Issues of
Grammar
Teaching and
Assessment
Choose the word which
Let us will complete the
following sentence.
check! Identify the error in the
following sentences.
1. There isn’t _____ ink at all in this pen.
a. some
b. the
c. any
d. no
2. Candles _____ important since ancient
times as sources of light.
a. which have been
b. have been
c. have been being
d. having been
3. Appendicitis can occur at any age,
_____ it occurs most commonly in young
adults.
a. which
b. since
c. or
d. but
4. The colonists _____ Jamestown in
1607 were energetic, curious, and
versatile.
a. settled
b. who settled
c. they settled
d. who they settled
5. More research has been done on the
communication of birds _____ of any
animal.
a. more than
b. than more
c. than that
d. that than
6. Bears and bobcats are the only
remaining predator found in the state of
Vermont.
7. The distinction between wages and
salaries are based primarily on the
method of computing payment.
8. Although previously thinly populated,
the American Southwest was strategically
important because of several major
transportation routes that cross it.
9. The viper is a poisonous snake with
long fangs who fold against the roof of its
mouth when its jaws are closed.
against
10. The direct sources of fresh water in
lakes are rain and melted snowy and ice.
against
Why do we teach
grammar?
There are many arguments for
putting grammar in the
foreground in second language
teaching.
The sentence-machine
argument
✓ Part of the process of language learning
must be what is sometimes called item-
learning memorization of individual items such as words and
phrases
Grammar is a kind of ‘sentence-making machine’.
The fine-tuning argument
The purpose of grammar seems to be allow for greater subtlety of meaning
than a merely lexical system can cater for.
While it is possible to get a lot of communicative mileage out of simply
stringing words and phrases together.
‘Me Tarzan, you Jane’ type of language fails to deliver, both in terms of
intelligibility and in terms of appropriateness
The fossilisation argument
Research suggests that learners who receive no
instruction seem to be at risk of fossilizing sooner than
those who do receive instruction.
The advance-organiser
argument
Grammar instruction might also have a delayed effect.
The discrete item argument
Grammar consists of an apparently finite set of rules, it
can help to reduce the apparent enormity of the
language learning task for both teachers and students.
By tidying language up and organizing it into neat
categories (sometimes called discrete items),
grammarians make language digestible.
The rule-of-law-argument
It follows from the discrete-item argument that, since
grammar is a system of learnable rules, it lends itself to
a view of teaching and learning known as transmission.
A transmission view sees the role of education as the
transfer of a body of knowledge (typically in the form of
facts and rules) from those that have the knowledge to
those that do not.
The learner expectation
argument
Many learners come to language classes with fairly fixed
expectations as to what they will do there.
The teacher who ignores this expectation by
encouraging learners simply to experience language is
likely to frustrate and alienate them.
Methods of
Teaching
Grammar
Deductive Method
Inductive Method
Interactive Method
Deductive Method
also called as the traditional method
“
The teacher uses grammar text book.
The learners are supposed to memorize the
definition of noun.
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Inductive Method
also known as informal method
“
The teacher first presents or takes the
example from the students then comes on
theory of concept.
This method implies teaching of grammar not
by rules but by usage.
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Interactive Method
Using games to teach grammar not only
engages students but also helps them to
“
remember what they’ve learned.
This method allows teachers to tailor their
lesson to the different learning styles of
students.
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Patterns and
Reasons, Not
Rules
Not all lexical items can be freely substituted
into a particular pattern.
Larsen-Freeman’s (2000) suggested that
teachers concentrate on teaching “reasons, not
rules.”
While rules provide some security for learners,
reasons give them deeper understanding of the
logic of English and help them make it their
own.
What is
Fossilization?
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Fossilization
Language fossilization refers to the process in the
learning of a secondary language in which the student
has more and more difficulty furthering his fluency in
the language, until eventually, the student can learn
no more.
Fossilization is the ‘freezing’ of the transition between
the native language and the target language.
What are fossilized
errors?
Mistakes that students know is wrong but keep making.
Errors from force of habit which students no longer
notice they are making.
Something that students learnt wrong and now need
to change.
Errors that students may correct when focused but
still make on their own.
What are fossilized
errors?
Mistakes that recur despite constant correction.
Errors based in Native Language interference or
Target language overgeneralization that is made by
many speakers.
Mistakes that teachers may not any longer “hear”
after a number of years teaching in a particular
context (and therefore do not any longer correct).
Mistakes that has been repeated so that it sounds
right to the learner.
Causes:
L1 Interference
Affective, cultural, cognitive and
environmental perspectives of a language
Lack of Correction
Lack of motivation to correct
oneself
Connection between
interlanguage and errors
Lack of strategies
Method of Instruction
Lack of learner autonomy –
reliance on correction by teacher
Errors that come from previous
stages of learning
Adoption of proper
01
learning strategies
02
Reduction of negative
Fossilization transfer of L1
Reduction Exposure to TL and
03
TL culture
Adoption of
proper learning
strategies
“good” learning strategies
Appear use strategies more frequently and in
qualitatively different ways
Involve attention to both form and meaning
Different kinds of learning strategies may
contribute to different aspects of L2 proficiency
Reduction of
negative
transfer of L1
Not to use TL too early until the learners “oral
competence” is facilitated with sufficient input
and without relying on their native language
(Krashen, 1983)
Abundant input of TL can lessen the negative
transfer of the native language
Exposure to TL and TL
Culture
Allow them to stay for some time in the native
environment abroad
Multimedia instruments
Textbooks with original passages by foreign authors
Fossilization is
an inevitable
state and has
significance
influence on
second language
acquisition 39
It needs our
attention and
research to solve
fossilization
problems in all
aspects of
language.
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