we should say that, going by Terence Odlin (1994)
Main text
Although it could cover more areas, the term pedagogical grammar usually denotes the types of grammatical analysis and instruction designed for the needs of second language students. The unique character of this analysis and instruction may be difficult to see without also seeing how pedagogical grammar is related to other conceptions of grammar [&] grammar as prescription, grammar as description, grammar as internalized system, and grammar as an axiomatic system (p.1)
David Little calls the concept of pedagogical grammar a slippery one. He claims that it stands to denote
Pedagogical process the explicit treatment of elements of the target language system as (part of ) language teaching methodology;
pedagogical content reference sources of one kind or another that present information about the target language system; and
combinations of process and content (Odlin, 1994, p. 99)
As far as the definition of the reference grammar is concerned The Glossary of Linguistic Terms edited by Eugene E. Loos defines it as a prose-like description of the major grammatical constructions in a language, illustrated with examples. (LinguaLinksLibrary, 2004)
Depending on the organization and the intended users reference grammar is divided into two types which are as follows.
Intended Users:
Native speakers who want to understand their mother language better;
Linguists who strive for information on the language that they use for comparative purposes.
Organization:
Based on the forms that the readers make use of, but do not realize their significance to the grammar as a whole.
Based on a universal outline form that helps the reader to make comparisons between the language under analysis and other languages.
Examples to illustrate this distinction are the sections of the definite and indefinite articles in the English language. In the first type of the reference grammar for English speakers there might be sections on the and a, in the second ones the and a may be treated in a section on identifiability (LinguaLinksLibrary, 2004)
Comparison between the two types of grammar under consideration can be done according to the following principles:
Purpose of use a reference grammar serves as a reference tool when seeking specific details of the language, the aim of a pedagogical grammar is to teach students how to use a language;
Organization a reference grammar is organized according to universal structural categories, whereas organization of a pedagogical grammar is based on the principles of usefulness and ease of learning;
Composition chapters that a reference grammar consists of are longer than a pedagogical grammar has, the latter is characterized by short and brief grammatical explanations; a reference grammar chapters provide an explanation and one or several examples of every issue mentioned, a pedagogical grammar focuses on exercises that encourage the reader to practice and internalize the material learned;
Target audience a reference grammar is intended for those who see language as a universal phenomenon and want to know how this or that particular language correlates with the universal understanding of human language, a pedagogical grammar has a broader target audience it is designed for everyone who is interested in learning a language.
Below follows the demonstration of how prepositions and prepositional phrases may be treated through grammatical and pedagogical perspectives.
Grammatically, there exists the following classification of prepositions:
Simple at, through, from, without;
Compound into, onto;
Complex as well as, according to, in favor of.
Prepositions do not stand alone, they need a complement:
Noun, pronoun at dawn, after you;
Other parts of speech by then, in short;
Followed by ing clause Do not be ashamed of asking questions, this will enlarge your knowledge significantly; followed by wh- clause For what we are about to meet is to exchange our knowledge.
Prepositions generally introduce prepositional phrases that look like: preposition + optional modifiers + noun, pronoun or gerund: at home, according to us, in the overcrowded bus.
Some prepositions may also function as subordinate conjunctions: after, as, before, since and until.
Pedagogical grammar will focus on the following characteristic of prepositions.
Meaning:
Space and time at;
Cause and purpose for;
Agent and instrument by, with;
The versatile of.
Conclusion
If reference grammar focuses on more theoretical basis of the problem of prepositions and prepositional phrases, pedagogical grammar will suggest more exercises to practice the knowledge acquired.
Thus, we analyzed the difference between reference grammar and pedagogical grammar. The distinction is obvious if various principles are applied. Some examples of how two types of grammar treat prepositions and prepositional phrases were given. We are inclined to believe that both types of grammar along with those that this paper did not touch upon are equally important for students and teachers who deal with languages.
References
LinguaLinksLibrary. (2004). What is a reference grammar? Web.
Odlin, T. (1994). Perspectives on pedagogical grammar (Cambridge applied linguistics). Cambridge University Press.
Grammar is important in the lives of individuals, primarily for communication purposes. With the correct usage of grammar, one is in a position to express himself or herself. Grammar can either be prescriptive and descriptive grammar. The structure of a language as used by writers and speakers defines descriptive grammar. On the other hand, the structure of a language as people think it should be used defines prescriptive grammar (Bickley, 2001, p.4). Certain rules are applicable for each of the two categories of grammar. There are certain rules that are used in each case and there are certain institutions that regulate the use of languages. For example, the Academie Francaise which is a French institution that safeguards the French language, its richness and heritage.
There are other institutions that have been formed to regulate certain languages so that writers and speakers can use them in an effective way. Such institutions determine the standards of acceptable grammar and vocabulary that can be used in the language. They also add new words to the language, in effect helping it. Consequently, this adds meaning to the language. In addition to adding new words and meanings, such institutions also help in adding new definitions to existing words. These institutions make all words in a language available to the speakers and writes of a language. This gives the speakers and writers choices of words, thereby enabling them to express themselves with clarity.
Institutions that moderate the use of grammar in a certain language are worthwhile because they provide the structure of a language as it should be used. This means that a specific language can have different structures that are meant to give the same meaning but there is only one structure that is accepted to be grammatically correct. For example, there are certain words that a descriptive language accepts to be a noun and a verb at the same time. Prescriptive language confirms whether such words can be used only as a noun or a verb or can be used in both cases. If it is possible for a word to be used both as a noun and as a verb, these institutions show instances when the word should be used as a noun and when to be used as a verb (Crystal, 2000, p.47).
Society benefits from institutions that regulate the use of a language in that the institution educates them on how to structure a language so that it is grammatically acceptable. The books that such institutions provide are meant to benefit individuals in the society where the language is used. Teachers use such books to guide students on the correct use of grammar (Lowth, 2002, para.2). This helps individuals in the society to express themselves in the correct manner when writing or speaking in the language.
These institutions have many advantages to society but they can prevent the development of informal writing in the society. There are certain languages that develop in society as individuals interact. These institutions will mostly refute these languages as unacceptable.
By defining the structure of a language that is grammatically accepted, these institutions help in preserving a language. Adding new meanings to existing word while still maintaining previous definitions helps in maintaining the heritage of the language. The institutions ensure that the structure of the language that was used and acceptable many years ago is still in existence.
Reference
Bickley, A. T. (2001). Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar in Language Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crystal, D. (2000). Words on Words: Quotations about Language and Languages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lowth, R. (2002). Descriptive versus Prescriptive Grammar. Web.
Comparison of cognitive and humanistic approaches with respect to their views on the curriculum
The curriculum entails the means and materials with which students interact with as part of educational programs. There are numerous approaches to teaching the curriculum in schools, such as cognitive and humanistic perspectives. According to Ebert and Culyer, the cognitive approach of the curriculum focuses on the acquisition of knowledge, with curricula being typically divided into numerous distinct subject matter areas (183).
In particular, this approach focuses on the knowledge, previous experience, and expectations of a student (Scholl, McGowan, and Hansen n.pag). In contrast, the humanistic perspective focuses on the needs, values, and self-concept/esteem of students.
Ebert and Culyer point out that, humanistic approach seeks to bring an element of value and meaning of education and to move away from the notion of education as the mere dissemination of information (156). This perspective is based on the assumption that students feelings influence their learning beliefs.
In schools that embrace a spiral curriculum, the humanistic approach is more effective in teaching students than cognitive perspective. Notably, the spiral curriculum is built around recurring, ever-deepening inquiries into big ideas and important tasks, helping students to understand in a way that is both effective and developmentally wise (Wiggins and McTighe 297).
The humanistic perspective use of students knowledge, previous experience, and expectations can enable students to understand better the lessons taught in the context of a spiral curriculum than when taught in a cognitive approach. In contrast, the cognitive approach is more effective than a humanistic approach in teaching students in schools that embrace an implicit curriculum.
The implicit curriculum entails lessons that emanate from the school culture as well as the attitudes, behaviors, and expectations of that culture (Ebert and Culyer 183). The success of the cognitive perspective is based on its congruence with the curriculum objectives.
Two tasks for teaching grammar to intermediate level young learners
Task 1: Using Story to Teach Grammar.
First, the teacher should develop the listening skills of students. He/she should read an appealing story to the students. Besides, the story should be added to the class collection, and students are allowed to take it home for further reading. When an interesting story is repeatedly read, it reactivates students vocabulary and grammatical patterns (Cameron 175).
This aspect provides students with opportunities to identify aspects of language use, which probably they did not understand in previous readings. Second, the teacher should develop discourse skills such as acting roles and retelling the story. In acting roles, students should act according to the narrative of the story, e.g., wear costumes of characters. In retelling the story, the students should reproduce the whole story, e.g., by using sequential pictures (Fish 306).
Finally, the teacher should embrace focused reading skills, where he/she provides guided prediction during storytelling, such as asking leading questions, e.g., do you think he likes London? Further, the meaning of new words should be explained.
Task 2: Using Theme-Based to Teach Grammar.
First, the teacher should introduce new vocabulary items that provide support for understanding and recalling. New vocabulary will definitely be encountered in future readings; hence, it reinforces its meaning (Cameron 191).
Second, teachers should teach through communicative stretching. In particular, they should allow students to break down and recombine language elements to understand the meaning of words and phrases easily. Third, teachers should incorporate discourse skills to teach themes using different aspects. For instance, a teacher can teach themes such as vacations and food (Meskill and Anthony 144).
Besides, teachers should provide students with informational texts on computers and papers. The access to informational text provides students with learning opportunities that go beyond storytelling or narrative (Cameron 194). Finally, the teacher should motivate students to communicate accurately and precisely by involving them in the selection and adaptation of language resources like books, stories, informational texts.
Works Cited
Cameron. Lynne. Teaching Languages to Young Students. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print.
Ebert, Edward, and Richard Culyer. School: An Introduction to Education. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.
Fish, Margaret. Heres How to Treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 2nd Ed. San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing, 2015. Print.
Meskill, Carla, and Natasha Anthony. Teaching Languages Online. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2010. Print.
Scholl, Mark B., A. Scott McGowan, and James T. Hansen. Ed. Humanistic Perspectives on Contemporary Counseling Issues. New York, NY: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Wiggins, Grant P., and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2005. Print.
As second and foreign language teachers, we have to look for opportunities to improve the teaching process and enhance its effectiveness. Deepening our knowledge of the current approaches, strategies and methodologies, the educators are enabled to create personal opinion concerning the most effective principles of the language acquisitions.
Reading of Nassaji (2000) and Nunan (1998) researches shedding light upon the issues of the form-focused and communicative approaches to language teaching was helpful for enhancing my awareness of the problem and strengthening my persuasion that the integrative approach incorporating principle of both of the theories is the most effective one.
The primary goal of every foreign language teacher is to prepare the learners for real life communication. The form-focused approach deprives students of opportunities to develop the necessary skills for meeting this demand. Nunan (1998) noted that We need to supplement form-focused exercises with an approach that dramatizes for learners the fact that different forms enable them to express different meanings; that grammar allows them to make meanings of increasingly sophisticated kinds (p. 103).
In other words, there is nothing wrong with the form-focused assignments though they should be coupled with communicative exercises for the purpose of filling the gap between theory (cramming the forms) and practice (expressing ones opinion during the interpersonal communication).
From my own experience of a language learner, it should be noted that the transition between the form-focused and organic exercises might be rather stressful. Being certain what form should be use in every particular case in form-focused exercises, a student might be confused trying to express ones own ideas. This separation of grammar forms from the context of communication creates the feeling of discrepancy between the grammar norms and the communicative goals in the learners consciousness.
The process of language acquisition depends upon the peculiarities of the learners perception of the course materials. It has been proven that learners remember not only things but also the context within which they were acquired. Thus, having learnt the table of forms by heart I must recollect the chart in which they have been represented for choosing the appropriate one, while choosing the words for expressing my thoughts at the same time might overcomplicate the process of communication exchange.
For this reason, a teacher should allot time to diverse activities planning language lessons. Nassaji (2000) noted that the most effective way & is to consider activities that result in attention to form while maintaining meaningful communication and using form for communication (p. 244). Going from one extreme to another would be unwise; both sides of the language acquisition process are equally significant.
Those who consider the information exchange to be the end goal of second language learning are in the wrong underestimating the importance of accuracy of the students speech. The fact is that neglecting the form-focused approach may result in neglecting the grammar forms and distorting the interlocutors perception of ones message.
An ideal language lesson should contain the elements of both approaches. It would enhance the learners understanding of the materials and create a colorful picture instead of focusing on separated fragments of the language components.
The primary goal of a contemporary teacher is to incorporate the elements of both form-focused and communicative approaches into the process of language acquisition giving preference to meaningful interaction within the teaching-learning process paying attention to the language accuracy at the same time.
Reference List
Nassaji, H. (2000) Towards integrating form-focused instruction and communicative interaction in the second language classroom: Some pedagogical possibilities, The Modern Language Journal, 84 (2), pp.241-250.
Nunan, D. (1998) Teaching grammar in context. ELT Journal, 52 (2), pp.101-109.